Ionic Show Recap: March 2022
Hey folks! We hope you are doing well and hope you got a chance to tune in to our recent Ionic Show. In case you missed it, you can watch it below:
Want the TL;DR? Sure thing, we’ve got a nice recap of what we discussed and launched in our Ionic Show. Let’s jump into it.
Ionic Framework
We launched Ionic Framework V6 in early December 2021 and the community reception has been incredibly positive. Folks have been so excited to try out the new components like Bottom Sheet and the new DateTime component (which is obviously the best). The team has already been getting a bunch of positive feedback, exploring how we can push Ionic components even further in future releases. The team is working on the next minor release and a bunch of improvements to the documentation experience.
Web Native
The Web Native team is our team dedicated to building Capacitor and the entire ecosystem surrounding it. To kick things off, there’s a new officially maintained plugin for Google Maps! The community has been asking for this plugin since we first announced Capacitor, so we’re thrilled to ship this. This plugin is part of the OSS platform, so it will be available to everyone for free.
The Web Native team has also been working hard building out enterprise integrations. Working in logistics? Well, there’s an integration with Zebra’s DataWedge Service (sign up for our webinar to learn more). Working on an MDM/ADM solution? There’s an integration with Microsoft Intune. Basically, if there’s an enterprise-specific integration layer, you can bet that there will be a Capacitor integration.
Finally, we’ve also built a dedicated extension for Visual Studio Code! This extension not only provides all the functionality of the Capacitor CLI right in VSCode, it also provides suggestions for folks who are looking to migrate their app to Capacitor. Check out the Ionic VSCode extension here.
Portals
When we launched Portals, it definitely stood out as a different type of product for us at Ionic. For those who are unaware, Portals allow native developers to embed web content into their apps, but without losing access to native APIs. This allows developers to build out portions of their app in a micro frontend approach. Now, instead of having one monolithic native app, dedicated teams can build and maintain smaller projects and features.
We’re excited to share that Live Updates are here for Portals. With Appflow and Live Updates, you can now manage and deploy those individual pieces independently of one another.
Previously, Portals was targeted towards pure native environments. Now, we’re looking into shipping support for Portals in projects like React Native and Capacitor. This will expand the places where Portals can be used and the types of developers who would be able to participate in the app development process. In the words of Portals PM Josh Thomas… “It’s Portals all the way down.”
Appflow
Appflow is a core product at Ionic that provides CI/CD services for teams working on Ionic apps. From handling automated builds of your apps to live deploys to customers, Appflow has been essential to the success of many apps. Now we want to bring Appflow to everyone in our community, so today we are excited to announce two new plans to make Appflow more accessible to everyone: the Community and Startup plans. These plans provide the same powerful features that folks have come to know and love from Appflow, but at an accessible price point. If you want to see the new plans, check out the new plan page here.
One More Thing…
If you’re a frequent reader of the Ionic blog, you may remember a post we shared about E2E testing. This post covered how to set up E2E testing suites using tools like WebdriverIO and Appium, which allow us to run tests in the browser, on iOS, and Android. The reception of this blog post has been so positive that we wanted to take it a step further and provide an E2E testing solution right from Appflow. While we’re not ready to share more about this, we encourage folks to sign up to be notified when it ships.
Parting Words
Thank you all for checking out what we’ve been working on so far at Ionic for 2022. We’re only a few months in and it feels like we’ve shipped so much — and we still have so much more planned. We hope to see you all at Ioniconf 2022 later this year, and if you’re interested in speaking, please fill out the ioniconf CFP! There are speaking slots for 30-minute sessions as well as 10 minute lightning talks. The past two Ioniconfs have been a smash success, so join us again this year. Cheers!