What’s WinUI? 💻🚀
WinUI (or Windows UI Library) is the provider of official native Windows UI Controls and more interface elements for Windows Apps. It’s an open-source project that you can find in GitHub, so you can report bugs, request feature and contribute with your own code.
It’s compatible with earlier versions of Windows 10, so no worries if your end-users don’t use the latest version of OS.
WinUI is used for Windows and Xbox OS shell and other many apps and can be used in platforms like Xamarin.Forms and React Native Windows.
Do you want to know more? You can find a lot of resources around WinUI:
WinUI 3.0 alpha is about to come
As a living technology, it evolves and grows. And version 3.0 is about to come. This release is a major update planned for 2020.
How do I access the alpha?
You have two paths to see what’s new in the alpha version.
You can clone the XAML Controls Gallery from GitHub, or you can download the latest preview version of Visual Studio and fulfill the following form to access the Visual Studio extension that allows you to create new apps from scratch.
What’s new?
Regarding controls, WinUI 3.0 contains
The brand new WebView2, a Chromium-based control to host HTML within your app.
But not only that! These controls have been updated with improvements:
- AppBarButton
- ComboBox
- ListView
- MenuBar
- NavigationView
- RichEditBox
- TreeView
How is this related with new frameworks?
WinUI is very important for one of our favorite frameworks: Uno Platform.
The ultimate goal of Uno Platform is to allow developers the so-called “write once, run everywhere”. The development workflow is simple:
- Create on Windows
- Verify your app in your browser, Android, iOS and soon MacOS.
- Repeat
Easy, uh? 😊
Why is it important?
WinUI will standardize the UI elements among all the current GUI technologies: WPF + WinForms + UWP. They’ll all share the same controls.
What does it mean? For Uno Platform users, new controls and more solid base to set standards to base on and faster development.
It’s a good moment to start with Uno Platform
In our world, we need to know when to invest in a technology or framework, so we don’t lag behind the competitors. Uno Platform is a great advantage that you absolutely need to consider from now on.
Should we say it? Uno Platform is rising like a rocket. Sky is the limit for Uno Platform… what are you waiting for to start using it?
Written by: Idiwork’s team.
WinUI looks promising!
indeed!