NativeScript 5.40 only offers a smaller number of fixes and features than usual; but is still well worth upgrading to. It will probably be the last major 5.x release. NativeScript 6.00 is on the horizon...
The most interesting update (for me) is actually the Android V8 engine has been upgraded yet again. Android engine is now on v8 v 7.4 - which offers even faster JavaScript parsing (in some cases up to 10% faster) In addition to the engine speed ups; v8 now has better memory management and much better deadcode elimination.
So just upgrading the runtimes to 5.4 should again give you a faster android app... So it is worth it just for this alone. Nothing changed on the iOS side here...
In addition the v8 v7.4 now offers support for Private class variables; an ESNext feature that is finally shipping in v8. If you are unfamiliar with this feature, this feature is needed for keeping private variables private. 😀
class CoolClass {
iAmPublic = 1; // .iAmPublic is public variable
#iAmPrivate = 2; // .#iAmPrivate is private variable
getIAmPrivate() {
++this.#iAmPrivate;
}
}
const m = new CoolClass();
console.log("I am private now equals:", m.getIAmPrivate()); // runs OK
m.#iAmPrivate = 0; // TOTALLY FAILS!
Unfortunately, JavaScriptCore does NOT support this feature yet and the code will fail to even parse on JSC, so don't use it in any shared code. This is an Android only feature. TypeScript will soon be adding this feature, so this should become a common way of making class fields private...
Important Depreciation Notice
In version 5.2 short imports have been depreciated; I do not know when they will no longer actually work; but basically things like require("http") are no long valid; you need to do require("tns-core-modules/http"). The primary reason for this is that webpacking requires the full path; and it has problems with short imports. Please note this now becomes more critical that you handle this; NativeScript 6.00 will be 100% webpack only; meaning that if you don't fix your code it might fail to build until you do so in NativeScript 6.
Core Modules
The core modules offers the following enhancements and fixes...
Multiple iOS components have crashing issues fixed
FormattedText crashing issue fixed
Android
Upgrade to V8 7.4.288 - which offers
- Private Class Fields
- Faster JS Parsing
- Better Dead Code Elimination
Static Binding Generator fixes and enhancements
Gradle 3.40 support.
Several memory leaks fixed
v8 Symbols exportable (for native v8 extensions)
Elevation Shadow Support
iOS
Allows compiling Swift code as part of app_resources
Minor leak fixed
Unicode crash fix
Some Metadata generation fixes
CLI
HMR is now the default app typeTNS Create Plugin fixes
Better handling of CTRL-C
CocoaPod handling improved
Updating NativeScript
To get updated; you first need to do:
npm i -g nativescript@latest
That will get you the latest version of NativeScript CLI; once you have it; do a "tns --version" and verify it prints out "5.4.x". Then do a "tns doctor" to verify your environment is up to date and has all the newest support tools you need for a successful build.
To update a project; you need to do the following:
Latest Runtimes:
tns platform remove android && tns platform add android@latest
tns platform remove ios && tns platform add ios@latest
Latest Core modules:
npm r tns-core-modules --save
npm i tns-core-modules@latest --save
To install Webpack & HMR support:
npm i nativescript-dev-webpack@latest --save-dev
Note: you need to have nativescript-dev-webpack as a development dependency for HMR to work.
To install latest NativeScript Angular plugin
npm i nativescript-angular@latest --save
You will then need to install the actual angular bits; which as of this post v6 is currently supported.
The addition of all the additional analytics/tracking to the CLI reminded me; you can disable it permanently; if you value your privacy by doing:
tns usage-reporting disable && tns error-reporting disable
Known issues
- HMR has some issues especially with pure Javascript NativeScript-Core applications. See http://fluentreports.com/blog/?p=935 for information and how to switch back to Legacy mode.