Tuesday, December 15, 2020

The top advantages of Angular9 Ivy: The future-generation Compiler!


 The Angular team has amazed the entire software fraternity by releasing updated versions at frequent intervals! This is indeed a dynamic move to eliminate the road-blocks encountered by Angular app developers, leverage the goodies of emerging technologies and, provide a rich UX to customers. Angular has as many as 10 enhanced versions to its credit! Amongst these, Angular9 is one of the versions that offer multifarious breaking changes. Out of all these enhancements, the new Ivy Compiler in Angular’s V9 has stolen the show. Angular9 Ivy comes with unbeatable features that promise to make your app smaller and swifter.  This article talks about the advantages of the Ivy Compiler of Angular9 and its crucial role in Angular app Development.

Ivy Compiler of V9 in a nutshell

Ivy refers to Angular’s future-generation compiling and rendering pipeline. With the introduction of Angular9 Ivy, now the newer version of the compiler and the runtime instructions are employed by default in place of the older one called View engine.  This Ivy Compiler comes with numerous advantages for an Angular app Development Company.

Top Advantages of the Ivy Compiler in Angular9

Given below are the key advantages of the Ivy Compiler in Angular’s V9.

Default AOT Compilation: Quicker build times

In Angular’s previous versions, the developers preferred JIT compiler as the AOT compiler used to be very slow. However, the scenario has changed with the advent of Angular9 Ivy that enables the Ahead of Time (AOT) Compiler by default. The novel architecture of Ivy has worked wonders in improving the performance of the AOT Compiler. A compiler’s performance is measured based on the app’s overhead on the top of a plain TypeScript Compilation. Owing to Ivy, Angular’s AOT Compiler now performs approximately 40% better than it did earlier; as the overhead has reduced to 0.5X from 0.8X in the Angular documentation app. Thereby, the build times became quicker, proving to be a sigh of relief for the Angular app developers.

Reduction of bundle size

Unlike the earlier compiler View Engine, Ivy employs the tree-shaking technique to get rid of the unused code from applications. This leads to lesser code generation for each of the Angular components, thereby reducing the bundle size. Reduction in bundle sizes improves the app’s performance and proves beneficial to large applications having numerous components, as well as small applications that do not use too many Angular features. 

Lazy Loading

Ivy enables the lazy loading of any component. Thereafter, these components are dynamically rendered without the need for routing or an Angular module. Also, the libraries used by the lazy-loaded components are bundled to form lazy-loaded chunks.

Better manipulation of styles

Ivy has simplified style-handling and merges them predictably. Earlier the bindings were dependant on the last evaluation and the timing when a change was made to these expressions. Now, there is a clear and consistent order denoting specific styles as per their precedence, instead of timing.

Multiple language support via a single app bundle

Owing to Ivy, the app can support various languages using a single app bundle with one hostname. Some additional set-up may be required though.

Easier debugging 

The introduction of Ivy has ushered in more tools for debugging apps. To cite an example, the new “ng” object is available for debugging which enables the developers to obtain access to the directives, components, etc.

Speedy Testing

Thanks to Ivy, the application-testing speed has gone up by 40% to 50%. The reason is a revamped “TestBed” has been implemented which recompiles components used between test- cycles only if that component was manually overridden.

Added provider scopes

The new provider scopes “any” and “platform” have been introduced by the Ivy version of Angular. Provider scope “any” shares a provider for each module injector while “platform” scope can be shared across different Angular apps for the same document.

Better Internationalization

Internationalization refers to Angular’s existing feature which allows you to architect highly optimized apps as per the location. In Ivy, The quicker build-times are quicker due to pushing of build time substitutions later in the process, which makes this feature work much faster than before.

Better Type Checking

The Ivy Compiler is capable of checking more types of an application and applying more strict rules. Apart from the default type checks, there are some additional ones too. For instance, activating the flag “fullTemplateTypeCheck” signals the compiler to check all the aspects within the template, and activating the flag “strictTemplates” makes the compiler apply the strictest Type System rules available for type-checking. This functionality enables detecting bugs in the earlier stages of the developmental cycle itself.

Stronger Safety

In comparison to the erstwhile View Engine, Ivy is far more efficient in offering more safety. Furthermore, error messages become easier to read using Ivy.

Final Verdict

Thus, the Ivy Compiler in Angular’sV9, not only makes the Angular apps smaller, simpler and swifter but also gifts the Angular framework with a plethora of advantages. No wonder it is considered to be one of the most disruptive add-ons. Therefore, adopting this novel feature will indeed be a strategic move for any enterprise.

