Tag: app developer

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Why To Use Kotlin As Developmental Language In Android Today

kotlin app developer

So Android developer are you still working in Java , even after official announcement of Kotlin an an official supported language to write Android apps ? Do you still have a deep feel than Java is better and you don’t have enough reason for change ?

Lets look at some of the points below which according to me is bit risky but one of the best then you can go if you plan to adopt Kotlin .

Language And Environment Are Mature

The Kotlin is mature enough to handle almost everything , as because it has gone through numerous of stages before a final 1.0 release has come out in the market . The Alpha and Beta version of this has existed for several years in the market to use it in real project and after than a final version has rolled out .

Kotlin already consist of almost all the features that are existing in Java , thus working in Kotlin is awesome in that sense .

Easing Android App Development

According to Winklix , the only viable alternative that we have address till now is Kotlin . Kotlin is simply mixed with power . The development time is almost same as in Java ( sometimes it also appears to be faster ) , and it is not like other tools namely Scala which are heavy and complex to use.

Even the library used to write Kotlin is very small and will obviously not increase the method count that much .

It Can Be Easily Integrated With Android Studio

Kotlin can be well integrated with Android studio within 10 minutes without any hiccups , and that is the case when you don’t know a K about Kotlin .

The best thing being it works just like Java , you can run from IDE , debug without following the lengthy process , use instant run and more . We can simply can what you have imagined so far is available to be used on Kotlin .

If You Are Android Developer , You Need To Upgrade Yourself

Are you still working with Java 6 . Damm you are an outdated programmer then . Using a new language like Kotlin opens up the doors of your mind and will force you to think in a different way , in a new way !!

This new knowledge will help you wash your brain and you will be able to gain new knowledge of the code even if you don’t change the language you are using . Now as I have learned Kotlin , it helps to solve the things in different manner in Java but Kotlin has helped me in leading new concepts that I was not known before .

In addition to above , you will also become more versatile . If you look at the languages like Swift , Ruby , Groovy it will look like very similar language as they are using the similar concepts .

Also as a developer , your value will increase by default if you jump to another developmental language .

Much Safer Than Java

With using Kotlin , it results in :

  • Less errors as we usually write less code , thus making more difficult for the code to fail at any stage thereby giving us stable version of app .
  • Compiler in Kotlin helps you detect errors at compile time and so the error at the run time will not be found in any case
  • Code can be easily understood if someone else read the code .

This thus helps to spend less time with no errors and less time on bigs fixation and hence will definitely saves money ( Where time is considered as money )

Much Easier To Learn

One of the biggest advantages being is Java developers can understand the whole code even without studying the Kotlin language . This is because Jetbrains ( innovators of Kotlin language ) developers are much concern about moving from Java must be simple with developing a language which closely looks like Java only .

Thanks to simplicity of language and with the help of IDE and compiler , you can learn the basic language at lighting fast speed .

As per my personal experience , anyone will not take more than two weeks to write a well written code in Kotlin .

Conclusion

Kotlin is friendly language , and in case you want to be the innovators of new technology and want to improve your skills , developing a mobile app using Kotlin is always preferred .

At Winklix – A leading mobile app development company , we always love to use technological advancement to get the most benefit out of it .

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Is Using React Native Worthwhile ?

react native app

A Problem Of Past

” I want to launch my application across all platform on web and mobile . I have heard that reactive native would be the best choice for me ! Is it so ?

A user can be categorised into two parts . The first one being who would love to browse website through through favourite computer , the other one being who would like to use both website and mobile application simultaneously .

The world’s largest social platform Facebook reported around 74 % of the traffic coming from mobile application . This indeed forces any business owner to focus on both the platform , ie web and mobile app in order to attract largest audience as possible .

But situation really gets worse when you have to laugh across all the platform as mobile itself is divided into two or more competitive subtitles , namely Android and iOS , and they all are budget constraint also which really becomes difficult when you are budget constraint .

