Ready to learn something new? Here are some golden nuggets used by mobile app development companies to get started with developing their mobile application!

You might have a great mobile app idea, but it is highly likely that you do not feel like getting ahead with it. What stops you from achieving what you aim for? Is it the small components that weave the software development process? What is involved in a mobile app’s success? You need to start with understanding the technology first in order to be able to make your mobile app succeed.

Why is it essential to have an understanding of the mobile app development terms?

While some of the reasons that we discuss here might sound vague or non-technical, but they still affect the scenario as a whole. Knowing about app development terminology can be helpful to enable communication with developers, designers, or other members of a development team can help in simplifying the project development cost, understanding to know the app development process, learning terminology before building the app and collaboration between developers, designers, and project managers.

What are the essential mobile app development terminologies that you need to be watchful of?

This discussion should start by defining and understanding the types of mobile apps.

Mobile App Types

The type of mobile app that is best for a particular use case depends on factors such as the target audience, business goals, and desired features. Within these three main categories, we also have subcategories such as enterprise apps, gaming apps, educational apps, social networking apps, and more. There are three main types of mobile apps:

• Native Apps: Built specifically for a particular mobile operating system such as iOS or Android.
• Web Apps: Built to run on a mobile device’s web browser. They are platform-independent and don’t require installation, but they have limited access to device features.
• Hybrid Apps: These combine the features of both native and web apps. These offer the convenience of web apps and the performance of native apps.
• Progressive Web Apps: By definition, a combination of HTTPS + service worker + web app manifest makes Progressive Web Apps. Important frameworks that help to build PWA are ionic, Vue.js, Angular, React, Polymer, Knockout etc. PWAs use a technology called Service Workers, which enables them to work offline and provide push notifications. These have app like interactions, updated periodically, served via TLS, accesses the re-engagement UI’s of the OS as in push notifications, plus these are always installable and linkable.

Front-end development

This refers to the development of the user interface of an application that users interact with directly. It defines the way a app appears to the end users – potential customers, or visitors.

Frontend developers consider (1) typography, (2) the arrangement of content, (3) graphics, and animation, (4) font size, (5) font styles, (6) font color, (7) UI components, (8) tags (header, paragraph, anchor, image, unordered list, list item, table, division, selector, declaration, property), (9) scripting, (10) event handlers, (11) functions, (12) if-else conditions, (13) variables, (14) Margins, and much more.

Web designers try to fix all these frameworks, libraries, tools, in place and make the application look right and appealing. So that frontend combines visual appearance of the application, AJAX requests, DOM with data, file structure, and overall styling and designing the website and the app components.

Back-end development

This refers to the development of the server-side of an application that is responsible for processing and storing data. Application backend is inclusive of database that is the storehouse of all the details, which can be fetched from frontend.

Backend tools or frameworks are piece of software that help in finding relevant data and displaying it on the user interface. Many prominent databases like Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, SAP, EnterpriseDB, Sybase ASE, IBM DB2, MYSQL, NoSQL, PostgreSQL can be used to support applications. It is important to keep the application compatible, interactive, and functional. Popular backend frameworks for mobile app development include Node.js, Django, Flask, Ruby on Rails, .Net framework, GraphQL, Laravel, and Express.js.

API (Application Programming Interface)

This is a set of protocols and tools for building software applications. It provides a standard way for different applications to exchange data and services, regardless of the programming languages or platforms they use.

APIs allow different systems, applications, and services to interact and exchange information with each other. This enables software developers to integrate different tools and services seamlessly. These can be classified into different types, including web APIs, operating system APIs, and database APIs, among others.

APIs are the most common type of API used in modern app development, where they provide access to web services and data over the internet using standard protocols such as HTTP and REST.

Developers can use APIs to create new applications and services that can access existing data or functionality from other systems.

APIs can provide access to third-party services that can enhance the user experience of an application, such as maps, payment gateways, or social media platforms. These can help scale an application by distributing the workload across different systems and services.

SDK (Software Development Kit)

A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of tools, libraries, and documentation that developers can use to create high quality software applications for a particular platform or operating system, quickly and easily. It typically includes APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow developers to interact with specific hardware or software components, as well as sample code, debugging tools, and other resources that simplify the development process.

