DEV Community: DhiWise

How to convert Figma Design into Flutter Code: 5 Steps Guide 🦋️

DhiWise — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 06:02:03 +0000

In the modern era, for every startup or business entity, building an exclusive app has become indispensable. To reach out to potential customers, businesses must invest in mobile application development. Reason: the number of mobile app users is consistently growing worldwide.

However, building an enterprise mobile application is not a cakewalk. The agile methodology relevant to every mobile application development process includes planning, designing, coding, testing, and maintenance. Quite much, right?

Converting your design to code is the most frustrating and time-consuming task. More so for developers who are not familiar with the designing world.

And that is where DhiWise comes into the scheme of things!

There have been 4 million Figma users and over 2 million Flutter users in the past two years. And, DhiWise mitigates manual conversion of Figma design to Flutter code in a few steps.

In this article, we will learn about converting your Figma design to Flutter code using DhiWise. But before digging deeper into the Figma to Flutter, lets first understand Figma and Flutter briefly.

Note: For Getting above 80 % design accuracy in your Code, Follow These Design Guidelines while designing your Figma.

Figma 🖌

Figma is a popular web-based vector graphics editor and prototyping tool. It comes with additional functionalities supported by desktop applications for macOS and Windows.

It allows mobile users to view Figma prototypes in real-time using Figma mirror companion apps for Android and iOS. It enables designers and developers to create UI and wireframing for web and mobile apps.

Flutter 👩💻

Flutter is an open-source Google UI toolkit to develop beautiful, natively compiled apps for Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Windows, Google Fuchsia, and the web from a single codebase.

Flutter is among the top software repositories. Based on the Github stars, there are over 100,000 apps scripted using Flutter since its first launch. One of the most notable apps is Xianyu created by the Alibaba team, which 50 million people use.

Lets Get Started 🚀

DhiWise helps you bridge the gap between designing and development with its Flutter app builder, mitigating the dependency of designers and developers.

It enables developers to convert their Figma design to production-ready Flutter code in a few steps. Lets learn how to translate the beautiful Figma design into excellent Flutter code using DhiWise.

Step 1: Sign up for DhiWise

First, sign up/Into DhiWise using your Google or GitHub account.

Step 2: Create a new application

Once sign-up is done, you will be directed to the Dashboard. You can search and view the previously created apps, if any. You will find apps divided into three categories: web, mobile, and backend. You can either create an app with Figma URL or, if you dont have a design, check out templates and screens by selecting the second and third options.

In this tutorial, we will go with Figma URL. For that, select Create a new app.

You will be prompted to choose between backend, web, and mobile. We will choose mobile.

Step 3: Add app name, select tech, and add Figma URL.

Add the meaningful app name. Select any mobile technology in which you want your app. The options are android, iOS, and Flutter. I will select Flutter. Add your Figma design URL, and click Create new app.

FYI: You must link your DhiWise account to your Figma account. You can add different accounts to access your Figma designs, and if you put a private or inaccessible Figma URL with the account you have chosen, an error will be displayed.

Step 4: Select the screens youd like to sync to your application

From your Figma design, you may choose the screens and pages you want for your application.

Additionally, half of your work is almost done if you have already set up the prototype in your Figma. For prototypes, DhiWise fetches screen resources automatically, and you dont need to deal with the screen navigation again. The code for it will be added.

When you click submit, DhiWise will convert your UI design into Flutter code in a few minutes.

As shown in the screenshot above, DhiWise algorithm has intelligently added authentication, back navigation, screen navigation, and input field validations to your app after identifying all components of your screens.

Step 5: Screen Configurations

Next, you can set up a splash screen and screen name, view the screen summary, and configure actions such as lifecycle methods and API integrations using DhiWise Smart Editor.

Also, DhiWise lets you change the nature of the screen components (using change view), provided they have been wrongly picked up while importing.

You can also export the code for independent screens from here! (So cool, Right!!)

For the configuration part, here is the detailed Blog about API Integration in DhiWise.

As soon as you are ready with your configuration, build the app and get the source of your application within a few minutes.

After the build is complete, download the source code, or sync your app to git to manage the changes.

Additional Things from DhiWise to You

There are two remarkable features from DhiWise for its developers to make their development life exciting while using DhiWise.

Now you can see the Preview of Your application on different devices after importing your Figma design into DhiWise. Think of this as a built-in Emulator.

Secondly, You can use Figma to Code plugin in Figma to get the code in minutes directly from Figma.

Awesome Right! 😎

Here is the YouTube playlist for the visual representation of this blog: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMJ0858-zE7SHkj3vFE5OH2Nc-QxIxzAn

If you are new to Figma, Here you can learn it easily: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMJ0858-zE7S7DXtSufSR1xrCxGZMeH8h

Here are all the resource links the DhiWise provides to help you get started easily with its app builders.

How to Convert Your Figma Design into React Code: Step by Step Guide ⚛️

DhiWise — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 06:45:33 +0000

Do you want to speed up your React.js application development? Precisely by automatically converting your design into React components!

If yes, DhiWise web app builder is here to save precious time, which you can otherwise use to develop critical application features. The mentioned web app builder can quickly generate production-ready code from your Figma design. And whats important is that it follows the ethos of visual programming to the letter.

In this article, we will learn how DhiWise can help you get a production-ready front-end application, along with features like Page navigation and API integrations.

Before that, lets start with a brief introduction to Figma and React.

Figma 🖌

Figma is a popular web-based vector graphics editor and prototyping tool. It comes with additional functionalities supported by desktop applications for macOS and Windows.

It allows mobile users to view Figma prototypes in real-time using Figma mirror companion appsfor both Android and iOS. Also, it enables designers and developers to create UI and wireframing for web and mobile apps.

React.js

React is a free and open-source front-end JavaScript library for building user interfaces based on UI components. It is maintained by Meta and a community of individual developers and companies.

React is used to build single-page applications. It allows us to create reusable UI components.

For Getting above 80 % design accuracy in your Code, Follow These Design Guidelines while designing your Figma.

Lets Dive deeper into it🚀

Step 1: Sign in to DhiWise

First thing first, Sign into DhiWise using your Google or GitHub account.

Step 2: Create a new application

Once sign-up is done, you will be directed to the Dashboard. You can search and view the previously created apps if any. You will find apps divided into three categories: web, mobile, and backend. You can either create an app with Figma URL or if you dont have a design, check out templates and screens by selecting the second and third options.

In this tutorial, we will go with Figma URL. For that, select Create a new app.

You will be prompted to choose between backend, web, and mobile. We will choose web.

Step 3: Add app name, select tech, and add Figma URL.

Add the meaningful app name, and select React web app. Add your Figma design URL, and click Create new app.

FYI: You must link your DhiWise account to your Figma account. You can add different accounts to access your Figma designs, and if you put a private or inaccessible Figma URL with the account you have chosen, an error will be displayed.

Step 4: Select the screens you'd like to sync to your application

From your Figma design, you may choose the screens and pages you want for your application.

Additionally, If you have already set up the prototype in your Figma, half of your work is almost done. For prototypes, DhiWise fetches screen resources automatically and you dont need to deal with the screen navigation again. The code for it will be added.

As soon as you click submit, in a few minutes, DhiWise will convert your UI design into React code.

As shown in the screenshot above, DhiWise algorithm has intelligently added authentication, and page navigation, after identifying all components of your screens.

Step 5: Screen Configurations

Next, you can set up a home page, and screen name, view the screen summary, and configure actions such as lifecycle methods and API integrations along with request validations.

Additionally, you can apply actions starting from social authentication to page navigations, Open modal, and API Integration . Yes, You can bind real-time data from REST APIs to your pages.

Learn More about All the features In Details: React web app Builder

After the customization, click on Build to get the structured source code with all the customizations in a few minutes.

