We've been working on Foundation for a while now, and in that time we've gone through a lot of iterations. In fact making Foundation better and better is one of our favorite things to do here at ZURB, and Foundation 5.2, released today, is no exception.
With 5.2 we've made it even easier to get started with Foundation, putting the spotlight on code size, simple instructions, and third-party tools we think will fit right into your workflow. In addition to that we've also shown some love to some of our older plugins, rebuilding and refactoring them to work better and faster than ever before. And hey, bonus? We fixed a bunch of bugs, tightening up Foundation 5 so you can totally count on it. Let's dive in!
Foundation Essential — Just What You Need
You've always been able to get going with a few different types of Foundation, and our newest variation should come in pretty handy for someone starting out new with Foundation as well as anyone who likes to forge their own path. Foundation Essential, now available from the Download page, includes just the absolute essentials of Foundation: the Grid, typography, buttons, Interchange and Reveal.
If you're creating a new, highly custom marketing site Foundation Essential will give you the things you're most likely to need without any of the additional code and page weight of the other Foundation components. You can still get the entire framework in one package, and you can customize for exactly what you need, but this ought to be handy if you're starting a small project and just need the essentials.
Home on the Range
We've heard requests for a range slider and we're here to help, so 5.2 now includes a range slider element you can easily add to your Foundation sites and apps. The new range slider is simple to build (like everything else) and has a bunch of rad options. You can set the overall range, the step size, and have the slider display its value on either an arbitrary element (like a span) or inside a form element. We'll even create a hidden form element for you if you don't tie it to something else, so its value will be correctly submitted by forms.
Mix It Up
If you're not a back-end developer, or the command line fills you with anxiety, you might have wanted to try out some of the more advanced tools for building Foundation sites but not done so yet. Spinning up a server, running commands...it's not for everyone. Happily, tools like Mixture make that easy.
With Mixture you can create a Foundation site with all the trimmings (Sass compilation, running server, even a templating engine) in just a few seconds, all from a couple button clicks. We feel so good about Mixture as an option that we've featured it on the Foundation site, and you should totally check it out. We've worked with Neil at Mixture for a while, and we're going to continue that to see what else we can cook up.
Watching All the Angles
Speaking of third-party tools, we've also featured an Angular port from MadMimi that we're pretty stoked on. It's in active development but if you've been wanting to use Foundation + Angular, this is a great way to get started.
And Speaking of Getting Started
If you don't need / want a third-party tool like Mixture to help you out, have no fear: we've also updated and expanded the getting started area of the Foundation docs to help you better understand how it works, what you need to run or install, and how to fix some common issues. We want everyone using Foundation, so we better make it as easy as we can to get going. Foundation 5.2 is a step in that direction, and we'll keep doing more.
Orbit, Reveal and Magellan (Oh My)
Not everyone knows this, but Orbit and Reveal actually predate Foundation. We rolled them into Foundation and maintain them there now, but they had their beginnings on our Playground a little bit before Foundation was publicly available. We've worked on them over the years, but we thought it was time to double-down and really make them shine.
In Foundation 5.2 we've rewritten considerable parts of them, fixed a ton of bugs and edge cases, and made them faster and more flexible all at the same time. For example, Orbit now not only uses hardware-accelerated animations, it also maps 1:1 to touch gestures on touch-capable devices. Pretty hot.
You can still use them like you have before (there are no breaking changes) but they ought to be even more reliable, and faster, and more adaptable than ever before. We've given this same attention to Magellan and Joyride, as well, so sticky following nav and introduction tours are more irresistible than ever.
But Wait, There's More!
We knocked out a bunch of bugs in 5.2, in our ongoing quest to have Foundation absolutely ironclad, so if you're just getting into Foundation you can be sure that all the energy we've put into Foundation over the years is in good, bulletproof shape.
You can grab Foundation 5.2 right this second (go, go!) and give it a try. If you'd like to upgrade Foundation 5.2, we've extensively documented. We're on the road to Foundation 5.3 already, and some even bigger, better, more secretive things in the coming weeks and months. Let us know on the Foundation Forum (or through Github and Twitter) if you have any questions on this release!
