Google has released a major update of the 7.1 version (API 25) with some pretty cool features. One of the extra features isApp Shortcuts.
What is an App Shortcut?
App Shortcuts uncover common tasks or activities of your application to the launcher screen. Users can use the App Shortcuts feature by long-press on the app icon.
App Shortcuts are great for making common actions of your app visible and bring back users into the flow in your application.
App Shortcuts can be static or dynamic.
Static remain same after you define them, you have to redeploy app if you want to make any changes in it.
Dynamic one can be changed any time or on the fly.
You can create/manage the stack of activities once you open one through a shortcut. Here you can set the flow of all the activities using intents.
You can reorder the shortcuts in their respective. Static shortcuts will come always at the bottom as they’re added first (there’s no rank property to be defined on them)
The labels are char sequence. So you can play with the span in order to change anything in the text of the labels.
App shortcuts can be of two types-
Static Shortcuts– They are defined statically in a resource file; you can’t change without redeploying the build.
Dynamic Shortcuts– The one that can be defined at runtime or on the fly; you can change without redeploying the build.
Note: App must have a minimum SDK version set to API 25.
Let’s start with creating Static Shortcut first.
Static Shortcuts
Open your AndroidManifest.xml and add the following meta-data tag to your parent or main activity which you want to open as soon as your app starts playing the role.
You can add multiple shortcuts in the root tag <shortcuts>. Let’s understand the properties one by one.
enabled: It indicates that the shortcut is enabled or not. If you want to disable this shortcut, just set the parameter value as false.
icon: It will set the icon to your shortcut menu on the left side.
shortcutDisabledMessage: This will show the message if someone will click on the disabled shortcut. However if you have set the “enabled” feature as false, the option will not be shown when you will do long-press but the user can pin a shortcut to the launcher. So pinned shortcut will be disabled at that time and click on it will show a toast message to the user.
shortcutLongLabel: The longer text that will be shown as a label but it will only be shown if there is enough room.
shortcutShortLabel: A short description of the shortcut. This field is mandatory.
intent: The intent will be invoked when the user will click the shortcut icon.
Multiple intents in shortcuts tags will maintain the stack of the activity as you can see in the above example. When you will press the shortcut icon, then “MainActivity” followed by “MyStaticShortcutActivity” will be opened, and when you press the back button it will take you to the “MainActivity”.
Dynamic Shortcuts
The dynamic shortcuts can be modified on the fly without the need of redeploying your app. They are created in java code.
I will show you how you can add dynamic shortcuts. We will use the ShortcutManager and ShortcutBuilder.Info in order to create dynamic shortcuts.
Here we have built the shortcut info using shortcutManager. We can set the properties for the shortcut using it. The properties are the same except id and set rank. So I will explain these two only in case of dynamic shortcuts and other properties have same behavior as static shortcuts.
Here in the above example, we have defined the id shortcut_dynamic as the second parameter of ShortcutInfo.Builder and setRank() are used to set the order of the shortcut which is not present in the case of static shortcuts. Here the first static shortcut will appear followed by rank 0 and then rank 1 shortcut.
As you can see in above image that static shortcut always takes place at the bottom of the list. You cannot change the rank of static shortcuts. They will always be shown in the order they’re defined in the file shortcuts.xml
If we see the method setShortLabel(CharSequence)of ShortcutInfo.Builder we can see that it takes CharSequence as a parameter. Which means that we can play around with it. We can change its color on the fly. We can create a SpannableStringBuilder and set to it a ForegroundColorSpan with the color, we want to apply and then pass the spannableStringBuilder as a shortLabel (as the SpannableStringBuilder is a CharSequence):
When was the last time you bought a movie ticket from the multiplex counter? When was the last time you went out to Crosswords to buy a new release from your favorite author? Or when was the last time you went out for dinner without reading its reviews on Zomato? And oh! When was the last time you went to bank for checking your monthly statement?Take your time!Ages ago, no?
Life is sorted. Everything is available on mobile apps now. We’re living in revolutionary times. The power that web has given to us is enormous. It has made our life, both, easy and difficult. Every one of us has now access to a plethora of information. A swarm of mobile applications is available on the store to make your life easy. For things as small as which baby stroller to buy, we have become dependent on our mobile devices.
Our eyes and ears are always open to that new cool app which is making waves in the market. And every mobile app which becomes a craze among its users has one reason behind it- excellent User Experience. A lot of people believe that design is about making applications look pretty. Ofcourse, a part of it is true. Anything which looks good improves the user experience. But what if it doesn’t satisfy customer needs?
A good design includes creating each and every interaction to delight users. Remember what Steve Jobs said?
“It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
A bad user experience will give you a thousand thumbs down within minutes. The application must delight its users, both with functionality and experience. The mobile app interface should appeal to the users. I am sure you can relate to the experience when the mobile application works perfectly but doesn’t excite user to use it? What if the application looks pretty but its functionalities are broken? In these cases, you need to look at what works for users and what doesn’t.
Well, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But here are some strategies that you can implement which have always worked wonders-
Design long-lasting products
The argument to stay up-to-date with all the latest trends might clash with this but when we say design long-lasting products, we mean that the products should not age prematurely. The product should not become out of style with time. Design something neutral, which can live longer and is not just a passing design fad.
Dieter Rams, a very famed industrial designer, says-
“You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is made for people.”
He conceived these 10 design principles fifty years ago. He says he didn’t intend these principles to be set in stone forever. If you read them, you will understand why these didn’t mutate with time. They are still accepted and implemented till date. So your design should follow the latest design trends, but do it while keeping in mind your end user.
Keep It Simple, Stupid!
Less is More– this famous proverbial phrase emphasizes on why you should keep things simple and clear. The idea is that simplicity and clarity in thoughts lead to good design. When you are designing, take instances from your real life. How do you like to keep your stuff at home? Clean and organized? Use that thought in your design. Move away from clutter.
Every element in your design should serve a purpose. It shouldn’t just sit there as a pretty object. Minimalism is a tricky thing. Offer your user space where they can find action buttons easily. Reduce the load of information, keep navigation flow easy and let the user win. So, even if you are designing a web page to sell potato or onions, don’t make the user think!