Once your App is built, you can download the entire source code from the DhiWise and/or sync it with your GitHub or GitLab Repository.

If you make more changes in DhiWise application and you want updated code in your application, you can use VSCode Extension to get the latest code directly into your VSCode.

Additional Things

There are two awesome features from DhiWise to make the development life more excitingall while using DhiWise.

You can see and share a preview of your app in different screen sizes to check the responsiveness straight from DhiWise.
Now you can see and share a prototype of your app by deploying the application to Vercel in a single click!
Secondly, You can use Figma to Code plugin in Figma to get the code in minutes.

In a Nutshell

These are just a few steps to transform Figma design into React code, along with the additional features mentioned above.

Here is the YouTube playlist for the visual representation of this blog: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMJ0858-zE7SHkj3vFE5OH2Nc-QxIxzAn

If you are new to Figma, form here you can learn it easily: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMJ0858-zE7S7DXtSufSR1xrCxGZMeH8h

SignUp Now! (It is free😉)

Here are all the resource links the DhiWise provides to help you get started easily with its app builders.

Flutter Cross-Platform: The King of Multi-Experience Development

DhiWise — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 10:13:39 +0000

How can you ensure a faster and more successful release of your business app to the market where the customer uses a range of devices such as mobile, desktops, and iPad to interact with the online business services?

Though the problem looks quite difficult, Flutter has come up with a unique way to solve it using Flutter multiplatform.

In this article, we will learn about the Flutter cross-platform development, Flutter features, and how it helps developers to deliver multi-experience by supporting cross-platform development.‍

Rising demand for cross-platform development?

Today web and mobile apps are used for various purposes such as communication, social networking, transportation, online shopping, food delivery, medical services, banking, and so on. However, among such millions of online applications, only a few became successful.

So what is a secret ingredient for making your app successful?

As the number of apps is constantly growing in the market, the expectations for a better user experience is also rising. Users now prefer high-quality applications that not only satisfy their needs but also deliver a smoother experience across different platforms (Android, iOS) and the web.

That is the reason why businesses are more focused on cross-platform development.

Flutter multiplatform has capabilities to speed up your cross-platform development without hampering the code quality, scalability, and reliability aspects of your application.‍

Why Flutter for cross-platform app development?

Before building an application for single or multiple platforms, a project manager must make the standard decision of whether to develop an entirely native application or to use a cross-platform approach to app development.

However, building native or cross-platform applications has its pros and cons. A native application is highly efficient and gives native look to the app but it is still highly expensive and time-consuming if built for different platforms.

On the contrary, implementing a cross-platform approach for multi-platform development is less time-consuming and also has lower development costs but the native controls are tough to integrate.

Therefore developers need something that can solve the issues in cross-platform app development and here Flutter comes into the picture. Flutter provides you with everything that you need for building successful cross platform app development.

‍

Flutter is an open-source UI software development framework developed by Google used to build cross-platform applications for different platforms from a single codebase without compromising on code quality, speed, and performance.

It renders your application rather than relying on the platform to do so, making your app extremely fast and responsive. Also, it has its own engine written in C and C++ that runs Dart code.‍

Why do repetitive task ever again when you can convert your design-to-code with DhiWise — The fastest way to build enterprise-grade apps. Sign up & build Flutter, iOS, Android, & React web apps for free!

The growing popularity of Flutter multiplatform

According to Google, “nearly half a million developers” now use its open-source UI framework Flutter every month.
In addition, Google reports an increase of 80% in the number of Flutter-built apps in the Play store as Flutter 1.20 is released in 2020.
According to the 2020 Stack Overflow developer survey, it is the third most popular framework.

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How does it simplify your cross-platform development?

With Flutter, 90% of the code became multi-platform (mobile, web, desktop) and only needed to be updated once.
Provides hardware-accelerated graphics for performant applications on any platform.
Has a rich collection of visual, structural, platform, and interactive widgets.
Flutter uses Dart- A simple yet powerful programming language developed by Google to build server and desktop applications.
The Flutter rendering engine lets you control every pixel on its UI. And the widget library automatically adapts to any screen.
Flutter is an open-source app development framework with a growing community of developers.
‍

What makes Flutter cross-platform development a unique approach for delivering a Multiplatform experience to the end-users

Unlike other frameworks, Flutter has no bridge or context switch between the platform and your application as shown below.

‍

Flutter app development only requires Canvas and Events to render the widgets to appear on the device screen and access services such as geolocation, sensor, camera, audio, Bluetooth, etc. Furthermore, the application is compiled in AOT (Ahead of Time) instead of JIT ( Just in Time) like JavaScript.

Let’s understand how it contrasts with other ways of app development for multiple platforms.

1. Build separate applications for different platforms

You can build separate applications for different platforms, in such cases, your code will call the built-in platform UI elements directly but the drawback is each code base will be written in a different native language.

As a result, the development team must maintain consistency between each codebase to maintain the same feature set as the app grows.

2. Build cross-platform with a single codebase but using Web Views and Bridge

Another approach we can use is the single codebase for cross-platform development using Web Views and Bridge. Using a bridge to communicate with the platform lowers your app performance.‍

Conclusion

From the above discussion, we can conclude that, though Flutter is a new boy it is way too advanced in the terms of features provided for cross-platform development.

With the Flutter Multiplatform, business owners can implement a multi-experience development strategy for various platforms with a single codebase without worrying about the cost and quality issues.‍

Want to speed up your Flutter cross-platform development?

“Try DhiWise- A revolutionary Pro code app development platform for web and mobile app development.”

DhiWise’s Flutter Builder generates clean code which is scalable, maintainable, testable, and highly reliable. Whether you are building a native or a cross-platform app.

To know more about DhiWise Flutter Builder watch out our Youtube videos on Flutter.

Here is why you should give DhiWie a try?

Generates clean code for your frontend and backend application build with Node.js, Flutter, Android, iOS, Laravel, React.js, Express.js
Design to code conversion functionality: From Figma, AdobeXD, Sketch to Flutter, React, Android(Kotlin), and iOS(Swift).
Integration with popular code management and sharing tools- GitHub and GitLab.
Complete flexibility to Code customization.
Firebase and Supabase integration.
DhiWise logic builder in Node.js lets you create or update APIs, functions, libraries, loops, and more to the App without coding.‍

Looks pretty awesome?

Advanced TypeScript Cheat Sheet for Types, Interfaces, Control Flow, and More

DhiWise — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 09:58:47 +0000

Debugging and troubleshooting is the most annoying part of software development but TypeScript handles the inadequacies with grace. That’s why almost 60% of JavaScript developers use it and 22% of them wish to try it.

TypeScript which is often referred to as the superset of JavaScript has slowly gained the attention of many software organizations. After witnessing its benefits, software developers are incorporating the language into their tech stack.

This article will walk you through the Advanced TypeScript concepts and capabilities. So let’s dive in,

What is TypeScript?
Advantages of TypeScript
Advanced TypeScript cheat sheet
— Types
— Interfaces
— Classes
— Control Flow analysis

What is TypeScript?

TypeScript is the strongly typed programming language developed and maintained by Microsoft. In Oct 2012, TypeScript was first introduced by Microsoft after two years of internal development.

It is a strict syntactical superset of JavaScript and adds optional static typing to the language. It allows developers to specify the variable type, function parameter, returned values, and object properties. The language compiles into JavaScript and the compiled output is pretty neat and readable that can be used wherever you want. The syntax has few similarities with the C#.

Advantages of TypeScript

If you are a TypeScript user, you might have noticed that “once you start using it, you will stay with it.” Find out why it’s worth using TypeScript for programming:

Higher code stability due to strongly typed variables.
Strong tooling and community support.
Easy to understand and thus best for the growing team of developers.
It improves agility while refactoring and it’s better for the compiler to catch errors than wait until things fail during runtime.
By leveraging the power of TypeScript and Dependency injection we can efficiently avoid bugs through efficient testing and debugging.
With its auto-injection libraries, it makes the source code extremely maintainable and predictable.
TypeScript is compiled down to JavaScript code that runs on all the browsers.
With TypeScript, developers can write more clean, type-safe, and testable code with ease.