Looking for an Angular app development company, for creating your enterprise application? Well then, try Biz4Solutions, a notable mobile app development company offering top-class app development services to customers across the globe. We leverage the latest available technologies to offer you the best services. Mail us your project requirement at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com

To know more about our other core technologies, refer to the links below:

React Native App Development Company

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Sunday, December 13, 2020

8 Smart Strategies to boost your Mobile App Downloads!


 

“You have architected a flawless and powerful app and it has finally been published in the app store.” But, there are much lesser installs than anticipated; even though you have chosen a less competitive niche! This distressing situation is being encountered by several app owners across the globe. The reason is users are not easily convinced to downloading a new application no matter how incredible it may be. Thankfully, there are effective strategies to attract users. Needless to say, all app owners must be well versed with these tactics to taste success.

This article pens down effective tactics to be followed by a mobile app development company while architecting an app and also smart marketing strategies for promoting the application.

Key Strategies to boost app downloads!

Establishing brand awareness

Making your app’s online presence felt is important to attract users. Given below are strategies for the same.

  • To spread awareness about your mobile app’s usability; create an attractive landing page or website showcasing your app, employing free software such as WordPress.
  • You need to pay some amount for acquiring a domain name for your brand and a hosting page as it will convey the prime features of your app. Using the app’s fonts and color palette on the webpage is recommended as this practice will reinforce the app’s identity.
  • Create a blog as a part of the website or landing page, as it informs users about the updated features, design, and much more.
  • Promote your app on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Linkedln, Facebook, etc. via video clips or infographics to draw more visitors.
  • Arrange for a press release a few months before launching your app. Include engaging and appealing written content as well as visuals in the press release to generate signups even before the app’s official launch.

Ruling out chances of app crashes

Conduct exhaustive testing to identify the potential bugs and fix them to ensure that the app is crash-free before it reaches the users. If you learn that your app is faulty through online grievances shared by the users; resolve the issue at once to avoid any app crashes in the future.

Providing free app-usage

  • Making your mobile application free at the time of launch, brighten up the chances of receiving more installs.
  • If your app already exists in the app store as a paid app, making it free for a couple of days will instigate more users to download it out of curiosity.

The aforesaid tactics are sure to boost the user-engagement rate and hence increase the app store rankings.

Employment of effective measures to enhance ASO (App Store Optimization)

Employing ASO (App Store Optimization) strategies plays a crucial role in enhancing the visibility of your application, in an app store packed with millions of other applications. They are as follows:

Title and description: The ASO search engine processes the app’s title using sophisticated algorithms to fetch the search details entered by users. Both title and description have to be embedded in metadata tags in order for the search engine to consider your content. Therefore, a striking title that contains the relevant keywords and gives a peek into the app’s functionality is desirable. The title can also be localized on the basis of specific languages or countries. The app’s description should be informative and the most important information should be put in the “above fold” portion.

  • Keyword Handling: Do not forget to have popular keywords in the title as well as the description. This move will improve the search engine ranking by providing better visibility to the potential users. However, you must also consider how keywords rank for specific app categories by conducting thorough keyword research and analyse the activities of competitors. Monitoring the progress of each keyword is equally important.
  • Apt images: The would-be users prefer trying apps that provide intuitive UI designs displaying the real usage of the application.
  • Positive ratings and reviews: Apps having positive reviews and ratings are ranked higher by mobile app stores; thereby increasing the chances of downloads. Hence, you should devise strategies like providing incentives to users, offering prompt services, etc. to keep users happy.

Successful implementation of ASO techniques will make your app all the more noticeable and easily discoverable by users, leading to more number of downloads. But, this process requires strict monitoring and constant tweaking. Tools such as App Tweak, Sensor Tower, Tune, App Annie, and Keyword Tool help in implementing the aforesaid ASO techniques.

Paid digital campaigns

The app’s marketing team often opts for paid digital ads to be displayed across the media for attracting traffic. This procedure is known as CPI (Cost-Per-Install) campaign as a fixed rate has to be paid for each successful app installation and yields better results than the free campaigns via blog posts or social media.

Focussing on app-usage analytics

A study of the app-usage analytics using tools like Flurry Analytics and Google’s Universal Analytics; is crucial to validate the users’ expectation from the app. This will enable app owners to deliver user-centric services, leading to more downloads.

Encouraging User-referrals

Providing incentives to the existing users for recommending the app to their friends is a trending practice. For instance, a ride-sharing app offers free ride credits while a cloud storage app offers free storage in exchange for a referral.