By providing a standardized set of tools and resources, an SDK streamlines the development process and allows developers to focus on building high-quality applications, rather than worrying about the underlying technical details. For example, if a developer wanted to create an application that uses the camera, they could use the SDK provided by the smartphone’s operating system to interact with the camera hardware and capture images or video. Without an SDK, the developer would need to write custom code to interface with the camera hardware, which could be a time-consuming and error-prone process.

IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

A software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. It typically includes a source code editor, a debugger, a compiler or interpreter, and other tools and features that simplify the development process. Popular IDEs include Visual Studio, Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, and Xcode. By integrating multiple tools and features into a single application, an IDE can streamline the development process and reduce the time and effort required to create high-quality software. It features:

• A code editor with features such as syntax highlighting, code completion, and code refactoring.
• Debugging tools that allow developers to step through code and identify and fix errors.
• Integration with version control systems such as Git or SVN to manage source code.
• Automated testing tools to verify that code works as intended.
• Project management tools to organize and track the progress of development projects.

Version Control

The management of changes to documents, computer programs, and other collections of information. Version control, also known as source control or revision control, is the practice of tracking and managing changes to software code and other files. The primary purpose of version control is to enable developers to collaborate on software development projects, track changes over time, and revert to earlier versions if necessary. Version control systems (VCS) are tools that enable developers to manage and track changes to code and files over time. Some popular version control systems include Git, SVN, and Mercurial. VCS tools are helpful in Versioning, Branching and Merging, Collaboration, and Backup and Recovery

Testing

A process of evaluating a software application or system to ensure it meets specified requirements and works as expected. It can be categorized into various types according to the expected functionality:

• Black box testing, also called functional testing and behavioral testing, focuses on determining whether or not a program does what it is supposed to do based on its functional requirements. Black box testing attempts to find errors in the external behavior of the code in the following categories: incorrect or missing functionality, interface errors, errors in data structures used by interfaces, behavior or performance errors, initialization and termination errors. Through this testing, we can determine if the functions appear to work according to specifications. However, it is important to note that no amount of testing can unequivocally demonstrate the absence of errors and defects in your code.
• White box testing: This testing is based on knowledge of the internal logic of an application’s code. Also known as Glass box Testing. Internal software and code working should be known for this type of testing. Tests are based on coverage of code statements, branches, paths, conditions.
• Unit testing: Testing of individual software components or modules. Typically done by the programmer and not by testers, as it requires detailed knowledge of the internal program design and code. may require developing test driver modules or test harnesses.
• Incremental integration testing: Bottom up approach for testing i.e continuous testing of an application as new functionality is added; Application functionality and modules should be independent enough to test separately. done by programmers or by testers.
• Integration testing: Testing of integrated modules to verify combined functionality after integration. Modules are typically code modules, individual applications, client and server applications on a network, etc. This type of testing is especially relevant to client/server and distributed systems.
• Functional testing: This type of testing ignores the internal parts and focus on the output is as per requirement or not. Black-box type testing geared to functional requirements of an application.
• System testing: Entire system is tested as per the requirements. Black-box type testing that is based on overall requirements specifications, covers all combined parts of a system.
• End-to-end testing: Similar to system testing, involves testing of a complete application environment in a situation that mimics real-world use, such as interacting with a database, using network communications, or interacting with other hardware, applications, or systems if appropriate.
• Sanity testing: Testing to determine if a new software version is performing well enough to accept it for a major testing effort. If application is crashing for initial use then system is not stable enough for further testing and build or application is assigned to fix.
• Regression testing: Testing the application as a whole for the modification in any module or functionality. Difficult to cover all the system in regression testing so typically automation tools are used for these testing types.
• Acceptance testing: Normally this type of testing is done to verify if system meets the customer specified requirements. User or customer do this testing to determine whether to accept application.
• Load testing: It’s a performance testing to check system behavior under load. Testing an application under heavy loads, such as testing of a app under a range of loads to determine at what point the system’s response time degrades or fails.
• Stress testing: System is stressed beyond its specifications to check how and when it fails. Performed under heavy load like putting large number beyond storage capacity, complex database queries, continuous input to system or database load.
• Performance testing: Term often used interchangeably with ‘stress’ and ‘load’ testing. To check whether system meets performance requirements. Used different performance and load tools to do this.
• Usability testing: User-friendliness check. Application flow is tested, Can new user understand the application easily, Proper help documented whenever user stuck at any point. Basically system navigation is checked in this testing.
• Install/uninstall testing: Tested for full, partial, or upgrade install/uninstall processes on different operating systems under different hardware, software environment.
• Recovery testing: Testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures, or other catastrophic problems.
• Security testing: Can system be penetrated by any hacking way. Testing how well the system protects against unauthorized internal or external access. Checked if system, database is safe from external attacks.
• Compatibility testing: Testing how well software performs in a particular hardware/software/operating system/network environment and different combination s of above.
• Comparison testing: Comparison of product strengths and weaknesses with previous versions or other similar products.
• Alpha testing: In house virtual user environment can be created for this type of testing. Testing is done at the end of development. Still minor design changes may be made as a result of such testing.
• Beta testing: Testing typically done by end-users or others. Final testing before releasing application for commercial purpose.

