Cannot Add ABP Module Navigation Properties in Custom Modules (Works in Main Solution) #10628

2 Answer(s)

• 

  0

  AI-Bot created 4 months ago

  Support Team ABP Agent

  • This is a known limitation of ABP Suite’s navigation-property discovery in modular solutions: Suite primarily detects “existing entities” (like IdentityUser) from the main solution’s module/package graph and the standard layered projects, but it doesn’t reliably surface entities coming only from a referenced ABP module package inside a separate custom module in the way you expect.

  • Workaround (supported by Suite): add the navigation property manually instead of relying on the dropdown list.

    1. In ABP Suite, open your entity → Navigation Properties → Add Navigation Property.
    2. In the “Existing Entity” selector, if IdentityUser doesn’t appear, use the manual entry approach described in the Suite docs (“Alternatively, you can add IdentityUser … by manually entering the required information”).
    3. Provide the required information for:
       • Target entity type (e.g., Volo.Abp.Identity.IdentityUser)
       • FK property (e.g., IdentityUserId / UserId as Guid)
       • Display property and DTO info as needed by Suite’s generation logic.

  • After generation, if you hit EF Core mapping errors when relating to module entities (commonly around ExtraProperties), ensure your module’s DbContext model configuration includes the module mappings before configuring your own entities (e.g., the relevant builder.ConfigureIdentity() / builder.ConfigureIdentityPro() calls depending on what you use). This is a separate runtime concern from Suite’s UI not listing the entity, but it’s a common follow-up when adding relations to IdentityUser.

  • If you need Suite to list those module entities in the UI for custom modules specifically: there is no verified configuration switch/documented setting that enables that behavior today; the practical approach is the manual navigation-property entry.

  Links (verified):

  • https://abp.io/docs/latest/suite/generating-crud-page
  • https://abp.io/community/articles/furp75ex

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• 

  0

  maliming created 4 months ago

  Support Team Fullstack Developer

  Hi,

  This is by design, not a bug. Adding a NuGet <PackageReference> is not the same as installing a module on the solution from ABP Suite's perspective — Suite only auto-loads entities from modules that were registered via "Install module on solution".

  For custom modules, Suite provides an official extension point: the .suite/module-entity-extension.json file at the root of your module solution. Add the Domain DLL file names of the ABP modules you want to expose as navigation property targets. Example:

  {
    "Modules": [
      { "DomainProjectDllFileName": "Volo.Abp.Identity.Pro.Domain.dll" }
    ]
  }
  

  Then in the Add Navigation Property dialog, check the Include entities from ABP modules checkbox — IdentityUser (and other entities from the listed DLLs) will appear in the dropdown. Suite will automatically build the solution before scanning, so you don't need to build manually, but the DLL has to physically exist somewhere under <solutionRoot>/src/**/bin/... for Assembly.LoadFrom to pick it up. If your module solution has no host project that copies NuGet dependencies to bin, this method won't find the DLL.

  If the DLL approach doesn't work for your project layout, the always-working fallback is to add the navigation property manually — type the target type (Volo.Abp.Identity.IdentityUser), FK property (Guid UserId), display property, etc. directly in the dialog without picking from the dropdown.

  Docs:

  • https://abp.io/docs/latest/suite/generating-crud-page#extending-with-custom-module-entities
  • https://abp.io/docs/latest/suite/generating-crud-page#adding-an-existing-entity-as-a-navigation-property

  Thanks

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