Motivating users to share reviews

Send in-app messages encouraging the users to share their feedback via reviews. Also, respond promptly to the suggestions and complaints by reviewers to gain their trust and loyalty.

Final verdict

In today’s era of tough competition, the fate of an app purely relies on smart app promotion tactics. The aforesaid strategies need some hard-work but will work wonders to boost your app download.

If you are looking for ground-breaking mobile app development services, try Biz4Solutions, a well-known and experienced mobile app development company. Reach us at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com.

To know more about our other technologies, refer to links below:

React Native App Development Company

Angular App Development Company

Ionic App Development Company

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Best Practices to follow in Angular Development – Part I


 Angular is one of the most popular MVC pattern MVVM frameworksof the 21st century. Developed by Google, Angular is significantly used for building dynamic mobile, web, desktop apps using TypeScript, and HTML. Recently, its latest version Angular10 was released in the market which created a buzz in the software world.

But to meet the high-end requirements of modern-day users, it is essential to not only use the next-gen framework like Angular but also follow a certain set of standard development practices. So in this blog, we have enlisted some of the top practices in the Angular app development realm for the developers to learn and follow in 2020. But before we get started, let us have a quick look at the benefits of following these practices, rather tips.

Noticeable Benefits of Following the Angular Development Best Practices

*      Helps in Creating a Clean Code

*      Aids in Maintaining the Coding Standards

*      Helps in Minimizing the Developmental Time

*      Ensures a Minimal Score on the Bugs and Issues

*      Ensures Improved Performance of the End-product

*      Makes CodeManagement and Debugging Easier

Highlights of the Top Angular App Development Practices


Rules to follow for Angular Coding Styles

Following certain standard coding styles instead of the common styles during Angular app development can ensure the writing of simple and adaptable code and a good user-experience. Here are the rules to be followed for Angular coding styles:

·         The code per function shouldn’t exceed 75 lines

·         The code per file should not exceed 400 lines

·         It is good to declare the values of variables with ‘const’ if those values are intact

·         While sharing feature area for all slider components, developers should use a custom prefix

·         You can use shortcuts for files withsimilarly namingconventions. For instance, you may use hero.component.ts|html|css|spec for namingdifferent files with thesame names

·         In case you usually prefix the names for database, table, field, etc., avoid this practice for Interface names like AbastractShape and iShape

·         Apply single responsibility symbol to services, components, and symbols since it allows to create a more readable and cleaner app format.

BestSecurityPractices in Angular

Security is of utmost importance in any application. In Angular, security lapses can result in a dangerous threat, for instance, cross-site scripting. This issue can result in the passing of controls on the client side resulting inthe alteration of the web pages. For avoiding such attacks, the developers should be aware of some security practicesin the Angular framework as mentioned below:

·         Maintain the Angular Libraries on Regular Intervals

·         Update Angular libraries for every new update from Google

·         Prevent the XSS cross-site security issues

For doing this, it is necessary to consider the measures like DOM sanitization service, Offline template compiler, sanitization and security contexts, context security policy, etc. These will help to keep the attackers away from client-side apps ensuring higher security.

 

Routing in Angular and related Practices to Consider

Routing in Angular is performed to either display or hide components as and when needed by the users. Routing makes the components available for the development process whenever required, thus reducing constant trips to the server. However, bad routing practices can result in disorganized Angular apps at some point. So, for ensuring these issues don’t exist, the developers need to understand some basics about adding templates and components into the app along with the appropriate functioning of the routes. Have a glance at the best routing practices in Angular:

  •          Developing the routes module wise
  •          Routing with lazy loading
  •          Organizing routes guards
  •          Lazy loading routes with Preload

PreventingObservable Memory Leaks

Unlike any other framework, Angular, too, has observable memory leaks. Observables are of great use in Angular as they help in streamlining important data. But at the same time, leaks in observables can cause critical issues in mobile app development. Please follow the below-mentioned tips to avoid these leaks:

·         Use ‘async pipe’: these are built-in attributes that come in handy when the developers need to mark the components for emitted values. Also, they unsubscribe automatically from observables and thus prevent unnecessary memory leakages.

·         Use ‘take(1)’: This is an operator that allows you to get the data just once and helps to easily avoid memory leaks.

·         Use ‘takeUntil’: This is another operator that should be used when you wish to monitor second Observables and destroy the subscription once the Observables gets completed or emits the value; thus, preventing the Observables to be leaked.

