XAF - How to Create a Multi-Tenant Application

XAF v23.2 marks the first official release of the DevExpress Multi-Tenancy Module. This release supports straightforward CRUD usage scenarios and includes the following built-in features:

• EF Core and XPO ORM support
• Authentication: Log in with an email/OAuth2 account (like Microsoft Entra ID or Google) and a password (the domain automatically resolves the tenant and its storage).
• Tenant Isolation: Multi-tenant app with multiple databases (a database per tenant).
• Database Creation: The application automatically creates a tenant database and schema at runtime (if the database does not exist).

This example application is a modern multi-tenant iteration of our original WinForms-based Outlook Inspired App. It serves as the central data management hub for the fictitious company, overseeing various business entities such as Employees, Products, Orders, Quotes, Customers, and Stores.

For additional information, refer to the Multitenancy section of our online documentation.

Before you review this XAF sample project, please take a moment to complete a short multi-tenancy related survey (share your multi-tenancy requirements with us).

Run the Application

When you launch the WinForms or Blazor application for the first time, you can login using the "Admin" account and a blank password. The application will execute in Host User Interface mode (used to view, create and edit Tenants).

Once you log in, two tenants are created in the system: company1.com and company2.com. You can view the tenant list in the Host User Interface List View.

After the Host Database is initialized, you can log in to the Tenant User Interface using one of the following Tenant Administrator accounts

• [email protected]
• [email protected]

A Tenant Administrator has full access to all data stored in the Tenant Database but no access to other Tenant data. Users and permissions are managed in each tenant independently.

In addition, the sample application creates a list of users with restricted access rights in each tenant (for example [email protected], [email protected] and others).

Documentation | Getting Started | Best Practices and Limitations | Modules in a Multi-Tenant Application

Implementation Details

Enable Multi-Tenancy

In the Blazor application, the following code activates multi-tenancy.

OutlookInspired.Blazor.Server/Services/Internal/ApplicationBuilder.cs:

public static IBlazorApplicationBuilder AddMultiTenancy(this IBlazorApplicationBuilder builder, IConfiguration configuration){
    builder.AddMultiTenancy()
        .WithHostDbContext((_, options) => {
#if EASYTEST
            string connectionString = configuration.GetConnectionString("EasyTestConnectionString");
#else
            string connectionString = configuration.GetConnectionString("ConnectionString");
#endif
            options.UseSqlServer(connectionString);
            options.UseChangeTrackingProxies();
            options.UseLazyLoadingProxies();
        })
        .WithMultiTenancyModelDifferenceStore(e => {
#if !RELEASE
            e.UseTenantSpecificModel = false;
#endif
        })
        .WithTenantResolver<TenantByEmailResolver>();
    return builder;
}

In the WinForms application, the following code activates multi-tenancy.

OutlookInspired.Win/Services/ApplicationBuilder.cs:

public static IWinApplicationBuilder AddMultiTenancy(this IWinApplicationBuilder builder, string serviceConnectionString) {
    builder.AddMultiTenancy()
        .WithHostDbContext((_, options) => {
            options.UseSqlServer(serviceConnectionString);
            options.UseChangeTrackingProxies();
            options.UseLazyLoadingProxies();
        })
        .WithMultiTenancyModelDifferenceStore(mds => {
#if !RELEASE
            mds.UseTenantSpecificModel = false;
#endif
        })
        .WithTenantResolver<TenantByEmailResolver>();
    return builder;
}

Configure ObjectSpaceProviders for Tenants

In the Blazor application:

OutlookInspired.Blazor.Server/Services/Internal/ApplicationBuilder.cs:

// ...
builder.WithDbContext<Module.BusinessObjects.OutlookInspiredEFCoreDbContext>((serviceProvider, options) => {
    // ...
    options.UseSqlServer(serviceProvider.GetRequiredService<IConnectionStringProvider>().GetConnectionString());
})
// ...

In the WinForms application.

