The AgileApps framework is Here to Stay
In this day and age, most people are looking for a simplified App development process. AgileApps delivers exactly that.
Overview
I have worked with the AgileApps framework for the most part of my 1-month internship at SoftwareAG. It is a framework that lets you create process-driven, situational, case management, mobile-enabled applications in a very short period of time. Your application can be built without programming and development tools. It provides useful APIs when needed along with on-premises installation in case you want to create a private cloud.
You need not worry about scalability, backups, database administration, network administration, upgrades, or maintenance as this is a cloud-based application. But in order to understand the brilliance of AgileApps, let us go through the app development process in a typical JavaScript MVC framework, the one I’m choosing is Backbone because of its easy learning curve.
Building an App Using Backbone.js
Backbone.js is a JavaScript library which is much more convenient and easier to code as compared to coding entirely in JavaScript or jQuery. Here I will demonstrate the development of a TodoList Application.
In this demo we use a LocalStorage adapter to persist backbone models within your browser. We can load the application once the DOM is ready, using jQuery.ready.
Ø First, we create the TODO Model. Our basic TODO model has title and completed attributes. We have initialized the default attribute values and implemented the function to toggle the state of the completed attribute.
Ø Next, a TodoList collection is used to group our models. The collection of todos is backed by localStorage instead of a remote server through which they’re saved between page requests. Save all the todo items under the “todos-backbone” namespace. The collection’s completed() and remaining() methods return an array of finished and unfinished todos, respectively. Finally, we create our collection of Todos.
Ø Now let’s look at the TodoView view. This will oversee individual todo records, making sure the view updates when the todo does. To enable this functionality, we will add event listeners to the view that listen for events on an individual todo’s HTML representation.
Ø We then create the AppView, which is the top-level of UI. Instead of generating a new element, bind to the existing skeleton of the App already present in the HTML. AppView will handle the creation of new todos and rendering of the initial todo list. Instances of TodoView will be associated with each individual todo record. Todo instances can handle editing, updating, and destroying their associated todo.
Ø Finally, we kick things off by creating the App.
The TodoList App is now built and the finished view is as given below:
Having built a TodoList application using Backbone.js, we know that although it was easier to code it still required coding, nonetheless. Now imagine a world where the app development process is simplified to such a level that the end-user can build apps with no coding required at all. That is the reality that AgileApps realizes being a Zero Code App development framework thereby making it one of the most convenient and user-friendly development frameworks out there.
Building an App Using AgileApps
In AgileApps you can get started by importing CSV data exported from a spreadsheet, or you can use the Application Construction Wizard. This platform allows you to define and evolve Processes, and when the processes don’t fit, a case agent creates an ad hoc procedure on the run.
Now let us use the AgileApps framework for the exact same use case and build the TodoList App and witness how the intelligence of this development framework makes app development much more easier.
Ø Firstly, we can import the CSV data from our Todo data Excel sheet. We can then see how the AgileApps framework intelligently interprets the CSV data and allows the user to modify the datatype of each of the metadata headings. Once the datatypes have been finalized, the user can go ahead and create the Application.
Ø Once the App is created, the initial forms you need to interact with the platform are automatically generated, and the application is ready for mobile access, with no extra work. The result is a ready-to-use Database Application with tabular data display.
The App we created can be customized and enhanced with additional objects, forms, teams, roles, processes, business rules, reports, and dashboards to exactly suit your requirements.
Ø We can now go ahead and create the Team A and Team B teams in a hierarchical structure below the parent team, in this case My Team. This will help us in allotting tasks accordingly.
Ø Now we can create application roles namely Role 1 and Role 2 in addition to the already present Manager role (default role). This allows the user to switch perspectives between these roles.
Ø Now we can give application access to user for all three roles. This way the user will have access to all these roles.
Ø If we want to change the default layout, we can go ahead and change the arrangement of the various elements. This way we can customize the design as per our needs.
Ø We can also define our own processes using the process flow software. This software allows you to design the logic of design flow. You can add various user tasks here along with the decision steps.
Now we can see that the process has been added. The user gets a notification indicating the status of the process too.
Ø We can add additional tasks like business rules and processes which will appear on the side with an option to mark them off as complete. We could even add built-in features like macros, e-mail templates for ease of business.
Ø Finally, we can see the mobile view of the App :
Conclusion
In this article, we showed how helpful the AgileApps framework is by comparing it to the app development process in the Backbone framework in building the exact same use case. We could build the TodoList App using AgileApps with absolute ease in comparison to building the same with the Backbone framework.
The AgileApps framework offers a truly user-friendly and ZERO CODE App development framework which has been built with the end-user’s convenience in mind, thereby allowing the user to concentrate on business logic rather than being bogged down by coding implementation details, and fastening the process of App development multifold.
As usual, the complete code for the Todo App using Backbone.js is available on Github.
Reference
Backbone Fundamentals (GitHub repo)