Agile Development

Agile development is an approach to software development that emphasizes collaboration, flexibility, and rapid iteration. In an agile development process, a cross-functional team of developers, designers, and other stakeholders work together to create and deliver working software in small, frequent increments.

Some popular methodologies for agile development include Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming (XP). Agile development has become increasingly popular in recent years, as it allows teams to respond quickly to changing customer needs and market conditions, and to deliver high-quality software in a shorter period of time.

Agile development focuses on delivering working software that meets the needs of the customer in small, frequent iterations. It emphasizes regular feedback from customers and stakeholders, and the ability to adapt and make changes in response to that feedback. It prioritizes delivering working software over documentation or other artifacts, with the goal of delivering value to the customer as quickly as possible.

Cross-platform

Developing applications to work across multiple platforms prevents the need to write a separate code for every platform, saving time-energy-resources-money. Such applications can be repurposed and customized even at a later stage of development or staging. The code can be tested, and copies can be created to run on multiple servers with different operating systems. Then updates can be pushed to ensure quality under production like an environment before application deployment.

There are so many cross-platform app development frameworks available in the market that can help you do just that, but the decision to bring it into practice should essentially depend upon (1) speed considerations, (2) feature support, (3) framework risk, and (4) development cost.
Many tools are spread all over the place that can be picked and put to good use like PhoneGap, React Native, Xamarin, React Native, Flutter, and Ionic, and their expertise in working with different operating systems like iOS and Android, make them the go-to choice for businesses looking to develop cross-platform apps.

UX/UI (User Experience/User Interface)

These terms refer to the design and functionality of the user interface of an application, including how users interact with it and how it looks. A well-designed UI can improve the usability and accessibility of a product, while a good UX can increase user satisfaction and loyalty, and ultimately drive user engagement and business success. UI (User Interface) refers to the visual and interactive elements of a software application that users interact with, such as buttons, menus, forms, and other graphical elements.

UX (User Experience), includes factors such as ease of use, responsiveness, performance, and overall satisfaction with the product. A good UX is one that provides users with a positive, enjoyable, and effective experience, while minimizing frustration and confusion. Both UI and UX are closely related and often work on both aspects of a software application. Designers may use tools such as wireframes and prototypes to test and refine the UI and UX of a product, and may conduct user testing to gather feedback and make improvements.

What are the key takeaways from the discussion?

Knowing app development terminology can help you be more effective in a variety of roles related to app development, from project management to coding and design. It will help you out while developing a mobile application. You will need to hire mobile app developers (in-house or service providers) with requisite technical expertise, and user experience, as they can help to ensure that the mobile app is well-designed, user-friendly, reliable, and scalable, which are essential factors for the success of any mobile app.

By having a shared understanding of these essential app development terms, in-house or outsourced developers can effectively communicate, collaborate, and align their efforts toward successfully developing mobile applications.

The post Mobile App Development Terms: Essential Building Blocks appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

A capsule study on hiring a Backend Developer!

Developers can think of moulding Mobile App Development in various ways – (1) Native Mobile Applications, (2) Cross-Platform Native Mobile Applications, (3) Hybrid Mobile Applications, and (4) Progressive Web Applications. It majorly involves making use of different software development kits (SDK’s) and different development tool-chains. The mobile app development lifecycle has two interlinked core components – (1) The mobile application “Front-end” that resides on the mobile device, and (2) The services “Back-end” that supports the mobile front-end. While the backend is the foundational piece of a mobile application, the frontend participates equally to give perspective to a software development project. Let’s discuss!

