Oqtane Event System — Hooking into the Framework

Oqtane Event System — Hooking into the Framework

OK, I’m still blocked from GitHub Copilot, so I still have more things to write about.
In this article, the topic that we’re going to see is the event system of Oqtane.For example, usually in most systems you want to hook up something when the application starts.
In XAF from Developer Express, which is my specialty (I mean, that’s the framework I really know well),
you have the DB Updater, which you can use to set up some initial data.
In Oqtane, you have the Module Manager, but there are also other types of events that you might need —
for example, when the user is created or when the user signs in for the first time.

So again, using the method that I explained in my previous article — the “OK, I have a doubt” method —
I basically let the guide of Copilot hike over my installation folder or even the Oqtane source code itself, and try to figure out how to do it.
That’s how I ended up using event subscribers.

In one of my prototypes, what I needed to do was detect when the user is created and then create some records in a different system
using that user’s information. So I’ll show an example of that type of subscriber, and I’ll actually share the
Oqtane Event Handling Guide here, which explains how you can hook up to system events.

I’m sure there are more events available, but this is what I’ve found so far and what I’ve tested.
I guess I’ll make a video about all these articles at some point, but right now, I’m kind of vibing with other systems.
Whenever I get blocked, I write something about my research with Oqtane.


Oqtane Event Handling Guide

Comprehensive guide to capturing and responding to system events in Oqtane

This guide explains how to handle events in Oqtane, particularly focusing on user authentication events (login, logout, creation)
and other system events. Learn to build modules that respond to framework events and create custom event-driven functionality.

Version: 1.0.0
Last Updated: October 3, 2025
Oqtane Version: 6.0+
Framework: .NET 9.0


1. Overview of Oqtane Event System

Oqtane uses a centralized event system based on the SyncManager that broadcasts events throughout the application when entities change.
This enables loose coupling between components and allows modules to respond to framework events without tight integration.

Key Components

  • SyncManager — Central event hub that broadcasts entity changes
  • SyncEvent — Event data containing entity information and action type
  • IEventSubscriber — Interface for objects that want to receive events
  • EventDistributorHostedService — Background service that distributes events to subscribers
Entity Changes → SyncManager → EventDistributorHostedService → IEventSubscriber Implementations
                     ↓
               SyncEvent Created → Distributed to All Event Subscribers
  

2. Event Types and Actions

SyncEvent Model


public class SyncEvent : EventArgs
{
    public int TenantId { get; set; }
    public int SiteId { get; set; }
    public string EntityName { get; set; }
    public int EntityId { get; set; }
    public string Action { get; set; }
    public DateTime ModifiedOn { get; set; }
}
  

Available Actions


public class SyncEventActions
{
    public const string Refresh = "Refresh";
    public const string Reload = "Reload";
    public const string Create = "Create";
    public const string Update = "Update";
    public const string Delete = "Delete";
}
  

Common Entity Names


public class EntityNames
{
    public const string User = "User";
    public const string Site = "Site";
    public const string Page = "Page";
    public const string Module = "Module";
    public const string File = "File";
    public const string Folder = "Folder";
    public const string Notification = "Notification";
}
  

3. Creating Event Subscribers

To handle events, implement IEventSubscriber and filter for the entities and actions you care about.
Subscribers are automatically discovered by Oqtane and injected with dependencies.


public class UserActivityEventSubscriber : IEventSubscriber
{
    private readonly ILogger<UserActivityEventSubscriber> _logger;

    public UserActivityEventSubscriber(ILogger<UserActivityEventSubscriber> logger)
    {
        _logger = logger;
    }

    public void EntityChanged(SyncEvent syncEvent)
    {
        if (syncEvent.EntityName != EntityNames.User)
            return;

        switch (syncEvent.Action)
        {
            case SyncEventActions.Create:
                _logger.LogInformation("User created: {UserId}", syncEvent.EntityId);
                break;
            case "Login":
                _logger.LogInformation("User logged in: {UserId}", syncEvent.EntityId);
                break;
        }
    }
}
  