The large clear fonts set the message straight- loud and clear. The background color places the user’s mind into the right frame of mind. The CTA buttons allow users to move directly to the action. Minimalism does not mean you start removing elements from the design, it’s about removing the unnecessary and keeping just enough which can depict your story.
Make an impressive user-onboarding flow
A lot many people uninstall apps they just downloaded when their onboarding experience is ruined. If you ask for too many permissions (camera, Gallery, contacts, location) then the user might become irritated. Collect only relevant information which is usable for you. Give your user flexibility to log in from different platforms- Facebook, Twitter, being two very popular options.
After you have made the user signup successfully, offer him a quick tour of what is the app about- where are the profile settings, where is the action button, which features are available and where. Even here, provide an option to ‘Skip’.
Use appropriate colors to make a connection
According to the color theory, if we apply logic to the selection of colors, it can greatly enhance our user experience. In visual experiences, colors should be pleasing to the eye. Anything which is pleasing increases engagement of the viewer and encourages him/her to get involved. On the other hand, when something is not pleasing to the eye, it is either dull or chaotic.
If the visual experience is boring and dull, then the monotonic appearance will keep user disengaged. The human mind will not perceive that information effectively. On other extremes, if the use of colors is overdone, it becomes chaotic. So much so that the user cannot comprehend the motive.
So color harmony which delivers visual interest to the user and a sense of structure is essential. And that is why it is important to create emotions with colors in UX Design.
Make Navigation Simple
You can have a pretty website with colorful and stylish design and astonishing images, but it pains my heart to say that it will be an utter failure if users don’t make any purchase from it. Simple and intuitive navigation helps them take an action. Every step should guide them to a result and help them understand trivial things, like:-What brand they are looking at
-What is the particular page about
-Where can they find the menu
-How can they get back to the previous page or next page
-Is there a way they can apply filters or search a particular product
-How can they make a purchase
-From where can they contact a concerned person
-How can they give feedback or suggestions
All this is vital and needs to be designed with utmost care because if user is made to waste time on these crucial things then they will immediately switch to a better option.
The digital era is here to make our experience faster & more convenient as compared to real life experiences. Make it worthwhile!
Conclusion
Just as a well dressed and a well-mannered person will always attract attention; similarly a mobile app interface with good design which solves users’ problems will always attract user’s attention. The most important thing which you need to keep in mind is to make sure that your design is both useful and intuitive. The world of app development is bursting and it will continue to grow by leaps and bounds. You, my friend, must learn to create an outstanding user interface that makes your mobile application amazing.
I recently started learning ReactJS. With a very good documentation available on GitHub I found it very easy to learn. I created a sample application in ReactJS & it was working fine!!With some experience in the same I would like to begin by mentioning two of its salient points :
HTML and Javascript in a single file which makes it easy to maintain
Component Driven Development in which DOM is divided into components to make it reusable and easily testable
Then I heard about React with Flux and I was intrigued to know why do we need Flux when React is fine on its own. I did not have much development experience in ReactJS which is why I didn’t realize the power of Flux. Eager to learn, I told myself let’s pull our socks a little, learn Flux and also help train others.
I created an application using ReactJS but initially didn’t use Flux in order to understand its additional benefits like:
Maintainability
Readability
Unidirectional data flow
To see the same in practice, Let’s take a look at developing an application first without using Flux and then using Flux.
Let’s start by understanding basic definition/architecture of Flux –
Flux Architecture
There are four key points to Flux
Action – Actions are very simple because they only need to take request from View and pass it to the Dispatcher. It acts as mediator between View and Dispatcher.
Dispatcher – Dispatcher is responsible to pass information to Store. It does that via <this.dispatch> method in dispatcher.
Store – Stores plays with data. It communicates with backend server as per request from View.
View – Views are for displaying information. If views need some information then they get it from Store and if it needs to perform some action or update/add any information then it informs Action.Action calls Dispatcher which in turn fetches data from Store.
Let’s say we have to create a TODO application. It would be a single page application divided into following components
Header
Todo Count
Todo Form
Todo List
Todo Item
Expected behaviour
Todo Count will display the total count of Todo Items.
Todo Form will have input field.
On submitting the form, new Todo Item should be appended to Todo List and count should be increased in Todo Count.
Application without using Flux
Let’s create a TodoItem Class which will render individual todo item. It will receive information of todo item from its parent component
The below component is TodoList which is responsible for rendering all todo items. This component gets “data” from its parent class via props. “this.props.data” is a list of items which iterates and call TodoItem which we created above.
TodoCount component is responsible to display the count of items. It will get count from TodoHeader component.
TodoHeader component displays the header of an application and it calls the TodoCount component to display the count of total items.
Below is the TodoForm component. Let’s focus on the same because it creates the data in addition to rendering.
The handleSubmit method is called when Submit button is clicked and it calls TodoSubmit method which it got from the Application component.
When I was doing this I had questions –
Why are we doing it this way?
Why Application component submits the form and not TodoForm?
The reason is that Application Component is the parent/grandparent of all components. And data flows from parent to child and child can’t change the state of Parent. Also, there can’t be any communication flow between siblings.
Now if TodoForm will submit the form then how will this information be passed to TodoList or TodoHeader component?
That’s why we made Application component to be responsible for submitting the form.
The Application component is parent of all. It has methods on which we need some discussion.
loadDataFromServer – It will load data from server but in our example there isn’t any server so we have hard coded the data.
handleTodoSubmit – This method would be called by the TodoForm as explained in TodoForm component.
When this method would be called then it will change the state with new created Todo item which will trigger re-rendering of Application component and all child components will be updated with the new information.
As you can see that if sibling components want to communicate with each other then they need to pass data to their parent component.
Like in our example Todo Form wants to tell Todo List that new item has been added.
That’s why Application component is passing callback handleTodoSubmit. So on submit of Todo Form it is calling handleTodoSubmit method of Application component via callback. And handleTodoSubmit is updating the state of Application which causes the re-rendering of Application component by updating Todo Item and Todo Header.
In our example there is only 1 hierarchy but in real time scenarios there could be multi level hierarchy where the innermost child would want to update the other level of innermost child. Then you have to pass the callback method over all the hierarchies.
