A Few Key No-Code Terms

No-Code Terms:

•  aPaaS (Application Platform as a Service) -  Cloud-based software services which allow you to develop and build applications on their platforms in exchange for payment of a recurring fee.
• API Connector - A platform feature that allow you to set up an API connection with an external service that you want to use in your app (a customer payment service for example).
• Business Process Automation - Improving business processes by automating repetitive manual tasks.
• Business Process Management - BPM involves designing, monitoring, and executing inter-related business processes. 
• Business Process Reengineering - Redesigning and rebuilding business processes to improve performance.
• Canvas Apps - Refers to applications created by visually designing and building a program by placing components on a blank screen or "canvas".
• Citizen Developers - People with no background in program coding who are developing their own apps thanks to no-code app platforms.
• Digital Transformation - Transforming services or businesses by replacing non-digital or manual processes with digital processes.
• Hyperautomation - Refers to the enhancement of business processes through the use of artificial intelligence, particularly machine learning models.
• Microservice Architecture - A software development method that looks at applications as a loosely connected group of self-contained pieces or "microservices", which can be developed quickly and efficiently on no-code platforms.
• No-code Apps - Applications created on development platforms that employ visual modelling to build software programs. Users can access a library of pre-built components that they can drag-and-drop onto a graphic interface in order to construct various web and/or mobile applications.
• Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) - Web-based application software built using common web technologies including HTML, CSS and JavaScript. PWAs are intended to work on any platform that uses a standards-compliant browser, including both desktop and mobile devices.
• Rapid Application Developement (RAD) - An iterative approach to software development that emphasizes rapid release of prototypes followed by modifications based on user feedback.
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) -  Robotic Process Automation is the use of computer software to emulate (and possibly integrate) the actions of a human being in order to execute a business process.
• Template - A pre-built app that you can use as a starting point for building your own app.

SAP adds AppGyver

With the rise of no-code and low-code platforms, the current trend is for large companies in the software industry to gobble up one of these platforms to take advantage of the DIY software boom. One of the latest to take that step is the German software giant SAP, which recently acquired the no-code operator AppGyver. 

SAP expects AppGyver to help its customers and partners respond more easily to specific needs and to act as a complement to the company's low-code offering provided by its business partner, Mendix Tech. Also, no major changes to AppGyver are expected as a result of the purchase. AppGyver's policy of providing its Composer Pro platform for free to any organization with less than $10 million in annual income will continue, although new features will probably be restricted to paid plans.

Microsoft Power Automate Desktop is now free for Windows 10 Users

NOTE: Power Automate was previously known as Microsoft Flow.

 A few days ago Microsoft made Power Automate Desktop, its low-code, robotic process automation (RPA) tool, available to all Windows 10 users at no additional cost. To  be clear, Power Automate is only free for personal use - to share flows with others or to make use of AI components or cloud flows, you still have to upgrade to the paid version. To take advantage of the offer for your own use though, just search for "Microsoft Power Automate Desktop" and go to the website, click where it says "Download for free", then click on the downloaded file to install the software.

So, what is "Power Automate Desktop"? Power Automate allows anyone familiar with a particular business process to create an automated, repeatable workflow that can be triggered to perform that process for you. Along with creating workflows, users can also use Power Automate to send reminders about past due tasks, move data between systems based on a predetermined schedule, and talk to more than 275 data sources (or any publicly available API).

Basically, Power Automate is designed to help automate any business process that consists of a series of repetitive steps, such as downloading files from emails and  transferring them to a database. In addition to creating a flow that allows the computer to execute the entire process, you can have Power Automate guide a user from step to step along the way.

In fact you can create three types of flows:

• Event driven flows - Flows that you initiate with a trigger event of some type, followed by a series of actions joined by "connectors".
• Business process flows - Data-driven flows that consist primarily of components pre-chosen according to the data being processed.
• Desktop flows - Flows created by recording yourself performing a series of actions (basically the same way you recorded macros in MS Word or Excel).

One other important feature of Power Automate is its ability to add artificial intelligence to your flows (if you have a paid license). You can add four types of AI models to your flow:

• Form processor - Extracts particular pieces of text from the uploaded image of a form.
• Object detector - Identifies objects from an uploaded image and provides a count of the number objects present in the image.
• Prediction - Predicts whether or not something will happen based on previous historical data.
• Text classification - Categorizes text according  to some classification scheme, making the text easier to analyze. 