OutlookInspired.Win/Services/ApplicationBuilder.cs:

// ...
builder.WithDbContext<OutlookInspiredEFCoreDbContext>((application, options) => {
  // ...
  options.UseSqlServer(application.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<IConnectionStringProvider>().GetConnectionString());
}, ServiceLifetime.Transient)
// ...

Populate Databases with Data

A multi-tenant application works with several independent databases:

• Host database – stores a list of Super Administrators and the list of tenants.
• One or multiple tenant databases – store user data independently from other organizations (tenants).

A Tenant database is created and populated with demo data on the first login to the tenant itself.

A list of the tenants is created, and tenant databases are populated with demo data in the Module Updater:

OutlookInspired.Module/DatabaseUpdate/Updater.cs:

public override void UpdateDatabaseAfterUpdateSchema() {
  base.UpdateDatabaseAfterUpdateSchema();
  if (ObjectSpace.TenantName() == null) {
    CreateAdminObjects();
    CreateTenant("company1.com", "OutlookInspired_company1");
    CreateTenant("company2.com", "OutlookInspired_company2");
    ObjectSpace.CommitChanges();
  }
  // ...
}

private void CreateTenant(string tenantName, string databaseName) {
    var tenant = ObjectSpace.FirstOrDefault<Tenant>(t => t.Name == tenantName);
    if (tenant == null) {
        tenant = ObjectSpace.CreateObject<Tenant>();
        tenant.Name = tenantName;
        tenant.ConnectionString = $"Integrated Security=SSPI;MultipleActiveResultSets=True;Data Source=(localdb)\\mssqllocaldb;Initial Catalog={databaseName}";
    }
}

To determine the tenant whose database is being updated when the Module Updater executes, the Updater class includes the TenantId and TenantName properties that return the current tenant's unique identifier and name respectively. When the Host Database is updated, the tenant is not specified, and these properties return null.

Solution Overview

Domain Diagram

The following diagram describes the application's domain architecture:

Solution Structure

The solution consists of three distinct projects.

• OutlookInspired.Module - A platform-agnostic module required by all other projects.
• OutlookInspired.Blazor.Server - A Blazor port of the original OutlookInspired demo.
• OutlookInspired.Win - A WinForms port of the original OutlookInspired demo.

OutlookInspired.Module project

Services Folder

This folder serves as the centralized storage for app business logic so that all other class implementations can be compact. For instance, methods that utilize XafApplication are located in Services/Internal/XafApplicationExtensions:

public static IObjectSpace NewObjectSpace(this XafApplication application) 
    => application.CreateObjectSpace(typeof(OutlookInspiredBaseObject));

Methods that use IObjectSpace can be found in Services/Internal/ObjectSpaceExtensions. For example:

public static TUser CurrentUser<TUser>(this IObjectSpace objectSpace) where TUser:ISecurityUser 
    => objectSpace.GetObjectByKey<TUser>(objectSpace.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<ISecurityStrategyBase>().UserId);

The SecurityExtensions class configures a diverse set of permissions for each department. For instance, the Management department will have:

1. CRUD permissions for EmployeeTypes
2. Read-only permissions for CustomerTypes
3. Navigation permissions for Employees, Evaluations, and Customers
4. Mail merge permissions for orders and customers
5. Permissions for various reports including Revenue, Contacts, TopSalesMan, and Locations.

Services/Internal/ObjectSpaceExtensions:

private static void AddManagementPermissions(this PermissionPolicyRole role) 
    => EmployeeTypes.AddCRUDAccess(role)
        .Concat(CustomerTypes.Prepend(typeof(ApplicationUser)).AddReadAccess(role)).To<string>()
        .Concat(new[]{ EmployeeListView,EvaluationListView,CustomerListView}.AddNavigationAccess(role))
        .Finally(() => {
            role.AddMailMergePermission(data => new[]{ MailMergeOrder, MailMergeOrderItem, ServiceExcellence }.Contains(data.Name));
            role.AddReportPermission(data => new[]{ RevenueReport, Contacts, LocationsReport, TopSalesPerson }.Contains(data.DisplayName));
        })
        .Enumerate();

Attributes Folder

The Attributes folder contains attribute declarations.