But that would make it less maintainable and it also impacts readability in negative ways which will result in losing the power of React.
Now Let’s try this same application using Flux
As we have seen there are 4 layers in Flux. Let’s write a code according to its structure.
Action
Actions are called by Views. If View wants to update data in Store then View tells about this changeto Action. Here we have created AppAction. In this, there is only 1 action i.e addItem.
This would be called when we want to add a new todo Item. This action further calls handleViewAction of dispatcher(AppDispatcher)
Dispatcher
In AppDispatcher, handleViewAction is defined which is called by AppAction. In handleViewAction action is passed which will tell what action is performed.
There is a this.dispatch inside handleViewAction which is a pre-defined method of Dispatcher. This method will internally call the Store.
Store
Let’s discuss methods of Store one by one.
dispatcherIndex – Execution starts from here because of the AppDispatcher.register. Whenever dispatch method of Dispatcher is called then it would pass the action information wherever AppDispatcher.register is defined.
In our example we have only one action “ADD_ITEM” but in most of the cases there would be multiple actions. So we have to first define the type of action and based on that we will perform actions and will call emit method.
Here, we are calling addTodoItem method from dispatcherIndex method and after that emitChange
addTodoItem – In this method we are not doing anything except pushing new todo item to the todoItems array.
emitChange – In emitChange, we are using this.emit(CHANGE_EVENT) method, this will let listeners of CHANGE_EVENT know that something is changed.
addListener – This method is used by Views to listen to the CHANGE_EVENT.
removeListener – This method is used by Views to remove listener.
getTodoItems – This method will return all the todos. This would be called by TodoList component.
getTodoCount – This method will return the count of all todos. This would be called by TodoCount component.
In TodoList component, we are fetching todo items from Store directly by calling AppStore.getTodoItems in getInitialState.
Now question is how will this component get to know when new todo item has been added?
The answer is in componentWillMount. In this method we are calling AppStore.addChangeListener which will listen to the event whichis defined in addChangeListener of Store. If there would be any change then it will call the _onChange which will reset the state.
Similar to TodoList, TodoCount will also get data from Store and there is a listener defined in componentWillMount.
Conclusion
On comparing both the codes you will find that creating application without using Flux is still easy But if you understand the flow of Flux then your choice would always be Flux because flow of Flux would be the same even when your application is getting complex. It provides us with additional benefits of maintainability, readability, unidirectional data flow.
To summerize, lets try again to understand the flow.
In TODO component, we are rendering 3 components <TodoHeader>, <TodoForm>, <TodoList>. There is no need to pass any callback, no need to define any state because <TODO> component is not doing anything except calling other components.
TodoHeader component is also not doing anything except rendering or calling other component.
In TodoCount component, we need to display the count of total items. We will get count from AppStore on rendering of TodoCount. But count may get update after rendering of TodoCount component. That’s why we have added listener in componentWillMount and removed in componentWillUnmount method. So if there would be any update in Store related to count than it would call _onChange method and will change the state of count accordingly.
TodoList component is displaying the list of Todo Items and for that it needs TodoItems. The behaviour is similar to TodoCount in terms of communicating with AppStore.
In TodoForm, we want to submit the form and want to tell other components that new item has been added. So on submit, instead of telling other components it is just passing information to AppAction which will dispatch it to store with the help of AppDispatcher. And AppStore will update/add the data.
In AppStore, there is emit method called in emitChange which will allow listeners to know that information has been updated/added.
As you can see, components are not dependent on each other. If they need any information they will get it from Store and if they want to update anything then they will create an Action and it would be Dispatched to Store.
Clearly, the data flow is unidirectional so it would be easy to understand and maintain.
Analytic insights have proven to be a strong driver of growth in business today, but the technologies and platforms used to develop these insights can be very complex and often require new skillsets. One of the initial steps in developing analytic insights is loading relevant data into your analytics platform. Many enterprises stand up an analytics platform, but don’t realize what it’s going to take to ingest all that data.
Choosing the correct tool to ingest data can be challenging. Anteelo has significant experience in loading data into today’s analytic platforms and we can help you make the right choices. As part of our Analytics Platform Services, anteelo offers a best of breed set of tools to run on top of your analytics platform and we have integrated them to help you get analytic insights as quickly as possible.
To get an idea of what it takes to choose the right data ingestion tool, imagine this scenario: You just had a large Hadoop-based analytics platform turned over to your organization. Eight worker nodes, 64 CPUs, 2,048 GB of RAM, and 40TB of data storage all ready to energize your business with new analytic insights. But before you can begin developing your business-changing analytics, you need to load your data into your new platform.
Keep in mind, we are not talking about just a little data here. Typically, the larger and more detailed your set of data, the more accurate your analytics are. You will need to load transaction and master data such as products, inventory, clients, vendors, transactions, web logs, and an abundance of other data types. This will often come from many different types of data sources such as text files, relational databases, log files, web service APIs, and perhaps even event streams of near real-time data.
You have a few choices here. One is to purchase an ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) software package to help simplify loading your data. Many of the ETL packages popular in Hadoop circles will simplify ingesting data from various data sources. Of course, there are usually significant licensing costs associated with purchasing the software, but for many organizations, this is the right choice.
Another option is to use the common data ingestion utilities included with today’s Hadoop distributions to load your company’s data. Understanding the various tools and their use can be confusing, so here is a little cheat sheet of the more common ones:
Hadoop file system shell copy command – A standard part of Hadoop, it copies simple data files from a local directory into HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System). It is sometimes used with a file upload utility to provide users the ability to upload data.
Sqoop – Transfers data from relational databases to Hadoop in an efficient manner via a JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) connection.
Kafka – A high-throughput, low-latency platform for handling real-time data feeds, ensuring no data loss. It is often used as a queueing agent.
Flume – A distributed application used to collect, aggregate, and load streaming data such as log files into Hadoop. Flume is sometimes used with Kafka to improve reliability.
Storm – A real-time streaming system which can process data as it ingests it, providing real-time analytics, ETL, and other processing of data. (Storm is not included in all Hadoop distributions).