Usage of Template Directive

In Angular, 'ngFor' comes as a built-in template directive and is used for building new templates in the applications for every item. So, the Angulardevelopers can rather use ‘trackBy’ directive every time they use ngFor. So, instead of rendering the complete DOM tree, ‘trackBy’ will help in creatingcustomized and unique identifiersfor every item.

Utilizingthe most powerful accessibility tool- Angular CLI

Angular Command-Line Interface (CLI) already follows all the standard practices during Angular app development. It eases out the development process. It helps to test, debug, maintain, and deploy the applications. So, the developers should use it for developing an initial-level structure for the Angular app. They must use Angular CLI for the generation of new modules, directives, services, components, pipes, classes, etc. while creating any files and folders, instead of doing it manually. Using this interface decreasesJavaScript fatigue and complexity.

Here is a detailed blog on other vital tools used in Angular for creating an outstandingapplication.

 

A Few Other Recommended Practices

  • *      Naming Conventions for readability and maintainability
  • *      Maintainingthe folder structure properly
  • *      Utilizing service workers for ensuring that the apps become highlyresponsive
  • *      Isolating all the API hacks in one place
  • *      Breaking down the larger components into multiple smaller components
  • *      Ensuring proper documentation of code, every variable, and the methods used
  • *      Using state management libraries for managing state transitions

In our upcoming blog, we will explain these practices in detail and also include some more tips and practices that all the Angular development services should follow. Also, here is our blog on the “Potential mistakes that developers must avoid during Angular development!

 

Key Takeaways:

For designing a comprehensive application that becomes lucrative as well as popular, it is essential to implement the best developmental methods. So here we have mentioned some of these methods which are tried and tested by the experienced Angular developers who have worked on versatile projects for years. Every Angular app development company should consider these tips and train their developers beforehand to refrain from any major mistakes in the projects.

With this, we come to the end!

We hope this blog was an insightful read for you and the practices mentioned here will make your Angular app development quite simpler and interesting. 

If you have any such practices to share with us, do comment below.

We would like to hear about your experiences too!


Wednesday, December 9, 2020

How IoT Mobile Apps are transforming the workflow in diverse sectors!


IoT, one of the most valuable gifts of digitalization, has revolutionized the functioning of diverse sectors. IoT-powered solutions have been doing wonders to smarten up homes, hospitals, and offices; and have become an integral part of the healthcare sector, industrial sector, and outdoor eco-systems like transport, agriculture, etc. Check how IoT is influencing mobile app development.

Initially, mobile applications played the role of wirelessly operating the IoT empowered smart devices within a particular premise. Gradually, these connected apps with the addition of novel features during IoT mobile app development enhanced their capabilities, opening up new horizons. Today, smartphone apps are leveraging IoT to the fullest and have become the ideal tools that can exploit the advantages of IoT solutions.

 

Functioning of IoT

IoT is an ecosystem of different inter-connected devices, software applications, and sensors using different forms of connectivity to transmit information. Each “Thing” in IoT has been allocated a unique IP address and is capable of exchanging data as per a set of pre-determined rules.

Why are mobile apps the ideal tools for leveraging IoT?

Why do you think smartphones are considered to be the best bet for leveraging IoT? Given below are the reasons for the same.

  • As per the statistical data released by Statista, there are presently 3.5 billion smartphone users globally and this number is expected to rise exponentially in the coming years. This enhances the accessibility of IoT solutions.
  • 72 % of the IoT devices are compatible with mobile applications.
  • Mobile apps provide a more flexible platform for data transmission as compared to web apps.
  • IoT developed in mobile apps enables remote controlling of smart gadgets through a single mobile device.
  • The mobile app development process is cost-efficient and so accessing IoT solutions via mobile apps prove to be a logical option.

 

How do smartphone apps leverage IoT solutions?

 Let’s explore how mobile applications leverage IoT and streamline different sectors!

 

Automation in Smart homes

IoT devices have upgraded home automation and taken it to a new level altogether. Home appliances such as refrigerators, AC machines, bulbs, locks, etc. can be managed and controlled remotely by the owner. For instance, owners can remotely view the condition of their homes, lock or unlock their homes, turn off or switch on lights and other electrical appliances. Check here for home automation ideas. Thus, IoT empowered mobile apps enhance the security of your homes and also minimize energy consumption.

 

Share healthcare data from Wearable devices

Wearable devices form a fundamental part of IoT solutions. The seamless pairing between mobile phones and wearables such as fitness bands, smartwatches, eyeglasses, etc. using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections prove to be a highly convenient option for the users. The reason is data in any form can be exchanged between the wearable and the smartphone app. To cite an example, users can access their health and fitness data processed by a health tracker wearable, on the screen of their connected smartphone device.