How data sources/databases/backend fits in with Software Development Life Cycle

Mobile Development Lifecycle loops into the systematic cycle of (1) Business Modelling, (2) Requirements Gathering, (3) Analysis and Design, (4) Implementation, (5) Testing, (6) Deployment, (7) Maintenance and Monitoring. It depends upon the specific programming methodology – Agile Software Development, Scrum, Lean Software Development, Kanban, Rapid Application Development (RAD), Test-Driven Development (TDD), Extreme Programming, Rational Unified Process, Spiral Model, and Waterfall Model. In earlier days, mobile applications went through a similar evolution as the first websites. At that time applications and sites were a whole in themselves and resembled a little more than static advertisements for the brand, company, products, or service.

But gradually with the increase in connectivity and improved capabilities, the applications became increasingly connected to the data sources and information that lived outside of the app itself. This made the apps dynamic, enabling the developers to update the user interfaces and content with data received over the network from (queries to data sources) = database.

How front end communicates with the backend?

The mobile app front end obtains data from the back-end through multiple service calls. These service calls occur via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These APIs may or may not be owned by the same entities who develop the mobile applications. These APIs are often managed by third parties who know the extent to which the permissions have to be granted. The developers are often required to sign contracts with the third-party companies (advertising, social media) to obtain credentials and a key that grants access to the API and governs how that developer can use it, how much will it cost, how frequently it may be called, how much data can be requested over the specified period, and likewise.

Mobile front-end now relies on the back-end services, which provide data. Such data can be in various forms e.g. Medical Prescriptions, Patient History, Flight Schedules, Food Orders, Users Browsing history, list of movies, list of books, episodes – web series, match scores, heart rate, step count, weight, game levels, images and videos, coupons – deals – discounts, etc. Front-end picks the information like – (1) User Sign-up/Sign-in and Management, (2) Social login, (3) Analytics, (4) User Engagement, (5) Push Notifications, (6) Real Device Testing (Real-time)

Front end vs. Backend: How is the front-end different from the backend?

The mobile front-end deals with the visuals on screen, the interactive part of the application catering to the user experience. The mobile front end resides on the device or the catalogue. Once the application is released/published, it is downloadable from the platform app store, side-loaded directly onto the device, or is accessible through the device’s browser. The database is the storehouse of information that all the clients fetch from the server. A developer or mobile application programmer is skilled in the programming languages and technologies for creating front-end applications. The following diagram depicts the basic enterprise integration on Azure.

Image Source: https://bit.ly/35KD8AG

The right – side of the diagram shows various backend systems that ‘Azure’ has deployed. It includes SaaS systems, Azure web services that expose REST/SOAP endpoints.

But many different people are involved in designing and developing the front-end of the mobile application. There can be one full-stack developer who is skilled at handling the front-end and back-end of the application, or there can be tens, hundreds of people specialized in different skills.

Backend and Front end of the application work in conjunction allowing the users to use contact forms, and do any interactive activities while browsing a site.

Is cloud backend similar to the usual backend?

When mobile developers are not particularly skilled in running a back-end infrastructure, they may prefer to take advantage of a cloud services provider. Latter can be a backend-as-a-service provider. This lets developers focus on their front-end/back-end coding to build the features and functionality that they are building in their app, without worrying about the flexibility of the overall application.

How do Backend Services work?

Backend services can be in form of a database that contains all the information used in the app. Mobile developers need to be aware of the network location of the database, the protocol to access it, the credentials for authenticating and authorizing the data access and the exact commands to extract the required information (processed data).

Alternatively, developers can also make use of specialized API when interacting with the database. At this point, they have to be aware of the parameters needed to call a function. They can also develop such APIs themselves.

Developers use REST API for interacting with data sources on the cloud or cloud database. They use GraphQL API as it eases the integration of backend data in a mobile application, and offers to query support through a single API endpoint, and a data schema that can be used to build data models.

What should be the skills of backend developers?

