Masterarbeit/QuellCode/CentronERP/docs/operations/update-devexpress.md

How to update DevExpress in c-entron.NET

Before your start, please talk to everyone who manages one of the other projects (Outlook Add-In, Service-Board, Virtual Mail Assistant, c-entron Agent, etc.) to make sure they can all update as well.

We have documentation for the other projects (even if they have their own wikis) here to consolidate the update process. Projects that do not have documentation here are usually updated by their respective developers (ServiceBoard etc.) or have documentation in their git repo.

This'll take you a few hours to complete and you cannot just do it halfway (leaving projects unable to update their c-entron dlls), so make sure to leave enough time and preferably start in the morning.
There will be issues along the way, so be prepared!

Please note: this is a very delicate process and needs to be done very thoroughly. You cannot resonably test every project/ui to ensure it's working, so you'll have to make sure you do thing correctly.
Errors or missing updates will probably only be noticed once people install (even worse if its only noticed once released to customers) and will usually result in bad/cryptic error messages.
Always check all the changed files in your PRs, make sure everything that needs to be updated is updated and everything that doesnt need to be updated is not updated!

Branches & PRs

For consistency reasons it is advisable to use the same pattern of branchname, commitmessage and PR name everywhere.

where	pattern	example (for Version 22.1.3)
Branch	<shortsign>/update_devexpress_to_<versionnumber>	hay/update_devexpress_to_2213
Commit	Update devexpress to <versionnumber>	Update devexpress to 22.1.3
PR	same as the commit message

c-entron.Help

Solution > ContextMenu > Manage NuGet Packages for Solution... to update the NuGet packages.

Package	Projects
DevExpress.*	Centron.Help

Update the version number for Centron.Help in the .csproj file. Put your changes into a PR and self approve and complete it. Copy the nuget-package to /nugets in c-entron.NET and c-entron Outlook AddIn solution.

Reference PR

c-entron.NET

There are two ways for you to do this, the offical way via nugget packages and the fast way.

Package	Projects
DevExpress.*	WPF, backend, webservice, shared and Nexus (Blazor) — all driven by the NugetVersionDevExpress variable (see below), you don't need to touch the individual .csproj files
Centron.Help	Centron.WPF.UI

Updating DevExpress dlls (single source)

The DevExpress version lives in one file: DevExpress.Version.props (repo root), which holds <NugetVersionDevExpress>. It is imported by both the root Directory.Build.props (WPF/backend/webservice/shared) and src/nexus/Directory.Build.props (Nexus/Blazor). Just change the value there — every DevExpress.* PackageReference uses Version="$(NugetVersionDevExpress)".

History: Nexus used to hard-code its 6 DevExpress versions in src/nexus/CentronNexus/CentronNexus.csproj. Those were switched to $(NugetVersionDevExpress) and Nexus's own Directory.Build.props imports the shared file (it does not inherit the root props), so a version change is now a single edit.

Obtaining & updating c-entron.Help (do this FIRST — it is a hard blocker)

Centron.WPF.UI references the Centron.Help NuGet, and that package is compiled against a specific DevExpress version. If it lags behind, the WPF markup compiler fails with MC1000 … Could not find assembly 'DevExpress.Data.v<OLD>' — because the new DevExpress ships DevExpress.Data.v<NEW> and the old versioned assembly no longer exists.

So ask the c-entron.Help maintainer for a new Centron.Help.1.0.xxxx.x.nupkg built against the new DevExpress version (see the c-entron.Help section above / its own repo). Then:

1. Copy the new Centron.Help.1.0.xxxx.x.nupkg into /nugets and delete the old one.
2. Bump the Centron.Help PackageReference Version in src/centron/Centron.WPF.UI/Centron.WPF.UI.csproj.
3. Clear the old extracted package from the NuGet cache if the version number was reused.

Running tests

Some EndToEnd expected files contain RTF text with the DevExpress version that generated it, so they must be updated. This is not just 2 tests — there are roughly 20+ *.expected.txt files under tests/Centron.Tests.EndToEnd/Tests/Settings/ and tests/Centron.Tests.EndToEnd/Tests/Helpdesk/.

You can either run the tests (HelpdeskSettingsTests / SettingsTests) so they regenerate, or bulk-replace the generator string across all files:

..{\*\generator DevExpress Office File API/<OLD>.0}..
to
..{\*\generator DevExpress Office File API/<NEW>.0}..

