Strategically timed with Microsoft BUILD 2020 and the release of .NET Core 3.2... we are pleased to announce the official 1.0 release of Oqtane, an open source Modular Application Framework for Blazor.
As most of you know already, Blazor is an open source and cross-platform web UI framework for building single-page apps using .NET and C# instead of JavaScript. Since the official release of Blazor Server in September 2019 there has been tremendous excitement in the Microsoft developer community and anticipation for the revolutionary client-side hosting option branded as Blazor WebAssembly. Blazor WebAssembly allows you to execute your Blazor components client-side in the browser using a.NET runtime implemented in WebAssembly, a standardized bytecode for the web.
Oqtane was originally conceived as a proof of concept to determine if the Blazor component model would be capable of supporting a modular application framework. Taking inspiration from DotNetNuke, it utilizes many concepts from this pioneering open source .NET CMS. Specifically it supports multi-tenancy, a fully dynamic page compositing model, designer friendly themes, extensibility via third party modules, and a familiar data model. That being said this was not a migration project; Oqtane has its own distinct philosophical goals and was architected from the ground up using a Single Page Application (SPA) model and modern .NET Core patterns and technology.
In many ways Oqtane is a testament to the power of Blazor, as it leverages both the rich breadth of functionality as well as the advanced extensibility options of the Blazor development model. The whole premise of a modular framework is that everything must behave in a dynamic manner and Oqtane is able to achieve this through innovative usage of the Blazor component model. The end result is a modular framework that allows you to rapidly create web and mobile applications that offer a highly responsive user experience and flexibility in deployment.
Since the initial POC release in May 2019, a vibrant community has began to form around Oqtane resulting in a continuous dialog in its public Gitter channel and 375 pull request contributions from 14 contributors to date. In particular, the contributions of Pavel Veselý (@chlupac), Hisham Bin Ateya (@hishamco), and Emanuele Filardo (@fileman) have been instrumental in allowing the framework to reach the MVP milestone. We also need to recognize the expert assistance and encouragement we have received directly from members of the ASP.NET team including Daniel Roth, Steve Sanderson, and Javier Calvarro Nelson.
"Blazor WebAssembly is a game changer as it allows software developers to create Single Page Applications using a consistent object-oriented strongly-typed technology stack from back to front," said Shaun Walker, creator of Oqtane. "Based on a powerful component model with a rich integrated debugging experience, it makes rapid application development and code re-use a first class citizen once again. Used in conjunction with a modular application framework such as Oqtane, developers can significantly accelerate the development and delivery of their digital transformation projects."
Based on its significant momentum and adoption, Oqtane moved from the incubator stage to becoming an official project of the .NET Foundation last month. Now that Oqtane 1.0 has been publicly released, we are confident that the growth of the ecosystem will accelerate even more with developers and designers creating advanced modules and themes, and consumers seamlessly integrating them into their Oqtane implementations.
Oqtane => Blazor;