Avalonia Accelerate is now available 🚀

[MikeCodesDotNET]

We’re excited to announce that Avalonia Accelerate is now available to purchase: 👉 https://avaloniaui.net/accelerate

Here's a short video of the new Dev Tools, to give you an idea of why we're so excited about it!

devtools-marketingvid-availablenow.mp4

You can read the full announcement here:
📖 https://avaloniaui.net/blog/avalonia-accelerate-phase1-released

We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

[thevortexcloud]

According to the docs, some of the controls have WPF support? Are more controls planned for WPF support? I can see the logic for doing it (since XPF is a thing), but it seems odd to me.

Also the docs are rather light on technical details. EG the web view control states it wraps the "native browser engine" but does not say what engine is used on which platforms (I am guessing Edge on Windows?). Also is there a reason CEF/some other embedded engine can't be used for Linux? I saw that binary sized was mentioned but for many people that's not an issue (after all, every Electron app is basically a full copy of Chrome anyway).

The media player similarly has no mention of what codecs are supported (or what Platforms it works on). Although it sounds like you are wrapping libvlc/a Windows library?

EDIT: Just saw the 3d dev tools. Nice to know the Firefox 3D view is making a come back!

https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/devtools-user/3d_view/index.html

[robloo]

Great work! Easy buy and look forward to trying these out in the next few weeks.

I'm also super thankful the business/enterprise licenses have a perpetual fallback!

For the WebView it would be great to know if intercepting redirect URLs from something like a NavigationStarting event was possible. I'm assuming it is as it's pretty standard for authentication needs but don't see the docs quite yet. I know all this takes time though!

Again, great work and congratulations on the release!

[maxkatz6]

Yes, NavigationStarting can be intercepted and cancelled.

[maxkatz6]

For authentication needs I would recommend WebAuthenticationBroker. Works similarly to one from UWP.

[kerams]

Is there any benefit to switching to WebAuthenticationBroker from the auth callbacks provided by Maui.Essentials?

[maxkatz6]

@kerams Maui.Essentials callbacks only work on mobile, mac-catalyst and winui 3.

WebAuthenticationBroker works on full MacOS/iOS natively, and full Windows/Linux via managed window implementation with native webview. Browser/Android are experimental though, but also supported.

[llfab]

I am sure that was very hard work. I like the general direction. Looking forward to more such tooling!

[kyuranger]

I have no objection to other points, but regarding Visual Studio Extension, I think the original Visual Studio Extension has too many bugs, and it is not appropriate to make the bug-fixed version a subscription project.

[maxkatz6]

It's a completely new extension with new XAML engine inspired by Roslyn.

[kyuranger]

All right.

[llfab]

I am happy to pay for a Rider like integration that also will be improved fast. Functions like "got to reference" from XAML to View Model will safe so much time that the extension alone for a ~100 € per year is a no brainer.

[PerfectlyFineCode]

Amazing!

I do however have one question regarding the pricing.

How come indie license is a subscription whereas business is perpetual?
The difference is only around €60. I don't see anyone ever buying indie license since it becomes significantly more expensive in the long run; to me it does not make much sense.

[MikeCodesDotNET]

We've seen more folks purchase the Indie subscription than Business. It's good to have options, and as the product offering evolves, staying subscribed makes sense to get the additional features.

[biwa]

I know Accelerate is primarily targeted at closed source developers, but it'd be nice to get some info what parts can help FOSS developers who are not in for the money.

For example the components will obviously not be usable, but what about the dev tools? Are they itegrating themself into a project that makes it impossible to build it without Accelerate? Will Reframe (planned for phase 3) just edit regular XAML files, so that someone without it can still modify the UI (and vice versa)?

[maxkatz6]

Are they itegrating themself into a project that makes it impossible to build it without Accelerate?

Developer Tools is split into two packages: AvaloniaUI.DiagnosticsSupport - integration library and AvaloniaUI.DeveloperTools.Windows - the tool (with other .MacOS and .Linux packages as well).

Both packages can be downloaded and installed without license. And AvaloniaUI.DiagnosticsSupport can be referenced on the open source projects too, without limiting who can build it.

But to actually open Developer Tools, you would need the license and Avalonia portal account.

[maxkatz6]

Will Reframe (planned for phase 3) just edit regular XAML files, so that someone without it can still modify the UI (and vice versa)?

Yes.

[VisualMelon]

Related to @biwa 's question above, what's the right way for individuals who aren't associated with a business to pay for Accelerate? I have no particular use for it at current (at work or otherwise), but as an Avalonia acolyte I'm keen to pay for it and see what it has to offer: I am stuck at the "Business Name" in the VAT section when trying to pay for an "Indie" licence as I have no relevant business association.

Realistically my (personal) use of Accelerate would be on hobby projects that have at most 10 intermittent (unpaying) users and occasional OSS stuff (i.e. debugging with dev-tools, as opposed to using the commercial controls), because I'm far too indolent to be doing anything more.

[MikeCodesDotNET]

At the moment, we’re unfortunately unable to accept purchases from individuals who aren’t associated with a business. This is due to ongoing issues with our payment processor, combined with the complexities of handling international consumer sales and tax collection. For now, Accelerate is only available to organisations with a valid tax ID.

This is a temporary situation. We’re actively working on a solution so that individual developers and hobbyists like yourself can purchase access without unnecessary hurdles. We hope it wont be long (fingers crossed only a few days) before we can turn consumer sales back on.

[MikeCodesDotNET]

@VisualMelon after speaking with our accountant, we've restarted sales for consumers 🙏

[VisualMelon]

Fantastic: I'll take another look later today/tomorrow

Edit: Wasn't expecting video playback with audio in the Visual Studio previewer: brilliant!

[homov]

Where can I find a trial version to evaluate whether this product is worth buying or not?

[MikeCodesDotNET]

We don't provide any trials of Accelerate, but you can read the docs and get a feel for if you think its worth buying.