Huawei DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 Has Been Released (With 6 Major Updates)

HUAWEI DevEco Studio is for Huawei terminal equipment of the whole scene more than a one-stop integrated development environment (IDE), to provide engineering templates for developers to create, develop, compile, debug, test, Release, and other E2E HarmonyOS application development services. Using DevEco Studio, developers can develop applications with HarmonyOS distributed capabilities more efficiently, thereby improving innovation efficiency. HUAWEI DevEco Studio 2.0 Beta 3 released. After two months, HUAWEI DevEco Studio and the 2.1 Beta 2 version came together again. What surprises can the new version bring to developers? The following will reveal the secrets one by one for you.

Mac version complete Java UI preview

In developing HarmonyOS applications, developers can view the UI interface’s display effect through the previewer function provided by DevEco Studio. DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 (Windows+Mac version) has supported the preview of the Java UI interface and the JS UI interface with the upgrade of the performance.

DevEco Studio, 2.1 Beta 2 (Windows+Mac version) for JS applications, supports six device types: mobile phones, tablets, smart screens, smart wearables, lightweight smart wearables, and smart vision; for Java applications; it supports mobile phones, tablets, and cars, Smart screens and smart wearable devices.

Regarding the JS UI layout, developers can dynamically preview in real-time in the previewer after writing the code in HML/CSS/JS. The UI display effect is the same as when the application is running on a real machine.

For Java UI layout, developers can experience dynamic preview when previewing AbilitySlice.java or Ability.java file and preview XML layout file to share real-time preview.

Annotation

Real-time preview: After modifying the UI file, you can view the UI display effect in real-time in the previewer.

Dynamic preview: In the preview interface, interactive operations such as click events and sliding can be performed.

The development of distributed applications must also meet screen resolution requirements, shape, and size of different devices. To facilitate developers to view the UI layout and interaction effects of the application on other devices during the application development process, DevEco Studio provides a cross-device preview function. But it’s worth noting that if the two devices support other encoding languages, you cannot use the cross-device preview function. For example, the Java language Phone application does not support Lite Wearable because Lite Wearable does not support Java language.

Added 5 mobile phone project templates

DevEco Studio supports mobile phones (Phone), tablets (Tablet), car machines (Car), smart screen (TV), smart wearable (Wearable), lightweight smart wearable (Lite Wearable), and smart vision (Smart vision). Vision) HarmonyOS application development for seven devices, supporting Java, JS, and C/C++ programming languages. DevEco Studio 2.0 provides Ability templates for multiple device types and different development languages to facilitate developers’ use. DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 adds 5 new phone project templates on the original basis. Developers can select appropriate templates according to the project wizard, easily create projects suitable for various devices, and automatically generate corresponding Code and resource templates.

Visualization of debugging variables for JS and C/C++

Aiming at pain points such as extended code processing flow and profound error concealment, DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 uses Plain (tree), Line (line graph), Bar (bar graph), and Table during JS or C/C++ code debugging. (Table) etc., quickly display the data structure, data continuous change curve, and the relationship between the data during the debugging process, and provide functions such as query filtering and sorting of the visual data, which is convenient for developers to locate problems intuitively, quickly, and effectively.

Provide application security testing services

By integrating the HUAWEI DevEco Services cloud service platform’s capabilities, DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 provides application security testing services for HarmonyOS applications. Currently, it mainly supports two functions: vulnerability testing and privacy testing. For each test task, the test is fully automated without manual intervention. Professional and detailed test reports are issued quickly to detect and identify possible security issues in the application development process in advance. The developed HarmonyOS application can better meet the application shelf requirements of the market.

Vulnerability testing: Through the HarmonyOS application life cycle modelling and application attack surface modelling, static data flow analysis technology improves vulnerability discovery accuracy while covering more than 20 attack surfaces and 65 + vulnerability test items to help developers advance Discover and identify potential vulnerabilities. The vulnerability detection report will give each exposure risk item straightforward repair suggestions to help developers quickly repair vulnerabilities. The vulnerability testing service supports Java applications, and the package format includes Hap/App.Privacy detection: By dynamically detecting and analyzing the privacy-sensitive behaviour of the application running on the device, it helps developers to troubleshoot the malicious behaviour of the application and build a pure and green HarmonyOS application. The privacy test supports 17 + detections, including detection of obtaining geographic location information, detection of getting device identification, detection of obtaining address book information, detection of obtaining system information, etc. The privacy test service currently supports Java applications for TV devices, and the package format includes Hap/App.

