RNW supports WinAppSDK – Phase 1 “Experimental”

[AgneLukoseviciute]

Building on top of #9599, this issue tracks the set of sub-issues that are required before RNW support for WinAppSDK is said to be in Experimental.

Overall, the goal here is to demonstrate that mixing WinAppSDK and RNW in C++ is possible. But without the general tool chain you might expect (CLI project creation, modules, and such). This enables customers who are willing to "brute force" past those sorts of gaps to get started.

Phase 0 | Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Phase 3 | Phase 4

Estimated Schedule

gantt
    section WinAppSDK
    Phase 0 "Prototype" :done, phase0, 2022-01-01, 2022-03-21
    Phase 1 "Experimental" :active, phase1, 2022-03-28, 53d
    9143 : phase1a, 2022-03-28, 9d
    8132 pt.1 : phase1b, after phase1a, 12d
    8166 : phase1c, after phase1b, 17d
    8132 pt.2 : phase1d, after phase1c, 15d
    Phase 2 "Preview": phase2, after phase1, 22d
    Phase 3 "Stable"  : phase3, after phase2, 40d
    Phase 4 "Default"  : phase4, after phase3, 26d

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Phase 1 "Experimental"

• Release builds of Reunion apps should bundle #8116
• Support for C++ WinAppSDK apps (CLI template) #8132
• Create sample C++ app for winappsdk #9143

[jonthysell]

@AgneLukoseviciute If the individual items for this won't be ready for 0.69, go ahead and move the milestone to 0.70.

[chrisglein]

Back in late 2021 / early 2022 we started a WinAppSDK new app template based on understanding of WinAppSDK at the time. And then came Fabric and impact on our overall strategy for how to handle Win32/WinAppSDK. As such these original plans don't make as much sense and we'll be closing them as Not Planned. That's not in any way to say RNW isn't going to support WinAppSDK, we're just doing it differently! Track our Fabric progress for details on the new app template and how that'll be compatible with WinAppSDK.