Alpha Software Accelerates Mobile, Web App Delivery with New ‘Coding Optional’ Features, New Offline Capabilities

Alpha Software’s latest upgrade to its Alpha Anywhere platform aims to accelerate how developers build and deploy apps – without sacrificing rich functionality that’s needed to make such apps a success.

by Yves de Montcheuil (@ydemontcheuil)

Tags: Alpha, apps, BYOA, low-code, integration, mobile, model, RMAD, security, SSL,

Building and deploying mobile and web business apps is often a compromise between project speed, and functionality.

Alpha Anywhere 4.3 takes ‘low-code solutions’ to a new level, leveraging model-driven design for what Alpha Software’s vice president of marketing Amy Groden-Morrison called a “coding-optional approach” designed to support design and delivery of apps – by both developers and less tach-savvy line of business professionals.

Alpha Software’s chief technical officer Dan Bricklin provided more perspective on the low-code, or “RMAD” approach to rapid development:

RMAD stands for Rapid Mobile App Development and it means that the system is designed to build applications in significantly less time than traditional coding.

Alpha Anywhere is a model-driven “low-code” development system for rapidly developing and deploying enterprise-level, cross-platform mobile and web business applications using HTML5 technologies. The advantages of RMAD are obvious: instead of writing and debugging line after line of code to create your application, you instead build your application visually, and let the underlying system write the code for you.

More technical details about this model-driven system can be found in a seven-minute video.

Alpha Software’s CEO Richard Rabins put it this way, “Alpha Anywhere’s unique ‘coding optional’ approach gives customers the confidence that they will never hit the wall when building real-world applications rapidly.”

Other enhancements in Alpha Anywhere 4.3 take advantage of the latest mobile device capabilities, while enabling development by people in business units and making developers extremely productive, he added. “Companies adopting Alpha Anywhere for mobile and web application development and delivery can take full advantage of the knowledge and skills that already exist in the people they already have,” Rabins noted.

In her blog, Groden-Morrison cited the need to simplify app development, to better support not-so-tech-savvy users, including the non-professional ‘citizen developer’. In her post, Write-Your-Own-Apps is the Next Big Trend she wrote

By now it’s well-known that we live in a bring-your own-device (BYOD) world in which many companies let their employees use the mobile devices of their choosing, rather than forcing them to standardize on a single piece of mobile hardware.

And now comes the next natural evolution: BYOA, bring your own apps. With BYOA, employees use apps of their own choosing that do work that in that the past the company and its technology might do, such as coordinating work hours with other employees and answering questions the human relations department would typically be asked.

Given that companies are starting to allow employees to use their own apps at work, it brings up the next question: How about WYOA, write your own apps? These days, you don’t need to be a professional developer to write apps - you can be a line-of-business employee, tech analyst, or just someone who wants to give it a try. These employees taking a crack at developing apps are now being called “citizen developers.” A WYOA world would be even more effective for employees and companies than a BYOA world, because citizen developers would create apps that are finely tuned for their specific jobs and businesses.

Alpha Anywhere 4.3 also sports these expanded capabilities.

Expanded Data Integration - Two new database engines are auto-installed with 4.3: REDIS, a popular database for storing name/value pairs, working with queues and many other use cases; and SQL Server LocalDB, which allows developers to utilize an enterprise-grade SQL database, even if they don't have access to a SQL database of their own.

More Built-in Rapid Development / Low Code Features - Version 4.3 introduces a variety of new features to speed business app development, including low-code/no-code Action Javascript for Google Address Autocompletions and for sending text messages via SMS.

Deployment Features - Version 4.3 speeds application delivery with two new ways to test and deploy apps, while maintaining Alpha Anywhere’s market lead in robust offline capabilities:

The new PhoneGap shell allows developers to load UX components for testing without the need to rewrap the component in PhoneGap. By using this method, developers save significant time usually required to rewrap the app, downloading it to a mobile device and install it.

The Application Cache (an HTML5 feature widely supported by various browsers) allows you to build web apps that are loaded into the browser and can continue to function even if an Internet connection is lost.

Enhanced Security - Along with the built-in Alpha Anywhere security framework, version 4.3 now includes TSL/SSL Drivers for SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, MariaDB as well as other platforms, to encrypt/decrypt between the server-based application layer and the backend SQL database. In addition, Version 4.3 now supports HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) to protect against protocol downgrade attacks and cookie hijacking.

“With these [security upgrades], Alpha Anywhere scores an A+ rating with Qualys SSL Labs, an authority on Internet security,” Rabins noted.

“Resulting apps offer full access to mobile hardware and native-quality user experiences. Customers are able to develop and deliver secure and sophisticated enterprise apps with robust offline capability, mobile optimized forms and rich media support in days or weeks.” Groden-Morrison added.

Alpha Anywhere 4.3 is available now at no charge to current subscribers. New users can get a free trial of Alpha Anywhere.

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