Provide application automation testing services

In addition to application security testing services, DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 also adds application automation testing services, including application compatibility, stability, and performance testing, to detect possible applications in the entire life cycle of installation, startup, operation, and uninstallation. The problem, check the application quality in all directions.

Compatibility test: Mainly verify the compatibility issues of the HarmonyOS application running on Huawei’s real device, including the first installation, reinstallation, startup, uninstallation, crash, black and white screen, flashback, operation error, failure to rollback, and top ten UI abnormalities Abnormal scene. Compatibility testing supports Java/JS applications for TV and Lite Wearable devices. The package format supported by TV is Hap/App; the package format supported by LiteWearable is App.

Stability test: Mainly verify the stability issues of the HarmonyOS application running on Huawei’s real device, including crash/application freeze screen, memory leak, and memory stepping. The stability test supports Java/JS applications of TV devices, and the package format includes Hap/App.

Performance test: Mainly verify the performance problems of the HarmonyOS application running on Huawei’s real device, including startup time, interface display, CPU usage, and memory usage. The performance test supports Java/JS applications of TV devices, and the package format includes Hap/App.

Enhanced editor capabilities

Development and application are like building a house. Many factors determine the quality of a home, but the foundation is one of the important factors. If the foundation is not laid, building a home will become much more cumbersome and complicated. The editor is to the development tool as the foundation is to the house. A good editor can make developers do more with less. DevEco Studio supports HarmonyOS applications in multiple languages, including Java, JS, and C/C++.

For the C/C++ editor, DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta2 has made four enhancements:

1. Enhanced code completion function. In the writing application stage, the editor will analyze the context and understand the content of the project. According to the content entered by the developer, it will prompt the developer to complete the names of classes, methods, fields, and keywords, which greatly improves the coding efficiency.
2. For the names and variables of the macro definition and the preprocessing path and prefix, developers are supported to customize the colour of their code highlighting so that developers can distinguish different codes by colour.
3. Support function jump from definition to the declaration. When the code realizes the jump, the listed results will be distinguished by file name and display critical code information.
4. Supports viewing of documents of display types, methods, functions, parameters, etc., which is convenient for developers to read the code.

For the JS editor, Huawei DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 has made three optimizations:

1. The code completion function is enhanced, manifested in import optimization, suffix completion, and enhancement of annotation capabilities.
2. Code syntax enhancement: support ES6 syntax, Emmet syntax, and Media Queries conditional rules to automatically complete.
3. Code checking enhancement: duplicate variable and unused variable checking; automatic strikethrough display of referenced obsolete symbols, obsolete symbols can be marked by @deprecated in JS doc comments; support spell check of JS, HTML, CSS code, etc.

For the XML editor, Huawei DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 has made two enhancements:

1. For the resources in the predefined Json/XML, it can dynamically associate and jump in real-time.
2. The XML layout file uses the <databind> tag to realize the dynamic data binding function between java and XML.

DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 can modify the references in the config.json configuration file for the Java editor when reconstructing the project directory structure or Java class names. After many optimizations, the editor function of DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 is becoming more and more perfect. The majority of developers can improve coding efficiency by mastering various code writing skills during the application phase.

Read Also: Huawei EMUI 11.1 Based On Harmony OS May Launch In March 2021

In addition to the above six functions, DevEco Studio 2.1 Beta 2 also solves three major user pain points:

1.  Solved the problem of slow Gradle download during project synchronization. The new version integrates the Gradle tool to no more prolonged need to download the Gradle tool separately.
2. Added to view the preview log, you can view the log information during the preview process and support the switch between Chinese and English.
3. Solved the problem that the simulator does not support the display of the WebView control.