Spark Streaming – To a certain extent, this is the new kid on the block. Like Storm, Spark Streaming is a processor for real-time streams of data. It supports Java, Python and Scala programming languages, and can read data from Kafka, Flume, and user-defined data sources.
Custom development – Hadoop also supports development of custom data ingestion programs which are often used when connecting to a web service or other programming API to retrieve data.
As you can see, there are many choices for loading your data. Very often the right choice is a combination of different tools and, in any case, there is a high learning curve in ingesting that data and getting it into your system.
Opting for an appropriate web development framework is quite a hefty task. There are a lot of frameworks present in the market designed specifically according to the needs of the project. Every developer looks for three things while choosing a framework which is: the language used, tools present in the framework and the reputation that it has in the market. Django passes all the parameters with flying colors as it is the best in the class. For many businesses and organizations, Django is an easy choice. Django boasts the label of one of the most popular web-development tools today.
Django is a free, python-based, open-source web development framework that facilitates clean and rational designing of websites driven by databases. It reduces a lot of hassles that a developer has to face during the development of a website. It is used to develop minimal yet smart web applications. Simultaneously, Django enables developers to create web applications as required by fluctuating business prerequisites. Since it is developed by professional developers, it takes care of all the hassle involved in web development so that you can focus on making the application rather than digging the basics.
Pros of Using Django Framework for Web Development
Here are a few reasons why Django is the first choice when it comes to web development.
1. Backward compatible
Django offers the provision of working with its older versions and makes use of its older formats and features. Additionally, it has a comprehensible guide that walks you through all the information that you might need to know about the changes and trends of the Django framework, especially when the new changes become incompatible with the former ones.
2. Community Support
Django enjoys the support of a huge and very professional community of developers who have inside out knowledge of Django and are always ready to help. Having a large community has benefits of its own. It makes finding answers to problems much easier as there’s a great probability that the problem faced by you now has occurred to someone else too and now probably has an answer to it on one or the other forums. The community is very quick in answering the issues and fixing the bugs of fellow developers.
3. DevOps Compatible
DevOps is the blend of cultural philosophies, tools, and practices that increases an organization’s ability to deliver services and applications at high speed: evolving and upgrading products at a faster rate than organizations using conventional software development and infrastructure management processes. Incorporating DevOps in Django is great as it fixes issues faster with enhanced operational support. It uses continuous delivery methodology to increase the efficiency of the system.
4. DRY and KISS compliant
Django religiously follows the ‘KISS’ principle which is “Keep It Short and Simple”. In Django, it simply means that the code must be brief, easily understandable, and methods should not exceed more than 50-60 lines. Similarly, ’DRY’ stands for “Don’t Repeat Yourself”, which means that the software patterns that occur quite often can be replaced with abstractions. In this manner, issues related to the code as well as repetition can be avoided. Additionally, reusing the code simplifies the development process thereby decreasing the overall production time.
5. Infrastructure
Django is independent and a complete set in itself. It means that it does not require any other external solution. It is everything, from an ORM to a web server. This enables it to use various databases and switch them accordingly.
6. REST framework
REST stands for Representational State Transfer framework which is a renowned toolkit for creating web APIs. This is an added benefit with Django as it is powerful enough to build a full-fledged API in just two or three lines of code. An additional benefit to it is that REST is immensely flexible. Therefore, data is not bound to any protocol and can return various data formats and manage several types of calls.
7. Secure & up-to-date
Django is constantly kept up to an elevated standard, following the most recent patterns in site development and security. That certainly addresses the inquiry “Is Django useful for web development?” — As security is a ‘number one’ in any to-do list. Django is customarily updated with security fixes, and regardless of whether you’re utilizing an older rendition of the system, its security is as intact as the new one. It’s no big surprise as Django has an LTS (Long-term Support) variant.
8. Simple
Django’s documentation is excellent. It was introduced with excellent documentation, and they are as yet kept intact in the same way, which makes it simple to utilize. Also, one of Django’s principal reasons for existing is to disentangle the development procedure: it covers the fundamentals, so you can concentrate on the details of your project.
9. Suits any kind of project
Unlike C# or Java, Django is no business solution. Still, it is appropriate for all kinds of projects regardless of their size. A Django application can be a social media application with enormous traffic and heavy volumes of data or it could be a simple web application for handling logbooks. It can build anything as it has everything required to build every type of application. Additionally, Django is cross-platform also compatible with the majority of databases making it highly versatile.
10. Time effective
Django is ridiculously fast. It was built to slide the applications from imagination to reality in a blink. Django applications are both economical and efficient. Thus it is the right choice for developers who have major stakes placed on the due dates.
11. Time tested
Django has been in the picture for years and in that tenure, it has emerged as the choice of a lot of businesses for their web applications. This confirms the fact that Django has already made an impression in the market and is here to stay for long. A few examples of applications built on Django are Disqus, Spotify, Instagram, and NASA.
12. Useful additional features
Django comes with everything inbuilt. It has all the features which are required to build a web application from scratch. There’s no need to spend hours on forming a frame since everything is already present in the framework. It also has tools packages to help in going hands-on with pioneering technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Analysis, and Machine Learning.
13. Versatile
Django is the master of all trades. It is capable of doing everything, from content management to managing scientific computing platforms; everything falls under the umbrella of Django.
14. Works on Python
As mentioned earlier, Django is a web framework which is written in Python. As a result, it brings with itself the simplicity of utilizing the syntax structure of Python and enables developers to build meaningful and viable web applications effortlessly. In this way, developers can easily reduce the development time required for building these web applications.
Summary
To summarize, Django aids developers to compose custom web applications in Python by offering several features, modules, and features. Contemporarily, Django is being rehearsed by various high-traffic websites like Google, YouTube, Pinterest, Spotify, and Instagram. However, Django, like other web systems, has its very own pros and cons. Therefore, the developers must recollect the precise requirements of each venture while evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of Django to choose the best Python framework.
Companies in every industry are facing the challenge of evolving digital capabilities given their current operating models, resources, talent and culture. These elements are so intrinsic that any digital transformation not addressing them will ultimately fail because the legacy organization will inevitably exert a gravitational pull back to established practices, while agile competitors forge ahead. Some enterprises may be further along than others, but in most industries there are only a few companies that have made significant progress.
