Back in 2014, Gartner coined the term “low-code” to recognize platforms that enable users to build custom mobile applications simply by dragging and dropping pre-built features. These tools or platforms does what traditional development approaches (programming languages, libraries, frameworks) do for building an application, but in a fraction of time than the latter.
While such an approach to rapid app development bring in some obvious advantages such as reduced time-to-market, low learning curve etc., they do have some limitations such as
Third party tool integration
No app specific APIs
Scalability
Less security assurance
Certainly, custom software development has an edge over low code/rapid app development tools. However, with businesses calling for rapid time-to-market, scalability, and reliability in their applications, it is important to adopt a smart development approach. One such approach that brings the benefits of low code development, along with customization is building an app using a library of reusable components.
Reusable UI components are designed to apply the power and benefits of reusable or interchangeable components from another application. Such a concept has been accepted in electronic industry, wherein reusable electronic component are founds on circuit boards. Similarly, standard UI components, such as scrollbars, dialogs, push buttons etc. can be used as reused accordingly.
In an application, each component is a piece of UI and these component combine together to a complex application. Component based frameworks like React, VueJS, AngularJS enable developers to build reusable components that can be used across different applications.
Low Code Development with Reusable Components:
Having a library of reusable components means, one can take advantage of pre-built UI components and then merge them altogether to build an full-fledged application. This approach of app development comes packed with different benefits, such as:
Customize the App as you Want: Unlike low code development platforms, reusable components gives the opportunity to customize the app. There is no limit to the creativity, features, and look & feel that can be added to the app.
Scale as the Demand Strike: With reusable components, there is no dependency upon flexibility of a platform. An app, its performance, and features can be extended as the demand strikes.
Saves Testing Time: Since reusable components are already tested for their performance, bugs, and security, using them to build a new app saves a lot of testing time of the QA team.
With all these merits, the time-to-market for an application gets automatically reduced, which is the purpose of a low-code development platform as well. We, at Daffodil follow the low-code development approach with reusable components for most of our projects. With our library of reusable components, we ensure scalable, reliable, and innovative app development, with minimum time to market.