Problem : The programming language used in iOS application , Android application and website are completely different from one another . This simply implied that once you are done with the website coding , the same can not be used for any of the mobile platform and so on . You have to code specifically for that platform in order to launch your application over their . This also implies that the cost of developing with also measured on high scale depending on the number of platform you want to launch your application on .

The average price of the medium sized application comes around somewhere around $20000 and about $ 50,000 for an website.

“Learn Once , Write Anywhere “

React – An open source framework developed by Facebook in 2013 allows developer to create web user interface using javascript  , which is based on reusable visual component , capable of handing the data which changes over time without reloading the page .

React Native – brother of React is also developed by Facebook , its Father , almost 2 years back to extend its power to mobile world . It helps to manipulate iOS and Android native elements to one single React Native object , exposing a unified API .

React native build a bridge between web and mobile platform as react native and react are build on same language , thus making the collaboration possible for both business login and backend integration .

The advantage of using this platform is you have to just learn once , and you can write it anywhere . All you need to know is JavaScript and React set of tools , to implement anything you want on any of the platform .

The Ideal Web Developer Playground

As Seen By Native Mobile App Developer

React native facilitates using modern tool and feature from web to iOS and android develop .This facilitates deploying code on all platforms with maximum code reuse and thereby saving cost and time . It also has a feature named as hot reload by which you can instantly see the changes without reload of the mobile app or recompiling the whole project just to see one minor change .

But isn’t challenging that a developer who have spend over years learning the native mobile app development , now moves on to react native , which means learning everything in it right from the scratch . Using react native means building everything right from the scratch with complex process that does not involve use of Xcode or Android studio , nor it has been recommended by official guideline .

One of the biggest disadvantages of using react native is when you got trucked somewhere , internet will not going to help you out to solve a bizarre bug – which may be the obvious case in the first few few of its learning process . This becomes burdensome , which might not be the case in case of using native tools .

As Seen By Web Developer

React native uses javascript as main programming languages and thereby makes native iOS and android accessible to web developer .

It also relies on css for designing purposes and XML for UI elements , web developer can take the advantage of it in very less time , without even learning the new language .

Its also release the power of web developer to work on native app for the first time , it offer the things which web developer may have not experience yet on the browser like touch element , using of android and iOS UI element and more .

Competitors

We can say React native competitors are PhoneGap or Cordova . But they are no where stands in respect to React native platform , as they both produced web based view application , and not like the javascript code which is used for building native application using react native . React native also facilitates smoother animation , auto page refresh without actually refreshing the page , better performance and more .

As Phonegap has lots of shortcoming , that is the reason many of the mobile app has been migrated from Hybrid to React Native . At Winklix , we have been always approached by client for converting their hybrid app into native one  . But we have not heard or receive any enquiry for converting any high end react native app to hybrid app .

React native allows debugging approach on chrome or safari browser to troubleshoot layout and allows inspecting element .

Unlike Flutter ( Read what is Flutter here) , react native uses javascript languages. Flutter is based in dart languages which developer would first have to be familiar with before going under the development process , and hence react native is much better language to be proven with .

But Flutter recommended IDE is Android studio , thus making the use of extensive tool set in android  studio . But Flutter has less styling defined , thus making it harder to implement animation . Much younger than react native , Flutter still has a long way to go in . Flutter is still in beta version and may take around an year to release a stable version for the same .

Is React Native A Tenable Option

At Winklix , we have a specialised team for each Android and iOS mobile app development , but choice between choosing React native or going on with native application only is a long lasting discussion for over years .

In conclusion to the all elements listed above , the choice of choosing the best should be discussed on project to project basis , wherein we can consider number of elements before coming to any conclusion .

One of the strongest to choose platform is clients desire to use a consolidated technology . For most of the project we develop at Winklix , our team would prefer to go on as of now with native development due to our expert knowledge in the same , which might impact when we use React Native in early stages of the projects . But when we are in consideration of larger project for all the platform – it may probably makes sense at that time .