• FontSizeDeltaAttribute This attribute is applied to properties of Customer, Employee, Evaluation, EmployeeTask, Order, and Product types to configure font size. he implementation is context-dependent; in the WinForms application, this attribute it is used by the LabelPropertyEditor...

  OutlookInspired.Win/Editors/LabelControlPropertyEditor.cs:

   protected override object CreateControlCore() 
   => new LabelControl{
         BorderStyle = BorderStyles.NoBorder,
         AutoSizeMode = LabelAutoSizeMode.None,
         ShowLineShadow = false,
         Appearance ={
            FontSizeDelta = MemberInfo.FindAttribute<FontSizeDeltaAttribute>()?.Delta??0,
            TextOptions = { WordWrap =MemberInfo.Size==-1? WordWrap.Wrap:WordWrap.Default}
         }
   };
  

  ... and the GridView.

  OutlookInspired.Win/Services/Internal/Extensions.cs:

   public static void IncreaseFontSize(this GridView gridView, ITypeInfo typeInfo){
      var columns = typeInfo.AttributedMembers<FontSizeDeltaAttribute>().ToDictionary(
            attribute => gridView.Columns[attribute.memberInfo.BindingName].VisibleIndex,
            attribute => attribute.attribute.Delta);
      gridView.CustomDrawCell += (_, e) => {
            if (columns.TryGetValue(e.Column.VisibleIndex, out var column)) e.DrawCell( column);
      };
   }
  

  

  In the Blazor application, FontSizeDeltaAttribute dependent logic is implemented in the following extension method.

  OutlookInspired.Blazor.Server/Services/Internal/Extensions.cs:

    public static string FontSize(this IMemberInfo info){
        var fontSizeDeltaAttribute = info.FindAttribute<FontSizeDeltaAttribute>();
        return fontSizeDeltaAttribute != null ? $"font-size: {(fontSizeDeltaAttribute.Delta == 8 ? "1.8" : "1.2")}rem" : null;
    }
  

  The attribute is used like its WinForms application counterpart:

  

• Appearance Subfolder

  The following Conditional Appearance module attributes are in this subfolder:

  DeactivateActionAttribute: This is an extension of the Conditional Appearance module used to deactivate actions.

  Attributes/Appearance/DeactivateActionAttribute.cs:

  puOutlookInspired.Blazor.Server/Services/Internal/Extensions.csbute {
      public DeactivateActionAttribute(params string[] actions) : 
          base($"Deactivate {string.Join(" ", actions)}", DevExpress.  ExpressApp.ConditionalAppearance.AppearanceItemType.Action, "1=1")   {
          Visibility = ViewItemVisibility.Hide;
          TargetItems = string.Join(";", actions);
      }
  }
  
  

  In much the same way, we derive from this attribute to create other attributes found in the same folder (ForbidCRUDAttribute, ForbidDeleteAttribute,ForbidDeleteAttribute).

• Validation Subfolder

  This folder includes attributes that extend the XAF Validation module. Available attributes include: EmailAddressAttribute, PhoneAttribute, UrlAttribute, ZipCodeAttribute. The following code snippet illustrates how the ZipCodeAttribute is implemented. Other attributes are implemented in a similar fashion.

  Attributes/FontSizeDeltaAttribute.cs:

  public class ZipCodeAttribute : RuleRegularExpressionAttribute {
      public ZipCodeAttribute() : base(@"^[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]$") {
          CustomMessageTemplate = "Not a valid ZIP code.";
      }
  }
  

Controllers Folder

This folder contains controllers with no dependencies:

• The HideToolBarController - extends the XAF IModelListView interface with a HideToolBar attribute so we can hide the nested list view toolbar.
• The SplitterPositionController - extends the XAF model with a RelativePosition property used to configure the splitter position.

Features Folder

This folder implements features specific to the solution.