Becoming a digital enterprise is a complex and lengthy journey. It is much more than implementing predictive analytics or intuitive eCommerce experiences. Beyond product/service innovation, the journey demands attitude change in agility, experimentation, openness and transparency. However, for now let us focus on the digital core levers that CIOs and their teams can use to accelerate transformation –and how industries’ different use of digital enablers leads to different routes to digitilization.
Digital core enablers – technologies that realize digital transformation
As I explained in the first blog of this series, a digital core represents a set of loosely coupled cloud-enabled and SaaS business applications integrated with analytics and big data, on top of an elastic, yet resilient, data platform. A digitalized enterprise core enables a scalable, enterprise-wide digital strategy with the intent to accelerate business innovation through insight-based customer, partner and employee engagement. This transparency and automation drives optimization of business process and asset utilization, as well as employee productivity, and allows forays into new business models beyond the industry.
The digital core components accelerate the benefits of digital transformation by:
Enabling creation of engaging and effective customer, employee and partner “experiences,” leading to adaptable, collaborative transactions
Optimizing end-to-end business processes, even extending them beyond the enterprise to improve business efficiency and effectiveness
Innovating current business models that open potential for net-new revenue from products and/or services in unexplored market segments or via cross-industry collaboration and/or digital business platforms.
Digital core demands a hybrid transactional and analytics data platform
So, where should most enterprises start? While the hype about cloud-native, loosely coupled microservice applications is raging, there is a quiet revolution taking place enabling the sensible modernization of a business operational core. SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, IBM, Workday, Salesforce and other vendors are increasingly offering “in-process,” hybrid transactional and analytical business applications based on optimized, ACID-compliant, columnar databases sharing one data platform. These merged platforms support data harmonization and application consolidation from a value stream perspective into one data store — with significant impact on TCO. In-process applications leveraging translytical data platforms or hybrid transaction/analytical processing (HTAP) accelerated by in-memory computing are disruptive. Companies can optimize business process execution by meshing many of the digital core enablers like real-time analytics (for example, planning, forecasting, outcome simulations and what-if analysis) in transactional execution, rather than performing them as separate activities after the fact.
Beyond this potential transition route to a digital core by consolidating applications into transanalytical data platforms, big data (Apache Hadoop) repositories can complement the reach of core applications by infusing additional external or sensor-based data to transition from manual to sense-and-respond, event-driven processes. As shown in the graphic below, these digital enablers may even “blur” the boundaries between industries, therefore enabling cross-sector collaboration.
Digital enablers disrupt industries and break down boundaries
Recent disruptive competitive moves by Amazon into transportation and financial services reinforced the importance of establishing a hybrid data platform that drives internal optimization and allows competitive moves into new services and products.
While different industrial sectors have a natural proximity to some of the digital enablers shown below, there is a rising consensus that the transparency and insight provided by richer data in analytical and big data repositories are the “fuel” of automation. Most of the technologies highlighted as disruptive in the graph below revolve around the utilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Becoming digital – a maturity and context-based approach per industry
Recently, researchers from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) looked at the state of digitization in sectors across the United States and Europe and found significant gaps between many of them. Most digital companies see outsized growth in productivity and profit margins. But what are the key attributes of these digital leaders, and how can companies benchmark themselves against competitors? MGI’s digitization index encompasses (a) digitization of assets, including infrastructure, connected machines, data, and data platforms, (b) digitization of business operations, including processes, payment and business models, customer and supply chain interactions and (c) digitization of the workforce, including worker use of digital tools, digitally skilled workers and new digital jobs and roles.
The industry digitization dashboard below shows the digitization maturity scores. The IT technology sector comes out on top. Media, finance and professional services are right behind. Not surprisingly, these are some of the industries that currently invest in cognitive AI for operations and services, which in many ways demand a rapid modernization of their business operational cores.
No doubt the extent to which companies are digitizing their physical assets and supply chains and enabling their knowledge workers — that is, if they have smart buildings, connected vehicle fleets, big data or IoT systems and information at their employees’ fingertips – determines the performance they get out of equipment, systems, and business networks. However, different states of maturity with such enablers demand a varied approach by industry. For example:
A consumer-products company will benefit from focusing its data and automation efforts on establishing a synchronized supply network able to respond to events from their customers. The fourth recommendation above shows that digitization of the B2B channel through “intelligent shelves” will improve forecast accuracy and trade promotion efficiency and evolve from a make-to-stock model into a make-to-order product flow. That in return will demand a transition from forecasting to response planning and big data repositories that sense, categorize and act upon on-shelf shortages. Product and packaging fragmentation will further demand digitization of the heart of manufacturing.
Asset-intensive industries like utilities can leverage AI to drive improved matching of supply and demand, which needs to be done, literally, in real time. With the addition of smart metering sensors, utilities have been able to progress from forecasted to actual consumption billing, but more importantly, to increase accuracy of their short-term load forecasts in order to adjust supply to meet anticipated demand. This delivers substantial savings, reduces waste and emissions and adds further system resilience via predictive and preventive maintenance.
Service- and labor-intensive industries like retail need to improve their interactions with consumers by improving the omni-channel experience and empowering their employees towards higher productivity via mobile-enabled tools, while collecting and bargaining using the wealth of information on behavior and assortment. Efficient logistics, goods tagging and placement can be automated.
In summary, by understanding their digital maturity vis-à-vis their peers and even related industries, companies can streamline the deployment of a digital core, focusing on business model optimization or innovation while enhancing their business network experience. Easier deployment of digital enablers is one of the benefits of a modernized digital core. Advanced analytics, IoT, AI/ML, robotics, algorithmic operations and blockchain can transform how companies create and manage digital assets, accelerate supply-to-demand, facilitate digital experiences and empower digital workers towards higher productivity.
In my next blog post, I’ll write about how a digital business platform extends an enterprise’s digital core into the broader business network and allows for end-to-end value stream optimization of current operations.