Forget about doing repetitive task every again when you can convert your deign-to-code with DhiWise— The fastest way to build enterprise-grade apps. Sign up & build Flutter, iOS, Android, & React web apps for free!

Advanced TypeScript cheat sheet

TypeScript is a simple language and allows developers to express types in terms of other types. However, while performing the basic tasks, having a profound understanding of how TypeScript works are critical for unlocking its advanced functionality.

As we know more about TypeScript, we can utilize this knowledge to write cleaner and testable code. In this section, we are combining all the basic concepts of TypeScript and its advanced features in a single cheatsheet, so here we go.

TypeScript Primitive+Advanced Types

Key points:

Think of Type as variables: the type can be created in the same way we create variables.
TypeScript has lots of global types that can be used to perform common tasks.

Common data types:

Built-in type primitives: boolean, string, number, undefined, null, any, unknown, never, void, bigint, symbol.
String: Represents string values like “Hello, world”.
Number: Represents all numbers including integers and floats. For example, 42 and 42.3 are both numbers.
Boolean: Represents boolean values true and false.
Array: Represents an array of numbers, strings, and so on. It can be represented as number[], string[].
any: The type is used when you don’t want any type checking.

Object Literal Type

In JavaScript, the fundamental way that we group and pass around data is through objects. In TypeScript, we represent those through object types.

Syntax:

For Example:

Tuple Type

A tuple is a special-cased array with known types at specific indexes.

Union Type

A union type describes a value that can be one of several types. It allows us to use more than one data type for a variable or a functional parameter.

Intersection Type

The type combines multiple types into one(A way to merge or extend types).

Syntax:

For Example:

Type Indexing

A way to extract and name from a subset of a type.

Type From Value

Reuse the type from an existing JavaScript runtime value via the typeof operator.

Type From Function Return

Reuse the return value from a function as a type.

Mapped Types

Acts like a map statement for the type system, allowing an input type to change the structure of the new type.

Conditional Types

It works as an “if statement” inside the type system. Created via generics, and then commonly used to reduce the number of options in a type union.

Template Union Type

A template string can be used to combine and manipulate text inside the type system.

Interfaces

Key Points:

Used for type checking whether the object has a specific structure(shape) or not.
Only contain the declaration of methods and fields but not implementations.
Almost everything in JavaScript is an object and the Interface is built to match its runtime behaviour.
Common built-in JS objects: Date, Error, Array, Map, Set, Regexp, Promise

Common syntax

Generics

Declaring a type which can change in your interface.

One can constrain what types are accepted into the generic parameter via the extends keyword.

Overloads

A callable interface can have multiple definitions for different sets of parameters.

Extensions via merging interfaces

Interfaces are merged, so multiple declarations will add new fields to the type definition.

Type vs Interface

Interfaces can only describe object shapes.
Interfaces can be extended by declaring it multiple times
In performance-critical types interface comparison checks can be faster.

TypeScript Classes

Key Points:

TypeScript offers full support for the class keyword introduced in ES2015.
As with other JavaScript language features, TypeScript adds type annotations and other syntax to allow you to express relationships between classes and other types.

Creating a Class Instance

Private keyword vs Private fields

Private keyword:

The prefix private is a type-only addition and has no effect at runtime. So, when a transpiler converts TypeScript code to JavaScript, the private keyword is removed.

Private fields:

private which is runtime private and has enforcement inside the JavaScript engine that is only accessible inside the class. The private fields remain private at runtime even after the TypeScript code gets converted to JavaScript by the transpiler.

this parameter in the classes

The value of this parameter inside the function depends on how the function is called. This parameter can be used to bind function or arrow function.

We can add ‘this’ parameter to the method definition to statically enforce that the method is called correctly.

Type and Value

A class can be used as both a type and a value.

Here the first Bag is a Type and the second Bag is a Value, so be careful while using class.

The common syntax used in Classes

Generics

Used to declare the type that can be changed in the class method.

Parameter properties

A specific extension to classes automatically set an instance field to the input parameter.

Abstract classes

A class can be declared as not implementable, but as existing to be subclassed in the type system. As can members of the class. The class which extends the abstract class must define all the abstract methods. We cannot create an instance of an abstract class.

Static members

A static property and method are shared among all instances of a class. To declare a static property, you use the static keyword. To access a static property, you use the className.propertyName syntax.

Static and non-static fields with the same name can exist without any error.

Control Flow Analysis

Control Flow Analysis is the core TypeScript feature that analyses your code to get the best type interface depending on the variable usage. CFA always takes a union and optimizes your code by reducing the number of types inside the union based on the logic in your code.

Though there are multiple ways to define functions that affect how TypeScript narrows types, most of the time it has been seen that CFA works inside the natural JavaScript boolean logic, but there are ways to define your own functions which affect how TypeScript narrows types.

If Statements:

Most narrowing comes from expression inside the if statements where different type operators narrow inside the new scope.

typeof operator (for primitives)

instanceof operator (for classes)

“property” in the object (for objects)

type-guard functions (for anything)

Expressions:

Narrowing also occurs on the same line as code, while performing the boolean operations.

Discriminated unions/algebraic data types:

Combining string literal types, union types, type guards, and type aliases to build an advanced pattern is called discriminated unions, also known as tagged unions or algebraic data types.

Discriminated Unions are the combination of three things:

The Discriminant - Types that have a common literal (or enum) property
The union - A type alias that takes the union of those types
Type guard

In the following example, all the members of the union have the same property name, however, CFA can discriminate on that.

Assignment:

Narrowing types using ‘as const’

const assertion to narrow an object literal type to its element. The prefix ‘as const’ locks all types to their literal versions.

Tracking through the related variables

Reassigning updated types

Type Guards to perform runtime checks

A function with a return type describing the CFA change for a new scope when it is true.

Assertion Function:

A set of functions that throws an error when something unexpected happens

Following is a function describing CFA changes affecting the current scope, because it throws instead of returning false.

If you find yourself having trouble with some of the concepts discussed above, try reading through the TypeScript Documentation first to make sure you’ve got a solid understanding of all the basic and advanced concepts.

Wrapping Up

Most JavaScript developers are already in the affair with TypeScript as it is more reliable and easy to refactor. The above cheat sheet gives you quick access to all the TypeScript concepts.

But why are we sharing all this with you?

At DhiWise, we believe in empowering developers, no matter which technology or platform they are using. So the developers, who want to start right at the code level can take the advantage of DhiWise functionalities.

That is the reason DhiWise, a multi-technology platform provides a Figma to code plugin that enables developers to quickly convert their Figma design to code(React, Kotlin, Swift, and Flutter).

Want to explore more about the Platform and its features visit DhiWise today and sign up to experience the perks of cleaner, customizable, and faster app development.

5 Reasons to use Node.js with React.js for Web apps

DhiWise — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 09:47:48 +0000

While building an app, the first question that usually arises is about choosing a technology stack. The technology we use has the highest impact on app performance and quality. In this blog, I talked about one of the most popular stacks that I personally used in my web app.

ReactJS and NodeJS have been two of the most popular topics in the developer community in recent years. Both technologies have their unique way to improve development efficiency, quality, and scalability.

Node.js is a back-end Javascript runtime environment built on Chrome’s V8 Javascript engine. It uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model and is built for scalability and high performance.

On the other hand, React.js is the free, open-source, front-end Javascript Library that runs on the browser and is used to create user interfaces. It is developed and maintained by Facebook.

Now the question …..🤔

Could we use React with NodeJS for Web application development?

