WinJS
WinJS is a JavaScript library developed by Microsoft. It has been designed to ease development of Windows Store apps for Windows 8 using HTML5 and JavaScript, as an alternative to using XAML and C#, VB.NET or C++ (CX).
Overview
WinJS provides helpers that facilitate the development of Windows Store apps using HTML5 and JavaScript. The library consists of modules and functions that expose the Windows Runtime in a way that is consistent with JavaScript coding conventions. WinJS makes it possible to add Windows UI controls in HTML. This is accompanied by support for data binding and a template engine.
Other JavaScript frameworks, such as JQuery, can work side-by-side with WinJS.
TypeScript support
- See also: TypeScript
The library comes with additional declaration files for a rich developer experience using TypeScript, a strict superset of JavaScript with annotations. TypeScript enables for code completion and refactoring while maintaining compatibility with JavaScript.
Other platforms
WinJS is a technology that is specific to Windows Store apps. It is not intended to and does not work in an ordinary web browser.
Windows Phone
- See also: Windows Phone
WinJS is as of yet not supported on the Windows Phone 8 platform. However, leaks of the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 Software development kit (SDK) has shown to include project templates for Windows Runtime XAML apps along with project templates for developing JavaScript apps using WinJS.