14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has made available for download an updated version of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Toolkit, bringing to the table new features and bug fixes. The WPF Toolkit February 2010 Release is up for grabs on CodePlex, the Redmond company’s repository for open source projects. As is the case with a plethora of Microsoft projects on CodePlex, the WPF Toolkit is offered to developers under Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL), which is an open source license. In this context, devs can access not only the binaries for the WPF Toolkit but also the actual source code. Of course, all contributions to the projects are welcome.
“In addition to a variety of bug fixes for DataGrid, DatePicker, Calendar, and Visual State Manager, this release also includes the latest changes to the Data Visualization assembly for Silverlight and WPF, bringing the official WPF implementation up to date with the November 2009 release of the Silverlight Toolkit. And because sharing the Silverlight Toolkit's Data Visualization assembly with WPF Toolkit customers has worked out so well, this release of the WPF Toolkit introduces three other controls from the Silverlight Toolkit: AutoCompleteBox (SDK documentation), Accordion, and Rating,” revealed a member of the Developer Division at Microsoft.
The WPF Toolkit February 2010 Release is designed for developers that plan to build applications by leveraging the version of Windows Presentation Foundation in .Net Framework 3.5. Early adopters of .NET Framework 4 that have also used the Toolkit in the past already know that a new variant of the resource is not available for .NET 4. This is because Microsoft has worked to include the vast majority of the controls in the WPF Toolkit into the .NET Framework 4 itself.
“The WPF Toolkit is a collection of WPF features and components that are being made available outside of the normal .NET Framework ship cycle. The WPF Toolkit not only allows users to get new functionality more quickly, but allows an efficient means for giving feedback to the product team. Many of the features will be released with full source code as well,” reads an excerpt of the Toolkit’s description.
The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Toolkit is available for download here. .NET Framework 4 Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.