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What Is Flutter And Its Pros And Risk For App Owners

flutter and winklix

Is Flutter good for mobile app development ? What essentials are need to be known by app owners , product owners and everyone who is involved in developing a mobile app through Flutter .

Google I/O 2018 fortunately dedicated very much of its attention to Flutter . Almost 25 % of all Google task will refer to this SDK. As technology is chaining on fast scale , apps on Google Play keep on increasing which are developed by using Flutter , and we may say its just the beginning of something great .

Flutter is trending technology and is getting hotter day by day due to its highly demandable usage . So in case you are an app development company involved in developing or improving mobile application , you should be aware about what Flutter is and its Pros and Cons .

What Is Flutter ?

Flutter is Google mobile app SDK , with inbuilt frameworks , widgets and tools facilitating developers to build and deploy visual attractive fast mobile apps on both Android and iOS platforms . Refer official Flutter Website

Flutter is a medium by which a cross platform mobile app can be developed , instead of developing with android and iOS versions of apps separately .

What  Flutter uuis giving us :

  • The very first thing is it’s free and open source .
  • The complete Flutter is based on Dart – which is object oriented programming language which is really very easy to learn .
  • Flutter provide its own customised widgets which gives highly performable and customisable engine .
  • Flutter has a widget known as rick widget which aids in creating own custom designing .
  • Due to the above given features and high performance , it is becoming the serious competitors for React Native and Native App development .

Now lets have a quick look at pros and cons of Flutter !

Top advantages of using Flutter for Mobile App Owners :

When it comes to mobile app development , cost on the basis of time together with awesome UI is all this matters . Lets look at some of the advantages of using Flutter as development language :

    1. Faster Code Writing  : Developers use Flutter for faster code writing and more dynamically app development process . One of the best thing that a coder can do is they can check the changes done in the code straight away in app ! This is called the hot reload which usually takes a milli second and helps codes to fix bugs and see changes on the spot .and thus enabling them to experiment faster .  Hot reload  is a feature offering designers and developers to check the changes and animation on the spot  . Whereas when talking about the native app development , the projects takes usually minutes to build , and developer has to usually wait for every single change .
    2. One single code for both Android and iOS platform : Yes its possible . Developers has to write just one set of codes for both Android and iOS platform thus saving huge cost of investment and thereby decreasing app development cost. But in case you want to differentiate between 2 app , then you can do that also. 
    3. Testing time reduces : It is obvious that if you have same app for 2 platform , the testing time for developers reduces as they have to test only once thereby proving quality assurance faster .
    4. Faster Apps :Flutter built apps are faster and does not hang while scrolling down or so and thus gives us faster performance .
    5. Design loveable by everyone : Flutter is designed in such a way that it allows coders to customise the existing widgets together with designing the existing widgets . Want to see the list of Flutter widget availability , quickly check it out here .

Cons Of Using Flutter

    1. Still in beta version : Flutter offered by Google is still in beta version , the most recent beta version is launched in April , 2018 which is called Flutter Beta 2 . This actually means Flutter team have not launched any stable version of Flutter and hence may require lot of changes in coding in near future if we launch the mobile app on Flutter as of now . Flutter team has recently said in press release ” We will continue to add improvements on the basis of users feedback and some of the key features are still not available for deployment .
    2. Libraries and Support Impressive – But still not optimised completely for native app development : Although Flutter is impressive technology and Google has not left any mark in providing helpful libraries but the fact is flutter is still new and not every functionality which you need can be found on these libraries . This means it may be really time consuming in case you need to develop custom module for any specific need .

Winklix Recommendation And Wrap Up

In our opinion , Flutter has more advantages for business as well as development team than risk , but we must wait for the stable version for release for building an outstanding mobile app that fits your custom mobile app 

needs and requirement for both android and iOS versions . We are not sure when we can get the stable release version  , but may be we have to wait for just some another months to get the stable release version of Flutter.

If you have used flutter , suggestion and comments are always welcomed . We wish you a good luck with Flutter .