4. User Authentication Events

Login, logout, and registration trigger SyncEvent notifications that you can capture to send notifications,
track user activity, or integrate with external systems.


public class LoginActivityTracker : IEventSubscriber
{
    private readonly ILogger<LoginActivityTracker> _logger;

    public LoginActivityTracker(ILogger<LoginActivityTracker> logger)
    {
        _logger = logger;
    }

    public void EntityChanged(SyncEvent syncEvent)
    {
        if (syncEvent.EntityName == EntityNames.User && syncEvent.Action == "Login")
        {
            _logger.LogInformation("User {UserId} logged in at {Time}", syncEvent.EntityId, syncEvent.ModifiedOn);
        }
    }
}
  

5. System Entity Events

Besides user events, you can track changes in entities like Pages, Files, and Modules.


public class PageAuditTracker : IEventSubscriber
{
    private readonly ILogger<PageAuditTracker> _logger;

    public PageAuditTracker(ILogger<PageAuditTracker> logger)
    {
        _logger = logger;
    }

    public void EntityChanged(SyncEvent syncEvent)
    {
        if (syncEvent.EntityName == EntityNames.Page && syncEvent.Action == SyncEventActions.Create)
        {
            _logger.LogInformation("Page created: {PageId}", syncEvent.EntityId);
        }
    }
}
  

6. Custom Module Events

You can create custom events in your own modules using ISyncManager.


public class BlogManager
{
    private readonly ISyncManager _syncManager;

    public BlogManager(ISyncManager syncManager)
    {
        _syncManager = syncManager;
    }

    public void PublishBlog(int blogId)
    {
        _syncManager.AddSyncEvent(
            new Alias { TenantId = 1, SiteId = 1 },
            "Blog",
            blogId,
            "Published"
        );
    }
}
  

7. Best Practices

  • Filter early — Always check the entity and action before processing.
  • Handle exceptions — Never throw unhandled exceptions inside EntityChanged.
  • Log properly — Use structured logging with context placeholders.
  • Keep it simple — Extract complex logic to testable services.

public void EntityChanged(SyncEvent syncEvent)
{
    try
    {
        if (syncEvent.EntityName == EntityNames.User && syncEvent.Action == "Login")
        {
            _logger.LogInformation("User {UserId} logged in", syncEvent.EntityId);
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        _logger.LogError(ex, "Error processing event {Action}", syncEvent.Action);
    }
}
  

8. Summary

Oqtane’s event system provides a clean, decoupled way to respond to system changes.
It’s perfect for audit logs, notifications, custom workflows, and integrations.

  • Automatic discovery of subscribers
  • Centralized event distribution
  • Supports custom and system events
  • Integrates naturally with dependency injection
Oqtane Silent Installation Guide

Oqtane Silent Installation Guide

OK, I’ve been wanting to write this article for a few days now, but I’ve been vibing a lot — writing tons of prototypes and working on my Oqtane research. This morning I got blocked by GitHub Copilot because I hit the rate limit, so I can’t use it for a few hours. I figured that’s a sign to take a break and write some articles instead.

Actually, I’m not really “writing” — I’m using the Windows dictation feature (Windows key + H). So right now, I’m just having coffee and talking to my computer. I’m still in El Salvador with my family, and it’s like 5:00 AM here. My mom probably thinks I’ve gone crazy because I’ve been talking to my computer a lot lately. Even when I’m coding, I use dictation instead of typing, because sometimes it’s just easier to express yourself when you talk. When you type, you tend to shorten things, but when you talk, you can go on forever, right?

Anyway, this article is about Oqtane, specifically something that’s been super useful for me — how to set up a silent installation. Usually, when you download the Oqtane source or use the templates to create a new project or solution, and then run the server project, you’ll see the setup wizard first. That’s where you configure the database, email, host password, default theme, and all that.