An ideal backend developer should be aware of Ruby, PHP, .Net, C#, Java as scripting languages; Ruby on Rails, Laravel, Django, Express as frameworks; SQL, MySQL, Oracle as database systems; GIT, CVS, SVN as version control; SOAP and REST as web services.

In Conclusion: Technologies Required to Build Backend

Developers need to consider which technologies they need to build themselves and which ones do they need to hire (leverage third-party services). Besides, they can always leverage cloud-based services – Cloud Storage, Real-time and Offline Data, Application Logic/Cloud Functions, for maintaining backend infrastructure. Ready to jumpstart your career as a UX/UI Designer or Coder?

While front-end and back-end development are somewhat similar, still both are essential for a web application or a mobile application to work well. They create functional, visually appealing applications. If you’re thinking of a foray in development but are not sure about your inclination, you can start will full-stack development, and move ahead with your area of interest from then onwards. Follow this space to know more about Frontend Developers, Backend Developers, or what is Backend Development and Frontend Development!

Please share your suggestions at info@itfirms.co

The post How does mobile app backend development fit in the Software Development Equation? appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

With mobile, businesses grow beyond geographical boundaries, an increase in the number of employees and customers is recorded, which collectively produces massive data. This loads the backend of an app with numerous records, fields and tabs. A useful and desirable entity for companies to gain an edge over their rivals, this data needs to be analyzed and processed for predicting trends and strategies that are likely to work.

Tips for iPhone app developers to creating Big Data-driven backend

With the flurry of mobile apps lately, it has been a major concern for companies to address and manage data on the premises. The problems like storage capacity, scalability and cost of maintaining the infrastructure for the same have troubled organizations. As a result, many companies opted for cloud technology and invested in cloud computing to conquer such issues. While this data gets stored in the cloud, it then asks for comprehensive analysis to produce valuable insights.

Related Article: Big Data Will Drive Mobile Market Past Billion Dollars

Here we present some tips for iPhone app developers to creating Big Data-driven backend that will not only help in managing the enterprise data efficiently but will also help in producing useful business-oriented insights.

Advanced data management capabilities

Data is growing every day and to handle it, companies require advanced infrastructure and modern mechanism. Organizations can perform extensive data analysis when it is manageable and stored in a structured format. Setting up the infrastructure for data handling and analysis is expensive; however, the need of the hour is to have economical, safe and efficient computing services. Cloud is the answer to all the data handling challenges. It is extremely secure, accessible anywhere and works on as-you-go-by procedure, which means you are not required to purchase an entire server for data storage instead a space on it will do the needful.

Real-time data analytics

To have an edge over your competitors, you, as an organization,have to be inventive and innovative. Analytics is essential for an organization but real-time analytics help you stand apart. Big Data backend lets you analyze datasets in a flash, which plays a vital role in making quick yet wise decisions.

Real-time query system with inbuilt data analytics functionality is something that can take your business to new heights. It is one of the interactive as well as incremental ways of accomplishing goals while grabbing a profitable piece of the pie.

Room for flexibility

The mobile world is flourishing at a rapid pace and the techniques are being transformed quickly too. At times, it becomes hard for developers to cope up with the changing market demands. As a result, companies have to deal with concerns that are not only unavoidable but ask for dead investments. The elasticity is absolutely zero in case of current procedures whereas if you consider cloud and modern ways of operations, the flexibility quotient is immense. You, as a business owner, can scale according to your needs and invest only in the resources that are important to your business needs at that particular instant. Addressing concerns and acting towards the same is smooth for business owners with the cloud.

Mobile is omnipresent now whether it’s personal or professional. A recent stat says that there are around 2.2 million Apple users across the globe. This means there is a lot of data that is being fed by the users to the Internet or being consumed by them in respect to their personal and professional needs. The mobile world can also be regarded as the world of both structured and unstructured data, which is required to be analyzed for actionable insights and decision making.

A mobile device is one of the vital sources of determining user’s interests, past and present behavior and needs. Once determined, it is required to be analyzed in real-time for playing the marketing game smarter and also using the information for refining future marketing strategies.

Top iPhone app development companies can be your partner in gaining such insights from the word go. So, make sure that you research well before choosing one as your development and analytics partner.

The post Here’s How to Build Big Data-Driven Backend for iOS App appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.