Update on WinAppDriver

[kat-y]

Thank you all for your patience, we hear your frustration at the lack of updates on the future of WinAppDriver. In November 2020 we mentioned that development would be paused for at least 6 months. We don’t have a timeframe of when the level of resourcing for WinAppDriver will change as our team is currently focusing on making a great platform for the future of Windows 11 apps – when there is confidence in a timeframe, we’ll definitely share it with you.

We are committed to bringing critical improvements for WinAppDriver to keep pace with other developments in the platform, so it can continue to be used alongside our other advancing technologies. One such improvement is ARM64 support in WinAppDriver v1.3 to ensure alignment with the Windows App SDK. Please feel free to contact me with any further questions or concerns!

[pradeipp]

Hi @kat-y Thank you for the updates, this really helps boost our morale and continue using WinAppDriver. Here are my questions:

1. Any updates on whether the project might go open source? or any intentions to?
2. The new build is expected to have issues(due to the shift to .net 5 and also the new platform-specific builds) so how are you planning the testing? I believe @DHowett is the sole resource in WinAppDriver at the moment...
3. And I believe there won't be a hard 6 months gap this time?

Thanks once again and hope to see frequent updates. Cheers 😊

[mrlacey]

our team is currently focusing on making a great platform for the future of Windows 11 apps

I hope we can look forward to a time when the team displays an interest in helping developers ensure their Windows 11 apps are well tested too.

[fforjan]

@kat-y there is simple PR pending from the community like #1539 or #1058

Although I understand you do not want to work heavily on this, could you open and accept some community items like the one previously set ?

[Wolfe1]

@fforjan @kat-y Agreed, at least the PR section should be looked at for now in order to capture any effort the community has done to improve documentation and such.

I have been trying to get some samples added for RobotFramework for over a year now #1148

[SnowISmirnov]

Please have a look to #1556. It is not possible to launch new version of WinAppDriver with Appium

[steffen-wilke]

If only I had a penny for every great developer tool that has been stalled due to "more pressing features" 😄. Looking forward to more updates on this repository hope this gets some priority and the community contributions are processed.

[liljohnak]

@DHowett @kat-y This seems like it needs to be adressed.
Please evaluate: #1610

[Wolfe1]

Agreed #1610 needs to be a top priority in order to stay in line with latest Appium.

[andrisi]

@kat-y this explanation (after 6 months) and the previous ones sound like coming from a cash strapped early stage startup, not a billion dollar company. FFS, hire a few developers and get things moving, this is a critical piece of software! Have a look at the great progress, documentation & perfect developer-relations at the https://playwright.dev/ team, also at Microsoft. When you abandon software like this you make developers disillusioned with native Windows apps, and thus moving to develop using other tools. Remember this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhh_GeBPOhs

[andrisi]

FYI: microsoft/playwright#10291 - perhaps the two teams could join forces?