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An Introduction to AWS Step Functions

In this blog, you will get a short introduction into AWS Step Functions. You will also create a workflow from scratch with a lambda. The output of the lambda will be transformed so that it can be used in the workflow.

1. Introduction

AWS Step Functions is a low-code, visual workflow service in order to build applications. The goal is to focus on the business logic and to combine services with each other in a visual way. You can make use drag-and-drop in order to create a workflow and to integrate services. More information about AWS Step Functions can be found at the AWS website. The easiest way to discover how it looks like, is to create a workflow by yourself and that is exactly what you are going to do.

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Low Code Platforms Require Software Development Skills

Why it matters: IT leaders seeking to democratize technology with low code citizen developer projects may not realize low code platforms still require application development skills.

The big picture: Regardless of required development effort, building more apps for workers to contend with increases complexity and builds technical debt.

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Comparing 3 Types of App Development: No-Code vs Low-Code vs Full Code

In this article, we will explore and compare the three major categories of app development: no-code vs low-code vs full code. No-code is the easiest type of app development because it requires no programming experience whatsoever and can be done without any coding skills at all.

The low-code category falls in between no-code and full code as it does not require the same amount of coding that full code does, but still needs to be programmed. Low-code may or may not require writing code at all.

Finally, full code is the most advanced form of app development and requires a high level of coding skills. This article will explore in detail each different software development approach and how to determine which approach is best for your project.

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How I Built My Own Stock Index Tracker With Time-Series Data Using Low Code

I recently started investing and came across a product called Smallcase. The way it works is — experts create a diversified long-term portfolio of stocks and ETFs and manage it on a timely basis for you. I really love the idea of how stocks can be added into portfolios or baskets to reduce market volatility. Unfortunately, at the moment, this product is only available for Indian investors and that led me to create an app, where I could create a portfolio, and also create a custom index on top of it, with features to compare benchmarked indices like Dow Jones / S and P.

Building this kind of application from scratch would have taken me a lot of time; I would have had to choose a front-end framework, configure a database, and work on different visualizing frameworks to build time-series charts. With Appsmith, I was able to build this app in just a few hours. If you don’t already know, Appsmith is an open-source low code framework to build internal apps. In this blog, I will take you through the steps I followed to create the app.

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Recreating the Real-World API With Low-Code

Building a fully functional REST API from the ground up is a large project for any developer and even more challenging for IT professionals unfamiliar with the nuances of how APIs are coded, deployed, and maintained.  

Thereʼs is an opportunity for low-code tools to reduce the time spent on API integrations. These tools can lighten your load and manage most of the complexity for you, allowing developers to work on other aspects of their stack. 

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Questions to Ask When Choosing a Low-Code/No-Code Platform

Current and future app creation is and will be driven by low-code/no-code development platforms (LCDP). Organizations moving forward with low-code development are doing so because they have investigated and understood the benefits. The list of benefits is substantial, from agility to lower development costs to decreased time to market to increased sales and market share. How does a company choose which LCDP for future app development? 

If a company is seeking a new ERP application, they first create a Request for Proposal, sometimes called a Request for Quote. The RFP is filled with information about application content requirements followed by questions focusing on the supplier and the features offered by their unique applications. The questions center on how the provider's solution matches the customer’s requirements; about the proposed new application's cost plus the support and modification costs; the functions and unique features the solution will provide; it asks about the user interface along with whether the new application will allow for the integration of legacy programming code and data; the buyer wants to know what technologies are used and tons more. I have yet to see an RFP for the selection of a LCDP provider. 

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A Schema Architecture for Microservices

Message and Event payload validation has been a rather thorny problem ever since extensible data structures (XML, JSON, YAML...) started to be used at scale. In fact, very little progress has been made since the good old days of DTDs. Schema definition languages such as XML-schema, json-schema, or even the OpenAPI schema are unfamiliar to most developers and often result in a rather anemic validation set of rules, leading to a perceived low value, and therefore a lack of interest. 

There are three key problems in a schema architecture: 

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Evaluating JS in The Browser for A Low Code Product

I work at Appsmith, an open-source low code platform for developers to build internal tools and workflows.

At Appsmith, our developer users define business logic by writing any JS code in between {{ }} dynamic bindings almost anywhere in the app. They can use this while creating SQL queries, APIs, or triggering actions. This functionality lets you control how your app behaves with the least amount of configuration. Underneath the hood, the platform will evaluate all this code in an optimized manner to make sure the app remains performant yet responsive.

