ViziApps

ViziApps built its reputation as the only platform that allows users to create robust, data-centric mobile apps without coding.

But for IT departments and app creators who want to use their programming skills to further customize their apps, JavaScript support in ViziApps makes that possible. Adding JavaScript provides the ability to add unique “glue logic” to apps, giving ViziApps app builders ways to include more complex operations in hybrid mobile apps.

Features and functionality that ViziApps app creators can provide with JavaScript include:

• Using the accelerometer
• Media capture (media files)
• Connection (check network state and cellular network information)
• Enhanced camera operations
• Using the compass
• Accessing on-device Contacts (work with the contact database)
• File transfers
• Geo-location mapping
• Play media (record and play back audio files)
• Send notifications
• Accessing storage (hook into native storage options)

JavaScript capabilities in ViziApps open up new ways of making mobile apps even more innovative. For example, a user could incorporate JavaScript as a way to record a message in a ViziApps hybrid mobile app. Another use might be to populate maps using Google Maps and the mobile device’s GPS geo-location capabilities and then provide that information to hybrid mobile app users.

Once a mobile app built with ViziApps is published, getting app updates and upgrades to users is easy and free! ViziApps pushes bug fixes, new functionality, and other enhancements to user devices automatically.

That means that updated mobile apps do not have to be re-submitted to the Apple App Store or Google Play for another round of reviews before publishing. After an app is updated (for example, with new features or content), the new version of the app will run the next time the app is opened. The app user will see the message at right.

By allowing changes to occur in the background on user devices, ViziApps has streamlined the update process, making it easy for mobile app creators, as well as users.

Best of all, updating an app created with ViziApps is free, and there is no charge for getting live updates to users’ smartphones and tablets.

How do I create a login for my mobile app? That’s a question we hear frequently from ViziApps users who want to create apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices.  Here’s an example that addresses that question, illustrating how to add a login for a hybrid app that uses JavaScript.In this example, the app requires a user to enter a name and password and then click the login button. When the button is clicked, the app queries a Google Docs spreadsheet to access two sets of data: a list of users and a separate list of alert messages.

To prepare to build this type of app, then, you’ll need a list of users and alert messages, provided on two sheets within a separate spreadsheet.  See the example below.

Each sheet in the spreadsheet can be thought of as a table within an SQL database.

The field names for the tables are in in the first row of data.

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Forecasts on the use of smartphones in the enterprise highlight the need for mobile business apps – to meet current and future demand.

In 2013, smartphones will comprise 54% of all global cellphone shipments, according to the IHS iSuppli Wireless Communications market tracker report. That will mark a significant milestone: for the first time smartphones will account for more than half of cellphone shipments worldwide. And that milestone will be reached two years earlier than was previously estimated.

The growth of smartphone shipments can be attributed to several trends in the market over the past year. Specifically, IHS iSuppli reports, smartphones have become increasingly affordable while the availability of a wider range of models has provided consumers greater choice. In Asia-Pacific, those trends have translated into growing sales of low-end smartphones, while in the U.S. and Europe sales of midrange and high-end smartphones have jumped.

The popularity of smartphones has, and will continue to have, repercussions in the enterprise, where employees have enthusiastically adopted mobile technology.  ABI Research, for example, predicts that smartphones will continue to be important to the global workforce, and that by 2017, 2.4 billion employees worldwide will use those devices for work. That type of growth, says ABI Research Enterprise Practice Director Dan Shey, underscores the need to provide all employees with tools, apps and services they can access and use with their smartphones.

As reported in an earlier ViziApps blog post, most companies are supporting BYOD in some form, and according to the results of an AppCentral report, employers are making one or more custom mobile apps available to their workforces. In addition, non-employees, such as partners and contractors, are also being supplied with mobile apps tailored to a particular business need.

