1.1 - Development Considerations for BlinkMobile Services
- Sam Stephens (Unlicensed)
Overview:
There are a number of things to keep in mind when it comes to developing on the BlinkMobile platform, especially when comparing the original CMS based approach that BlinkMobile has traditionally offered with the newer file-based approach that is designed to offer the flexibility companies and their developers need.
New Projects:
If you’re launching a new project, we highly recommend you do so using the new file-based approach. This will give you much greater control and flexibility over your project.
Keep in mind you can still use products like the Forms Builder for fast and convenient forms building, and use the Forms service to render that form within the new environment.
Maintaining Existing Projects:
If you’re maintaining an existing project you may find the original project was build using the CMS based approach. In this case, naturally you’ll want to continue using the CMS system rather than having to perform a rebuild on the newer file-based approach.
Keep in mind that while the main app may have been built using the CMS approach, you can still take advantage of other microservices within your current answerSpace. We’ll cover more of this in the next lesson.
CMS and File-based DO Mix:
For existing customers, even if the current apps are built in the CMS, it is worth considering using the newer file-based approach for new projects. Just because the original project was build on the CMS system, you still have access to the file-based system.
Languages and Frameworks:
The low-code environment offers jQuery and jQueryMobile Javascript framework for client side code, and PHP for server side code.
The file-based development environment allows a developer to work in whichever framework they wish for client side code, and currently for Node.JS for server side code.
App Load Times:
If app load times are important to you, you’ll prefer the file-based deployment via a hybrid app. Since all code is local, and since your project should only use the specific libraries you need, load times should be faster than the BIC environment (which the CMS uses) which comes bundled with libraries that you may not need in that specific project.
This is especially important for customer facing apps, such as apps you may wish to submit to an app store.
Use of Existing or Familiar Development Environments:
Often software development companies have existing development processes, tools and environments in place. If this is the case with you, then the file-based development environment will match your needs much more closely than the CMS environment.