 

Remote monitoring of Patients in Healthcare

Healthcare operations have been benefited the most from IoT solutions. Needless to say, mobile applications play a key role in implementing IoT solutions in healthcare facilities as well as patients’ homes. Managing chronic diseases, remote clinical monitoring, assisted living and preventive care are the major IoT healthcare implementations aided by mobile apps.

Home-based IoT powered medical devices are trending these days. The sensors connected to medical devices transmit the healthcare data from the patient to these devices and then further this data is transmitted to mobile apps. This data can be remotely passed on to the practitioner or family members of the patient, during emergencies. Mobile apps can even set the medication dosage of medication using IVs and pumps. Hence, patients having an IoT-powered mobile app, need not pay a visit to the doctor for trivial issues.      

Healthcare facilities employing IoT mobile solutions can be assured of a hassle-free and streamlined workflow and are able to deliver better services to patients. This is because the IoT environment enables all major healthcare gadgets and devices such as infusion pumps, sign monitors, and IVs to collect the medical data of patients and transmit this data to a connected app. This data can also be shared with the patient’s EMR (Electronic Medical Record), in real-time.

Due to the increasing use of IoT solutions in the healthcare industry, there are concerns about data security. Hence it is mandatory in the US to adhere to HIPAA Compliance while using IoT powered mobile apps for ensuring the security of healthcare data.

 

Better control over the growth of crops in Agriculture

The need for advanced agricultural practices is essential for a greater yield to satisfy the requirements of an ever-growing population across the globe. Implementing IoT in agriculture is a smart move to boost efficiency! IoT solutions enable farmers to remotely monitor their farms using mobile apps. Smart agricultural solutions employ sensors to examine crops and farms based on parameters like humidity, light, temperature, moisture in the soil, and many more. Remote surveillance, maintaining precision in agriculture, operating agricultural drones, smart greenhouses, and monitoring of livestock are examples of IoT application in farming.

 

Improved services in the Retail sector

IoT implementation in the retail sector is one of the best ways to provide a better user experience to customers.  Relevant data is captured by sensors and send to mobile apps that allow the retailers to timely respond to the customers’ needs. The commonest IoT devices and applications in the retail sector are as follows:

  • The Wi-Fi tracking system, RFID inventory tracking chips, digital signage, etc.
  • Smart stores, digitally connected customers, demand-based warehouses, predictable maintenance equipment, etc.
  • Smart grid, cities, enterprises, vehicles, etc.

 

Final verdict

IoT powered mobile applications have been predicted to be the next big thing in the years to come. Therefore, businesses across all domains should adopt this technology to maximize efficiency and gain a competitive edge over others.

Looking for IoT mobile app development services? Well then, Biz4solutions, a distinguished mobile app development company is worth a try. Reach us at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com.

To know more about our other core technologies, refer to links below:

React Native App Development Company

Angular App Development Company

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Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Flutter Vs React Native app development services: Which one to opt for in 2020?

 

“Have you thought of a sensational app idea, but unable to decide the right software development framework for it?”Well, this is a common issue faced by several app creators and even businesses planning to build cross-platform applications, as there are a host of outstanding frameworks to choose from.

As per the latest trends, the leading cross-platform app development frameworks are React Native and Flutter. Facebook, Bloomberg, Instagram, Myntra, Pinterest, Office365 apps, etc. are products of React Native app development while Google Ads, Alibaba, Hamilton Musical, Coach Yourself, etc. are products of Flutter app development. Both of these frameworks are loaded with several goodies. Hence, a thorough comparative analysis of these frameworks is necessary before choosing any of these.

My article compares Flutter and React Native, weighing their upsides and downsides. Reading this article will guide you through selecting the right app development framework to shape your app idea.

React Native vs Flutter: Faceoff            

React Native, introduced by Facebook in 2015, is an open-source app development framework targeting the Web, iOS, Android, and UWP.

Google’s brainchild, Flutter came into being in 2017. It is an open-source UI toolkit for developing apps for iOS, Android, Windows, Google Fuchsia, Linux, Mac, and the web.

Let’s compare them based on the following parameters.

Programming languages used

React Native is based on JavaScript, a popular programming language. The good news is that most professional developers have experience in working with JavaScript, and so a React Native app development company can easily find the required expertise.

Flutter uses Dart, a new programming language coined by Google that is not known to many developers. However, Dart is easy to master as it enables faster compiling of the native code and allows easy customization of widgets. But, one of its major downsides is that Dart skills cannot be used for non-flutter projects.

