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app Archives - BAYPM | Low Code| Mendix | OutSystems

Nov 10
0

Building a Mobile App with Mendix: Empowering Innovation and Rapid Development

Posted by | General | No Comments

The world of mobile applications has witnessed explosive growth over the past decade, becoming an integral part of our daily lives. From ordering food to managing finances and staying connected with friends and family, mobile apps have transformed how we interact with technology. In this era of constant technological advancement, businesses and developers need tools that enable them to build mobile apps efficiently, without compromising on functionality or user experience. One such tool that has gained prominence in recent years is Mendix, a low-code development platform that empowers organizations to create mobile applications quickly and effectively. In this essay, we will explore the capabilities of Mendix and the process of building a mobile app using this platform.

I. What is Mendix?

Mendix is a robust low-code application development platform that allows developers to create web and mobile applications with minimal hand-coding. It is designed to accelerate the software development process, reduce the time and cost associated with traditional development methods, and enable businesses to rapidly respond to changing market demands. With its intuitive visual development environment, Mendix empowers both experienced developers and business users to collaborate and build applications, making it an ideal choice for organizations looking to innovate and stay competitive.

II. Key Features of Mendix

  1. Visual Development: Mendix offers a drag-and-drop interface that simplifies the app development process. Users can design the app’s user interface, data models, and logic visually, reducing the need for writing extensive code.
  2. Integration Capabilities: Mendix provides pre-built connectors and APIs to seamlessly integrate with various data sources, third-party services, and legacy systems. This allows developers to leverage existing resources and data without significant effort.
  3. Mobile App Development: Mendix supports cross-platform mobile app development, enabling developers to create apps for iOS and Android simultaneously. This reduces development time and ensures a broader reach.
  4. Collaboration and Feedback: The platform fosters collaboration between business stakeholders, designers, and developers through its collaborative development environment. It encourages feedback and iteration, ensuring that the app aligns with business goals.
  5. Scalability: Mendix is built for scalability, allowing apps to grow and adapt as business needs change. Whether you are building a simple mobile app or a complex enterprise solution, Mendix can accommodate your requirements.

III. Building a Mobile App with Mendix

Building a mobile app with Mendix is a streamlined process that consists of the following steps:

  1. Ideation and Planning: Begin by defining the objectives and goals of your mobile app. Identify the target audience, key features, and expected outcomes. Mendix’s collaborative environment allows business analysts, developers, and designers to work together to plan the app’s functionality.
  2. Designing the User Interface: Use Mendix’s visual development tools to create the app’s user interface. You can design screens, add widgets, and configure the app’s navigation without writing code. This visual approach ensures that the app’s design is user-friendly and aligns with your brand.
  3. Data Modeling: Define the data structure of your app using Mendix’s data modeling capabilities. You can connect to various data sources, including databases and web services, and model your data entities, attributes, and relationships.
  4. Logic and Workflow: Implement the app’s logic and business processes using Mendix’s visual workflow editor. You can define actions, conditions, and triggers to control how the app functions.
  5. Integrations: Utilize Mendix’s integration capabilities to connect your app to external systems, APIs, and services. This enables your app to fetch and send data seamlessly.
  6. Testing and Debugging: Mendix provides tools for testing and debugging your app. You can run the app in a sandbox environment to identify and resolve issues before deployment.
  7. Deployment: Once your app is ready, you can deploy it to various platforms, including iOS, Android, and the web. Mendix offers options for cloud-based deployment, making it easy to scale and manage your app.
  8. Maintenance and Updates: After deployment, you can continue to iterate and improve your app. Mendix’s low-code approach facilitates rapid updates and enhancements as your business evolves.

Mendix is revolutionizing the way organizations build mobile apps by offering a low-code platform that empowers both IT and business users to create sophisticated, feature-rich applications quickly and efficiently. Its visual development environment, integration capabilities, and support for cross-platform mobile app development make it a valuable tool for businesses seeking to innovate and adapt to changing market demands. As the mobile app landscape continues to evolve, Mendix stands out as a solution that enables rapid development without compromising on quality or functionality. With Mendix, the future of mobile app development looks promising, offering the agility and flexibility needed to thrive in a competitive digital landscape.

Jun 11
0

Low-Code and No-Code: What’s the Difference and When to Use What?

