News

Low-Code Windows Template Studio 3.0 Ships

Microsoft shipped Windows Template Studio 3.0, a milestone update of the open source, wizard-driven Visual Studio 2017 extension for coding Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications.

Available in the Visual Studio Marketplace, Windows Template Studio has been downloaded more than 720,000 times by developers favoring the low-code approach to create UWP projects that are well-formed and feature readable code incorporating the latest Windows 10 features while following proven patterns and best practices.

With Windows Template Studio, that approach involves selecting: a prebuilt UWP project type (navigation pane, pivot and tabs, and so on); design pattern; a prebuilt page of different types (Master/Detail, Web View, and so on); and additional features before building and running the project with a click.

The dev team's Clint Rutkas announced the 3.0 release today (Jan. 31) in a blog post, in which he listed the following "what's new" items:

  • Code now generates as a multi-project solution. This will enable better reuse and separation of code logic. This now will output a UWP project and .NET Core project.
  • Support adding new projects on right-click
  • Horizontal Navigation View is replaced the Pivot navigation pattern
  • Update MVVMLight to use .NET Standard library
  • Bug fixes

Going forward, future builds will include:

  • Menubar navigation pattern template (ETA is v3.1)
  • Identity Login (ETA is v3.1)
  • Improved Visual Studio 2019 support
  • Azure features starting to be added in (v3.1 and beyond)
  • Unit Test projects

"With partnership with the community, we've continue cranking out and iterating new features and functionality," Rutkas concluded. "We're always looking for additional people to help out and if you're interested, please head to our GitHub at https://aka.ms/wts. If you have an idea or feature request, please make the request!

All of the changes in the new release are detailed in the project's GitHub site changelog.

About the Author

David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.

comments powered by Disqus

Featured

  • Mastering Blazor Authentication and Authorization

    At the Visual Studio Live! @ Microsoft HQ developer conference set for August, Rockford Lhotka will explain the ins and outs of authentication across Blazor Server, WebAssembly, and .NET MAUI Hybrid apps, and show how to use identity and claims to customize application behavior through fine-grained authorization.

  • Linear Support Vector Regression from Scratch Using C# with Evolutionary Training

    Dr. James McCaffrey from Microsoft Research presents a complete end-to-end demonstration of the linear support vector regression (linear SVR) technique, where the goal is to predict a single numeric value. A linear SVR model uses an unusual error/loss function and cannot be trained using standard simple techniques, and so evolutionary optimization training is used.

  • Low-Code Report Says AI Will Enhance, Not Replace DIY Dev Tools

    Along with replacing software developers and possibly killing humanity, advanced AI is seen by many as a death knell for the do-it-yourself, low-code/no-code tooling industry, but a new report belies that notion.

  • Vibe Coding with Latest Visual Studio Preview

    Microsoft's latest Visual Studio preview facilitates "vibe coding," where developers mainly use GitHub Copilot AI to do all the programming in accordance with spoken or typed instructions.

  • Steve Sanderson Previews AI App Dev: Small Models, Agents and a Blazor Voice Assistant

    Blazor creator Steve Sanderson presented a keynote at the recent NDC London 2025 conference where he previewed the future of .NET application development with smaller AI models and autonomous agents, along with showcasing a new Blazor voice assistant project demonstrating cutting-edge functionality.

Most   Popular

Subscribe on YouTube