Since I’ve been doing tons of prototypes, I’ve seen that setup screen thousands of times per day. So I downloaded the Oqtane source and started digging through it — using Copilot to generate guides whenever I got stuck. Honestly, the best way to learn is always by looking at the source code. I learned that the hard way years ago with XAF from DevExpress — there was no documentation back then, so I had to figure everything out manually and even assemble the projects myself because they weren’t in one solution. With Oqtane, it’s way simpler: everything’s in one place, just a few main projects.

Now, when I run into a problem, I just open the source code and tell Copilot, “OK, this is what I want to do. Help me figure it out.” Sometimes it goes completely wrong (as all AI tools do), but sometimes it nails it and produces a really good guide.

So the guide below was generated with Copilot, and it’s been super useful. I’ve been using it a lot lately, and I think it’ll save you a ton of time if you’re doing automated deployment with Oqtane.

I don’t want to take more of your time, so here it goes — I hope it helps you as much as it helped me.


Oqtane Installation Configuration Guide

This guide explains the configuration options available in the appsettings.json file under the Installation section for automated installation and default site settings.

Overview

The Installation section in appsettings.json controls the automated installation process and default settings for new sites in Oqtane. These settings are particularly useful for:

  • Automated installations – Deploy Oqtane without manual configuration
  • Development environments – Quickly spin up new instances
  • Multi-tenant deployments – Standardize new site creation
  • CI/CD pipelines – Automate deployment processes

Configuration Structure

{
  "Installation": {
    "DefaultAlias": "",
    "HostPassword": "",
    "HostEmail": "",
    "SiteTemplate": "",
    "DefaultTheme": "",
    "DefaultContainer": ""
  }
}
  
Key Purpose Required
DefaultAlias Initial site URL(s)
HostPassword Super admin password
HostEmail Super admin email
SiteTemplate Initial site structure Optional
DefaultTheme Site appearance Optional
DefaultContainer Module wrapper style Optional

SiteTemplate

A Site Template defines the initial structure and content of a new site, including pages, modules, folders, and navigation.

"SiteTemplate": "Oqtane.Infrastructure.SiteTemplates.DefaultSiteTemplate, Oqtane.Server"

Default options:

  • DefaultSiteTemplate – Home, Privacy, example content
  • EmptySiteTemplate – Minimal, clean slate
  • AdminSiteTemplate – Internal use

If empty, Oqtane uses the default template automatically.


DefaultTheme

A Theme controls the visual appearance and layout of your site (page structure, navigation, header/footer, and styling).

"DefaultTheme": "Oqtane.Themes.OqtaneTheme.Default, Oqtane.Client"

Built-in themes:

  • Oqtane Theme (default) – clean and responsive
  • Blazor Theme – Blazor-branded styling
  • Bootswatch variants – Cerulean, Cosmo, Darkly, Flatly, Lux, etc.
  • Corporate Theme – business layout

If left blank, it defaults to the Oqtane Theme.


DefaultContainer

A Container is the wrapper around each module, controlling how titles, buttons, and borders look.

"DefaultContainer": "Oqtane.Themes.OqtaneTheme.Container, Oqtane.Client"

Common containers:

  • OqtaneTheme.Container – standard and responsive
  • AdminContainer – management modules
  • Theme-specific containers – match the chosen theme

Defaults automatically if left empty.


Example Configurations

Minimal Configuration

{
  "Installation": {
    "DefaultAlias": "localhost",
    "HostPassword": "YourSecurePassword123!",
    "HostEmail": "admin@example.com"
  }
}
  

Custom Theme and Container

{
  "Installation": {
    "DefaultAlias": "localhost",
    "HostPassword": "YourSecurePassword123!",
    "HostEmail": "admin@example.com",
    "SiteTemplate": "Oqtane.Infrastructure.SiteTemplates.DefaultSiteTemplate, Oqtane.Server",
    "DefaultTheme": "Oqtane.Theme.Bootswatch.Flatly.Default, Oqtane.Theme.Bootswatch.Oqtane",
    "DefaultContainer": "Oqtane.Theme.Bootswatch.Flatly.Container, Oqtane.Theme.Bootswatch.Oqtane"
  }
}
  

Troubleshooting

  • Settings ignored during installation: Ensure all required fields are filled (DefaultAlias, HostPassword, HostEmail).
  • Theme not found: Check assembly reference and type name.
  • Container displays incorrectly: Use a container matching your theme.
  • Site template creates no pages: Ensure your template returns valid page definitions.

