Oqtane Framework

Oqtane is a Modular Application Framework. It leverages Blazor, an open source and cross-platform web UI framework for building single-page apps using .NET and C# instead of JavaScript. Blazor apps are composed of reusable web UI components implemented using C#, HTML, and CSS. Both client and server code is written in C#, allowing you to share code and libraries.

Oqtane is being developed based on some fundamental principles which are outlined in the Oqtane Philosophy.

Please note that this project is owned by the .NET Foundation and is governed by the .NET Foundation Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct

Getting Started

Using Version 2+:

Install .NET 5 SDK (v5.0.100).
Install the latest edition (v16.8 or higher) of Visual Studio 2019 (Community, Professional, or Enterprise Editions) with the ASP.NET and web development workload enabled. Oqtane works with ALL editions of Visual Studio from Community to Enterprise. If you do not have a SQL Server installation available already and you wish to use LocalDB for development, you must also install the .NET desktop development workload.
Download a release or Clone the Oqtane source code to your local system. Open the Oqtane.sln solution file and Build the solution. Make sure you specify Oqtane.Server as the Startup Project and then Run the application.

Using Version 1:

Install .NET Core 3.1 SDK (v3.1.300).
Install Visual Studio 2019 (Community, Professional, or Enterprise Editions) with the ASP.NET and web development workload enabled. Oqtane works with ALL editions of Visual Studio from Community to Enterprise. If you do not have a SQL Server installation available already and you wish to use LocalDB for development, you must also install the .NET desktop development workload.
Download a release or Clone the Oqtane source code from a v1.x Tag to your local system. Open the Oqtane.sln solution file and Build the solution. Make sure you specify Oqtane.Server as the Startup Project and then Run the application.

Installing an official release:

A detailed set of instructions for installing Oqtane on IIS is located here: Installing Oqtane on IIS
Instructions for upgrading Oqtane are located here: Upgrading Oqtane

Additional Instructions

If you have already installed a previous version of Oqtane and you wish to do a clean database install, simply reset the DefaultConnection value in the Oqtane.Server\appsettings.json file to "". This will trigger a re-install when you run the application which will execute the database installation scripts.
If you want to submit pull requests make sure you install the Github Extension For Visual Studio. It is recommended you ignore any local changes you have made to the appsettings.json file before you submit a pull request. To automate this activity, open a command prompt and navigate to the /Oqtane.Server/ folder and enter the command "git update-index --skip-worktree appsettings.json"

Video Series

If you are getting started with Oqtane, a series of videos are available which explain how to install the product, interact with the user interface, and develop custom modules.

Documentation

There is a separate Documentation repository which contains a variety of types of documentation for Oqtane, including API documentation that is auto generated using Docfx. The contents of the repository is published to Githib Pages and is available at https://docs.oqtane.org

Roadmap

This project is a work in progress and the schedule for implementing enhancements is dependent upon the availability of community members who are willing/able to assist.

V.2.1.0 ( Q1 2021 )

Complete Static Localization of Admin UI
Cross Platform Database Support ( ie. SQLite )
EF Core Migrations for Database Installation/Upgrade

V.2.0.0 ( released in conjuntion with .NET 5 on Nov 11, 2020 )

Migration to .NET 5
Static Localization ( ie. labels, help text, etc.. )
Improved JavaScript reference support
Performance optimizations
Developer productivity enhancements

V.1.0.0 ( released in conjunction with .NET Core 3.2 on May 19, 2020 )

Future Consideration

OAuth Support
Site Configuration Migrations
Pub/Sub Event Framework
Admin UI Markup Optimization ( ie. replace tables with divs in forms )

Background

Oqtane was created by Shaun Walker and is inspired by the DotNetNuke web application framework. Initially created as a proof of concept, Oqtane is a native Blazor application written from the ground up using modern .NET Core technology. It is a modular application framework offering a fully dynamic page compositing model, multi-site support, designer friendly templates (skins), and extensibility via third party modules.