Widgets are something that every trending iOS application is looking forward to. Widgets help users to get some quick and relevant information without even opening the app. They are best suited for applications like Weather apps, To-Do list apps, Calendar apps which might show a day’s schedule. The widget should provide the immediate and relevant information that user must be interested in. The amount and type of information that widget carries, varies according to the requirement of the containing App of the widget.We will learn through this blog what are widgets and how to make widgets for our iOS app. We have already made an application called RemindME which is a small To-Do list application.
What we are going to cover
iOS 10 Widget UI
Sharing UserDefaults and Files with Widget
Updating the content
Adjusting Widget’s Height
How to open App from Widget
When my Widget should Appear?
Home Screen Widget
Start-Up Project
We have already created an application that allows user to add some To-Do items with title and description and shows its status as done or not done. This will be containing app for our widget.
Getting Started
So, enough saying now and let’s get started with the real code. Widgets are nothing but a type of App extensions called Today Extension. So if anybody needs to know about app extensions, you can see this apple documentation. Now, add target by selecting File/New/Target and then under iOS section select Todayextension and press next. After that give name to your widget and select the containing app as your project.
Now we can see in project navigator a new group will be added with our Widget’s name. Change Schema and select target as the widget and run project. You will see widget in the notification center of our simulator with a message “Hello world” like this.
iOS 10 Widget UI
Let us now design how our widget is going to look like. Open the storyboard of our newly added target and remove the default label. We are going to add a tableview and a button and two labels in our tableview cell. We have added UIImage for the status of the reminder and labels for title and description of the reminder. We have added a class called WidgetTableViewCell. Select the tableview cell and in identity inspector, add class name as WidgetTableViewCell. Add constraints to the views as needed and connects the outlets in the WidgetTableViewCell using AssistantEditor.
We will also add Visual Effect View With Blur from the object browser in our tableview cell. This is to add vibrancy effect to our widget. This causes a blur background in our Widget’s view. This is to make it look similar to what default iOS widgets look like. Make an outlet of visual effect view in the WidgetTableViewCell and name it as “visualEffectView”.
This ensures that vibrancy is similar to system-defined one for Today Extensions and the UI looks like default iOS 10 widgets.
Sharing UserDefaults and Files with Widget
Widgets are nothing but extensions. Extensions are just like another application so our containing app and widgets cannot communicate directly. There may be situations when our containing app and widget need to share some data. We can do that by sharing UserDefaults between them.
To enable this, select the main App target and choose Capabilities tab and then enable App groups. We require apple developer account for this. Now, create an app group. App group name must start from “group”. We have created an app group with name “group.com.quovantis.RemindMe”
Similarly we will repeat the process by selecting the target for widget. But we don’t have to create a new app group, we can use the one we created before. Now when we will save or retrieve anything from UserDefaults we will use this group.
We have made a class that will manage writing and reading our Reminders from UserDefaults. This code can be used by both our containing app as well as our widget extension.
We have used UserDefaults(suiteName: “group.com.quovantis.RemindMe”) for writing and reading our Reminders. This ensures both our containing app and the Widget extension save and read the data from a shared UserDefault under a common suite.
Now if we have to use the same UserDefaultsManager class in our Widget target also, we will have to enable it explicitly from the File inspector. Select the file UserDefaultsManager.swift and from Fileinspector check RemindMeWidget. Similarly if we have to import any other file like Assets.xcassests into our widget extension we can do the same.
Now we have shared UserDefaults between main app and widget, we can now add content to our widget. We will read data from the UserDefaults and will show the reminders in the table view of the widget. Widget will show the title and description of the Reminder and a button checked or unchecked depending upon the status. We will fetch the reminders from the UserDefaults in the viewWillAppear and will refresh the tableView. You can look the code in the TodayViewController.swift file in the RemindMeWidget folder.
We can also add actions to our widget. We have added an action to the button in our widget. When it is pressed that reminder is marked as done by updating status of the reminder in UserDefaults. Code for this action is written in WidgetTableViewCell class.
Now when we add any reminder from our main App, it will be reflected back to our widget also.
Updating the content
Now we will see how to add support to our widget to update its view when it’s off-screen, by allowing the system to create a snapshot. The system periodically takes snapshot to help our widget stay up to date. That is done through widgetPerformUpdate method.
We need to replace the existing implementation of widgetPerformUpdate
If we get reminders from the UserDefaults successfully, we update the interface and the function calls the system-provided completion block with the .newData enumeration. This informs the system to take the fresh snapshot and replace it with the current.
If we fail to get reminders then we call the completion handler with .failed enumeration. This informs the system that no new data is available and the existing snapshot should be used.
Adjusting Widget’s Height
As we have limited space in our Today View, System provides a fixed height to all the widgets. We have to design our widget UI in accordance with that . But we can also provide the option to increase the height of the widget so as to show more information in the Today view.
Our TodayViewController conforms to the NCWidgetProviding that provides the method to do this. There are two modes of the Widget of type NCWidgetDisplayMode, compact and expanded.
This will specify that widget can be expanded and we get a default button to expand and close the widget. Now add this method to adjust the size of the widget.
Whenever the widget height is adjusted this method is called where we have specified the height in case of compact and expanded state. In expanded mode we set preferredContentSize to the combined height of the cells of our tableview in Widget and when it is in compact mode we set preferredContentSize as CGSize() which gives the default height to the widget.
How to open App from Widget
Users may also want to open the containing app from widgets so as to have a detailed look over the information shown in the widget. For that we will have to allow our widget to open our containing app.
For this we use URL Schemes. We can open any app that supports URL Scheme from our widget but we should do that rarely. As user may get confused regarding the container app of the widget. Generally we should link the containing app of the widget only.
For enabling the URL Schemes in our containing app we need to add the following rows in our info.plist
After that we use the extensionContext property of type NSExtensionContext in our TodayViewController class to call the openUrl function. We have written this code in didSelectRowAt Index of our tableView
When my Widget should Appear?
There can be situations when under certain circumstances, you want your widget to appear in Today view. For example, there is no new or noteworthy information to show and you want to hide your widget until something new information comes up.
You can do this by using setHasContent: forWidgetWithBundleIdentifier: method of class NCWidgetController. Set the flag as true or false to show or hide the widget respectively and specify the bundle identifier of the particular widget which we want to hide or show.
