The Windows Library for JavaScript (abbreviated as WinJS) is an

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JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. It has been designed with the primary goal of easing development of

Windows Store app Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps (formerly named Windows Store apps, Metro-style apps and Modern apps) are applications that can be used across all compatible Microsoft Windows devices. They are primarily purchased and downloaded via the ...

s for

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and

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, as well as Windows Phone apps for Windows Phone 8.1,

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and

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applications using

HTML5 HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5) is a markup language used for structuring and presenting hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. It was the fifth and final major HTML version that is now a retired World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend ...

and

, as an alternative to using WinRT XAML and C#, VB.NET or C++ ( CX). WinJS started as a technology that was specific to

s, but has evolved to aim at working in any

Web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

. In April 2014, during the

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developer conference, WinJS was released under the

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to port it to other than Microsoft platforms. A site dedicated to demonstrating the library has also been published. Future development on WinJS is focused on maintaining what currently exists in the project. There are no plans for new features or feature requests, meaning no plans for a new feature release. However, the WinJS repository hasn't had a new commit since 2020.

Overview

WinJS provides helpers that facilitate the development of

s using

and

. The library consists of modules and functions that expose the

Windows Runtime Windows Runtime (WinRT) is a platform-agnostic component and application architecture first introduced in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 in 2012. It is implemented in C++ and officially supports development in C++ (via C++/WinRT, C++/CX ...

in a way that is consistent with JavaScript coding conventions. WinJS makes it possible to add Windows UI controls in

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

. This is accompanied by support for

data binding In computer programming, data-binding is a general technique that binds data sources from the provider and consumer together and synchronizes them. This is usually done with two data/information sources with different languages, as in XML data bin ...

and a template engine. Other JavaScript frameworks, such as JQuery, can work side-by-side with WinJS. The library comes with additional declaration files for a rich developer experience using

TypeScript TypeScript (abbreviated as TS) is a high-level programming language that adds static typing with optional type annotations to JavaScript. It is designed for developing large applications and transpiles to JavaScript. It is developed by Micr ...

, a strict superset of

with annotations. TypeScript enables for code completion and refactoring while maintaining compatibility with JavaScript.

Features

* UI controls with fundamental support for touch, mouse and keyboard. *

Scaffolding Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other human-made structures. Scaffolds are widely u ...

Version history

WinJS 1.0

The first version of WinJS. It was released with

WinJS 2.0

WinJS was released as open-source software under the Apache License on GitHub by popular demand. The project aimed at cross-platform and browser compatibility. The following distributions are derived from WinJS 2.0: * WinJS 2.0 for Windows 8.1 * WinJS Xbox 1.0 for Windows * WinJS Phone 2.1 for Windows Phone 8.1

WinJS 3.0

WinJS 3.0 was released in September, 2014 with special focus on: * Cross-browser/cross-platform support spanning the most popular desktop and mobile browsers, as well as HTML-based app environments like

Apache Cordova Apache Cordova (formerly PhoneGap) is a mobile application development framework created by Nitobi. Adobe Systems purchased Nitobi in 2011, rebranded it as PhoneGap, and later released an open-source version of the software called Apache Cordova. ...

* JavaScript modularization giving developers the control to optimize their performance and load just the modules of the WinJS library they need for their Web site or app * Improved universal control designs

WinJS 4.0

A preview of WinJS 4.0 was announced on March 27, 2015, and the full release was announced on June 8.

References

:* :*

External links

Developing Windows Store apps (HTML)

WinJS Namespace

WinJS Playground

WinJS
project on

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{{Microsoft FOSS JavaScript libraries Microsoft application programming interfaces Microsoft free software Software using the Apache license Windows 8 Windows Phone Windows technology 2012 software