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Material.io

From the https://material.io/ website (the official Google spec?), I end up here when I follow the path to access "Material Design UI" web components:

https://github.com/material-components/material-components-web/

Polymer Project

From the https://www.polymer-project.org/ website, I end up here when I follow the path to access "Material Web Components":

https://github.com/material-components/material-components-web-components

I don't understand the difference between these sets of components but would like to use the "official" Google web components for a web app I'm creating.

benvc
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etipaced
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1 Answers1

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The Polymer Project is led by a team of Google Chrome developers and utilizes custom web components among other things with the goal of providing a platform for developers to build progressive web apps. Material Components for the web is an open source component library also led by Google developers and designers, but it's focus is a bit more specific to providing Material Design UI components for developers.

The Polymer Project predates Material Components for the web (and Material Design Lite, predecessor to Material Components for the web), and Material Components for the web is part of the recommended toolkit for the next evolution of the Polymer Project. In that sense, Material Components for the web is somewhat of a successor to part of the Polymer Project (but it is not a complete replacement).

It sounds like you are looking primarily for Material Design UI components created by Google developers, so Material Components for the web is probably what you are after.

benvc
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  • Thank you that helps clarify things. Sounds like it's primarily a PWA vs. "standard" web app distinction, although it also sounds like some convergence is occurring with Polymer moving towards the Material Components for the web (per your last link). – etipaced Sep 04 '18 at 19:44
  • @benvc Do you have a reference for the statement about MDC Web being the recommended toolkit for the next Polymer? The link your answer includes says nothing about that. – G. Tranter Oct 15 '18 at 14:41
  • @G.Tranter - apologies, not sure how I messed up that link. Edited the answer with a corrected link (scroll down to the "Elements" section to cut right to the part you are looking for). – benvc Oct 15 '18 at 14:50