[Future] 7.0 Release Plan

[michael-hawker]

7.0 Release Plan

Main Theme: Release focused on dependency streamlining and clean-up to make pieces of the toolkit more consumable. (Includes clean-up and prep for WinUI 3)

Secondary Themes:

• Animations and Composition-level XAML Helpers (ThemeShadow, XamlLight, DropShadow, etc...)

7.0.0-preview4 on NuGet - NOTE 7.0 of the toolkit will contain many breaking changes, preview packages may change frequently, we'll try and keep posts updated here with changes. For instance, 7.0.0-preview1 now uses DispatcherQueue over Dispatcher

The plan

7.0 Dev Branch Here make any breaking changes here (will be merged to master soon).

Milestone
Feature Board
Bug Board
 
Below is a summary of the top level plan items. These items are in addition to everything that was initially released with the preview.
 
Legend of annotations:

Symbol	Description
✋	Help Wanted
0️⃣	priority 0 - must have for this release
1️⃣	priority 1 - nice to have for this release
2️⃣	priority 2 - stretch goal - unlikely for this release but we will try our best
❕	missing issue reference
🔦	investigating

Planning/Discussions

• Finalize ColorCode Migration/Transition
• Package Names/Namespaces for WinUI Future

Technical Debt

• 0️⃣ rename master branch to main - waiting on GitHub guidance/tooling.
• 0️⃣ Spell Check (see fix some spelling #3406)
• 0️⃣ Pipeline for Sample App
• 0️⃣ Clean-up Backlog
• 0️⃣ Dependency Clean-up (see more below)
• 0️⃣ Namespace Clean-up Review namespaces and folder structure coupling #3422
• 0️⃣ Improve contribution guidance/onboarding
• 0️⃣ VS Designer Metadata Update [Feature] Update Designer Metadata to new VS2019 Model #3252 (in PR Add new 'DesignTools' projects #3318 by @Nirmal4G)
• 0️⃣ Accessibility Audit
• 0️⃣ Update ValueConverters to use UnsetValue [Clean-up] Make sure all Converters return UnsetValue #3311
• 1️⃣ Make it easier to work with Repo [Repo] Create Solution Filters or some solution for managing size of toolkit #3270
• 1️⃣ Refactor Documentation (.NET vs. UWP Specific)
• ✋ 1️⃣ 🔦 Add Mocking for Unit Tests [Tests] Investigate how we can use Moq (or similar) in Unit Tests to fake WinRT APIs #3196
• ✋ 1️⃣ Integration Testing WinUI - Test Infra #3482
• 1️⃣ Have Code Coverage in CI (not a gate though) Improve Code Coverage/Add to CI #3475
• 2️⃣ Tidy up non-active branches Tidy up non-active branches #3321
• 2️⃣ Sample App Rebuilds if no changes SampleApp rebuilds even if no changes #3332

Refactors

• 0️⃣ Toolkit XAML Islands Support finishing work Some classes do not work well on Xaml Islands. #3205 (In PR Xaml Islands Fixes. #3206 and PR Xaml Islands Fixes for FocusManager.GetFocusedElement and ContentDial… #3352 by @azchohfi)
• 0️⃣ Reduce complexity of toolkit dependencies/overhead Reduce the toolkit impact on application size #3145
  • 1️⃣ Remove Newtonsoft.Json dependency (if possible in timeframe) [Feature] Future - Use JsonSerializer with .NET 5 #3060
• 0️⃣ ❕ Move panels with minimal dependencies to their own package
  • 0️⃣ Investigate using ItemsRepeater for base of some panels
    • 0️⃣ ❕ AdaptiveGridView as Panel/Layout?
  • 1️⃣ Investigate ItemsRepeater Helpers
    • 1️⃣ Selection Helper (prototype done)
    • 1️⃣ Grouping (prototype done)
• 0️⃣ Move MarkdownTextBlock control to its own package (for ColorCode and Parsers dependency offset) [Discussion] Do we use a .NET Markdown Parser Library instead of our own? #3200
  • ✋ 1️⃣ Do we replace the Markdown Parser [Discussion] Do we use a .NET Markdown Parser Library instead of our own? #3200
• 0️⃣ ❕ Make XAML animation helpers more light-weight? (e.g. is this just things that are composition API helpers? And then Media is all Win2D stuff?)
  • 0️⃣ ❕ Integrate with @Sergio0694's Animation lib as detailed in [Feature] Integration with UICompositionAnimations #3108 (separate issue for 7.0 work to be filed)
  • 0️⃣ ❕ Move Win2D items to Media package? SurfaceLoader, Light Extension (if still needed), Saturation, Blur effects.
  • 0️⃣ ❕ Move anything with Win2D dependency to its own central package (Media?)
• 0️⃣ move OnDevice Markup to proper parent namespace: https://github.com/windows-toolkit/WindowsCommunityToolkit/blob/master/Microsoft.Toolkit.Uwp.UI/Extensions/Markup/OnDevice.cs#L9
• 0️⃣ Clean-up control styles to expose a named Default Style (otherwise it's hard to inherit properly - see TokenizingTextBox/PeoplePicker)
• 1️⃣ 🔦 Gaze helpers to C#? @azchohfi? Converted GazeInteraction project from C++ to C#. #3427
• 1️⃣ 🔦❕ Create separate Converters package?
• 1️⃣ 🔦 Create XAML based DropShadow API helper
• 1️⃣ 🔦 Centralize Behaviors or contribute to main behaviors package? [Question] Contribute Behaviors to main XAML Behaviors packages? #3061