Yes, without a doubt, Node js is the most convenient platform for developing reliable web servers for React applications.

Node js works alongside the Node Package Manager (NPM) which consists of an online repository for publishing open-source Node.js projects, which can be easily installed through a command-line interface.

Node bundles React app into a single file for easy compilation using node modules such as Webpack. The V8 engine in Node js can handle bulk requests via callback functions (V8 is the Javascript engine inside of node.js that parses and runs your Javascript).

Node js and React js both use Javascript 🎉 language that can be executed on the server and client sides, and therefore React.js code can be directly executed in the Node.js environment.

Further, the React DOM components are specifically designed to work with Node js, reducing the number of lines of code and simplifying server-side rendering.‍

Is it compulsory to use React and Node js together in web application development?

Some may believe that Node.js is required as a backend to run React.js. However, using Node as a backend for React is not compulsory; you can use another backend technology such as Laravel, Ruby, and Django to deal with your backend processing.

Node is highly efficient in handling real-time data processing in the backend and is mostly used in applications where you need to handle a large number of simultaneous network connections in a non-blocking manner.

While React is a library that only deals with building UI components, it is used to render the user interface of your mobile and web applications. It uses different tools like React-router (Uses component structure to call UI components) and Redux(Manage application state) to handle server-side communication by Node.

As a result, which technology to use is determined by project requirements and developer convenience. Before concluding the project technology stack, developers must study and analyze their use cases.

If your project has specific conditions and requirements that can be effectively managed or fulfilled using Node js for React, you must go for it.‍

Top 5 reasons to use React with Node.js

Here are 5 reasons 🤩 to use React and Node js to simplify your web development and make your code highly efficient and scalable.

1. Helps to maintain a high server load

Having Node in your React project makes it super easy for servers to handle multiple network requests and manage server load balance.

2. Helps to maintain real-time data

If your app demands real-time data management or data streaming, the combination of React and Node js is extremely beneficial. This is because the Node is best for managing continuous server connections and React for front-end data rendering.

3. Helps in developing single-page applications

Using React and Node js, you can easily create single-page applications like Gmail and Facebook. React allows you to create intuitive UI/UX while Node provides asynchronous data loading via callback.

4. Simplify building JSON for your APIs

JSON stands for Javascript Object notation- An internet data serialization format that helps in the transmission of data between website and server.

JSON API is great for making JSON response formatting more consistent, and its efficient caching features can eliminate superfluous server requests. Using JSON API with Node is very efficient, it promotes code reuse. The reusable code gets sharable using React.

5. Technologies of the MERN stack project

MERN Stack application uses mainly four technologies- MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, and Node.js. With this stack, we can create applications like e-commerce and banking websites. Along with MongoDB, Express.js, Node.js, and React.js, developers only need to know Javascript and JSON to build apps with ease.

You now have a solid understanding of Node.js and React.js, as well as when to use them.

If your web project has similar requirements to the ones we discussed above then you can take the advantage of both the technologies React and Node js to improve team productivity and efficiency.

Furthermore, if you want to accelerate your application development try DhiWise which supports Node js, React js, Express.js, MongoDB, and other popular technologies.

DhiWise is a 100% developer-centric platform that aims to speed up app development. It simplifies web and mobile app development with its ultra-modern features such as,

Support for multiple technologies and frameworks: Node js, React js, Laravel, Express js, MongoDB, Android, iOS, and Flutter
Design to code conversion in minutes: Figma, Adobe XD and Sketch to React, Flutter, Android(Kotlin), and iOS(Swift)
Flexibility to create and change app-specific workflow with the Logic builder: Configure Model, set up permissions, Payment APIs, Authentication, routes, and more.
Conditional flow for mobile apps: Set up conditional flow for mobile applications.
Integration with GitHub and GitLab to simplify code sharing among teams.
Choice of architecture selection: Select MVC or MVVM/Clean code architecture according to your preferences.
Connect with the database schema of your choice with PostGRES, MySQL, MongoDB, and standard SQL server.

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Thank you for reading !! 😊 I hope this blog will help you to choose the right stack for your web application.

Ways Micro Frontend Architecture is Revolutionizing App Frontend Development?

DhiWise — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 08:16:23 +0000

Most apps that start from a few functionalities often grow into a complex monolith, which becomes difficult to scale and maintain over time. Moreover, integrating a new team into such apps can be challenging.

So, what we need is a simple approach to split the complex monolith into small pieces of app, let’s call it app services. Breaking your app into small individual services assures scalability, maintainability, and high app quality.

The Micro frontend is a trending architectural pattern that can help you to solve the challenges of modern frontend app development. So that you can build feature-rich, powerful browser-based/web-based applications efficiently and effectively.

Related articles: Browser-based development and popular architectural patterns

1. Why should developers shift to Browser/Web-Based App development resources?

2. How does MVVM Architecture Outperform MVC?

Let’s explore more about the micro frontend architecture, why should developers implement it, what are its major benefits, and how it works.

What is a Micro Frontend?

The micro frontend is inspired by microservices used on the server-side. The basic idea is to break the monolithic codebase into smaller chunks, allowing better work distribution among different software development teams.

Just take a simple example of an invoice web application that generates a receipt, modifies invoices, classifies expenses under different categories, sends friendly payment reminders, and a lot more. All these things can be contained on the app front.

However, as your application grows you may want to support more functionalities such as invoice reporting and analytics where each report may contain multiple pages of its own.

In such a situation it’s always better to have a separate front-end to avoid code complexity and that is where Micro Frontend architecture comes into play.

Why should developers implement Micro Frontend architecture?

So here is your answer.

The Micro Frontend architecture solves the most common problems faced by the app developer while developing a browser-based application,

The complexity of app development with multiple modules.
Issues with app scalability, maintenance, testing, and deployment.
Challenges of working with cross-functional teams and parallel app development.
Difficulties in the code updates.

Now let’s dive into details, what are the benefits of Micro Frontend architecture.

Benefits of Micro Frontend architecture

Easily integrate the new team

Every developer has different skills and work experience. Micro frontend architecture helps you to split the team into multiple teams, allowing everyone to express their skills and expertise, which leads to style and code isolation making each team independent of the other.

In fact, every team is free to use the technology they love to work with. It eliminates the technology restriction that encourages developers to write better code.

Freedom to choose the desired tech stack

Micro Frontend allows different teams to build independent pieces of application code. It is obvious that they have full freedom to choose the tech stack of their choice. In this way, they can easily opt for the latest technologies and tools.

Also, the developers can smoothly make a shift to the new technology as each chuck of app code in Micro Frontend architecture is naturally smaller than the entire Monolith application.

Simplify up-gradation

Changing dependency in the monolithic app can only be done when the rest of the app is supporting that dependency. That’s the reason introducing any breaking changes can be too costly. It also consumes lots of development and testing time.

With the Micro Frontend approach, it’s super easy to update any changes in the app even without affecting the rest of the app code.

Faster app development and deployment

The architecture divides the app into small pieces of code that eventually speeds up the development process. The reason is that Micro Frontend architecture eliminates the need for communication among different development teams as the pieces of code can be built in complete isolation irrespective of their implementation.

Moreover, building and deploying small applications (code chunks) and assembling them in the parent app is simpler than building a complete monolith application at once.

It is beneficial especially when you are releasing new features or announcing bug fixes every week or every month at a regular interval.

Make your app code highly maintainable and error-free.

Any application becomes hard to maintain as it grows over time and it is very common in the case of Monolithic apps. The Micro Frontend approach breaks the large application into small code chunks or we can say small app functionalities that are easy for testing and making bug fixes. As a result, it speeds up the entire process of quality assurance, debugging, and maintenance.

How does Micro Frontend architecture work?

The application created using Micro Frontend looks similar to the regular application. But behind the scenes, each Micro Frontend has its own codebase, backend data resources, and pipeline.