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11 Best No-Code/Low-Code Backends of 2021

No-code and low-code development platforms let people worldwide build their businesses and applications without writing code. According to Forrester, the no-code/low-code category will grow to $21.2 billion by 2021.

Before these platforms, building an application for a business would require hiring experienced software developers. But that’s not the case anymore. Today, many no-code/low-code platforms make it possible for independent creators, artists, and entrepreneurs alike to build applications on their own.

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Increase Your DevOps Productivity Using Infrastructure as Low Code

As an individual developer or as a part of a wider software development or IT team, you will find that time is rarely on your side, with many competing priorities throughout the working week. This naturally focuses you to look for ways to increase your productivity through the use of technology and tools to help you achieve more in less time. Throughout this blog post, we’re going to look at DevOps productivity and compare traditional tools with infrastructure as low code tools. 

Automate Software Development Tasks With DevOps Tooling

Everyone has heard of DevOps, yet many people struggle to understand exactly what DevOps is. Fundamentally DevOps is a perfect mixture of the philosophy of DevOps along with daily practices and supporting technology tools to enable you to deliver value through technology rapidly to your customers. 

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Why Developers Should Care About Low Code Development

Although “low code” and “no code” have become the latest buzzwords in the tech industry, these concepts are actually not new. WordPress and Shopify were among the first low code platforms available and have been around since 2003 and 2004 respectively.

No code platforms contain all the code you would need to create an application. The code is encapsulated into blocks and users create simple applications by connecting various blocks using a simple drag and drop UI. The benefit of no code is that anyone can be trained to use the platform and build simple applications since no coding experience is required. Unfortunately, these platforms are quite limited in what they allow users to develop. This is where low code development comes into play. 

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iPaaS for Mobile Developers

Thinking of building the next big mobile application? The time to market of a mobile application is critical in the current fast-paced industry. Deciding if it’s an Android or an iOS application is just one part of the problem. Most of today’s applications need a backend system to carry out their operations. Features like remote data storage/syncing, authentication, and user communication require a set of backend services to be available.

So, how can we develop these backend systems for mobile applications? There are two main patterns for doing this. The first is to do direct integration.

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Creating a 10 million visits a month community at DZone

Before Kellet Atkinson was the Director of Product at DZone, he was flexing his entrepreneurial muscles by building custom-made guitar pedals for his friends.

He joins the Dev Interrupted podcast to talk about the joy of building communities, why it's so important to create communities that encourage people to share their experience and how DZone grew to a site that has 10 million page views a month.

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Respond, Reset, and Renew Your Business Strategy Using Low Code/No Code Platform

Business leaders are being forced to rework their strategies and relook at their offerings in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis. Gone are the days when work took place as an established practice. 

The pandemic has opened multiple Pandora’s boxes for every business. As the pandemic’s impact deepens, I take a look at the importance of low code/no code approach for IT applications which businesses can implement for a faster recovery. 

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Kumologica: Improving data layer responsiveness with Redis node

Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash

Online shopping is becoming the prominent sales channel in the retail industry, even for the ones who are traditional with a brick-and-mortar history. This necessitates that the website provides the best in class user experience to the customers. User experience is not only about the layout and eye-catchiness of the website, but the responsiveness, optimally with sub-millisecond responses. Recent surveys indicate that 9 out of 10 users have responded that they will abandon a website if it is not responsive.

One of the major challenges for achieving great responsiveness is the bottleneck introduced by the data layer. It becomes very challenging to design the persistence storage layer to provide the required response performance. A proven way to enhance the data layer responsiveness is to introduce a caching layer on top of the persistence storage. Redis is the industry-leading enterprise-grade caching provider with great performance and scalability.

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How a Low-Code Approach Can Scale to Building MVPs (Part 2)

Editor's Note: The following is an article written for DZone's 2021 Low-Code Development Trend Report.

In part one, we explored the idea of MVPs and important attributes, including validation of the hypothesis, low-cost model, and less need for technical expertise. Additionally, important questions about the MVP such as customer feedback, product readiness, and scope are critical for startup founders looking to enter the market and scale quickly. Now, let us get to the details of an MVP lifecycle. 

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How a Low-Code Approach Can Scale to Building MVPs (Part 1)

Editor's Note: The following is an article written for DZone's 2021 Low-Code Development Trend Report.

The current digital revolution has made it easy for users to build custom applications and get their businesses up and running in a short time. A good example is an interface built to enable the creation of applications with minimal coding. Low-code applications are increasing, with Gartner estimating low-code systems to comprise at least 60% of platforms in the next three years.