What have you heard about rapid software development tools?

Rapid development platform? Agile development frameworks? Low code development platform?

In fact, change is the same: do the most with the least amount of code.

The reason why the development platform is designed on the basis of the existing development tools is to achieve no code or low code development, shorten the project cycle, ensure the stability of the project, and facilitate maintenance and upgrading.

The current rapid development platforms on the market are generally divided into zero code and low code. Zero code is a configuration platform, the selection should pay attention to the expansion; Low code is to build the bottom layer, complex business logic or do it yourself. But there is a tendency for the two to merge, to configure and DIY, and LeaRun is one of them.

Is zero code/low code new?

It’s not new.

So-called zero code is the use of graphical tools for business function configuration, such as the initial Crystal Report, to the examination and approval of the king, K2, etc., or self-build system, choose a template, draw a few pages, you can generate a tall on site, the technology already exists at least a dozen years, zero code is to give the new title of this technology, It’s just that you can do more complicated things than before.

What can a zero code platform do?

In terms of application alone, zero code is more used for the development of a single detail. The commonality of these developments is standardization, which is to design a graphical interface for the end user to use, and the efficiency will be improved.

There are three common types of this approach: interface design, form flow, and data management.

The first interface design class is to draw the user interface by dragging. The idea is the same with the traditional self-service website building system, but now it has been extended, not only to develop web pages, but also to interact with the business data in the background. Not only can you draw the interface on the computer side, but you can also design the style on the mobile side. Typical vendors include Microsoft’s PowerApps, Mendix, which was acquired by Siemens, and Outsystems, which received significant funding.

The second category is the form flow class. These tools are similar in that they are basically done by some BPM vendors, many of whom still use the same set of graphical process design from many years ago. These tools generally only manage the approval process, and the process ends and the management ends.

The third type is data management. The earliest implementation of this kind of tool is Excel, which can set many fields and input data into it for statistics. With the development of the application, In order to realize shared editing, Google invented Excel in the cloud, which can be edited by many people at the same time and can track the modification traces of each person. But Excel can’t define the field type, can’t be input validation, unable to control permissions, so Salesforce invented the clouds database schema, can create online data table, set the fields, and into the first category and the second development tool of the function of the interface design, process design, to create a set of new mode of development and management system, the clouds It has become a popular management software development tool all over the world.

Zero code is good, why low code?

As mentioned above, if zero code is so good, why is there a low code platform?

The Salesforce story is only half the story; zero code is only the first step in development. We all know that Excel can configure formulas, do data calculations, provide hundreds of formulas, and do a lot of very complex things, which is the most basic kind of low code. In order to make the system more intelligent, you have to do a lot of calculation, which involves business logic. As we said above, Although Salesforce can directly configure some basic functions, it also needs a variety of tools when it comes to some complex logic. Process Builder, Salesforce DX, etc.

This comes down to the nature of such products, can rapid development platforms really do zero code development? At present, simple business can, complex business is difficult.

As you can probably see by now, personalization isn’t easy even for Salesforce, and as more and more zero-code platforms introduce secondary development interfaces, it’s easy to categorize them as homogeneous products and compare them when you choose.

Why use such a platform?

Efficiency!

In the process of digital transformation, enterprises may encounter many problems. Both the establishment of new systems and the docking of old and new systems need a lot of human and material resources to deal with them. On a low-code development platform, however, programmers can usually build a prototype in a week or even a day. Business people can try out the prototype while discussing with the programmer to find out the difference in ideas. The programmer can also modify and confirm with the business people. With this iterative development model, data modeling can usually be completed in 1-2 weeks, and depending on the complexity of the business requirements, the business logic part can be completed in 2-4 weeks and the system is ready to go live. After the system is promoted to various departments, it will inevitably continue to feed back various development requirements. The core business logic of the system developed based on the low-code platform is realized by configuration. It only needs to adjust the configuration to quickly respond to the requirements, and many requirements can be adjusted in the same day and updated to the formal environment that night.

Should only programmers use low-code development platforms?

The first capability of a low-code development platform is data modeling, which does not require a high level of programming, but knowledge of database design. How to convert users’ business requirements into data tables and save them? What field types should be used to represent various business elements? How do tables relate to each other? How to optimize the data structure to improve query efficiency when there is a large amount of data? When a master table record is deleted, how should related table records be handled? Many IT specialists, project managers, and product managers are trained to master these basic skills.

Business logic, itself is not difficult, set a variable, write a loop, write a judgment, difficult is the various programming frameworks, various programming languages, various functions, various controls, various platforms and so on. The low-code development platform solves all the hard problems at the kernel level, and the developer only needs to deal with data modeling and coding the core business logic, which is much easier. If you’ve ever tried to write Excel macros, switching to a low-code development platform shouldn’t be too difficult. Of course, it must take time to learn, I think logical thinking people, through training, should be able to master the low-code platform development ability within 1 ~ 3 months. So to sum up, for businesses that only need simple logic, business people can do it; The logic is more complex, can be completed by the programmer. However, the project itself will involve post-maintenance, which programmers can use to achieve higher value.

LeaRun low code development platform features

LeaRun low code rapid development platform is built with a large number of practical components that can be directly used, including forms, BI, permissions, workflow, code generation tools, APP/ small programs, etc., for common management systems in the market such as OA, ERP, CRM, WMS, MIS can be quickly developed. At the same time, the system has been upgraded and optimized for many years, and has good response speed and stability.

It should be noted that the code generation tool has been used separately after the update, and the generated code can be DIY again at any time according to needs.

Prince of white size.