What is a Mobile Low-Code Development Platform?
A mobile application development platform is intended for the designing and deployment of mobile applications. Mendix specifically offers a mobile low-code development platform that handles application development via a visual, model-driven environment, therefore increasing the speed and efficiency of the mobile app development process.
Mobile Low-Code Development Platforms Explained?
Businesses increasingly need to pay attention to how they connect with existing and potential customers using mobile technology (e.g. smartphones and tablets). Designing and deploying their own, proprietary mobile applications is one solution pursued by many companies. A mobile application development platform is a type of software that facilitates the designing, testing, and ultimately the deployment of mobile apps across all kinds of devices that take advantage of the devices’ native device functions, such as camera or geolocation.
With an astonishing variety of mobile devices, many find the development of device-agnostic applications on mobile application platforms to raise some difficulties. The different operating systems and devices, but also display sizes and on-device features make it very difficult to develop a “catch-all” app. Fortunately, mobile application development platforms handle this problem specifically by managing the app’s UI, functionality, architecture, performance, etc. when its first deployed and throughout the entire lifecycle of the mobile solution via iterative updates.
Mobile application development platforms come in varying levels of devotion to coding. Some platforms work to minimize hand-coding, while others eschew user interfaces that appeal to domain experts and citizen developers alike in building apps. Simply put, not all mobile application development platforms are mobile low-code development platforms. Mendix specifically employs several low-code development tools and APIs to offer easier, more intuitive ways to build apps – characteristics that clearly lend itself to mobile low-code development. This approach to application development empowers both professional developers and citizen developers to create apps up to 6-times faster than by using hand-coding methods.
Layers of a Mobile Low-Code Development Platform
Typically, mobile low-code development platforms consist of a mobile client application, a mobile middleware server, and then an assortment of tools and APIs that facilitate connectivity to other cloud-based applications as well as ensuring security protocols are heeded.The mobile client application ensures connectivity to the middleware server and serves both the business logic and the UI framework most appropriate for the given mobile device. Mendix, in particular, utilizes a microflow engine to handle the business logic processes visually.
The middleware server itself manages key application data in terms of system integration, scalability, further platform as a service support, and more. It provides background services, such as data exchange, that make it easier for the users to build mobile apps that can communicate with other one another even when the applications are hosted separately on cloud computing platforms.