New Name, New Features - Announcing APL 2022.1

Austin Vach Jun 07, 2022
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Hello Alexa developers! We’re pleased to announce APL 2022.1 along with several new features and a change to our version number format.

New APL Version Number Format

From this release onward, APL version numbers will now use a year-based format: <YEAR RELEASED>.<CARDINAL NUMBER OF RELEASE IN THAT YEAR>. Since this is our first release in 2022, the version number is 2022.1. Our next release in 2022 will be 2022.2, then 2022.3, and so on. Previous version numbers remain unchanged.

Similar to previous releases, in order to use the features announced below, set the version property of your APL documents to 2022.1 and use 2022.1 in conditional statements in your documents. If you choose not to update, your existing experiences will continue to work as before but you will not be able to use the new features. More info on versioning is available on our “What’s New” page.

Authoring Tool Updates

To make it easier to incorporate vector motion graphics in to your experiences, the Lottie converter now supports additional Lottie format features:

  • Bezier Interpolation
  • Linear Interpolation
  • Alpha Matte / Mask
  • Spacial Bezier Interpolation
  • Line Cap
  • Trim Paths Individually
  • Radial Gradient
  • Stroke Gradient

For a detailed list of supported Lottie features, see Import a Lottie Animation.

Sample Lottie animation converted to APL.
Lottie source: Simple Rocket Icon Animate on Lottiefiles. Free Lottie Animation

animated rocket
Mute/Unmute Videos At Runtime

The Video component now includes a dynamic muted property. Set this property to true to mute the audioTrack for the video. Because muted is dynamic, you can use the SetValue command to mute and unmute the audio at runtime (see the code sample below).

As part of this update, when the Video component is the source or target of an event, the event.source or event.target now includes a muted property to report the current muted state of the video.

Sample APL response demoing new “muted” property. When previewing, tap to mute/unmute.
Video source: https://archive.org/details/BigBuckBunny_124

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{
    "type": "APL",
    "version": "2022.1",
    "theme": "dark",
    "mainTemplate": {
        "parameters": [
            "payload"
        ],
        "items": [
            {
                "type": "TouchWrapper",
                "width": "100%",
                "height": "100%",
                "bind": [
                    {
                        "name": "videoMuted",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "value": false
                    }
                ],
                "onDown": [
                    {
                        "type": "SetValue",
                        "property": "videoMuted",
                        "value": "${videoMuted ? false : true}"
                    }
                ],
                "items": [
                    {
                        "type": "Video",
                        "id": "videoPlayer",
                        "source": "https://ia800300.us.archive.org/17/items/BigBuckBunny_124/Content/big_buck_bunny_720p_surround.mp4",
                        "autoplay": true,
                        "muted": "${videoMuted}",
                        "width": "100%",
                        "height": "100%",
                        "scale": "best-fill"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
}
Community Update: APL Ninja Now Supports Syncing With The ASK Console (BETA)

Alexander Martin released a new beta feature that lets apl.ninja (an independent social platform for Alexa developers) customers synchronize APL documents between apl.ninja and the multimodal skill building workflow within the ASK console, making it easier to share templates between the applications. Please see the apl.ninja blog post for additional information about this beta feature here: SMAPI Integration (apl.ninja).

As always, please reach out to me on Twitter (@austinvach) or in the Alexa Community Slack with any questions. We look forward seeing what you build!

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