What is Application Development?

Application development has become a cornerstone of technological advancement and many businesses around the world rely heavily on its function.

Applications and application development have significantly changed the way we engage with technology. Both are transforming our interactions into seamless experiences that enhance productivity and communication. Applications have enabled businesses to carry out tasks with efficiency and ease by bridging the gap between users and complex systems.

But what comes to mind when you hear the term “application development”? Over the last few years, the application development process has certainly changed. It has become more streamlined than when developers were hardcoding everything, but those looking on the outside may not know the process.

This blog will explore application development in its various forms, including cloud application development, web application development and cross-platform application development. There will also be additional information regarding the steps in the application development lifecycle.

What Are the Types of Application Development?

Application development can be defined as taking steps to build, test and deploy applications in a business setting. If a business or organization requires a specific type of application to be created, then the processes may differ.

Every final type of application may follow similar steps. Still, depending on what type of final product is needed or what platform it is on, a developer needs to use a different methodology.

Web Application Development

Developing web applications includes making applications that can be accessed online and run in web browsers. HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the most common web technologies used to create these applications. They offer a versatile and platform-independent approach, as users can access them from various devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Web apps offer various functionalities, ranging from straightforward webpages to modern business systems. They can be developed using tools and frameworks like React, Angular or Progress Developer Studio, which speed up development and make it possible to create dynamic, interactive user interfaces. APIs (application programming interfaces) can be used by web apps to integrate with external services and give users more capabilities.

Cloud Application Development

Developing software applications for the cloud entails utilizing its resources for infrastructure and services. These programs are made to be adaptable, scalable and accessible from any location with an internet connection.

Developing cloud applications has several benefits. The infrastructure and resources of cloud computing platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) are accessible to developers. This allows for easy scalability, cost-effectiveness and high availability. Because cloud apps can use a variety of cloud services, including storage, databases and artificial intelligence, developers can concentrate on creating the key functionality of their applications without worrying about the supporting infrastructure.

Cross-Platform Application Development

Cross-platform development allows developers to build applications that run seamlessly on multiple platforms with a single codebase, such as iOS, Android and desktop environments. Faster development cycles, lower costs and simpler maintenance are just a few benefits of cross-platform development. Delivering consistent experiences across various platforms and devices helps businesses reach a wider audience.

Cross-platform application development helps developers save time and effort by allowing them to write code once and deploy it across various platforms. These frameworks often enable access to native device functionality, ensuring that cross-platform apps deliver a native-like user experience.

What are the Stages of Application Development?

Every application has a development lifecycle consisting of five stages. Every organization may have its own quirks for each stage, but many applications will follow a similar process like the one listed below.

Planning and Research

At the beginning of the development process, a team (or single developer) will start by figuring out the application’s purpose. What does it accomplish? Does it mitigate an internal problem? During this time, other parties will be figuring out costs, market demand, competition and other subjects like that. Most importantly, however, the developers will need to know what the software and/or hardware requirements may be for the project.

Design and Prototyping

This stage involves drafting the application by using wireframes to visualize what the potential finished product might look like. From there, creating a prototype can help the development team see how it might function and pick up on potential problems.

Code Development

Stage three is where the team will note what functions require written code. This is done to ensure parts of the application will operate as intended from the design and prototyping phase. Other factors of this stage include working on the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) on the front end. The back end will include work on the servers.

Testing and Optimization

Everything in technology and hardware requires a testing phase, and applications are no different. The development team will verify its functions and user experience to ensure it provides what it needs while working efficiently.

Release and Maintenace

After ironing out any glitches or fixing usability issues, stage five involves putting the application into the final stages of production and, eventually, deployment. This does not mean the developers should move on post-release. It is crucial to pay attention to any issues that may occur and test solutions that can be patched in.

Progress OpenEdge App Development Capabilities

Progress OpenEdge offers a comprehensive environment that enables developers to build and deploy business applications. OpenEdge provides tools and technologies to develop, integrate and manage applications across various platforms and devices.

Here are some key features and aspects of OpenEdge application development:

• Advanced Business Language (ABL): Advanced Business Language (ABL) empowers developers to manage relational data in a way that best matches their business needs, significantly boosting productivity. An OpenEdge developer can create APIs for .NET, JavaScript, Java clients, Java messaging and even map database schema to XML formats, while still leveraging the efficiency of ABL.

Learn more about ABL

• Progress Application Server for OpenEdge (PAS for OpenEdge): The Progress Application Server (PAS) for OpenEdge is an efficient, highly scalable, secure and standards-based application server requiring fewer system resources and easing installation, configuration and management. This innovative technology helps you bring your application into the future by modernizing experiences and limiting security vulnerabilities.

Learn more about PAS for OpenEdge

• OpenEdge RDBMS Advanced Enterprise Edition: Progress OpenEdge RDBMS Advanced Enterprise Edition (AEE) combines six great products that help better manage and continuously protect your data. The result is a scalable, multi-processing environment that supports thousands of concurrent users and terabytes of data, with increased efficiency and high availability.

Learn more about OpenEdge RDBMS

Understanding the requirements and leveraging the proper development tools and frameworks are essential whether you are creating applications for the cloud, the web or numerous platforms. The world of application development is dynamic and ever-evolving, continually presenting new opportunities and challenges. Developers may produce innovative and unique applications that help define the direction of technology by keeping up with the most recent trends and technologies.

Get started and learn more about Progress OpenEdge today!

Learn more about OpenEdge