Telerik Open Sources Mobile App UI Software Code

Open source mobile app developers have gained new resources with the open sourcing of Telerik's Kendo UI Core. The package of user interface (UI) tools is now available under an Apache 2.0 license.

The offering makes the source code of 38 UI widgets in the Kendo UI Core publicly available for use by both commercial and non-commercial developers. In addition, developers have access to related tools for mobile app development, such as templates and input validation. The resources are available from both Telerik's website and a GitHub repository.

According to Telerik, the decision to open source the Kendo UI Core code reflects an effort "to give back to the developer community for its longtime support for Telerik and its products," according to a statement. The company also hopes developers will not only use the code for their own projects, but also contribute back to the library.

The company has kept some of the Kendo UI widgets under a proprietary license, including data grid and data visualization tools. Still, the transition of much of the Kendo UI Core platform to open source creates new opportunities for collaboration across the open source ecosystem, which could be especially useful in the mobile world, where open source app development is arguably lagging behind that of proprietary programmers.

Telerik, which counts more than 130,000 customers worldwide, specializes in providing cloud-based tools and services related to UI development for apps on a variety of platforms.