Inference: Although Dart is developer-friendly and has an easy learning curve, React Native is preferred owing to the huge resource availability for JavaScript. However, it is advisable to try Flutter, if your development team lacks prior technical experience.

UI and UX

  • React Native offers the following benefits regarding the UI and UX:
  • The users experience a nearly-native look and feel as the widgets and buttons appear in the form of native components. As such, even Hybrid Android and iOS apps built in React Native provide a native app experience.
  • Whenever the UI of the Operating System is updated; the app components get updated simultaneously.
  • The React Native Developers can choose from a wide variety of external UI kits like React Native Elements, React Native Material Kit, Native Base, etc. UI kits offered by React Native are far more in number than Flutter.
  • React Native provides good support to the style components of iOS.    

Flutter offers the following features for User Interface.

  • Flutter uses the proprietary interactive, platform, and visual widgets that are nothing but built-in UI components. These built-in components replace native components.
  • Owing to its layered architecture there is good UI flexibility. It simplifies as well as fastens the processes of rendering graphics and customizing the widgets.
  • Flutter’s widgets namely Cupertino and material design allow the developers to copy platform-specific native components.
  • The pixel rendering feature in Flutter helps to manage each pixel on the screen. This makes the User Interface appear the same regardless of the device on which the app is installed, thereby minimizing support woes.

Inference: React Native delivers a nearly-native UX whereas Flutter provides more flexibility for creating the UI design.

Code Styling and Structure

Flutter app development eliminates the need to separate templates, data, style, etc. It allows developers to code anything from a single centralized location and gives access to all the necessary tools. But, as of now the code-sharing functionality has been implemented for Android and iOS apps only.

React Native has a more complicated code structure as compared to Flutter but employs third-party libraries to share the code across iOS, Android, Windows, and the web.

Inference: Despite Flutter’s simple and organized code structure, React Native is one step ahead as it provides more code-sharing options, enabling developers to focus on code creation without worrying about compatibility concerns.

Performance

React Native uses JavaScript for connecting with native components through a bridge whereas Flutter eliminates the need for a bridge for interacting with native components. This speeds up the developmental process.

While architecting hybrid apps with React Native, it becomes quite complex and challenging for React Native developers to run the libraries and native components without issues. Flutter contrarily eases out things for developers as the existing code can be reused effortlessly. Also, Flutter is supported by the C++ engine which ensures better performance in the end-product.

Unlike React Native, Flutter has been compiled into the native ARM code for iOS as well as Android, and so it never encounters any performance woes.

Inference: Flutter surpasses React Native in terms of performance.

Other differences

  • React Native offers APIs that support Bluetooth, Geo-location, and other features. If there is a requirement for native interfaces like Wi-Fi, NFC payments, biometrics, etc., React Native is the right choice. But it lacks the tools required to customize the graphics. Flutter, apart from easily offering various APIs, makes use of the Skia Graphics Library that processes the graphics and loads apps faster.
  • Owing to the ready-to-use components, React Native involves a speedier development cycle than Flutter.
  • Flutter’s documentation is well-organized, detailed, and easyto understand while React Native’s documentation is a bit disorganized.
  • Hot Reloading works much faster in Flutter than in React Native.
  • Flutter, being a newbie lacks the strong community support that is enjoyed by React Native.
  • React Native offers lesser testing tools and depends on third-party toolsets. Flutter, on the contrary, offers a rich toolset to test apps at the widget, unit, and integration levels.

Final Verdict

Both Flutter and React Native possess specific strengths and have some drawbacks too. Therefore, the choice of framework depends on your project requirement.

In case of any assistance, contact Biz4Solutions, a leading mobile app development company, offering React Native as well as Flutter app development services. Write to us at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com.

To know more about our other technologies, refer to links below:

Mobile App Development Companies

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Monday, December 7, 2020

Smart strategies for improving your Ionic Angular app performance!


 Ionic and Angular have garnered loads of accolades for being incredible frameworks that architect futuristic apps. Ionic has smartly integrated other useful frameworks like Angular and Cordova within its eco-system to deliver the best results. Angular too is loaded with goodies. The combined attributes of these two compatible frameworks- Ionic and Angular - are being utilized by Ionic App Development Companies to create groundbreaking apps.

Yet, one of the commonest complaints of app developers is that Ionic-Angular apps fail to perform like native apps. Well, in reality, the majority of the performance issues crop up due to ignorance, misjudgment, and lapses that occur during the developmental process. The reason is app developers have to deal with challenging situations like creating novel functionalities; a continual influx of bugs that have to be fixed and a lack of proficiency and experience among developers. So, they often miss out on selecting the right path.

