Universal Windows Platform (UWP) Community Toolkit

Microsoft's Windows developer community has come together to create a new resource that will help other developers with their UWP apps and give them a forum to collaborate with each other. This toolkit supplements the Software Developer Kit from Microsoft and provides a collection of helper functions, custom controls and app services.

Richard Hay, Senior Content Producer

August 18, 2016

2 Min Read
Universal Windows Platform (UWP) Community Toolkit

Microsoft's Windows developer community has come together to create a new resource that will help other developers with their UWP apps and give them a forum to collaborate with each other. This toolkit supplements the Software Developer Kit (SDK) from Microsoft and has been created by developers for developers.

The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) Community Toolkit came about to help developers build their apps with these three goals in mind:

  • Simplified app development by providing a collection of helper functions, custom controls and app services that can be used on new UWP apps.

  • Open-Source so that the community can build it out and freely use it in their own apps.

  • Aligned with the Windows SDK so that community can provide feedback to implement changes in future versions of the SDK.

This is the initial release of the UWP Community Toolkit, version 1.0, and it can be used with existing apps written in C# or VB.NET.

"Our goal is to support the latest and previous stable release of the SDK and at this time, the toolkit is compatible with apps developed with Windows 10 SDK Build 10586 or above. The toolkit 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."

The UWP Community Toolkit is hosted on GitHub which is where you can provide feedback and contribute to the project.

In addition, the team has released the UWP Community Toolkit Sample App to the Windows Store and it shows you how the various helper functions, custom controls and app services from the toolkit work.

You can check out the roadmap for this toolkit and see where this open source project is headed with its next release.

But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.

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About the Author

Richard Hay

Senior Content Producer, IT Pro Today (Informa Tech)

I served for 29 plus years in the U.S. Navy and retired as a Master Chief Petty Officer in November 2011. My work background in the Navy was telecommunications related so my hobby of computers fit well with what I did for the Navy. I consider myself a tech geek and enjoy most things in that arena.

My first website – AnotherWin95.com – came online in 1995. Back then I used GeoCities Web Hosting for it and WindowsObserver.com is the result of the work I have done on that site since 1995.

In January 2010 my community contributions were recognized by Microsoft when I received my first Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for the Windows Operating System. Since then I have been renewed as a Microsoft MVP each subsequent year since that initial award. I am also a member of the inaugural group of Windows Insider MVPs which began in 2016.

I previously hosted the Observed Tech PODCAST for 10 years and 317 episodes and now host a new podcast called Faith, Tech, and Space. 

I began contributing to Penton Technology websites in January 2015 and in April 2017 I was hired as the Senior Content Producer for Penton Technology which is now Informa Tech. In that role, I contribute to ITPro Today and cover operating systems, enterprise technology, and productivity.

https://twitter.com/winobs

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