JetBrains has released Compose Multiplatform 1.6.0, an upgrade to the company’s declarative UI framework that introduces a UI testing API and improves the common resources API. Compose Multiplatform allows developers to build UIs for Android, iOS, desktop, and web from a shared code base.
Compose Multiplatform 1.6.0 was unveiled on February 28. Instructions for getting started with Compose Multiplatform can be found at jetbrains.com.
The update features a common API for UI testing. This experimental API allows developers to write common UI tests that validate the behavior of an application’s user interface across platforms supported by the framework. For example, developers might want to ensure that a custom component correctly shows an informative string with the proper prefix. The new version of Compose Multiplatform lets developers use UI tests to validate that the component does correctly prefix the text when rendered, JetBrains said.
Compose Multiplatform 1.6.0 also brings improvements to the common resources API for sharing and accessing resources in common Kotlin code. This API now lets developers access more types of resources in Compose Multiplatform applications. Compose Multiplatform now generates type-safe accessors for images, fonts, and strings, and allows developers to provision variations of the same resources for different use cases including locale, scene density, or theme.
With version 1.6.0, Compose Multiplatform for iOS now allows people with disabilities to interact with the Compose UI using the same gestures the native UIs for navigation and interaction. And screen readers and VoiceOver can access the content of the Multiplatform UI.