Thankfully, there are effective strategies to minimize performance-related issues. I have penned down some of the tried and tested practices that will enhance your Ionic-Angular apps’ performance.

Handy Tips for improving the performance of your Ionic-Angular apps

Reduction of app bundle size using source map explorer

All contemporary web apps like Angular undergo a transformation before they run in a web browser. This is done by combining the JavaScript files and then minifying them. During the process of debugging an app or reviewing its bundle size, source maps are used to inspect the source. These source maps help in mapping the modified source to the primary source. Inspecting these source maps,one comes to know what is going on between the original code created by the developer and the code that reaches the end-user.

The Angular team suggests using the source-map-explorer tool for visualizing the code distribution of your application through the following steps:

  •          First Install source map explorer tool. Open the angular.json file and set the “namedChunks” and “sourceMap” to true.
  •          Create a production build for the application.
  •          Run the source-map-explorer tool and specify which JavaScript file is to be analysed.
  •          The aforesaid action will open visualization of the code distribution of the app along with the original code written and the libraries used for the same.
  •          Review the app’s code minutely.
  •          Then remove the redundant code, unnecessary imports, and unused libraries and also clean up the unused references; to ensure that the bundle size gets reduced.

Configuring size budgets

It’s a challenging task to reduce the size of an application once the production starts. So, apart from analyzing bundle sizes, one must also configure size budgets. Defining budget thresholds makes sure that the size of the app remains within the boundaries that have been set. The budgets are to be set as per the needs of a particular app. If the initial size of the app exceeds the set limit, the Angular CLI displays a console warning during the development process. If the size is too big as compared to the desired limit the build is bound to fail.

Splitting the application into modules for native Angular lazy loading

Lazy loaded modules get loaded on-demand when users navigate to their route for the first time. This practice reduces the initial bundle size and works wonders to boost the app’s performance. The command “ng generate” has to be used for building a lazily loaded module. The Ionic Angular applications readily accept lazy loading. Lazy loading is pre-configured in the latest Ionic apps that are built employing the “Ionic start” command. So, the ensuing app pages crafted using the “generate” command of the Ionic CLI is automatically configured as lazy loaded modules.

Regularly updating the dependencies and CLI

It is advisable to update the Ionic dependencies and the Angular CLI employing the “ng update”. During the Angular CLI updating procedure, the Angular team ensures that the Angular packages are updated and the code transformations you require are applied. Updating Ionic dependencies too can be executed effortlessly using a single command. If you are doubtful whether all the dependencies are going to work together, refer to the “package.json” files from the starter template apps of Ionic and Angular, at regular intervals. These files are being updated constantly with the newest compatible versions by DevRel teams and the Ionic team. One can refer to the Angular update guide as well to understand the procedure of updates.

Additions of a Browsers list file for reduction of build times

A Browsers list file is one that specifies the browsers supported by an application. This information can be used by developer tools in different ways, one of them being applying build process optimizations for reducing the app’s build times. Therefore, consider adding a Browsers list file, if it is not present in your app’s ecosystem. Including this file with the default configuration disables ES5 build that actually reduced app build time considerably.

Preloading of Ionic Components

Loading of Ionic components takes time when the HTML template or file is parsed.Pre-loading of Ionic components reduces the time taken to parse.

Implementing Ahead-of-Time compiling

Enhance the app’s performance by implementing Ahead-of-Time compiling. This compiles templates at the build time instead of the runtime resulting in quicker rendering of views and reduced app launch times. Furthermore, this move exposes template binding errors, if any, thereby enabling the developers to resolve the issue before shipping the code.

Exhaustive testing

  •          Use developer tools for testing non-Cordova related app logic in a desktop browser.
  •          Use console logging extensively wherever relevant.
  •          Run performance tests that measure the timing for various operations.
  •          If a suite of testing tools and devices are not available, test using Android stimulators and Xcode.
  •          Use opendevicelabs.com to examine how the app performs on various devices.

 Final verdict

The aforesaid tips are sure to tweak your Ionic-Angular app’s performance. For further queries do write to us at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com. Biz4Solutions is a leading Mobile App Development Company, offering Ionic and Angular app development services with a focus on providing robust and effective solutions.

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

The Pros and Cons of Ionic Vs React Native: A Comparative Analysis!

