From Binary to No Code, an history of IT

Quite unknown a few years ago in the world of web and mobile development, the Low code is gaining ground and aims to be a major player in the development world in the coming years.

What is “Low Code” ?

It is a way to develop and design software applications faster and simpler, significantly reducing the amount of code to write yourself. Several positive points about this new system: It allows experienced developers to increase their performance by not neglecting the quality of their productions, and allows Citizen developers to create applications more simply and intuitively. Indeed, by using visual modeling through a graphical interface, configuring and building applications has never been more accessible.

To take a slightly more explicit example, let’s take the building case. We can either build brick by brick or in a more efficient way using standard components, but nevertheless customizable. All within automated processes, allowing a shorter delivery time for the products, without altering their quality.

Low code platforms allow you to avoid repetitive tasks, to focus on the key parts of your application in order to increase your productivity. In addition, they rely on standard market technologies, which has two advantages. On the one hand, it allows you to rely on standard components and on the other hand, it allows you to create components for specific needs tailored to your business.

Let us explain more precisely how it works and how to create applications with Low code.

Many developers in the software world rely on different libraries and Api’s that will allow them to focus on THE added value they can bring to the application.

Low code will allow these developers to offer tools that help them visually build complete applications, using the “drag and drop” method. It allows a better overall vision of the application’s construction and a time’s optimization, thus reducing considerably the number of lines of code to be written. That means being more productive while having an equally optimal quality.

Low code development platforms can be divided into 4 main elements:

First of all, there is a visual development environment, where you will be able to define the user interface thanks to drag and drop, to add actions and animations. This is what will create the base of the application, both visually and functionally. It is even possible to add your own hand-code to add custom features.

Then there are the connectors that allow us to extract data from scattered sources. The Convertigo platform has many connectors such as SAP, Web Services, Nosql, Baserow, Salesforce, Twitter, Linkedin, Office365 and others.
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Also, there are automated tools that will build the application, dump it, maintain his organization, test the final version for the user...

Even better, AI can be used to automatically generate applications components or assist the developper when he has to write come code using Copilot

Most of Low code platforms have these 4 main features. However, they are not identical. Each platform has different specificities. Some are more focused on the front-end and the visual part, others on the back-end, favouring connectors…

And others like Convertigo, which have a complete offer and often called “fullstack” platforms.

It is also necessary to distinguish no code platforms than low code platforms. They are made for non developers that allow business users to create applications but with limited possibilities, and low customization capabilities. Here we will talk about “Citizen development".

On the other hand we find platforms like Convertigo that in no way limit the creative and technical capacities of the developers and that allow to extend the capacities on creating reusable custom components.