Posted by | General, OutSystems | No Comments

Market confusion aside, it’s really possible to distinguish between low-code and no-code platforms. There are literally hundreds of small details and capabilities that distinguish low-code platforms from no-code solutions. Most of these are not evident at the UI level, which is where most of the confusion between the two comes from. This blog post addresses the capabilities that separate the two so you can better understand where they can fit in your organization.


What is low-code and how to use it?

Let’s start with low code. Low code is a way for developers of all skill levels to design applications with fast and minimal manual coding by dragging and dropping visual blocks of existing code into a workflow to build applications. Creating low-code software is the same as creating software any other way, and the main difference is the types of shortcuts offered. Instead of manually coding a user management system, learning the latest programming framework, or writing 10 tests before a single line of your app’s code, you go straight to creating something new and valuable.

OutSystems/ Low-Code User Experience Diagram


Experienced developers work smarter and faster with low code because they are not hampered by repeated coding or duplicate work. Instead, they focus on building 10 percent of an application that sets it apart, using their development experience and skills to design everything and leaving the grumble job to the low-code tool or platform.

Low-Code Advantages

There are numerous benefits to using a low-code platform. Let’s take a high-level look at the biggest advantages of low-code development.

Speed: with low code, you can create applications for multiple platforms at the same time and show stakeholder working samples in days or even hours.

More resources: if you are working on a large project, no longer have to wait for developers with special skills to finish a long project, which means getting things done faster and at a lower cost.

Low risk / high return on investment: with low code, robust security processes, data integration and cross-platform support are already built-in and easily customizable – which means less risk and more time to focus on your business.

One-click deployment: with low code, one click is all it takes to send your app to production. Launch day is no longer a frustrating experience.


And What Is No-Code?

No-code solutions also feature drag and drop, visual enhancement. Unlike low code, they mostly appeal to business people or others in IT who may not know real programming languages ​​but want to develop an application for a specific use case. In other words, no code allows organizations to equip teams with the tools they need to build applications without formal development training.

Everything the no-code vendor thinks the user needs to create an application is already built into the tool. No-code solutions are similar to popular blogging platforms and e-commerce website design companies with pre-built pages that you can use to start your blog or business in a matter of minutes.


No-Code Advantages 

No code is great if you need a simple app to solve a single business or department issue and you don’t want to expect it to build and deliver 3-6 months from now. No-code platforms require very little training, so anyone in your organization can often create an application in the business process management area, such as expense approvals. No-code gives business users the freedom to address an urgent need without moving away from critical development projects.


Low-Code and No-Code: When To Use

Both low-code and no-code platforms are built with the same thing in mind: speed. But how do you know when to use the other? The sections on advantages and disadvantages point to the answer to this question, but let’s dig a little deeper.

Low code is good for developing standalone mobile and web applications and portals that require integration with other systems and a variety of data sources. In fact, it can be used for almost anything except highly complex, mission-critical systems that integrate with multiple backend and external data sources. No-code tools, by contrast, should only be used for front-end use cases.

So, low code is probably the better option, unless you develop only the simplest apps and require little in the way of customization. Low code allows you to build user-friendly, responsive applications. While it’s not as simple as without code, there is enough simplicity inherent in low code tools to run these apps much faster than if you code them manually. Since low code still requires some coding knowledge, you know that the people who create your apps will do this correctly and your new apps won’t saddle you with security risks or compatibility issues.


Is it the future of low-code and no-code application development?

The short answer to this question is yes. Low-code and no-code tools play an increasingly important role in accelerating the deployment of applications. Gartner predicts that by 2023, more than 50% of medium and large businesses will adopt low-code or no-code code as one of their strategic application platforms, and low code will be responsible for more than 65% of application development by 2024.

We believe that the pressure to offer digital solutions to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the reasons for the accelerated adoption of low code and no code. Another reason is that only the biggest, wealthiest companies have access to the best technology capabilities and the most advanced development tools. No-code and low-code Tools flattens the playing field and empowers organizations of all sizes to do more with their available resources.
 
References:
https://www.outsystems.com/1/low-code-application-platforms-gartner/
https://www.outsystems.com/blog/posts/technical-debt/
https://www.outsystems.com/blog/posts/benefits-of-low-code-platforms/

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In light of the research results, as BAYPM, we would love to help you with your Digital Transformation journey, give us a shout and we’ll be sure to assist you as best as we can. Currently, we are working on a project to digitize manual processes within different locations. The client opted for an incremental implementation approach based on geographical locations and the needs of their different factories.