More than a year ago, Microsoft released UWP Community Toolkit, a project that enables developers to collaborate and contribute new capabilities on top of the Windows 10 SDK. Since its release, the Toolkit has received numerous updates, enhancing stability, and introducing new controls and features.
Now, Microsoft has released version 2.0 of the UWP Community Toolkit, calling it the "largest update to date", similar to the tagline that it gave version 1.3 back in February.
Microsoft states that the UWP Community Toolkit now boasts over 100 contributors, and that developers have downloaded its packages more than 250,000 times.
The latest update to the UWP Community Toolkit is designed to enable developers to take advantage of the features, APIs, and the Fluent Design System available with the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. Microsoft says that over the next few months, the controls available in the Toolkit will be updated to support Fluent Design, and the sample update will enjoy similar improvements as well.
The sample app in the Toolkit has been updated too. The XAML inside the app can now be updated directly and changes to it will be visible instantly in the preview. The navigation model and has been redesigned, and a new landing page has also been introduced. Furthermore, version 2.0 features two packages that will enable support for more cross-platform APIs in the future.
Some other improvements to UWP Community Toolkit 2.0 include:
- Added InAppNotification control – a control to show local notifications in app
- Added TextToolbar control – text editing control that enables easy rich text and Markdown formatting
- Updated Expander to support all orientations and added LayoutTranformControl from the WinRT XAML Toolkit
- Updated Menu to support underline characters, orientation and many other improvements.
While version 2.0 of the UWP Community Toolkit does boast a lot of enhancements, Microsoft notes that "this is just the start". If you"re a Windows 10 developer interested in the project, you can contribute to it by heading over to GitHub.