NativeScript 8.0 shines on Apple M1, Webpack

Latest release of the JavaScript framework for mobile app development also adds new CSS capabilities and plug-ins for ESLint, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

Editor at Large, InfoWorld |

NativeScript 8.0 shines on Apple M1, Webpack, CSS — Thinkstock

Version 8.0 of NativeScript, a framework for developing native mobile apps using JavaScript, adds support for Apple M1 systems and the Webpack 5 module bundler.

With the addition of Apple M1 backing, NativeScript accommodates Apple’s new system-on-a-chip (SoC) technology. The Apple M1 is Apple’s own SoC for the Mac. Designed to replace Intel processors, it debuted in November 2020.

Webpack 5 was released in October 2020, focusing on areas such as improving performance through persistent caching and improving compatibility with the web platform. NativeScript 8.0 enables simpler configuration for Webpack.

Unveiled March 31, NativeScript 8.0 also offers these new capabilities and improvements:

Support for CSS box-shadow, for adding shadow effects around an element’s frame, and for CSS text-shadow, to add shadows to text.
<RootLayout> is a new layout container extending from GridLayout and offering APIs for dynamic view creation and layering.
The @nativescript/debug-ios package adds debugging tools to an iOS app.
Plug-ins for Apple Pay and Google Pay.
A hidden binding property is featured for more performance dialing cases.
A NativeScript Best Practices Guide.
An ESLint plug-in provides rules for the using the ESLint linting tool for JavaScript with NativeScript.

To update to NativeScript 8, developers can use NPM:

npm i -g nativescript 
ns migrate

With NativeScript, native APIs for iOS and Android can be accessed via JavaScript. Developed by Progress Software, NativeScript became an OpenJS Foundation project in December 2020.

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Paul Krill is an editor at large at InfoWorld, whose coverage focuses on application development.