New Features

• 0️⃣ MVVM Package [Feature] Basic MVVM primitives (.NET Standard) #3230
• 0️⃣ ColorPicker [Feature] Add a Reimagined Color Picker #3363
• 0️⃣ 🔦 More Graph Controls / Improvements
  • 0️⃣ Move middle-tier to Azure.Identity package
  • 0️⃣ Contact Card
  • 0️⃣ Generic Get Control (GraphPresenter)
• 1️⃣ 🔦 Create XAML based ThemeShadow API helper (have POC) [Feature] Shadow Receiver XAML Helpers #3122
• 1️⃣ 🔦 Create XAML Light based XAML helpers [Feature] XamlLight Composition XAML Helper #3361
• 1️⃣ Refactor GridSplitter & Add ContentSizer Redesign of GridSplitter API #2976
• ✋ 2️⃣ AdvancedCollectionView Improvements AdvancedCollectionView part deux #1128
• ✋ 2️⃣ RotatorTile OnCurrentItemChanging Event [Feature]RotatorTile OnCurrentItemChanging #2994
• ✋ 2️⃣ Gaze Input Cursor Color [Feature] Add GazeInput.SetCursorBrush method to change the default GazeCursor color #3210
• 🔔 Simplified toast notifications New Win32 toast notification helpers (no more shortcut needed!) #3457

Bugs

• 🔦 Investigate main bugs to call out we want to prioritize here above others.
• Infinite Canvas

Remove Previously Deprecated Components

• 0️⃣ Remove Platform Analyzers Remove Toolkit Platform Analyzers #3396
• 0️⃣ Menu control (replaced by WinUI's MenuBar) (In PR Remove the Menu Control #3011 by @michael-hawker) (see stop-gaps in WinUI here)
• 1️⃣ Light? Says XamlLight should replace it, but that looks more complex than what we had. See [Feature] XamlLight Composition XAML Helper #3361
• 0️⃣ TabView control (replaced by WinUI's TabView)
• 0️⃣ HeaderedTextBlock - do a search for any others we've been missing
• 0️⃣ old graph controls, have new ones in stable (do we move https://aka.ms/wgt into this repo? depends on issue [Repo] Create Solution Filters or some solution for managing size of toolkit #3270)
• 0️⃣ Facebook Service (underlying library isn't currently maintained).
• 1️⃣ RadialGradientBrush
• 1️⃣ the headeredtextblock?
• any other methods marked obsolete?

Remove upcoming Deprecated Components?

Since this is a major release, we could release note these, but should decide if we want to or not still.

• NotifyTaskCompletion?
• RssParser - System.ServiceModel.Syndication is just as easy to use and an official .NET package, we should remove this. See Doc Issue
• RadialProgressBar, WinUI 2.5 has a Determinite ProgressRing, should identify if any gaps.

Deprecate Services

Not sure if we should have a cycle to deprecate these, but they don't work currently, so may just remove?

