Servage Magazine

You probably know the Bootstrap framework which helps building great front end design with its styling and script elements. Currently version 3 is the recommended stable version, but soon the next release – version 4 – will be available. This update is welcomed and there is no need to worry because existing Bootstrap-powered code will continue to work with the current library, and furthermore the Bootstrap developers have already announced a more graceful update process than moving from version 2 to 3 was. This time the old version will still be supported for a while (including critical updates and bug fixes) so developers can rely on existing code.

Bootstrap 4 comes with a bunch of great improvements

• The documentation is being improved, including a new search feature for the website.
• All Javascript plugins have been rewritten to take advantage of newest Javascript options and capabilitites.
• Styling has been integrated via SASS instead of LESS.
• Internet Explorer 8 support has been dropped to allow for better features.

There are quite a few more changes in Bootstrap 4, so the list above is an excerpt of the major ones that affect your way of working with Bootstrap. It is going to be interesting to see if a switch has to be done globally on a website, or if Bootstrap 3 and 4 can live side by side, allowing some components using the current version and some using the newer version – like you can do with the jQuery “noConflict” method. Either way, that is going to impose some challenges to the styling – which could be solved by prefixing or similar. However, the benefit would be allowing web masters to update step by step, instead of having to do a complete overhaul of their sites.

Official Bootstrap Themes

Quoted as “one more thing” on the Bootstrap 4 presentation blog post the team announced a new theme platform where users can get great themes straight from the Bootstrap developers. While it is not stated clearly it seems these themes will not be for free, but sold on a licensed basis at affordable rates. The themes are supposed to be more than just re-skins or changed colors, and come with great customization options and more components than the default Bootstrap library provides. It is going to be interesting to see if this can compete with existing theme platforms like ThemeForest.

Conclusion

Generally speaking the update is a logical step in the path of improvements based on new and more reliable technology. Over time it will likely pay off to migrate and keep up to date, but Bootstrap 4 in itself does not provide any game changing news. Maybe because it already provides a super great framework for fronted design.