For further information and example flows, go to: 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/introduction-power-automate/

Remote Quiz: Bubble Builds a Quiz App

If you haven't heard of it, Remote Quiz is a rapidly growing social learning platform where educators can create real-time quizzes and games for K-12 students. When Jerry Hsiang, the company's owner, acquired Remote Quiz he wanted to expand the business and make it one of the leading social learning sites on the Internet. To do that he needed an extremely flexible quiz app.

Both teachers and parents needed to be able to easily create quizzes by selecting a template and adding their own images, questions, and answers. Then the completed quizzes could be shared remotely on Zoom or Google Hangout. The problem was how to build the app so it could do everything Hsiang wanted and still be easy to modify and enhance.

Hsiang had recently discovered Bubble's no-code development platform and was impressed with the variety of things you can do with Bubble and how easy it was to use. After doing a little experimenting he built the app that forms the basis of the Remote Quiz platform. 

Users can join the platform for free and create their quiz or game by modifying one of the available templates or by using their own content. Users can also see the score of each learner at the end of the quiz, which allows them to adjust the content to focus on areas needing improvement.

If you're interested to see what this Bubble app looks like, you can find more details on Remote Quiz at remotequiz.app. 

Zapier Acquires Makerpad

Zapier, one of the top providers of application integration tools has acquired Makerpad, a major no-code learning community. The purchase gives Zapier 400 employees and an annual revenue of over $100 million dollars according to CEO Wade Foster. However, Foster states that Makerpad will continue to operate largely independently, offering advice to no-code developers including ways that Zapier can help them expand their apps by connecting to the web applications they use everyday.

In case you're not familiar with Zapier, it provides tools to allow you to link together the different web applications you use so you can easily pass data between them. For example, you can integrate apps like Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp, and others in order to automate repetitive tasks you need to carry out, without having to code an interface yourself or hire developers to build the interface.

Makerpad, rather than being an app development platform, is similar to a classroom where you can use various tutorials, templates and tools to learn what can be built without code and how you can do it. The peer community there also provides suggestions and support to help you figure out how to build your project without code.

Makerpad's large, active community of peer developers may be a key part of the acquisition. It gives Zapier a large group of experienced developers providing advice to no-code users and, hopefully, informing those users about Zapier's integration projects and how they can work in tandem with no-code apps.

COBOL and No-Code Apps

OK, so what could a 60-year old programming language have to do with no-code apps? Well, very little except for the one stage of app building that doesn't get much attention - the "program design" phase.

Back before I was dragged kicking and screaming into becoming a manager I was not just a programmer - I was a "programmer/analyst". That meant that I was normally the person who met with the prospective customer and figured out what the customer wanted and how to build a program (or system of programs) to produce the desired output. 

In my opinion, that "design" or planning stage was, and still is, a very important part of building an application, even a fairly simple one. You really need a blueprint of some kind to make sure the program(s) you create run smoothly, efficiently, and do exactly what they're supposed to do.

Creating a detailed set of specifications before starting to write code was always a major part of any COBOL project I worked on and I think that same approach still pays dividends today. Of course. app designs are going to change as they're being built, but having a well thought-out starting point can save a lot of headaches and a lot of re-working of your application. 

If you're interested, here's a website that covers a number of example COBOL projects. It might be worth a few minutes to look at a couple of the more involved projects and just think about how you would design an application like that on your favorite no-code platform:

http://www.csis.ul.ie/cobol/examples/default.htm

Blocks Within Blocks

Most no-code platforms offer you two choices when you decide to create a new app: start from a pre-built template and customize it or start from scratch. Betty Blocks will soon be able to provide you with a third choice - create your app by assembling "Blocks" from their "Block Store". 

No-code apps are built with interface elements, actions, and other objects that are "black boxes", chunks of program code developed by professional programmers. So why not take that concept a step further? With Betty Blocks, if you develop a nifty routine of some kind you can (in the near future) convert that routine to a "block". Then other developers on the platform can insert one or more "blocks" in their app to shorten the app-building process.

The "Block Store" is a little different from a library of plugins in that each block is something that any user could create using the standard features in the platform. However, some program routines can be complicated and time-consuming to construct and blocks could save you time and spare you the headaches involved in creating that routine yourself.

For an overview of what Betty Blocks envisions for the "Block Store" go to: https://docs.bettyblocks.com/en/articles/1786537-block-store-overview.