(e.g. old 25.2.6.0 → new 26.1.3.0.) These files are UTF-8 without BOM and use CRLF — preserve both (use perl -i -pe, not an editor that rewrites line endings). Ignore the unrelated 9.2.x strings (that is the c-entron ApplicationVersion) and any *.actual.txt (generated, gitignored).

Breaking changes on major upgrades (e.g. 25.x → 26.x)

A minor bump is usually just the version + heatmaps. A major bump additionally tends to need:

• Clear stale WPF build artifacts. Delete **/*_wpftmp.csproj and the obj/bin folders of the WPF projects (Centron.WPF.UI, Centron.WPF.UI.Extension, Centron.Controls, c-entron.misc.ConnectionManager). They cache the old DevExpress.*.v<OLD> reference paths and keep reproducing the MC1000 error even after the version bump.
• Removed/changed API. Fix compile errors from removed members. Example (26.1): services.AddDevExpressBlazor(o => o.BootstrapVersion = BootstrapVersion.v5) — BootstrapVersion was removed (Bootstrap 4 dropped, v5 is default) → use plain services.AddDevExpressBlazor(); in src/nexus/CentronNexus.Host/Program.cs.
• Version-hashed static assets. DevExpress 26.1 no longer ships the internal _content/DevExpress.Blazor/dx-blazor-<hash>.svg sprite. Any custom <use href="…#dx-editor-remove-tag"> (e.g. in EmployeeTreeSelectionDropDown.razor) breaks — replace with a self-contained inline SVG.
• Re-verify wwwroot/css/devexpress-mods.css overrides and any DevExpress .Internal namespace usages.
• Restore first (dotnet restore Centron.sln): a failed restore means the DevExpress feed/subscription does not cover the new (major) version — stop and clear that before anything else.

Updating the heatmaps

The build might fail now, due to the installers not knowing about the new DevExpress DLLs.
To fix this, execute the following command line in the root of the git directory:
dotnet run --project .\scripts\Centron.Scripts\Centron.Scripts.csproj -- update-installer-product-heat
This will update the CentronProductHeat.wxs and the WebServiceProductHeat.wxs (once for c-entron WS) to include the new missing files.
If only the minor version changes the heatmaps might not need an update.

Cleanup & PR

Updating the heatmaps re-touches the Directory.Build.props file (the setup-versioning step rewrites <Version> and <GitCommitId>). Revert those two back (<Version>1.0.0.0</Version>, empty <GitCommitId>). The DevExpress version itself now lives in DevExpress.Version.props, not here, so it is unaffected.

Now you can create the PR and wait for it to merge. Due to the changes to .sln and .csproj files, it'll need someone from the code-reviewer group.

Reference PR

c-entron Outlook AddIn

This only needs to be done in coordination with the maintainer of the Addin.

First you need to update the centron.Help nuget package, then update the packages themselves.

Package	Projects
DevExpress.*	Centron.OutlookAddin & Centron.Tickets
Centron.Help	Centron.OutlookAddin & Centron.Tickets
Centron.Controls	Centron.OutlookAddin & Centron.Tickets

As before you also need to update the product heat. (reference c-entron.NET)

Make sure to run the terminal as administrator, otherwise the build will fail!
dotnet run --project .\scripts\Centron.OutlookAddin.Scripts\Centron.OutlookAddin.Scripts.csproj -- update-installer-product-heat

Reference PR

Finishing touches

After you're done you should send a notification e-mail to all developers so they are aware of the update and can (if needed) update their own projects.

If you notice any changes to this process, then please update this documentation.

Further reading

Error uploading nuget packages

Error

##[error]The nuget command failed with exit code(1) and error(System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. ---> System.Net.Http.HttpRequestException: Response status code does not indicate success: 403 (Forbidden - User 'ed8980f1-8a8a-4b5f-a522-5ca37b713bec' lacks permission to complete this action. You need to have 'AddPackage'. (DevOps Activity ID: 36B90B94-83BC-46CE-9349-5A4F110417E5)).

Fix

Ensure the nuget version in the build pipeline via the NuGetToolInstaller@1 command. Microsoft documentation
If you get this error and have no idea what it means go talk to the grandmasters of the build pipelines and show them this