Microsoft announce open-source UWP Community Toolkit to make UWP app development easier

2 min. read

Published on August 17, 2016

published on August 17, 2016

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Microsoft today released a new open-source UWP Community Toolkit that simplifies app development by including new capabilities (helper functions, custom controls and app services) that simplify or demonstrate common developer tasks. In many cases developers will be able to get started with just one line of code.

The toolkit will be developed as an open-source project and will invite contributions from the .NET developer community, with feedback from the community to be reflected in future versions of the Windows SDK for Windows 10.

The toolkit can be used by any new or existing UWP application written in C# or VB.NET and can be used to build UWP apps for any Windows 10 device, including PC, Mobile, XBOX, IoT and HoloLens. You can also use the toolkit with an existing desktop app converted to UWP using the Desktop Bridge.

Microsoft also releasing the UWP Community Toolkit Sample App in the Windows Store that makes it easy to preview the toolkit capabilities even before installing the tools or downloading the SDK. The app will also allow developers to easily copy & paste the code they will need to get started.

In the future, Microsoft plans to release stable updates through the Visual Studio NuGet package at a regular cadence.

To get started read more at Microsoft here and see the sample app below.

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