The container application glues all the service apps and represents them as a single application. The container application can detect and understand what needs to be shown to the user and what needs to be composed and built.

Here are three different approaches that can be used to compose and build the application.

Client-side

In this approach, all the micro Frontend apps are composed and built during the build process. Here, the container application acts like Monolith and microservices are just underlying dependencies. However, with this approach, the possibility of independent deployment of each microservice gets completely lost.

Server-side

With the server-side, the container app will not auto-contain all the micro frontends, they will be lazy-loaded. The reason is the micro frontends will not be downloaded by the user’s browser whenever the user requests the app entry point. It will be downloaded only if the specific route or view is reached by the user in the main app.

Edge-side

In the Edge side approach, the views are assembled at the CDN level. Most of the CDN providers provide you with the Edge Side Include (ESI) option that is used to assemble the content at the edge layer.

Summing up:

In this article, we have learned about the concept of Micro Frontend, why developers should implement this architecture, its benefits, and how it works. Now you know how Micro Frontend makes the large project better manageable by splitting the Monolithic application into micro apps thus facilitating code isolation and independent development.

The pattern is widely used in large applications for web-frontend development. Hope you find the information useful.

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Top 10 Flutter Animation Packages to Make the UI Feel More Intuitive

DhiWise — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 06:00:16 +0000

Top 10 Flutter Animation Packages to Make the UI Feel More Intuitive

Animations have the power to make your app feel more alive and intuitive. Well-designed animations give your app a visual edge with a smooth and professional UI appearance.

So, if you are planning to add animations to your Flutter application, this article will help you in figuring out the best Flutter animation packages for high-level interfaces.

Top Flutter animation packages

1. Animations

These are the official high-quality pre-built animation for commonly used effects. The animation can be tweaked to your content and applied to the UI.

The material motion is the set of transition patterns that assist users to understand and navigate an application.

Benefits of using the Animations package

Best for adding smooth transition patterns for user navigation.
For adding motion system animation in your app.

Material motion defines the following transition patterns.

Container transform
Shared axis
Fade trough
Fade

1. Container transform

It is designed for the transition between UI elements that include a container.

2. Shared axis

The shared axis transition pattern is used for transition between UI elements that have spatial or navigation relationships.

3. Fade through

The pattern is used for transition between UI elements that do not have a strong relationship with each other.

4. Fade

The pattern is used for UI elements that enter and exit within the screen bounds.

Installation:

Run the following command.

$ flutter pub add animations

It will add a line to your package’s pubspec.yaml.

dependencies:
  animations: ^2.0.2

Import the package in your dart code.

import 'package:animations/animations.dart';

2. Shimmer Animation

The package helps you to display simple yet beautiful skeleton loaders on UI which gives a pleasant loading experience. It is used by default in the skeleton loaders or placeholder widgets by the developer community.

Installation:

Run the following command

$ flutter pub add animations

It will add a line to your package’s pubspec.yaml.

dependencies:
  shimmer_animation: ^2.1.0+1

Import the package in your dart code.

import 'package:shimmer_animation/shimmer_animation.dart';

3. Simple Animations

With simple_animation, developers can create bespoke animations in no time using stateless widgets. The package is fully tested, well documented, and ready to use in enterprise applications. With the package, developers can animate multiple properties at once and with Timeline Twin.

Installation:

Run the following command

$ flutter pub add simple_animations

It will add a line to your package’s pubspec.yaml.

dependencies:
  simple_animations: ^4.0.1

Import the package in your dart code.

import 'package:simple_animations/simple_animations.dart';

4. Staggered Animation

It is a useful package that lets you add ListView, GridView, Column, and Row children as per the material design principles.

Installation:

Run the following command

$ flutter pub add flutter_staggered_animations

It will add a line to your package’s pubspec.yaml.

dependencies:
  flutter_staggered_animations: ^1.0.0

Import the package in your dart code.

import'package:flutter_staggered_animations/flutter_staggered_animations.dart';

5. Curved Navigation Bar

This curved navigation bar package can be used for any mobile application. You can adjust the navigation bar color, background, and animation curve. Also, it comes with a customizable animation to perfectly fit your app.

Installation:

Run the following command

$ flutter pub add curved_navigation_bar

It will add a line to your package’s pubspec.yaml.

dependencies:
  curved_navigation_bar: ^1.0.3

Import the package in your dart code.

import 'package:curved_navigation_bar/curved_navigation_bar.dart';

6. Spring

Spring is a simple yet powerful pre-built animation kit for creating applications faster. It is used to add intriguing motion effects like pop, shake and flip to your widgets. The motion helps to improve app usability.

Installation:

Run the following command

$ flutter pub add spring

It will add a line to your package’s pubspec.yaml.

dependencies:
  spring: ^2.0.2

Import the package in your dart code.

import 'package:spring/spring.dart';

7. Animated Text Kit

The library contains a collection of some amazing test animations. It supports Rotate, Fade, Typer, Typewriter, Scale, Colorize, TextLiquidFill, Wavy, Flicker, and Custom animations.

Installation:

Run the following command

$ flutter pub add animated_text_kit

It will add a line to your package’s pubspec.yaml.

dependencies:
  animated_text_kit: ^4.2.1

Import the package in your dart code.

import 'package:animated_text_kit/animated_text_kit.dart';

8. Sprung

Sprung is an easy-to-consume curve that uses real physics equations to drive your animations. Sprung has three opinionated curves,

Sprung.underDamped
Sprung.criticallyDamped
Sprung.overDamped

Installation:

Run the following command

$ flutter pub add sprung

It will add a line to your package’s pubspec.yaml.

dependencies:
  sprung: ^3.0.0

Import the package in your dart code.

import 'package:sprung/sprung.dart';

9. Animated Widgets

The package is optimized for MVVM architecture using **Bloc. **It include following Widgets,

TranslationAnimatedWidget
OpacityAnimatedWidget
RotationAnimatedWidget
ScaleAnimatedWidget
SizeAnimatedWidget

Installation:

Run the following command

$ flutter pub add animated_widgets

It will add a line to your package’s pubspec.yaml.

dependencies:
  animated_widgets: ^1.1.0

Import the package in your dart code.

import 'package:animated_widgets/animated_widgets.dart';

10. Widget Circular Animator

The widget is inspired by the Lottie animation and can be used to animate another widget such as a profile, image, or anything else with simple modern animation to build UI better. Moreover, it is customizable according to your app use case and also supports flutter curves-animation.

Installation:

Run the following command

$ flutter pub add widget_circular_animator

It will add a line to your package’s pubspec.yaml.

dependencies:
  widget_circular_animator: ^1.0.0

Import the package in your dart code.

import 'package:widget_circular_animator/widget_circular_animator.dart';

That’s all about the best Flutter animation packages, hope you find this article useful. If you think I missed any package here, feel free to leave a suggestion.

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Flutter Database Options: How to Choose the Right Database for Your Flutter App?

DhiWise — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:58:23 +0000

Data is the critical aspect of any online application. To make the Flutter app work efficiently and flawlessly in real-time, it’s important to have a robust Database that can handle millions of records and frequent data updates.

Flutter, a UI toolkit created by Google has a variety of database management solutions but choosing the right database for your Flutter application completely depends on your app requirements.

If you are looking for some database option to use in your Flutter application, then you have landed on the right article. Here we will cover all the aspects of Flutter database selection, right from the introduction, and database types to the currently available options.

So without wasting further time, let’s get started!

Introduction to the app database

A database is the organized collection of data that can be stored and accessed electronically from any device. The stored data can be accessed, modified, controlled, and organized, also it remains available to use unless it is intentionally erased.

The modern apps demand real-time data delivery every time it is requested by the end-users. Also, it’s critical to maintain data integrity and sovereignty by updating data frequently with every change.

In general, databases are of two types, Relational and Non-Relational databases.