• LinkedIn
• MicrosoftTranslator
• Twitter - See recommended .NET libraries for Twitter here
• Weibo

There's also solutions like RestSharp and Refit {.NET Foundation}, I think the biggest problem still seems like simplifying the Authentication step/process...

[ghost]

Thanks for submitting a new feature request! I've automatically added a vote reaction to help get things started. Other community members can vote to help us prioritize this feature in the future!

[ToddThomson]

@michael-hawker Is the ContentSizer control going to be part of this release?

I just learned about ( and installed ) the XAML Studio app. Great Garage project! I read that you used the ContentSizer in the app. Can you use the ContentSizer with a SplitView? I am also interested in what Editor control you used ( for line numbers, etc ). Thanks in advance!

[michael-hawker]

@ToddThomson added it to the list 😉; I may just need to take a weekend and add it in...

I haven't tried ContentSizer it with SplitView, only with Expander, so that's part of the work to do too.

The editor control is the same one we use in the toolkit sample app, it's a wrapper around the VS Code Monaco control, it's repo is here. XAML Studio just has more features built on top of it. Eventually, hopefully, I'll be able to open source XAML Studio and then re-incorporate those improvements to our sample app.

[ToddThomson]

@michael-hawker The ContentSizer would be great a great addition. Thank-you!

I am currently adding the GridSpitter to the outside columns of a 3 column panel grid (UserControl). In the XAML Studio app, your LHS NavView control can be resized when the NavPane is open ( the Sizer is collapsed when the NavPane is closed ). I am hoping that the new ContentSizer will allow me control its visibility property like you have done.

[hez2010]

Could you please DO NOT deprecate TabView?
The new TabView in WinUI is verrrrrrry ugly and its design is NOT "fluent" at all. If you use WinUI TabView in a NavigationView especially while using acrylic brush, you will find that the new TabView is completely mismatch the whole Fluent Design style.

[michael-hawker]

Thanks for the concern @hez2010, can you add your feedback and examples to the WinUI TabView vNext thread here? FYI @stmoy

We do want to make sure the WinUI control is a valid replacement for the toolkit one before we deprecate it, we know it's not quite there yet, but we hope that by the time we do 7.0 later this year, the next iteration of the WinUI TabView will be completed.

[jhwheuer]

If it is not too late yet... I am really missing a OnCropChanged event in the ImageCropper...
I would like to provide to the user a pixel dimension information about the Rect she currently crops to... All that event would have to do is fire when the crop has changed, it does not even have to transmit the new crop Rect....

[Sergio0694]

Small note as per comment in #3131: the ColorHelper.ToHex extension should be renamed ToHexString for consistency with other APIs in the Microsoft.Toolkit package.

For quick reference:

https://github.com/windows-toolkit/WindowsCommunityToolkit/blob/d85e1a7bc084bba02e83c728386269e42fd382c5/Microsoft.Toolkit.Uwp/Helpers/ColorHelper.cs#L124-L132

[ranjeshj]

Regarding feature parity of RadialProgressBar and the WinUI 2.5 ProgressRing, the only missing APIs are:

• Outline: Gets or sets the color of the circular outline on which the segment is drawn
• Thickness: Gets or sets the thickness of the circular outline and segment

Those two customization options are not yet available with the WinUI 2.5 ProgressRing. There is already a tracking issue for the color customizations, however I don't think there is a tracking issue for the thickness property. @YuliKl @ranjeshj @MarissaMatt FYI

In ProgressRing, Foreground/Background properties are tied to ring and background. We currently do not expose the thickness, but you there is the ability to swap out the entire Lottie animation (using DeterminateSource/InDeterminateSource properties). Given that level of customization is available, do we need the thickness exposed as a property ?

[MarissaMatt]

@chingucoding sorry for the delay but I created a new issue to track adding a thickness property. microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml#3293

[yoshiask]

Is 17763 going to be the final min SDK version for 7.0?

[michael-hawker]

@yoshiask Yup, 17763 (1809) is the min version we'll be using for 7.x.

[michael-hawker]

Alright, think we can close this issue, we got to a ton of things, but not everything on our original list. We'll spin up a 7.1 one soon.

Almost there. 🎉🎉🎉