Logs can be found in Logs/oqtane-log-YYYYMMDD.txt.


Best Practices

  • Match your theme and container.
  • Leave defaults empty unless customization is needed.
  • Test in development first.
  • Document any custom templates or themes.
  • Use environment-specific appsettings (e.g. appsettings.Development.json).

Summary

The Installation configuration in appsettings.json lets you fully automate your Oqtane setup.

  • SiteTemplate: defines structure
  • DefaultTheme: defines appearance
  • DefaultContainer: defines module layout

Empty values use defaults, and you can override them for automation, branding, or custom scenarios.

My Journey Exploring the Oqtane Framework

My Journey Exploring the Oqtane Framework

Mental notes on architecture, learning by reading source, and what’s next.

OK — so it’s time for a new article. Lately, I’ve been diving deep into the Oqtane framework, and it’s been a beautiful journey. It reminds me of my early days with XAF from Developer Express—when I learned to think in software architecture and modern design patterns by simply reading the code.Back then, documentation was scarce. The advice was: “Look at the code.” I did—and that shaped a big part of my software education. It taught me that good source code is often self-explanatory.

Even though XAF is still our main tool at the office (Xari & BIT Frameworks), we’re expanding. We’re researching new divisions for Flutter and React, since some projects already use those fronts with an XAF backend. I also wanted to explore building client-server apps with a single .NET codebase that includes mobile—another reason Oqtane caught my eye.

Why Oqtane Caught My Attention

The Oqtane team is very responsive on GitHub. You can open a discussion and get thoughtful replies quickly. The source code is clean and educational—perfect for learning by reading. There are plenty of talks and videos on architecture and module development; some are a bit dated, but if you cross-check with the code, you’ll be fine.

I’ve learned there are two steps to mastering a framework: (1) immerse yourself in material (videos, code, docs), and (2) explain it to someone else. These notes do both—part research, part knowledge sharing.

Oqtane Video References

A Missing Clip Worth Finding

There’s one clip I couldn’t locate where Shaun Walker explains that .NET already provides the pieces for modern, multi-platform, server-and-client applications—but the ecosystem is fragmented. Oqtane unifies those pieces into a single .NET codebase. If I find it, I’ll make a highlight and share it.

On Learning and Time

I’m trying to publish as much as I can now because I’m about to start a new chapter: I’ll be joining the University of St. Petersburg to learn Russian as my second language. It’s a tough language—very different from Spanish or Italian—so I’ll likely have less time to write for a while. Better to document these experiments now than let them sit in my notes for months.

That’s it for today. I hope these clips and notes help you understand Oqtane the way they helped me. Stay tuned—and happy coding!

 

Understanding Multi-Tenancy in Oqtane (and How to Set Up Sites)

Understanding Multi-Tenancy in Oqtane (and How to Set Up Sites)

OK — it’s time for today’s Oqtane blog post!

Yesterday, I wrote about changing the runtime mode in Oqtane and how that allows you to switch between
Blazor Server and Blazor WebAssembly functionality.

Today, I decided to explore how multi-tenancy works — specifically, how Oqtane manages multiple sites within the same
installation.

Originally, I wanted to cover the entire administrative panel and all of its modules in one post, but that would’ve been too big.
So, I’m breaking it down into smaller topics. This post focuses only on site functionality and how
multi-tenancy works from the administrative side — basically, how to set up tenants in Oqtane.