Relational databases

Relational databases are the sets of data that have a relationship with each other. The data sets have data stored in the form of tables with rows and columns. Each table holds information about an object.

The column in the table holds the data values with a particular type, one value for each row of the database. It may contain the text, number, or even pointers to the file in the OS. The table’s row, also called a tuple, indicates a single, implicitly structured data item in the table.

SQL and SQLite are examples of relational databases.

Non-Relational databases

It is different from the relational database, in the Non-relational database, the data is stored in the document with no relationship among them. NoSQL databases have the potential to handle a huge amount of unstructured data efficiently.

The well-known examples of NoSQL databases are Google Firebase, MongoDB, Objectbox, Hive, and Shared Preference.

Popular Flutter database options for relational and Non-relational databases

Relational database options

1.) sqflite

SQflite is an implementation of SQLite for Flutter. It gives you complete control over your app database, queries, and relationships in your hands.

Pros:

An efficient, highly reliable, embedded SQLite database for your app that offers complete control over the database.
Supports transactions and batches.
Automatic version management.
Easily read third-party apps that can open SQLite databases.
Helpers for insert/query/update and delete queries.
Executes DB operations in the background thread on iOS and Android.

Cons:

Has no web support.
Writing queries can take enough time.
Returned data isn’t strongly typed.
Data migration can be difficult.

When to use it?

Use SQflite if you need a relational database with full control over the database queries. It is the best option only if you are comfortable writing your own queries and code.

2.) Drift/Moor

Drift, formally known as Moor, is an easy-to-use, reactive, persistent library for Flutter apps. It allows you to write your database tables in pure Dart without missing out on advanced SQLite features.

It contains a powerful SQL parser and analyzer, that allows you to create typesafe APIs for SQL queries. The queries are validated at the built time, providing users a hint about potential errors and generating efficient code mapping.

Pros:

**Auto-updating streams: **The complex data can be turned into a stream that simplifies dealing with transactions and migration and lets you write modular database code with DAOs.
**Polyglot: **It lets you write queries in Dart API or SQL.
**Boilerplate free: **Generates code around your code so you can focus on building an app.
**Flexible and cross-platform: **Drift verifies queries at compile time and generates Dart APIs for them. It also generates SQL code for dart queries. It works on iOS, Android, Linux, macOS, Windows, and the web.

Cons:

Drift generates most classes but makes the APIs less flexible in some cases.

When to use it?

If you need to write relational data efficiently with type safety. Want to simplify data migration and transaction efforts.

3.) Floor

Floor is SQLite abstraction for Flutter application, inspired from the Room persistence library. It provides an automatic mapping between in-memory objects and database rows, and SQL-based databases. While utilizing Floor features one must have a solid understanding of SQL and SQLite.

Pros:

Less boilerplate code.
Null-safe, typesafe and reactive.
Lightweight framework.
Simplify testing.
Support for iOS, Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Cons:

Still, a new library so may lack in few features.
For any changes in the database/entity, you have to run generator code in the terminal.
Works fine with the small database.

When to use Floor?

If you are using a relational database such as SQL and are not comfortable with writing manual database queries. Want to reduce the number of lines of code.

Non-Relational database options for Flutter

4.) Firebase

It is a Backend-as-a-Service(BaaS) app development platform that provides cloud-hosted backend services such as real-time database, cloud storage, authentication, crash reporting, machine learning, remote configuration for the static database files located across various devices rather than storing them on a single user device.

Firebase stores data in the traditional format called documents which in turn stores data types with links to another document. So, even though the database isn’t strictly relational, users can still create relationships between data.

Pros:

High database capabilities.
Wide range of services and features at a low cost.
Free basic plan.
Clear and concise documentation.
Quick and easy integration setup.

Cons:

Limited querying capabilities.
Limited data migration.
Platform dependent.
Android focused.
Limited focus on iOS.

When to use it?

It is the best option if you intended to share the data with customers across the world. For apps with limited sorting and filtering requirements, Firebase is the best fit as Firestore can process only 1 million concurrent connections.

Overall, a small application with less database complexity or MVP can use Firebase as it shortens the development cycle and also provides real-time features such as notification, chat, and feed.

5.) Hive

Hive is a super-fast, lightweight, key-value database written in pure Dart. It is completely native to Dart. It lets you store data as a HiveObject, which allows relation between objects.

Pros:

Provides SQL-like syntax to provide rapid development.
Best for big data processing.
Supports user-defined functions.
Often used for data analysis where real-time requirements are not high.

Cons:

Not a good fit for a complex data model.
Has limitations of the MapReduce data processing flow.
The efficiency of Hive is relatively low.

When to use it?

If you are going to use a simple database and don’t want real-time data synchronization. If you want something that works anywhere, Hive integrates easily with Dart. It is best suited for Flutter projects that require data storage on the devices and then access it anywhere.

6.) Objectbox

ObjectBox is a superfast, high-performance No-SQL database with integrated Data Sync for decentralized Edge Computing. It provides scalability, static type checking, and multiplatform support( Android, iOS, Web, and Desktop).

Pros:

10x faster than any of its alternatives.
Helps to reduce cloud costs by 60%.
Can develop applications that work online and offline, independently.
Accelerates app time to market.
Saves app development costs.

Cons:

Sync can be added to existing databases but only to new entities. Currently, there is no mechanism to change existing entities to sync, as it may add new issues (issue # 263).

When to use it?

It is best if you want higher performance in the terms of response time and want to improve data flow, and want to deliver apps faster to the market while reducing the app development cost.

7.) MongoDB

MongoDB is the NoSQL schema-less, JSON document database that uses unstructured query language. It is widely popular among developers for its flexibility and scalability. It is built on the scale-out architecture that allows developers to build business apps faster.

Pros:

Provides higher performance by collecting data directly from RAM
Easy installation and simple query syntax.
The schema has a dynamic semantic architecture that provides high flexibility and scalability to MongoDB databases.
MongoDB offers accurate documentation. It does not tether with data while processing it for storage.

Cons:

Joining documents in MongoDB can be challenging.
MongoDB provides a limited size of only 16 MB for the document. Also, the performance nesting for the doc is limited to 100 levels.
MongoDB consumes a high amount of memory due to data duplication.

When to use it?

MongoDB offers horizontal scalability, so it is best when your business is related to e-Commerce, mobile social networking, and building content management systems.

A quick review of available Flutter database options

Let’s get a quick review of the available database options along with the description, base model, data storage location, language, and license.

Bottom line

In the article, we have discussed almost all popular database options for Flutter, with its pros and cons and when to use it. Hope it will help you make better decisions about what database to use with your Flutter application.

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Firebase Services: How to Speed up Development Process ? (Alternatives)

DhiWise — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:52:58 +0000

Having an app is highly important for any business to thrive. Now more people prefer to do things online with convenience. To meet the demand in the rapidly evolving software development ecosystem, developers constantly search for better, faster, and more reliable options for web and mobile app development.

Firebase is the perfect choice when it comes to creating an app all from scratch. If you need a fully configured backend then it comes in handy. You just need to connect your app to Firebase for accessing backend services on the go with little configuration.

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👇In the article, you will find the answer to the following questions.

What is Firebase and which features does it offer?
What are the advantages and limitations of using Firebase in your application?
When should you use Firebase as a backend for your application?
Is there any alternative to Firebase?

What is Firebase and what are its best features?

Firebase was first founded as an independent company in 2011 and it was launched publicly in April 2012. Firebase is the cloud-hosted software development platform powered by Google. It helps you to quickly build web and mobile applications without managing the core infrastructure.

It stores and sync data in real-time as JSON across all the clients in real-time and remains available when the app goes offline.

Let’s have a closer look at the top features and capabilities of the Google Firebase platform. Under the hood, it offers dozens of features including the following.

