DEVOPSdigest

Progress announced new tooling and capabilities for the NativeScript open source framework that enable easier, faster, native cross-platform mobile development.

The announcement includes the release of NativeScript Sidekick, a powerful companion to NativeScript that makes it faster and easier to create high-impact mobile business applications through the availability of starter templates, verified plugins, cloud builds and debugging capabilities.

It also includes the release of augmented reality support for iOS 11 and Android Oreo, the NativeScript Marketplace and verified plugins, the release of free NativeScript UI widgets, and more.

Developed and supported by Progress, NativeScript is a powerful and agile open-source framework for creating cross-platform, truly native apps with Angular, TypeScript or JavaScript. Designed to provide significant code reuse, it dramatically reduces development efforts by allowing developers to leverage their existing skills. With its adoption growing rapidly, NativeScript has enabled organizations and developers across industries to easily build high-impact native mobile user interfaces across platforms.

The newly introduced NativeScript Sidekick is a lightweight but powerful GUI client that is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It enhances the power of the NativeScript Command-Line Interface (CLI) and simplifies the entire process of developing a mobile app, resulting in faster time to market. NativeScript Sidekick is designed to be an unobtrusive companion that complements a developer's favorite code editor, IDE, source control system or other tools. Offering iOS provisioning profile/certificate generation, improved LiveSync, and a preview of Visual Studio support, NativeScript Sidekick speeds development efforts, enables higher quality apps, and maximizes existing resources.

In addition to NativeScript Sidekick, Progress has also released:

- Augmented Reality Support Preview - With NativeScript, it is possible to begin building apps for iOS and Android leveraging the latest augmented reality (AR) APIs in iOS 11 and Android Oreo. Over the coming months, the NativeScript framework will be the first to offer a true, cross-platform plugin for creating AR experiences that work on both iOS and Android.

- NativeScript Marketplace and Verified Plugins - The new NativeScript Marketplace has been created for discovering and downloading high-quality plugins for mission-critical NativeScript applications. In addition, it offers a new "verification" process for authors to help make their plugins stand out. Over time, the Marketplace will expand to include app templates, page templates and complete visual themes.

- NativeScript Playground - A new, browser-based sandbox enables developers to experiment with the NativeScript framework to build native mobile apps for iOS and Android, enabling them to get started quickly with NativeScript, without barriers or time-consuming installs.

- NativeScript UI is 100% Free - Progress has released for free, all proprietary NativeScript UI widgets, giving developers access to all of the NativeScript professional user interface components for personal and business applications.

- "The NativeScript Book" is Free - Through a partnership with the NativeScript community and offering more than 450 pages of in-depth training material, "The NativeScript Book" is available for free at nativescript.org/book,

"As the popularity of NativeScript has skyrocketed, with more than one million downloads this year alone, we've seen it evolve into something more than just an open source framework. Developers are embracing it as their choice for cross-platform mobile app development," said Todd Anglin, VP Product, Progress. "The introduction of new tools such as NativeScript Sidekick demonstrates our ability to keep in lockstep with market needs and with the latest advancements in JavaScript development. giving developers everything they need to build the mobile apps of tomorrow from a single codebase, using their existing web development skills."