• CloneView Subfolder

  This subfolder contains the CloneViewAttribute declaration, used to generate views (in addition to default views). For example:

  BusinessObjects/Employee.cs:

  [CloneView(CloneViewType.DetailView, LayoutViewDetailView)]
  [CloneView(CloneViewType.DetailView, ChildDetailView)]
  [CloneView(CloneViewType.DetailView, MapsDetailView)]
  [VisibleInReports(true)]
  [ForbidDelete()]
  public class Employee : OutlookInspiredBaseObject, IViewFilter,   IObjectSpaceLink, IResource, ITravelModeMapsMarker {
      public const string MapsDetailView = "Employee_DetailView_Maps";
      public const string ChildDetailView = "Employee_DetailView_Child";
      public const string LayoutViewDetailView =   "EmployeeLayoutView_DetailView";
      // ...
  }
  

• Customers Subfolder

  This subfolder includes Customer-related controllers, such as:

  • MailMergeController

    XAF ships with built-in mail merge support. This controller modifies the default ShowInDocumentAction icons.

    

  • ReportsController

    This controller declares an action used to display Customer Reports. (The XAF Reports module API is used).

    

• Employees Subfolder

  This subfolder includes Employee-related controllers such as:

  • RoutePointController

    This controller sets travel distance (calculated using the MAP service).

    WindowsForms:

    Blazor:

• Maps Subfolder

  This subfolder includes mapping-related logic, including:

  • MapsViewController

    This controller declares map-related actions (MapItAction, TravelModeAction, ExportMapAction, PrintPreviewMapAction, PrintAction, StageAction, SalesPeriodAction) and manages associated state based on ISalesMapMarker and IRoutePointMapMarker interfaces.

• MasterDetail Subfolder

  This subfolder adds platform-agnostic master-detail capabilities based on XAF's DashboardViews.

  • MasterDetailController, IUserControl

    The IUserControl is implemented in a manner similar to the technique described in the following topic: How to: Include a Custom UI Control That Is Not Integrated by Default (WinForms, ASP.NET WebForms, and ASP.NET Core Blazor). The distinction lies in the addition of UserControl (for WinForms) and the Component (for Blazor) to a DetailView.

• Orders Subfolder

  This subfolder includes functionality specific to the Sales moduel.

  • FollowUpController

    Declares an action used to display the follow-up mail merge template for the selected order.

    

  • InvoiceController

    Uses a master-detail mail merge template pair to generate an invoice, converts it to a PDF, and displays it using the PdfViewEditor.

  • Pay/Refund Controllers

    These controllers declare actions used to mark the selected order as either Paid or Refunded.

  • ReportController

    Provides access to Order Revenue reports.

    

  • ShipmentDetailController

    Adds a watermark to the Shipment Report based on order status.

    

• Products Subfolder

  This subfolder includes functionality specific to the Products module.

  • ReportsController

    Declares an action used to display reports for Sales, Shipments, Comparisons, and Top Sales Person.

    

• Quotes Subfolder

  This subfolder includes functionality specific to the Quotes module.

  • QuoteMapItemController

    Calculates non-persistent QuoteMapItem objects used by the Opportunities view

    

• ViewFilter Subfolder

  This subfolder includes our implementation of a Filter manager, used by the end-user to create and save view filters.

  

OutlookInspired.Win project

This is a WinForms frontend project. It utilizes the previously mentioned OutlookInspired.Module and adheres to the same folder structure.

Controllers Folder

This folder contains the following controllers with no dependencies:

• DisableSkinsController - This controller disables the XAF default theme-switching action.

• SplitterPositionController - This is the WinForms implementation of the SplitterPositionController. We discussed its platform agnostic counterpart in the OutlookInspired.Module section.

Editors Folder

This folder contains custom controls and XAF property editors.

• ColumnViewUserControl - This is a base control that implements IUserControl discussed previously.

• EnumPropertyEditor - This is a subclass of the built-in EnumPropertyEditor (it only displays an image).

  

• HyperLinkPropertyEditor - This editor displays hyperlinks with mailto support.

