Microsoft has announced a new update for its new UWP development tool, launching Windows Template Studio 1.3. The latest version of the tool focuses on adding several new features, improving general accessibility, and more. In its release notes, Microsoft also discusses its plans for the service moving forwards.
Launched in May, Windows Template Studio is a new service specifically for developers of Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. Dev’s can create new applications more easily thanks to a wizard that guides them.
The open source tool highlights pages, frameworks, and features through a four-step process. UWP apps can be created more quickly and efficiently. Microsoft developed the Template Studio as an evolution of Windows App Studio.
With version 1.3 of the studio, Microsoft has added a new scheme to launch apps. Additionally, a default Windows theme has been added to the template, while accessibility has been “drastically improved”.
Microsoft has not said specifically what changes have been made and how users will notice the difference. If you are a developer, let us know how Windows Template Studio 1.3 is performing compared to before.
In its announcement, the company also discussed its future plans for the service. Microsoft expects to add Fluent Design to the template in a future build. You may remember this is the company’s modern design language for the Windows 10 ecosystem.
Also coming soon are Ink templates, Visual Basic support, and localization in the wizard. As for the current build, these are the changes being made through version 1.3:
Changelog
New Feature:
- Scheme to launch app (aka myAwesomeApp://myDeepLinksIntoMyApp?foo=bar)
Template improvements:
- Default Windows theme support added to template
- Files are now UTF-8 with BOM to make sure all cultures are supported
- Accessibility support in templates
Improvements to the Wizard:
- Accessibility support in Wizard drastically improved
- Lots of under the hood bug fixes and code improvements
- All needed parts for localization are built-in now (looks like we missed window to get actual localized files)
- Initial VB engine work was added in.
- Bug fixes
Process improvements:
- StyleCop enforcements across Template and Wizard code bases
- Appveyor added for pull requests to be sure we have proper continuous integration checks
- Required work for .NET Foundation
