Microsoft announces UWP Community Toolkit 1.5, brings new controls

Back in August 2016, Microsoft announced 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, adding new controls and features.

Now, Microsoft has announced the release of UWP Community Toolkit 1.5 - the fifth update to the project. Although this update isn't quite as big as UWP Community Toolkit 1.3, it still packs a number of new features and improvements.

Version 1.5 of the UWP Community Toolkit contains many new controls and services, including:

• Menu: A classic control used by traditional desktop applications, adapted for the Universal Windows Platform. As requested by the community on UserVoice, the Menu allows the developer to provide a hierarchical list of menus and submenus that support any input modality and can adapt to the screen size to provide a natural and fluid interaction.
• OrbitView: A new ItemsControl that arranges elements around a center element and provides flexibility for size and distance for each element, as well as the ability to show orbits or anchors for each item.
• RadialProgressBar: A XAML Control that displays a value within a range using a circular sector that grows clockwise until it becomes a full ring. A fantastic variation of the ProgressBar.
• RoundImageEx: Similar to the ImageEx control, the RoundImageEx control downloads and locally caches images asynchronously while showing loading indicators. In addition, the RoundImageEx allows images to be clipped as circles.
• ExpressionBuilder: A type-safe way to build powerful composition ExpressionAnimation.
• BluetoothLEHelper: The BluetoothLEHelper class provides functionality to easily enumerate, connect to and interact with Bluetooth LE Peripherals.

In addition, the update also packs numerous fixes for notifications, animations, controls, and Helpers. You can view all of these changes on GitHub here.

Microsoft notes that the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update has enabled a range of new APIs that can improve the controls used in apps. As such, the company has recommended users to update their to the latest version of the UWP Community Toolkit so that they can target the enhancements offered by the Creators Update.