March 2017 Summaries

Ionic has launched the Ionic Academy, a self-guided learning platform designed to educate Ionic developers with high-quality videos, written content, and sample apps, akin to Laravel's Laracasts. Initiated by community member Simon Reimler, the Academy provides resources and community features to facilitate learning and connection among developers. The platform is subscription-based to ensure sustainability and continued quality, with introductory pricing set at $19 per month or $171 annually. The initiative aims to become a central part of the Ionic learning ecosystem, supporting developers in building Ionic apps while complementing other community-led educational efforts.

In a March 23, 2017, blog post, Max Lynch, CEO of Ionic, addresses the frequent inquiries regarding unit testing in Ionic applications by introducing an official example project that incorporates unit testing using Karma and Jasmine. This initiative, developed in collaboration with community member @roblouie and inspired by contributions from @lathonez and Josh Morony, aims to facilitate developers in implementing proper unit testing practices efficiently. Additionally, there are plans to integrate unit testing capabilities directly into the Ionic CLI, enhancing the development process further. Readers are encouraged to explore the example project on GitHub and provide feedback, while also being invited to subscribe to the Ionic newsletter for updates.

Ionic Native 3.x, released by Max Lynch and the Ionic team, introduces significant enhancements for developing mobile applications with over 130 native mobile SDK features using JavaScript interfaces across major platforms, including the web. This version notably reduces the code bundle size by allowing developers to install only the necessary plugins, resulting in up to a 15% improvement in code size. It also supports full plugin mocking, enabling developers to test and build entire applications in the browser without relying on device or emulator testing, thereby increasing development speed and flexibility. However, Ionic Native 3.x does not support Ionic/Angular 1.x, requiring those users to continue with version 2.x. The team is exploring further improvements, such as facilitating work with plugins that have browser APIs, and invites feedback from users to enhance browser development capabilities.

In March 2017, the Ionic team launched an Easter Egg Hunt to promote the new v3 Beta of their Command Line Interface (CLI), inviting developers to find hidden Easter Eggs within the CLI for a chance to win prizes. The v3 Beta focused on enhancing the developer experience by significantly improving installation speed and command responsiveness, reducing installation time from 150 seconds in v2 to just 10 seconds in v3. The update also included better help documentation and interactive prompts to guide users through commands. Developers were encouraged to install the CLI, provide feedback via the project's GitHub repository, and participate in the Easter Egg Hunt, which ran until April 16, 2017.

Ionic 2.2.0 introduces significant updates, including bug fixes, support for Angular 2.4.8, and the highly anticipated Split Pane component, which enhances app responsiveness on larger screens by allowing two views. Unlike its predecessor in Ionic 1.x, the new Split Pane is more versatile, not limited to menus, and can be implemented by simply wrapping the root component with specific attributes, such as the "main" attribute for designating primary content. The Split Pane is automatically responsive, hiding until the viewport reaches a customizable breakpoint, and supports nested navigation for complex app development. This update marks a pivotal advancement for apps designed for larger devices like tablets and desktops, with further desktop support improvements underway.