Mobile app development has sky-rocketed in recent times to meet the ever-rising customer demand. It has been observed that app creators prefer building cross-platform and Hybrid applications as they turn out to be highly profitable. The frameworks that are frequently being picked for cross-platform and hybrid app development are React Native and Ionic respectively. The reason is that both React Native and Ionic are open-sourced under the MIT license and are capable of creating high performing applications that function smoothly on multiple platforms. But, like all other frameworks, these too have their share of upsides and downsides.

This article compares the opportunities and obstacles associated with React Native and Ionic app development. This comparative analysis would prove beneficial for those planning to leverage these frameworks for their next project.

Ionic vs React Native: An overview of the opportunities and obstacles

Introducing Ionic and React Native

 

The Ionic framework is a free and open-source UI toolkit used for architecting mobile apps and PWAs, employing web technologies such as JavaScript, CSS and HTML. Ionic not only provides components that are based on web technologies as well as mobile-optimized; but also offers native API employing Ionic Native and Capacitor. Its original version, which came into being in 2013, was created on top of AngularJS and Apache Cordova. The latest updated version launched in 2019, supports numerous front ends. Thus, presently, one can architect a Hybrid mobile app in Ionic with React.js, Angular, Vue.js or plain JavaScript. Check why Ionic is a perfect pick for PWA’s too, using this link.

React Native is comparatively a newer framework coined by Facebook in 2015. It creates mobile apps for the iOS and Android platforms employing JavaScript and is also capable of implementing features with the native code. React Native is a great choice for building cross-platform apps due to the availability of native components that are platform-agonistic. These components map into the native UI building blocks of the platform. React Native development can even create apps for Android TV and Apple TV, with the help of a few additional steps.

The advantages of Ionic

  • Ionic is easy to use due to the presence of pre-built components and plugins.
  • Features like pre-rendering, hardware accelerated transitions, AOT compiling, and touch-optimized gestures enable an Ionic application to run smoothly thereby providing enhanced performance to the ionic apps.
  • The code editor that exists within the Ionic Creator eases out the developers’ efforts while creating the code. The Ionic eco-system also offers text editors and IDEs such as Visual Studio Code, Atom, Sublime Text, etc. All these features bring more flexibility in the development environment.
  • It runs on the mobile, desktop as well as the web.
  • Ionic developers encounter an easy learning curve.
    The documentation is clearer in comparison to that of React Native as all native modules can be found in one place rather than being scattered in GitHub.

The drawbacks of Ionic

  • The Ionic community is not as strong as that of React native which makes it more difficult for Ionic app developers to receive help.
  • Ionic development relies on Cordova which is not so developer-friendly.
  • Despite the availability of various native plugins, one wouldn’t find a plugin for all native features. In such cases, the developers have to create plugins which is time-consuming.
  • Ionic is unable to deliver up-to-the-mark performance in case of apps with heavy graphics.
  • As Ionic is built above the ‘web browser’, it becomes difficult for the app code to access the native features.

The advantages of React Native

  • React Native apps perform like purely native apps built in Objective-C, Java, or Swift.
  • The apps turn out to be highly scalable owing to its component-based architecture.
  • The hot reloading feature enables instant reloading of the app and the developers do not need to recompile the code every time. This saves their time and effort thereby speeding up the developmental process.
  • Previously existing open-sourced modules are available for most of the native features that are generally required by a React Native app development Company.
  • The cross-platform apps created in React Native perform much better than Hybrid applications. Click here for more information.
  • It enjoys support from a huge and vibrant community that help developers.
  • More than 95% of the JavaScript codebase can be shared across iOS and Android apps.
  • There are many ready-made components available, so code need not be written from scratch, this also increases development speed.

The drawbacks of React Native

  • The learning curve is steeper in comparison to Ionic. However, this problem can be addressed by employing tools like Expo. But due to Expo’s limited APIs, it becomes difficult to add unique native features, apart from the ones that are already provided.
  • A certain amount of native code will need to be written if the app needs access to cameras or hardware of the device.
  • Since the collection of ready-made components is limited, developers are restricted to creating simple apps.
  • One of the commonest problems of React Native development is the large-sized apps it creates.
  • React Native is still in Beta version and so we cannot ignore the possible risks in the years to come.

Final verdict

Now, being well versed with the pros and cons of Ionic and React Native, it will be easier for you to pick the right framework based on the availability of the required skillset and your project needs. Pick React Native for creating sophisticated native-like features or delivering a rich UX. Go with Ionic if you intend to create lightweight apps for the mobile as well as the web with limited resources and within a short period.

Planning to build outstanding mobile apps? Contact Biz4Solutions, a notable mobile app development company, offering both React Native and Ionic app development services. Write to us at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com.