Authentication

Firebase authentication offers different methods to authenticate email and password during sign-up and sign-in. It provides a comprehensive SDK tool including UI libraries to build a custom interface for app authentication.

Cloud Firestore

It is a real-time database with a user-friendly admin dashboard. It uses a NoSQL database to store synchronized data. Cloud Firestore allows developers to access the same data across different devices. It is a flexible and extensible database for multiple platforms (web and mobile).

Also, it provides continuous integration with the other Firebase and Google Cloud platform products. The access from the Cloud Firestore is protected via Firebase authentication and Firestore security rules.

Analytics

You have built a great app but how to guarantee the usefulness of your application? Google Analytics for Firebase is a great source that provides free and unlimited analysis of your app.

It offers in-app behavior analytics that helps you to understand your users, their app usage characteristics, and much more. It also offers attribution analytics that measures the effectiveness of the advertising and other campaigns.

Overall this analysis helps to improve the user experience by analyzing the quality of the app through user flow, activity, infographics, and other attributes.

Dynamic Links

With the Dynamic links, Firebase ensures a custom user experience for your app across all the platforms. Dynamic links are like smart URLs that help to retarget existing users to any of your desired locations. They are free to use at any scale for user-to-user sharing.

It simplifies app installation, as opening the dynamic link prompts app installation if the application is not yet installed. So, people can install apps easily.

Automatic Scaling

Firebase provides high performance and scalability. Whenever there is a change in the data, firebase calculates the minimum set of updates needed to create all your client synchronized. The API functions of firebase help to scale linearly according to the size of data. So that your app scales smoothly from hundreds of users to millions.

Cloud Messaging

The Firebase cloud messaging feature allows you to send push messages to the app users as per their interest when something gets updated. It is always better to target users with the information that interests them instead of blasting irrelevant messages to every user.

Firebase testing

Firebase Test Lab service provides virtual and physical device access to test your app in a real-time environment. The capability can be integrated into the testing environment like Android studio, and the browser testing tools.

Another testing tool by Google Firebase is Crashlytics, it’s a real-time crash reporting tool for quick and easy troubleshooting of your application. The generated crash reports are formed into structured and prioritized lists.

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What are the advantages and limitations of using Firebase in your application?

Every product and platform has some pros and cons, the same applies to the Google Firebase. Here we will discuss the advantages and limitations of the Firebase platform.

Advantages

Advanced database capabilities for robust backend

Firebase provides you with a fully secure and managed solution that lets you access your app data easily via the Firebase console. Data updates and offline access makes the database usable for real-time applications and to keep data in synchronization.

Quick start with a free account

As you start with the Firebase you are not required to make any payment for its services. It allows you to start free with its basic services. However, when you reach a particular amount of memory or want to use its premium features you can easily choose from the paid plans.

Wide ranges of services for faster app development

Firebase offers a set of pre-requisite for backend development that speeds up the entire development cycle. It allows you to choose from two databases i.e real-time DB and Firestore that store data in the cloud. It simplifies building serverless applications using integrated Cloud Functions.

Clear and concise documentation

The platform has well-written technical and API documentation and SDK references. So, anyone can find what they are looking for. Moreover, the Firebase Youtube channel constantly posts new videos of their products to keep you up with the resources.

Static hosting

Firebase hosting service comes with the integrated (CDN). That guarantees faster content delivery across the globe.

Easy to set up

Firebase is great for quick projects, it is easy to set up, and eliminates complex configuration(for authentication, web sockets, and database connection) and only frontend logic.

Community

Firebase has a strong community on GitHub, so you can find answers to any of your queries both on the official and other platforms. Till now more than 3 million apps are created using Google’s Firebase.

Limitations

Limited querying capabilities

Firebase is a cloud-based NoSQL database that uses JSON file format. The sorting can be done by keys and data can be filtered by using equality or using ranges. Having a database as a single file doesn’t allow you to create a relationship between different data files. So, you cannot query for more than one key at a time.

That means, if you want to query using multiple keys it will not work, but it is pretty good as Firebase is a real-time database designed for speed.

Limits data migration

As your product grows, you can face more issues with data migration. Firebase uses JSON documents that have no SQL features and the data is stored in key-value pairs. That makes it more challenging to migrate data in the firebase than data migration in the relational DB.

Android centered and less support for iOS

Firebase still focuses more on Android devices. Android is sponsored by Google and it has built-in support for Android. Firebase Test Lab can be easily integrated with the Android studio. However, in the case of iOS, the features in Firebase don’t go so smoothly.

So, what do you think, should you use Firebase as a backend for your application?

Firebase has more pros than cons, it offers multiple tech features, clear documentation, and cross-platform SDKs to help you build and ship apps on Android, iOS, web, and Unity.

The best thing about Flutter is that it lets you start app development from the scratch with the minimum effort and resources. You can start using Firebase features with the implemented REST APIs for free. Still, you can replace the custom backend depending on the product development stage and the final goal.

You can blindly use Firebase unless your app is highly data-intensive and can go beyond the Firebase data caps. Overall, Firebase is advantageous in all sorts, you can get your app cheaply and quickly with less effort.

Is there any alternative to Firebase that uses SQL database?

If your app demands a relational database, for example in the case you want to keep transactions secure, Supabase is the best alternative to Firebase. Though currently, it is not fair to map Supabase with Firebase, they seem to be very quick to add new features to match what Firebase offers.

Supabase offers real-time data, authentication for multiple services, file storage, and more. But as compared to Firebase which offers unlimited projects, Supabse allows only three free projects.

If we compare Supabase vs Firebase, Supabase is the SQL database that utilized Postgres and Firebase uses a NoSQL document data store. If you really need a relational database in your backend, Supabase is the best.

Now, you have answers to your common questions.

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With DhiWise you can integrate data from the Firebase or Supabase in just a few steps and create your application effectively by mapping out all the essential data to their respective view component.

The platform has lots of other features that accelerate the development cycle to bring your app faster to the market.

👉Watch our youtube videos about integrating Firebase data into UI components and how to integrate Supabase in Flutter app with DhiWise.

Getting more curious about the platform?

Visit DhiWise to explore its features and sign up for free to experience the DhiWise capabilities.

Hope you find this article useful!

Why to build Flutter Apps on this unknow “Pro-code” platform?

DhiWise — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:48:14 +0000

“It’s Time To Go Beyond Just Figma To Code”

Are you a Flutter developer? Learn about the exciting tools and platforms to convert Figma design to Flutter code in minutes and how you can speed up your front-end development and beyond with the DhiWise.

Developers and IT firms constantly seek new ways to build better apps in minimum time. Ultimately, this never-ending competition to quickly deliver better has brought a plethora of software tools and technologies to the market that aims to minimize software development efforts.

However, it might be overwhelming to choose the right tool for your software project in the case you are not clear about the development goals and the capabilities of the tools and technologies that you wish to choose.

The same is applicable for the Flutter app developers who aim to accelerate their cross-platform app development using Figma to code tools provided by Flutter Flow, Figma, Adobe XD, or FlutLab.

In this article, we are going to explore different tools, and platforms available for Figma to Flutter conversion and why DhiWise can be the best choice if you are planning for full-stack Flutter app development.

So, stay tuned…

‍Popular tools, and platforms available in the market to convert Adobe XD and Figma to Flutter code.

1. Figma to Flutter plugins by Figma platform

Figma is an advanced collaborative UI design and prototyping tool that comes up with idle features for the entire design process. It caters to all the needs of individual designers and teams alike. And at some places where it lacks, a vast collection of plugins are there to fill up the void.

Figma itself doesn’t have any feature to convert its design into UI code, but it offers some plugins. Few of these plugins are used to convert Figma to Flutter code.

Following plugins are used to convert Figma design to Flutter and other code(Shown in the snap).