In our case we will hide the widget if there are no reminders in our app. And as soon as the count of the reminders is one or more we will show the widget again.
We can write the code to hide widget from the TodayViewController itself but we must always avoid this. Our containing app should be the one which will decide when to hide or show the widget.
Write this function in the ReminderListViewController-
Home Screen Widget
We have seen applications show widget along with the quick actions when we Force Touch the app icon. If we have only one widget in our app, it is shown by default. But if our app offers two or more widgets then we will have to specify the bundle identifier of the widget in the info.plist that we want to show when we Force touch our app.
Add UIApplicationShortcutWidget key in the info.plist with the bundle identifier of the widget as its value.
Summary
So, this is all about iOS 10 Widgets for iPhone. Thank you for reading this tutorial and I hope you enjoyed this. You can think some more innovative ideas to explore more possibilities from Today extensions and think about ways to update your existing applications with your own widgets.
The mobile market has gone so competitive that there are endless apps offering the same functionality. In such a scenario, waiting for users to come to your application on their own, rather than putting efforts into an app launch strategy is a sin.To ensure that you do not commit this mistake and get no outcome from your investment in terms of cost to make an app, we will be discussing the right way to launch your application here.
1000 downloads, $100 millions of revenue – All such metrics pop in our mind, whenever we think of taking our months of hard work to the final stage, i.e, mobile app launch. We expect some miracle to happen that makes our app go viral, and get into the list of TikTok, Uber, and Pokemon Go.But alas, not everyone lives this moment.
[In case you haven’t decided when to take this big step, check the blog: What is the right time to launch your mobile app? ]
But, before we look into the right way of launching an app, it is necessary to be familiar with the fact that mobile app launch strategy does not come into play when you release your app. Instead, it comes into being right from the day you take the first step to make an app.
So, to get higher success numbers and earn more money from your app, here are the list of steps to take – categorized under Pre-launch and Post-launch strategy.
What Pre launch marketing ideas you should consider?
Any application who has not prepared a market for its launch can’t drive higher revenue. So, it’s imperative to invest in pre launch mobile app marketing. Something that can be possible effectively by following the pointers given below:
1. A thorough mobile app market research
When you launch an app without knowing who your target audience is, it is likely that you end up making an application that no one likes and face other potential threats. So, one thing you need to do before starting with different stages of building an app is market research.
By doing so your app will be prepared for whatever situations arise post-launch.
2. Market your app now
Marketing of the app is done way before the actual launch app. Some app owners start the app promotion even before the mobile app development is finished. Early marketing creates a positive image for the app and also creates awareness about the app.
So, how to market an app successfully? To muster support for your mobile app reach out to friends, communities, influencers, or create product videos and share online. You can also create a blog or a website which will act as the landing page for your app.
[To know other such methods, refer to our comprehensive guide to promote a mobile app.]
Social media can blow up things faster than a bomb. So many apps have gone viral and all the credit goes to social media. Reddit, Facebook and Instagram are great platforms for promotion before you actually launch mobile apps.
4. A press kit
A press kit is basically a resource for journalists and publishing houses to convince them to review your app. The kit includes all the information about the app such as screenshots, images and other details. You can also include videos by uploading it on YouTube.
5. Reach out to beta testers
Beta testers are registered testers for apps on the App Store or Play Store. They can be the best source for honest feedback for your app. Make sure you take the advice from the testers and use it to improve your app further.
Now you may ask how to come across these beta testers to execute a perfect mobile app launch. For that, you can find many websites that provide beta testers. Make a choice as per your requirements.
6. Focus on a better App store listing
Your app store page is also your landing page which means it’s the first place your customers visit.
Including images, videos and screenshots of your app will showcase the app quite well. Getting featured in the Play Store or the App Store is a big hit for any app. The aim is to get more downloads from all these factors. The key focusing points are:
The name of the app
App description
App visuals (images, videos, etc.)
Targeted keywords
So this is all about how to prepare your app before you submit an app to the app store.
Now you might be thinking, “What to do once the app is launched?” and the answer follows in the next section which has all the steps of post-mobile app launch.
How to Plan Post-launch App strategy?
1. Ask for referrals such as word of mouth
The best practices of launching an app involves word of mouth promotion. It is said that word of mouth is the most effective form of promotion and brings in genuine users. Reaching out to your friends, communities, colleagues and family members to spread a good word about the app would create awareness among a large group.
2. Link your app
Vigorously linking your app everywhere is another strategy that you can follow. When you launch an app, link the app on your email, comment sections, other blogs or social media. This way the link will become visible all over the internet and would bring in some curious users who might even stay forever.
3. Go for the paid ads
Once you’ve gone as per the app launch timeline, the next thing to go for is to consider paid ads on Facebook, Instagram or any other online platform. These ads, when reflecting on the news feed of every person present on that platform, increases the chances of getting clicks on the application and drive higher revenue, alongside app awareness.
4. Approach to Apple’s editorial team
If you have partnered with qualified iOS mobile app developers to enter the Apple market, pitching the Apple’s editorial team and that of App review sites will also be helpful. When listed in the Top lists, your application will get more attention from the users looking for such apps, which will ultimately result in better outcomes.
5. Map user journey
Another thing to look for after mobile app launch is to keep an eye on user journey. When you, with the help of some metrics, identify what users are liking the most on your platform, what is irritating them, why and who are abandoning your app, etc., you can easily plan your perfect mobile app retention strategy and drive higher profits.
6. Maintain real-time communication
Communicating with end users is not something that ends up while you reach the final stage of the mobile app release process. It must be continued even after the launch of the application. This is because when you maintain a real-time communication with your customers, they feel heard and share their pain points as well as leisure pointers, which makes it easier for you to plan the next app update.
Now, while these were some of the strategies to consider before and after mobile app launch, let’s wrap up this article by looking into some of the mistakes you should avoid committing.
Pitfalls to avoid when you launch a mobile app
A poor working app can be the cause of the failure of a company. Once the app is launched in the market, there is hardly any chance to undo mistakes immediately. You will have to wait until the first app update is launched but by then the app would have lost too many users.
You can totally prevent this scary situation by avoiding these common mistakes made during app launch.
