Comentsys Toolkits - July 2025
Comentsys.Toolkit (1.3.0)
Comentsys.Toolkit 1.3.0 is the free .NET Standard 2.0 based open-source toolkit for Binding and Asset support initially released in September 2022, previously updated in August 2024 and now updated again in July 2025 with 1.3.0 to add support for ImageResource for use with PNG with mirrors much of the support for AssetResources which supported SVG. ImageResource supports getting the bytes or Base 64 encoded representations of a PNG and ImageBase enables creation of Image Resources using PNG format from an embedded resource as well as from an array of Bytes or from a Url so that resources don't need to be embedded in an application, for example all the Fluent Emoji have PNG versions but a NuGet package for these would be over 50MB in size.
Comentsys.Toolkit now offers more flexibility for dealing with resources such as SVG and PNG that will allow applications to work with either format when dealing with resources. An upcoming update to the Comentsys.Assets.FluentEmoji package will support loading PNG resources as an ImageResource that are stored online with just a small increase in NuGet package size enabled access to many megabytes of resources. There is also support for animated PNG resources for a subset of the Fluent Emoji as an ImageResource which would result in a NuGet package that would be gigabytes in size which wouldn't even be possible.
Comentsys.Toolkit with over 1,500 downloads since launch can be installed into any .NET Standard 2.0 compatible project such as Windows App SDK, .NET MAUI, Blazor or ASP.NET Core. This package supports from .NET Core 2.0 all the way to the latest .NET 9 for modern applications along with .NET Framework 4.6.1 to .NET Framework 4.8.1 for legacy applications. Comentsys.Toolkit source code and documentation is available on GitHub at github.com/Comentsys/Comentsys.Toolkit or get details of the NuGet package at nuget.org/packages/Comentsys.Toolkit.
Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk (2.2.0)
Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk 2.2.0 is the free Windows App SDK based open-source toolkit with Controls, Converters, Extensions and Widget functionality initially released in September 2022, previously updated in August 2024 and now updated again in July 2025 with updates to Widget functionality. There are no breaking changes but additions to make building Widgets easier including a new optional Widget Context Property that can be used determine the size of a Widget when loaded as well as other information. There is also a new IsConfigure property which is automatically set to true when trigger Customise Widget from the Widgets Board and IsActivated property is now automatically set when the Widgets Board has activated a Widget to true or deactivated a Widget to false.
Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk offers more flexibility when building Widgets including being able to support multiple Widgets more easily and reduce the amount of boilerplate code needed when creating Windows Widgets for Windows 11. Documentation for Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk has now been updated on GitHub with images of the Controls including Card, Dice, DirectionalPad, DirectionalStick, Piece and Sector which should help developers identify more easily what each Control will be like in their Windows App SDK applications.
Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk with over 1,000 downloads since launch can be installed into any Windows App SDK application and this package supports .NET 6 to the latest .NET 9 along with Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK 1.5.x or later. Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk source code and documentation is available on GitHub at github.com/Comentsys/Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk or get details of the NuGet package at nuget.org/packages/Comentsys.Toolkit.WindowsAppSdk.