Marking the fourth birthday of Bootstrap, the alpha version 6 comes bundled with awesome features.

We all know Bootstrap is the best responsive framework as it is mobile friendly. Jumping ahead, an equally awaited version, Bootstrap 4

is here (though in alpha stage)! No heavy coding, just use the Bootstrap CDN and Bootstrap update is part of your website. Bootstrap latest update is packed with great features.

 

Bootstrap 4 | Beta Version: The latest release!

Bootstrap just released their latest beta version and it is said to be one of the most awaited versions of all times.This Beta update has arrived 7 months after the previous release i.e. Alpha 6 in Jan 2017.

It has rather shaped up the alpha version and provided significant bug fixes to enhance the user’s experience. This two-year long hustle by the Bootstrap team has brought a plethora of changes. But if you are living under a rock, and completely unaware of them, you can further go through the enlisted key highlights of the latest Bootstrap beta version mentioned below.

 

Features: Under the HUD!

• Bootstrap has become a part of the larger Sass community now.
• Almost everything is flex based; especially targeting mobile audience now.
• A completely different component, CARDS, has been introduced. These are merely a replacement of thumbnails, wells, and old panels. These act as content containers.
• They’ve let bygones be bygones and thus, they’ve cut loose with the age-old browser versions.
• Pixels have been bartered for rems
• Normalize.css and all HTML resets have been fused into a new CSS module, Reboot.
• Gradients, transitions, shadows, grid classes etc have been canopied under the option of Sass variables.
• A brand new colour palette and new systems fonts have been induced as well.

 

Further, to have an elaborated understanding of these features, you can hover down.

 

Reactions from the Community

This latest release has deeply affected the “sense and sensibility” of web designers and developers. Here is to these reactions;

As, we know, “Familiarity breeds contempt”, similarly, one of the reddit user showed his disappointment with the long wait by saying that

“well this took waaaaaay tooooo long… where I work we switched to Semantic UI and Foundation”

Whereas, some understood the grind and applauded these changes;

“Bootstrap is a great tool to – you guessed it – bootstrap projects. To say Bootstrap is just for people starting out is simply invalid. It’s not all about writing the most perfect BEM/atomic/component based CSS, it’s also about how easy you can onboard new people onto that project, particularly in a commercial context.”

Keeping in mind that this latest beta version has been released. We can expect to get a stable Bootstrap 4 version unleashed to the world soon enough. Even then, this fact stands irrefutably firm that, Bootstrap 4 hype has grossed over 2 years of active development despite at a snail’s pace.

Keep checking this space as we update about latest Bootstrap development on a stable release and more.

 

Bootstrap 4: Top Features and Enhancements

Bootstrap 4 comes with awesome features and perhaps it is not going to be easy to point out all but, we are pointing out some of the main features:

• Move from Less to Sass: With the new Libsass compiling is faster and the Sass developer’s community is also growing by the day.
• Improved Grid System: The Bootstrap update comes with a new grid tier and a new revamped semantic mixins.
• Flexbox Support: The future is the present! Switch to the Boolean variable, and compile a new CSS. This allows you to take full advantage of the flexbox-based grid system and the components.
• For cards- Dropped thumbnails, wells, and panels: The Bootstrap latest version comes with a new component-Card, but you will be at ease using them as they can handle everything from panels, thumbnails and wells, in fact, better.
• All HTML is consolidated in the new module, Reboot: Enter Reboot and out goes normalize.css, providing more reset opinions like margin tweaks, box-sizing: border – box and more in one single Sass file.
• Customised Options: No more limitations to transitions, shadows, gradients, matter-of-fact more of a separate stylesheet much like v3, are what to expect from Sass variables. Do you want default transitions on all or just disable the rounded corners? Well, in the Bootstrap update you just need to update a variable and recompile it.
• Dropping IE8 Support and Entering rem and em units: Bootstrap latest version drops IE8, no need to worry as the new Bootstrap update takes full advantage of the best CSS sections minus any fallback or hacks. Bootstrap latest update has swiped to rems and ems (where appropriate) making the responsive typography and component sizing easy. Still, if you want to continue using IE8, keep using Bootstrap 3.
• New written JavaScript plugging: Rewritten plugins in ES6 taking full use of the latest JavaScript enhances. The Bootstrap 4 also comes with UMD support, option type checking, generic teardown method, and more.
• Improved popovers and tooltips auto-placement: Bootstrap 4 has improved popovers and auto-placement tooltips thanks to the library known as Tether.
• Improved Documentation: The Bootstrap 4 documentation is rewritten in Markdown with a few new added plugins allowing Bootstrap latest update to streamline examples and the code snippets, making work with Bootstrap docs a lot easy. Next on way in the Bootstrap update is an improved search as well.

Apart from all this the Bootstrap 4 comes packed with custom form controls, padding classes, new utility classes, margin, and more on the way.

 

Brand New Development Plan for Bootstrap latest Update

Bootstrap latest version also comes with its own Development Plan! The aim of this plan is to make Bootstrap as better as possible. As of now, the source code for v4 is available in v4 – dev branch on Github. You also get a v4 development and tracking pull request including a master checklist of certain changes made by Bootstrap update and some of their remaining to-dos.

Here is an overview of the development plan that the Bootstrap update has to offer:

• Some alpha releases while flux possibility.
• Two beta releases are lined as soon as the functionality and features are set for testing.
• For testing on the real upfront usage, two release candidates will be released.
• The final release is here!

 

Continued Support for V3

Remembering the mishap done during the release of Bootstrap 3 with the discontinuation of v2.x, that gave many users a hard time hence, this time Bootstrap 3 is maintained with minor bug fixes and improved documentation. V3 docs shall continue to be used even after v4 release.

 

Bootstrap Themes

Bootstrap latest update comes with a new official Bootstrap Theme. Bootstrap always thought of launching them but, just never came around to doing so. Now, finally, the long-awaited themes are here with the new Bootstrap latest version. More than just themes, they are tool-kits on their own. The new Bootstrap update comes with three Bootstrap 3 based themes: Dashboard, Application, and Marketing. Each packed with a bundle of features. All themes come with a multiple-user license for free and paid documentation.