Hi everyone, welcome to the 8th Chapter, in our Tencent Cloud Developer Associate course, basics of WeChat mini programs. At the end of this chapter, you'll be able to understand the concepts and features of WeChat mini programs, understand the use cases of WeChat mini programs, and develop WeChat mini programs. In this chapter we'll cover six sections. Overview of WeChat mini programs, getting started with WeChat mini program development, construction of page structure, WXML, definition of page style, WXSS, basic components of WeChat mini programs, WeChat mini program APIs. Let's get started with Section 1, overview of WeChat mini programs. In this video, we'll cover an overview of WeChat mini programs and introduce the registration process of WeChat mini programs. A WeChat mini program is a mobile application that can be used without being downloaded or installed. In other words, it is an on-demand application that users can simply scan or search to run on WeChat so that they don't have to install additional applications on their devices. Unlike an iOS or an Android app that has to be downloaded, a WeChat mini program is available at anytime because it does not require any installations. In this sense, it is very similar to a web application. So far, the total number of WeChat mini programs has exceeded one million, covering more than 200 use cases with 200 million daily active users. Numerous WeChat mini programs have been developed for different use cases, such as buying movie tickets, online ordering for restaurants, searching for information on public transportation, searching for information on stocks, listening to the radio, booking hotels, and sharing bicycles. There are several advantages of WeChat mini programs. First, they are efficient because they do not need to be downloaded or installed. Second, WeChat mini program development is unified and highly adaptable to different platforms. This means that mobile developers don't need to develop applications particular to one platform. Third, WeChat mini programs are shareable. It allows users to share images and text directly in WeChat. Forth, although they are different from native applications, WeChat mini programs can provide the same user experience and richness as native applications do. Fifth, it is easy to launch WeChat mini programs. For example, you can open a WeChat mini program that a friend shares with you simply by scanning a QR code. Sixth, WeChat mini programs are also beneficial to businesses due to their wide user coverage and lower development costs compared to other mobile applications. Seventh, there is a WeChat mini program marketplace that allows you to quickly search for and identify the WeChat mini program you want to use. Lastly, merchants can use WeChat mini programs to send messages directly to users and increase their revenue. The evolution of WeChat mini programs can be divided into several milestones. Starting from January 2016, when Zhang Xiao, the creator of WeChat, proposed the concept of WeChat mini programs. One year later in January 2017, WeChat released mini programs to enterprise users before releasing them to individual developers in March 2017. Since then, the number of WeChat mini programs has grown explosively. For example, in January 2018, the number of WeChat mini programs reached half million, and during that time, WeChat official accounts began to be associated with WeChat mini programs. WeChat users were able to jump back and forth between official accounts and the mini programs because they were integrated with each other. Later, the WXS scripting capability was introduced into WeChat mini programs in August 2017, along with embedded web pages, in November 2017. Custom components and WeChat mini program games were released in December 2017. Today, WeChat mini programs continue to be developed. From a technical perspective, a WeChat mini program is part of front end development. But as you can see from the diagram, it is neither a desktop web page nor a mobile web page. Rather, it is a combination of a native mobile application and the web and is based on JS native. The JS native framework allows developers to build a native interface of different operating systems using JavaScript. This means the main development language for WeChat mini programs is JavaScript, which is pretty simple. In fact, those who have front-end web development experience can easily transition to developing WeChat mini programs due to the similarities between web page development and WeChat mini program development. Although there are some differences between the two in terms of running environments, because we chat mini programs run on top of the WeChat native client. There are several advantages of using the JS native framework. First, the framework only requires JavaScript code and no additional technology stacks, and it is compatible with both Android and iOS platforms. It also supports hot updates, which means updates can be carried out easily and there is no need to stop and restart the application. The update can take place in real time and doesn't have to be published to the App Store. To start developing WeChat mini programs, you need to first register for a WeChat mini program account. The next steps will be covered in the following section.