Setting Up a Multi-Tenant Oqtane Installation

To make these experiments easy to replicate, I decided to use SQLite as my database.

I created a new .NET Oqtane application using the official templates and added it to a
GitHub repository.

Here’s what I did:

  1. Set up the host configuration directly in appsettings.json.
  2. Ran the app, went to the admin panel, and created two additional sites.

You can see the screenshots below showing the settings for each site.

At first, it was a bit confusing — I thought I could simply use different ports for each site (like 8081,
8082, etc.), but that’s not how Oqtane works. Everything runs in the same process, so all tenants
share the same port.

Instead of changing ports, you configure different URL paths or folders. For example:

  • http://localhost:8080/ → the main host
  • http://localhost:8080/mycompany1 → first tenant
  • http://localhost:8080/mycompany2 → second tenant

Site Managment

Site MyCompany1

 

Site MyCompany2

 

Each tenant can:

  • Use a separate database or share the same one as the host
  • Have its own theme
  • Maintain independent site settings

 

In the short GIF animation I attached to the repository, you can see how each site has its
own unique visual theme — it’s really neat to watch.

When you add a new site, its connection string is also stored automatically in the application settings. So, if you download
the repository and run it locally, you’ll be able to access all the sites and see how the URLs and configurations work.

Here is the repository egarim/OqtaneMultiTenant: an example of how to use multi tenant in oqtane


Why I’m Doing These Posts

These blog entries are like my personal research notes — documenting what I discover while working with Oqtane.
I’m keeping each experiment small and reproducible so I can:

  • Share them with others easily
  • Download them later and reproduce the same setup, including data and configuration

What’s Next

In the next post, I’ll cover virtual hosting — how to use domain names that forward to specific
URLs or tenants. I’ve already done some research on that, but I don’t want to overload this post with too many topics.

For now, I’ll just attach the screenshots showing the different site configurations and URLs, along with a link to the GitHub
repository so you can try it yourself.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out! I’ll keep documenting everything as I go.

One of the great things about Oqtane is that it’s open source — you can always dive into the code, or if you’re
stuck, open a GitHub issue. Shaun Walker and the community are incredibly helpful, so don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks again to the Oqtane team for building such an amazing framework.

 

Oqtane Notes: Understanding Site Settings vs. App Settings for Hosting Models and Render Modes

Oqtane Notes: Understanding Site Settings vs. App Settings for Hosting Models and Render Modes

Oqtane Notes: Understanding Site Settings vs. App Settings

OK — it’s time for another blog post (or maybe just a mental note) about Oqtane.
I’ve been doing what feels like a million installations of it lately. Honestly, if the Oqtane team gets a notification every time I spin up a new instance, they’re probably tired of seeing my name by now. I’ve been spending nearly every free minute exploring the framework — I love diving into new technologies, digging into the source code, and figuring out how things really work.

One of the most beautiful parts about Oqtane is that it’s open source. You can simply go into the repository and inspect the source code yourself. Some parts might not be obvious at first glance, but the project’s creator, Shaun Walker, is incredibly responsive and helpful to the community. I think I’ve only posted a couple of issues over the years, but every single time I’ve woken up the next morning with a thoughtful response waiting — even though I’m usually several time zones ahead in Europe. He really knows Oqtane inside and out.


Hosting Models and Render Modes

As you probably know, one of Oqtane’s biggest strengths is its flexibility with Blazor hosting models. It can run as Server or WebAssembly, and you can switch between them with a simple configuration change.
On top of that, Oqtane supports different render modes for components: Interactive or Static. In simple terms, you can choose to render content on the server (similar to how PHP works) or make it fully interactive like a standard Blazor app where the state refreshes dynamically.

You can toggle these behaviors with just a few clicks in the admin backend — which is awesome once you understand how the settings are actually applied.