Today it’s no longer necessary to single out “mobile” employees. Smartphone users in all areas of the enterprise can now be considered mobile since they carry considerable computing power wherever they go. That’s why all employees could benefit from mobile business apps. They need a full range of mobile business apps to meet their needs – from simple productivity tools to more complex apps that can access and deliver critical business data. Those are the types of mobile apps our customers are creating with ViziApps.

Mobile App Management solution provider AppCentral has published a report that confirms what many have long suspected: enterprises are building and deploying custom mobile apps. And not just for their employees. Partners, distributors and contractors are also getting mobile apps built specifically by companies that recognize the need to provide productivity tools for the extended mobile workforce.

The AppCentral report, “Custom Mobile App Usage in the Workplace,” summarizes finding based on a survey of 200 people, representing 100 companies, who use smart mobile devices to perform their jobs.

One of the most interesting findings for readers of this blog: 68% of respondents indicated that their employers made one or more custom mobile apps available to them.  In addition, non-employees, such as partners and contractors, are also being supplied with mobile apps tailored to a particular business need. And 62% of companies surveyed allow their employees to bring their mobile devices to work.

At ViziApps we view BYOD as a significant driver for custom business apps. Our users are leveraging ViziApps to create mobile apps without coding. In companies that have not anticipated the popularity of BYOD or the demand for mobile apps it would generate, business users are building apps with ViziApps in significantly less time and with much smaller budgets than they would taking a traditional approach.

The AppCentral survey found that IT is not the main funding source for the development of the custom mobile apps being built in the enterprise. Instead, funding comes from business units (for 36%) or marketing and executive leadership budgets (for 31%), where the need for apps originates.

Those findings reflect a trend that jibes with forecasts Gartner made last year, which predicted that by 2015, custom mobile app projects will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4:1.

Based on its findings, AppCentral recommends investing in custom mobile apps as a way to remain competitive. We can’t disagree.

ViziApps instructional videos help businesses of all sizes take full advantage of the ViziApps platform to build mobile apps for use by customers, employees, partners, and others.  Watch those videos to understand how to use the powerful features of the ViziApps platform for creating apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and Android tablets.

ViziApps is a do it yourself mobile apps platform that enables organizations of all sizes to rapidly design and build custom data-rich mobile applications for business with no coding. Each video focuses on a specific feature or features, demonstrating how to use the ViziApps no-coding approach to build data-rich apps.

The videos offer a convenient way to see ViziApps capabilities in action, either before getting started on a mobile app building project or anytime during the creative process.  Features covered by the videos include:

• creating mobile app layout design
• designing tables
• using HTML panels
• creating mobile apps with card swipe payments
• designing alerts, web views, audio and video
• using the picker function in mobile apps

ViziApps is first and foremost a platform that allows users to create robust, data-centric mobile apps without coding. But for app creators who want to use their programming skills to further customize their apps, new JavaScript support in ViziApps makes that possible. With the addition of custom JavaScript, a wide range of additional features can be included. For instance, by incorporating unique “glue logic”, ViziApps app builders can include more complex app operations in their mobile apps.

(If you haven’t tried ViziApps yet, start now by signing up for a free account.)

This new JavaScript capability opens up new ways of making mobile apps even more innovative. For example, a user could incorporate JavaScript as a way to record a message in a ViziApps hybrid app.  Another use for JavaScript might be to populate maps using a mobile device’s GPS geo-location capabilities, then provide that information to Google Maps. In the ViziApps Studio, where our users build mobile business apps, we have provided the option of using custom JavaScript as a way to extend ViziApps functionality and distinguish our users’ mobile apps in a highly competitive marketplace.

Recent enhancements to the ViziApps mobile app creation platform allow testing of spreadsheet queries directly from the ViziApps Studio. In other words, it is no longer necessary to go out of ViziApps to your mobile device to test individual spreadsheet queries.

In response to requests from our users, we added this new capability to speed mobile app development and eliminate the need for app creators to move in and out of the ViziApps Studio to test every query made to a database.  (To take advantage of ViziApps data management capabilities, sign up for a free ViziApps account here if you haven’t already.)

