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Build a mobile app in under 2 hours
Rapid application development using OutSystems
Introduction
Let’s say product X costs $3.99 for 295g and product Y costs $8.99 for 591g, do you know which one is actually cheaper? Now, if I tell you that 100g of product X costs $1.35 and 100g of product Y costs $1.52, wouldn’t that make it much easier to decide which one is cheaper?
To calculate the price per 100g, you would require this formula (100 / Quantity) * Price. The problem is, every time you are in a supermarket, you can’t be recalling the formula and calculating the price of products in your head (unless you’re super fast in Math). Hence, I wanted to build an app that makes this easier.
However, this time I didn’t want to take the regular approach to writing some code and developing a web app that’s responsive. I wanted to look at something new. Something that I haven’t explored already. I was researching what approach I could take to develop a mobile app (and possibly something that’s cross platform) and that’s when I came across OutSystems.
In this article we’ll look at how I built an app in under 2 hours using OutSystems.
Low-code platform for development
Wait, what now? Low-code?
OutSystems claims to be “the most complete low-code platform for building enterprise solutions that drive real business value.” But first, let’s understand what is a low-code platform.
- Visual development (drag-and-drop) approach to application development — One of the key features of a low-code platform is the fact that it enables you to drag and drop components onto your screen, configure a few things, and just like that you have fully functional components in your app without writing any code. To provide you with this visual development, most platforms either require you to download an IDE or use a cloud-based software.
- Easy to learn — Most low-code platforms aim to make their graphical user interface intuitive and easy for developers to learn. Low-code platforms also tend to invest in a lot of…