  

• LabelControlPropertyEditor - This is an editor that renders a label.

  

• PdfViewerEditor - This is a PDF viewer based on the DevExpress PDF Viewer component.

  

• PrintLayoutRichTextEditor - This editor extends the built-in RichTextPropertyEditor, but uses the PrintLayout mode.

• ProgressPropertyEditor - This editor is used to display progress across various contexts.

  

Services Folder

Much like the platform-agnostic module's Services Folder, our WinForms project keeps all classes as small as possible and implements business logic in extension methods.

Features Folder

This folder contains custom functionality specific to the solution.

• Maps Subfolder

  This subfolder includes logic related to mapping.

  • MapsViewController - This controller overrides the platform-agnostic MapsViewController to further configure the state of map actions.

  • WinMapsViewController - This is an abstract controller that provides functionality used by its derived classes - SalesMapsViewController and RouteMapsViewController. The controller configures Map views for all objects that implement ISalesMapsMarker (Customer, Product) and IRouteMapsMarker (Order, Employee) interfaces.

  

  

• Customers Subfolder

  This subfolder contains customer module-related functionality.

  • CustomerGridView, CustomerLayoutView, and CustomerStoreView: These classes derive from the previously discussed ColumnViewUserControl. They host custom GridControl variants, such as master-detail layouts.

  

• Employees Subfolder

  This subfolder contains employee module-related functionality.

  • EmployeesLayoutView - This is a descendant of ColumnViewUserControl that hosts a GridControl LayoutView.

  

• GridListEditor Subfolder

  This subfolder contains functionality related to the default XAF GridListEditor.

  • FontSizeController - Uses the FontSizeDelta discussed in the platfrom-agnostic module section to increase font size in row cells of an AdvancedBanded Grid.

  • NewItemRowHandlingModeController - Modifies how new object are handled when a dashboard master detail view (discussed in the platform-agnostic module section) objects are created.

• Products Subfolder

  This subfolder contains functionality related to products.

  • ProductCardView - This is a descendant of ColumnViewUserControl that hosts a GridControl LayoutView.

    

• Quotes Subfolder

  This subfolder contains opportunity module-related functionality.

  • WinMapsController, PaletteEntriesController - Configures the opportunities maps view.

    

  • FunnelFilterController - Filters the Funnel chart when the FilterManager discussed in the platform-agnostic module section is executed.

  • PropertyEditorController - Assigns progress to the Pivot cell.

    

OutlookInspired.Blazor.Server Project

This is the Blazor frontend project. It utilizes the previously mentioned OutlookInspired.Module and maintains the same folder structure.

Components Folder

This folder contains Blazor components essential for project requirements.

• ComponentBase, ComponentModelBase - ComponentBase is the foundation for client-side components like DxMap, DxFunnel, DXPivot, and PdfViewer. It manages loading of resources such as JavaScript files. ComponentModelBase acts as the base model for all components, offering functionality such as ClientReady event and a hook for browser console messages, among other features.

• HyperLink, Label - TThese components mirror their WinForms counterparts and are used to render hyperlinks and labels.

  

• PdfViewer - This is a ComponentBase descendant used to view PDF files.

  

• XafImg, BOImage - Both components are used to display images across a variety of contexts.

  

• XafChart - This component is utilized for charting Customer store data.

  

• CardView Subfolder

  This folder contains the SideBySideCardView and the StackedCardView. They are used to display Card like list views as follows:

• DevExtreme Subfolder

  This folder includes reusable .NET components, including Map, VectorMap, Funnel and Chart DevExtreme Widgets.

Controllers Folder

This folder contains the following controllers with no dependencies:

• CellDisplayTemplateController - Is an abstract controller that allows the application to render GridListEditor row cell fragments.
• DxGridListEditorController - Overiddes GridListEditor behaviors (such as removing command columns).
• PopupWindowSizeController - Configures the size of popup windows.

Editors Folder

This folder contains XAF custom editors. Examples include:

• ChartListEditor - An abstract list editor designed to create simple object-specific variants.