1. Generalizing
Many businesspeople consider the whole world as their market. They hope that this practice will enable them to get the attention of a wider audience and reap higher benefits. However, the reverse happens.
When your application is installed by the wrong target audience, they feel confused and irritated while using it and leave a negative feedback. This prevents various right users from tapping on the ‘download’ button as well as prompt developers to introduce various unnecessary functionalities.
So, rather than generalizing the market, one should run a survey, accumulate market data, and target potential customers to drive better results.
2. Poor onboarding
Another common mistake made by app enthusiasts while app launch planning is overlooking the essence of an effective onboarding.
A mobile app onboarding is not simply a way of introducing the app to the users, but it is the method to create an unforgettable first impression of the app. Meaning, if you create one without following the right app onboarding practices, you might fail to touch the hearts of the target audience and encourage them to go further.
3. Launch full-fledged app
Last but not the least, launching a complete application at once is yet another mistake that can lower down the benefits of mobile presence.
When you design and launch a full-fledged app at once, it demands higher time, effort, and cost. Also, the risk of failing entertaining the right audience due to change in their needs and market trends is also high.
But, when you develop an MVP(Minimal Viable Product) instead, it not only saves the time and money associated with the development plan. But, also helps in validating your app idea, gather adequate user data, and make the best of the mobile app launch. So, look ahead to it.
When it is about outsourcing application development work, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s all about looking for the right partner that is the most appropriate fit for your team. As per the Computer Economics study IT Outsourcing Statistics 2014-2015, 62% of big organizations are outsourcing at least a part of their application development work.
As time-to-market needs increase and IT budgets decline, the trend of farming out development work is both rising and broadening to contain new services. In response, service providers have extended their offerings to comprise of product, technical, and process services. Notably, this runs the gamut from product management, information architecture and quality automation, analytics, and more.
If a mobile application is developed and executed in the right manner, it has the capability of offering increased efficiency, growth, and revenue for your business. That’s why development is so essential, as faults in this phase can lead to the development of a dysfunctional app that wouldn’t give you the preferred results.
To attain success in mobile app development, you need clarity of purpose and focus. To make this possible during outsourcing, you and your team have to sit down and ask some crucial questions before outsourcing, so you can attain success and avoid some of the most expensive pitfalls.
Things you Should Know Before Outsourcing an Apps
Here are some of the most critical questions that you must ask to select the correct partner for your organization’s specific outsourcing needs.
1. What is the purpose of the mobile app?
Are you developing an app just for building an app or because you are caught up in the hype about mobility? Will your application be a business version of your website, or will it have a particular purpose? Asking yourself the intent behind developing a mobile app can help you come up with a capable mobile app that aids a definite purpose. To make your mobile application successful, it must be extraordinarily focussed and address a specific purpose/function. You can discuss with the outsourcing team and narrow down on a definite problem that it is going to resolve or the particular purpose of your app. Ponder about why your mobile app is needed, how your customers can profit from it and how the application can be a more convenient alternative when compared to your website.
2. What should be a probable deadline for the completion of the app?
Narrowing down to a deadline for the app is very important if the mobile app is to be developed for a particular event or occasion. If the mobile app is not finished before the event, the entire development is futile. Even a delay of a few days might make an enormous difference and cease the mobile app from serving its purpose — moreover, the plan for the release schedule for the app. In case your application is released in different versions, you have to prepare for the release date accordingly.
3. What programming methodology do you want?
How do you wish your end-users to interact with your application? This supports the outsourcing developers to create an appropriate wire-frame. Also, think about the visual design needs and User Experience. Briefing the developers about the non-functional and functional needs of your application can help them to develop product backlog. You would also want to explain the required programming interfaces, outside services/systems, and third-party vendors, sharing such details is important.
4. How do you need the app to be hosted?
Do you need your mobile app to be plugged in to a new or preexisting infrastructure? Ponder about the hosting space that you would want. Brief the outsourcing developers beforehand about the post-launch support that you might need to fix the bugs and tweaks that you may get from users.
5. From where do you need the app to be downloaded?
Did you have an idea that the delivery channels of an application can significantly affect the design of the application? Getting listed on the App Store and Google Play is essential. You need to inform the developers in advance about your requirements for listing and get them talked at the development and design stage itself.
6. What level of security is needed?
Tell the developers that you are expecting security protocols that ensure that is the app is protected and secure from hackers trying to attack and breakthrough code vulnerability. Also, ensure that you get the privacy policy of the application drafted.
7. Does your application need to adhere to guidelines?
Ensure that your business app adheres to corporate guidelines like consistent screen design, design of icons, and branding conventions.
8. What are some of the risks involved?
Through the course of mobile application development, you might face risks and uncertainties that can hinder the project. To steer clear of such hazards, make sure that you build a risk register at the onset of your application so that you can file the actions at every step. This way, you can hold your stakeholders responsible for each risk factor.
9. Who are the main stakeholders involved in the development process?
It is crucial to identify the main stakeholders who are involved in the development and usage of your mobile application. Who would be funding it? Who would be owning it? Who would be benefiting from it? Who would keep the app active? Who would maintain the app daily? Asking such questions and trying to understand the involved decision-makers can lead to the successful development and running of the app. By comprehending the needs of the stakeholders, attaining clarity about their role, and taking responses to help in developing a successful application.
10. What budget can be allotted?
Many times the budget is overlooked when it comes to developing mobile apps. This is a significant reason why it becomes tough to estimate one. Make sure to sit down with the developers and discuss the various variables at play, be it multiple operating systems, testing environments, and more.
Summary
If you have made your mind to outsource your software development, you must have found some software development companies that you’re considering working with, and you are on the horns of a perplexity of making the correct choice. There is nothing better than talking to them and satisfying every query that you might have. Choose the web development company that passes all your parameters and comes out as reliable and trustworthy as a lot of your business now lies in their hands.
But if you understand the flow of Flux then your choice would always be Flux because flow of Flux would be the same even when your application is getting complex. It provides us with additional benefits of maintainability, readability, unidirectional data flow.
![8 steps in the selection process for hiring [A complete guide] | Workable](https://resources.workable.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/selection-process-pillar-page-featured.jpg)