Now mobile app creators can use this new graphical query tester early in the app design process to verify which queries are working and to identify issues that require attention. Every spreadsheet query in the ViziApps graphical query tree now has a green icon that represents this new testing tool for that particular query.

When a user clicks on it, a pop-up appears with that query for testing.

The tester works for all query types. For update, insert and where condition tests, the app creator enters test values in the empty device fields and clicks the “Test” button. That simple action submits the query and then displays the results in a second graphical response tree. Both single values and array values are displayed, as well as any query errors that may occur.

See for yourself how we’ve enhanced ViziApps data management capabilities by streamlining the testing of database queries within the ViziApps Studio.

ViziApps provides app creators with a major advantage – the ability to quickly produce data-rich mobile business apps without coding.

And now, with an online guide available in the ViziApps Studio, app makers have a handy reference to help them build apps using Google Docs spreadsheets for access to a wide range of data, including text, images, and maps.  The searchable documentation speeds development of robust data-rich apps for the iPhone and iPad and Android smartphones and tablets.

Designing and building a mobile business app with ViziApps is free. If you haven’t already, sign up for a ViziApps account here.

To check out the data management documentation, simply look for this button in the manage data catalog and click it:

ViziApps users tell us that delivering their business data into the hands of mobile users is driving new revenue and attracting new customers for their business. Providing mobile access to business data is what sets their apps apart from their competitors.

To make the most of your business data in your next mobile app, take a look at the new data management documentation in the ViziApps Studio. There you will learn how to present and manage data in a way that gives your app users the information they need – wherever they are.

Topics covered by the data management guide include:

• Introduction to database commands
• Updating and deleting data
• Incorporating images and maps
• Using Google Docs spreadsheets
• Data Management best practices

This is just a sampling of the topics provided to help app creators select, create, and efficiently manage data for use in their mobile business apps. Check it out by clicking the “Spreadsheet User Guide” on the Manage Data page in your free ViziApps Studio account.

If you’ve been thinking about creating a mobile app for your business but haven’t made much progress, consider two approaches that could help you reach your goal.

#1 Make a do-it-yourself mobile app.

New, disruptive technologies are making it possible for business people with basic office software skills to develop effective, visually appealing mobile apps. And with a robust DIY mobile app platform like ViziApps, enterprise business units, as well as small and medium sized businesses, can create mobile applications without skilled engineering resources. This approach does not require a sizable mobile app development budget or the technical expertise of an internal IT group or an outside programmer.

Mobile application development platforms that provide a drag-and-drop process for designing and creating mobile apps offer a way to meet the mobile app gap many businesses are experiencing. In significantly less time that it can take to design and develop an enterprise-quality application, a business can design and build a custom mobile app and publish it in the Apple App Store or in Google Play.

At a time when businesses are looking at ways to provide better customer service, the DIY approach offers significant cost and time savings, putting affordable mobile business apps within reach of organizations of all sizes.

#2 Enlist Expert Services to Build A DIY Mobile App

Producing a sophisticated mobile business app that incorporates business data from a Google Docs spreadsheet or SQL server can be accomplished in days on a platform like ViziApps. But for some people, even a day or two is more than they can spare to build a mobile app.

Those businesses can still take advantage of the cost and time savings the ViziApps “no coding” mobile app platform offers. ViziApps app development professionals work with business owners and enterprise managers to design and create mobile apps for a tenth the cost (or even less) than the cost of a traditional enterprise application. Now, those businesses can get a branded web, native, or hybrid app to meet their functional and aesthetic specifications built for them at very low cost.

Depending on their preferences, we can utilize the features of an iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone or tablet and provide access to whatever data our customers require. For example, we work on apps designed to expand revenue-generating channels, incorporating features such as geo-location marketing, mobile payments and mobile social media integration, as well as apps for internal use.

Whichever approach a business takes to creating a mobile app, the DIY path or the route leveraging ViziApps professional app design services, the result is an attractive, low-cost mobile app tailored to meet current business needs and be updated easily whenever those needs change.