  Editors/ChartListEditor.cs:

  [ListEditor(typeof(MapItem), true)]
  public class MapItemChartListEditor : ChartListEditor<MapItem, string, decimal, string, XafChart<MapItem, string, decimal, string>> {
      public MapItemChartListEditor(IModelListView info) : base(info) {
      }
  }
  
  

• ComponentPropertyEditor - An abstract property editor that serves as a basis for editors such as ProgressPropertyEditor or PdfViewEditor. The latter uses the PdfViewer component from the Components folder.

  Editors/ComponentPropertyEditor.cs:

  [PropertyEditor(typeof(byte[]), EditorAliases.PdfViewerEditor)]
  public class PdfViewerEditor : ComponentPropertyEditor<PdfModel, PdfModelAdapter, byte[]> {
      public PdfViewerEditor(Type objectType, IModelMemberViewItem model) : base(objectType, model) {
      }
  }
  
  

• EnumPropertyEditor - Inherits from XAF's native EnumPropertyEditor, but only displays an image (like its WinForms counterpart).

• DisplayTestPropertyEditors - Displays raw text (like the WinForms LabelPropertyEditor).

Features Folder

This folder contains solution-specific functionality.

• Customers subfolder

  Uses components from Components (bound to data) to render customer-related data. For example, it uses the StackedCardView with a StackedInfoCard as shown below:

  Features/Customers/Stores/StoresCardView.razor:

  <StackedCardView>
    <Content>
        @foreach (var store in ComponentModel.Stores){
            <StackedInfoCard Body="@store.City" Image="@store.Crest.LargeImage.ToBase64Image()"/>
        }
    </Content>
  

The visual output is as follows:

• Employees subfolder

  Uses data-bound components from the Components folder to render employee-related data.

  Features/Employees/CardView/CardView.razor:

  <StackedCardView >
    <Content>
        @foreach (var employee in ComponentModel.Objects){
            <SideBySideInfoCard CurrentObject="employee" ComponentModel="@ComponentModel" Image="@employee.Picture?.Data?.ToBase64Image()" HeaderText="@employee.FullName" 
                                InfoItems="@(new Dictionary<string, string>{{ "ADDRESS", employee.Address },
                                               { "EMAIL", $"<a href=\"mailto:{employee.Email}\">{employee.Email}</a>" },{ "PHONE", employee.HomePhone } })"/>
        }
    </Content>
  

Results are as follows:

The Evaluations and Tasks include components responsible for rendering the cell fragment in the following image. Both components are linked to the cell through Controllers\CellDisplayTemplateController.

• Evaluations subfolder

  The SchedulerGroupTypeController is required to set up the scheduler, as follows:

  

• Maps subfolder

  Mirroring its WinForms counterpart, this subfolder contains both the RouteMapsViewController and the SalesMapsViewController. These controllers are needed to configure maps (ModalDxMap and ModalDxVectorMap) and associated actions (such as TravelMode, SalesPeriod, Print, etc). Components within this directory are fragments that use components in Components/DevExtreme. Additionally, they adjust height as they are displayed in a modal popup window.

• Orders subfolder

  The DetailRow component renders the detail fragment for the OrderListView.

  

• Products subfolder

  Much like the Employees subfolder, the Component/CardViews/StackedCardView declaration is as follow:

  Features/Products/CardView.razor:

  <StackedCardView>
    <Content>
        @foreach (var product in ComponentModel.Objects) {
             <SideBySideInfoCard CurrentObject="product" ComponentModel="@ComponentModel" Image="@product.PrimaryImage.Data.ToBase64Image()" HeaderText="@product.Name" 
                                 InfoItems="@(new Dictionary<string, string>{{ "COST", product.Cost.ToString("C") },
                                                { "SALE PRICE", product.SalePrice.ToString("C") } })"
                                 FooterText="@product.Description.ToDocument(server => server.Text)"/>
         }
  
    </Content>
  </StackedCardView>
  

  Results are as follows: