WinJS 4.0 Now a Preview -- Visual Studio Magazine

WinJS 4.0 Now a Preview

Newest version of Windows Library for JavaScript improves on cross-browser-enabled features and aims for improved compatibility with Windows 10 look and feel.

By Michael Domingo
04/01/2015

Microsoft has released a new version of its Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS) into preview that is focused on beefing up its feature set. This version looks to improve on many of the cross-browser-enabled features, as well as improved compatibility with Windows 10 features.

WinJS is a cross-platform JavaScript library for building apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Microsoft announced it nearly a year ago, at its Build 2014 conference. At that time, WinJS was an open sourced project under the Apache 2.0 license.

The last time Microsoft updated WinJS was the version 3.0 release in September 2014. That version "focused on ensuring cross-browser compatibility," according to a note on the Windows blog. Version 4.0, currently in preview, is focused on the following:

Universal experiences: UI controls will scale or translate among various devices without having to go through signifcant rewrites.
Addition of controls: ContentDialog, SplitView, AutoSuggestBox and ToolBar controls are now available; Hub and Pivot controls and other controls are updated.
AngularJS Support: An AngularJS-WinJS wrapper allows WinJS-originated code to be used in AngularJS projects.
ListView Improvements: "ListView is a signature control for WinJS," according to the Windows blog. As such, its capabilities have been streamlined to work almost identically from mouse- to touch-enable device: multi-selection, lists in alternating stripes, progressive loading of elements in a list, to name a few.

Improvements with ListView is just one of several that are part of the Windows 10 look-and-feel improvements. A full list of those features, as well as the WinJS 4.0 preview itself, can be downloaded from GitHub.

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