Microsoft has just released the next major update for UWP Community Toolkit with version 1.5. This update also updates all packages to version 1.5 and brings great improvements and stability to the existing controls and services.
To highlight a few of the new additions, the UWP Community Toolkit now includes:
- 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: An 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.
Microsoft is encouraging all developers (using the toolkit) to update their apps to the latest version of the UWP Community Toolkit.
To recap, the UWP Community Toolkit is a collection of helper functions, custom controls, and app services that can be used in any UWP app across PC, Xbox One, mobile, HoloLens and Surface Hub devices. You can get started by following this tutorial or preview the latest features by installing the UWP Community Toolkit Sample App from the Windows Store.
For a complete overview of what’s new in version 1.5, check out the release notes on GitHub.
