Microsoft has announced the next version of their Windows Community Toolkit. This major update bumps up to version number to version 5.0. It brings in a notable amount of new features with this update. It brings in all new WindowsXamlHost control built in right on the top of the XAML Islands APIs and works great for UWP, WPF or Windows Forms applications. Along with that, all new WinForms and WPF controls like for InkCanvas and the MapControl is now available. TabView Control for UWP, new .NET Standard Weibo service, new .NET framework support for the Twitter and LinkedIn Service are also shipped with this version 5.0.
Windows Community Toolkit is the bible for developers across the globe. With its collection of helper functions, custom controls, and app services, it simplifies and demonstrates common developer tasks building UWP apps for Windows 10.
Windows Community Toolkit v5.0
WindowsXamlHost
Windows 10 v1809 brings in some pre-release APIs using which the classic Windows Applications based on Win32 APIs can leverage the new UI Elements from the Fluent Design System into these Win32 Windows Applications.
Wrapped Controls
This is built on top of the previously discussed WindowsXAMLHost. It brings in a bunch of wrapped UWP Controls. This help in enhancing the functionality and usability of a particular application.
Microsoft has listed the availability of the following controls with this release-
- “WebView – a control that uses the Microsoft Edge rendering engine – supported on Windows 10 April 2018 update and above
- WebViewCompatible – a control that provides a version of WebView that is compatible with more OS versions. The control uses the WebView control on OS versions that support it and the Internet Explorer rendering engine otherwise, even on Windows 8 and Windows 7.
- InkCanvas and InkToolbar – wrapper around the UWP WinkCanvas and InkToolbar controls to enable Ink based user interaction – supported on Windows 10 October 2018 update and above
- MediaPlayerElement – wrapper around the UWP MediaPlayerElement to stream and render media content such as video – supported on Windows 10 October 2018 update and above
- MapControl – wrapper around the UWP MapControl control to display and interact with rich Map content – supported on Windows 10 October 2018 update and above”
TabView Control
Now users can leverage the use and implementations of tab view in the UWP Applications. This is fully customizable and easy t be implemented. This brings in a more diverse way of implementing the navigation panel of a UWP application.
This version also adds Weibo Service APIs and Twitter & LinkedIn .NET Framework Support.
Learn more in depth about the whole announcement here.