My Confusion (and the Lesson Learned)

This post was originally meant to be a follow-up to the previous one about database configuration, but I ran into an interesting issue while testing API controllers. I wanted to confirm that when I ran the application in WebAssembly mode, it would hit the API controllers correctly.

It didn’t — at least not at first.

I spent quite a while trying to figure out why. Oqtane has both app-level settings (in appsettings.json) and site-level settings (in the admin panel), and it wasn’t immediately clear which ones took priority. I initially thought I could just change the render and runtime options in appsettings.json, restart the app, and see the effect. But it didn’t work that way.

After some trial and error — and a helpful reply from Shaun — I realized my mistake. When you first spin up a new site, Oqtane uses the values defined in appsettings.json. But once that site exists, it maintains its own configuration separately. From that point forward, any runtime or render mode changes must be made in the site settings from the admin panel, not in the original configuration file.

 

Server Runtime

WebAssembly Runtime

 


The Takeaway

If you edit appsettings.json after your first site is already created, it won’t affect the existing site — those values only apply when a new site is initialized.

So, to summarize:

  • Before the first run → Configure defaults in appsettings.json.
  • After the site is running → Change settings from the admin backend.

That was the source of my confusion. Hopefully, this note saves someone else a few hours of head-scratching.


Thanks again to Shaun and the entire Oqtane team for keeping this project alive and so well supported.
These posts are just my personal notes, but I hope they help someone who’s following the same learning path.

Setting Up Your Oqtane Database: First Run and Configuration

Setting Up Your Oqtane Database: First Run and Configuration

In this article, I’ll show you what to do after you’ve obtained and opened an Oqtane solution. Specifically, we’ll go through two different ways to set up your database for the first time.

  1. Using the setup wizard — this option appears automatically the first time you run the application.
  2. Configuring it manually — by directly editing the appsettings.json file to skip the wizard.

Both methods achieve the same result. The only difference is that, if you configure the database manually, you won’t see the setup wizard during startup.


Step 1: Running the Application for the First Time

Once your solution is open in Visual Studio, set the Server project as the startup project. Then run it just as you would with any ASP.NET Core application.

You’ll notice several run options — I recommend using the HTTPS version instead of IIS Express (I stopped using IIS Express because it doesn’t work well on ARM-based computers).

When you run the application for the first time and your settings file is still empty, you’ll see the Database Setup Wizard. As shown in the image, the wizard allows you to select a database provider and configure it through a form.

There’s also an option to paste your connection string directly. Make sure it’s a valid Entity Framework Core connection string.

After that, fill in the admin user’s details — username, email, and password — and you’re done. Once this process completes, you’ll have a working Oqtane installation.


Step 2: Setting Up the Database Manually

If you prefer to skip the wizard, you can configure the database manually. To do this, open the appsettings.json file and add the following parameters:

{
"DefaultDBType": "Oqtane.Database.Sqlite.SqliteDatabase, Oqtane.Server",
"ConnectionStrings": {
  "DefaultConnection": "Data Source=Oqtane-202510052045.db;"
},
"Installation": {
  "DefaultAlias": "https://localhost:44388",
  "HostPassword": "MyPasswor25!",
  "HostEmail": "joche@myemail.com",
  "SiteTemplate": "",
  "DefaultTheme": "",
  "DefaultContainer": ""
}
}

Here you need to specify:

  • The database provider type (e.g., SQLite, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, etc.)
  • The connection string
  • The admin email and password for the first user — known as the host user (essentially the root or super admin).

This is the method I usually use now since I’ve set up Oqtane so many times recently that I’ve grown tired of the wizard. However, if you’re new to Oqtane, the wizard is a great way to get started.


Wrapping Up

That’s it for this setup guide! By now, you should have a running Oqtane installation configured either through the setup wizard or manually via the configuration file. Both methods give you a solid foundation to start exploring what Oqtane can do.

In the next article, we’ll dive into the Oqtane backend, exploring how the framework handles modules, data, and the underlying architecture that makes it flexible and powerful. Stay tuned — things are about to get interesting!