DhiWise Figma to code (Kotlin, Swift , Flutter, and React.js)
Figma to Code(HTML, Tailwind, Flutter, SwiftUI)

1. DhiWise Figma to code plugin (Flutter, Android, iOS, React.js )

The plugin converts Figma design to Kotlin, Swift, React.js, and Flutter code minutes. The plugin is developed by DhiWise Private Limited.

How does it work?

Install the plugin and sign in/sign up to DhiWise
Select the technology in which you want to convert your code [iOS (Swift), Flutter, Android (Kotlin), or React (Web)]
Wait for a few minutes and receive the downloadable source code in your registered email.

Learn more about DhiWise Figma to Code Plugin.

Figma to Code(HTML, Tailwind, Flutter, SwiftUI)

With this open-sourced plugin, developers can convert Figma layout into responsive web pages in HTML, Tailwind, Flutter, or Swift.

How does it work?

It claims to optimize the layout before the conversion from design to code begins. If the items are aligned and auto-layout is off it will internally consider them as AutoLayout. It converts standard Figma nodes to AltNodes.‍

2. Adobe XD plugin

Adobe XD provides open-sourced plugins to directly convert the UI designed in Adobe XD to Flutter application.

How does it work?

Make sure you have XD installed.
Install Adobe XD plugin.
Select a layer or group in XD and copy dart code to the clipboard or export the entire artboard as Flutter widgets to use in the project.
As you run the plugin it instantly updates the app’s project without any manual work. Click here to find out more about the plugin.‍

3. Flutter Flow

Flutter Flow is a low code tool for building beautiful functional iOS applications.

How does it work?

Create a free account to start using Flutter Flow.
With the Flutter Flow builder convert Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD code to Flutter code. It’s easier to grab a pre-build screen and adjust the style to match the application theme.
Users can take advantage of 50+ templates, and 60+ widgets to build Flutter app UI. Explore more about the Flutter Flow Low code platform.‍

4. FlutLab IDE

FlutLab is a Flutter online IDE to create, debug and build cross-platform projects.

How does it work?

Sign in or Sign up with the FlutLab.io
Use Figma info such as Project link and Token id to fetch Figma design to the FlutLab IDE.
Just click Build Project to generate Flutter Code.

Find out more about FlutLab here.‍

5. DhiWise

DhiWise is a modern ProCode platform for web and mobile application development. It supports advanced technologies such as Node, React.js, Swift, Laravel, MongoDB, Kotlin, and Flutter. Let’s find out how does its Flutter app builder works

How does it work?

Sign up for DhiWise.
Select Flutter technology for app development.
Fetch your design from Figma into DhiWise.
Customize your app frontend.
Generate Flutter Code.

So, now you know about the tools and platforms that can convert Figma to Flutter code, but how to choose one among them. The answer is simple, just ask a few questions to yourself to conclude.

Do you just want to convert Figma design to Flutter code?
Do you want to follow the standard app development approach and don’t want to use any Low-Code or No-Code platform?
Do you want to speed up only front-end app development by customizing Flutter code before generating the final code from Figma design?
Are you searching for a full-stack development platform to speed up your cross-platform app development with Flutter?‍

Case 1: Use plugins if you are following the standard code development approach and do not want to go with any development platform.

In such a case, developers can use Figma or Adobe XD plugins *we have discussed above, *and convert Figma or Adobe XD design directly to the downloadable Flutter code.‍

Case2: Only dealing with the front-end app development and want to view and customize the code before or after generating the final one from the Figma design.

The best way to accelerate your front end app development while being in the power of making customization to your Flutter code is,

Use DhiWise Flutter app builder
Use Flutter Flow
Use FlutLab IDE

The above option lets you customize your Flutter code using the platform or IDE which is not possible in the case of plugins.‍

Case 3. Searching for the comprehensive solution that empowers developers to quickly build full-stack Flutter applications using a single platform with customization flexibility.

With DhiWise developers don’t need to look for other platforms to get their frontend and back-end job done.

The platform provides a Flutter app builder that converts Figma design to Flutter code in a few steps while allowing developers full flexibility for customization.

Plus, it lets them choose from the app template they like, create actions to handle UI interaction, override widget functionalities with lifecycle methods, and manage APIs.

For backend development, DhiWise supports technologies such as Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB which is an awesome stack for custom backend development.

Also, we have already got familiar with the DhiWise Figma to Code plugin.

Overall, DhiWise ensures developers have all the resources to build fantastic Flutter applications in less time.‍

Wrapping Up

From the above information, it’s clear that DhiWise is the best fit for your Full-stack Flutter app development and saves lots of development time by quickly generating app code.

Well, we have learned about the different Figma to Flutter solutions and when to use what. Now it’s up to your choice and development needs to get the right tool or platform.

So, go beyond just Figma to code, it’s time to embrace the traditional app development with a revolutionary ProCode platform. Sign up with DhiWise and experience the change you deserve.

Build Cross-Platform Apps Quickly with Flutter — The only wise choice

DhiWise — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:45:48 +0000

Have you decided to jump on the cross-platform app development “bandwagon”? Then the first question that comes into your mind is which technology to use for cross-platform development.

To build a Flutter app is no doubt the most preferred choice among developers, it is Google’s UI toolkit for creating native, iOS, Android, Web, Windows, macOS, and Linux applications from a single codebase.

In this article, we will learn about Flutter and why it is the best cross-platform app development framework.

‍Traditionally, mobile developers had no option other than to build a native app for each platform(Android, iOS, Web, etc). But with the innovations in the technology, they have multiple options to go cross-platform for app development.

The most popular technologies that are used for cross-platform development are,

However, Flutter is several steps ahead of these technologies and it has taken the digital world by storm in terms of cross-platform app development.

Let’s find out why to use Flutter, with the strongest reasons…

But before that, have a quick overview of Flutter technology.

A Flutter overview: Going cross-platform for app development with Flutter

According to the Statista 2021 developers survey, Flutter is the most popular cross-platform app development framework used by Global developers.

Flutter: An open-source UI development framework

Flutter is an open-source UI software development framework that enables developers to build a flutter application that works across various platforms. Its popularity is continuously growing over the last few years. As Flutter is an open-source platform it is free to use.‍

Flutter uses Dart for productive development

To build a flutter application, you require Dart, Google’s programming language. It is an official programming language developed to improve app performance and responsiveness.‍

Flutter is used by top software organizations

Flutter offers a complete package of development tools and widgets. The technology is already used by the top tech companies like Tencent, Google Ads, Square, Alibaba, etc. Its modern features allow several startups to launch their digital products with low cost and time efficiency.

But you might still face a question, why should you choose to build a Flutter app when there are other technologies for cross-platform app development.‍

Why choose Flutter to build cross-platform apps?

With the rise in the demand for software applications that run across multiple platforms, developers and startups need a quick app development solution to remain up in the market competition.

Flutter fulfills this requirement and that’s the reason why it is loved by many cross-platform app developers.

Here are the significant reasons why Flutter is one step ahead of other cross-platform development technologies.

1. Easy to learn

Flutter-Dart is easy to understand and quick to learn. With it, you can create a great app with less code. The Flutter documentation is straightforward and written in detail with examples. Further, it has great community support.

Building an application with Flutter saves your money and development time as its single codebase can be used for multiple operating systems. The Flutter framework can be easily installed and used for app building.

On the other hand, Dart language is strongly typed and object-oriented. It simplifies app design and also ensures standardization and consistency which is missing in the other cross-platform solutions such as Java, and C, making it easier to get started with Dart.

2. Open source and free

Flutter is open source, anyone can get free access to its original code, hence using it in your application will reduce your development cost.

3. See output in real-time with “Hot Reload”

With Flutter, developers can edit and see the changes in real-time using Hot Reload. It allows you to make the changes in the backend and view it in the front end, so you do not need to reload the entire application multiple times.

Hot Reload saves the developers time to compile applications frequently. This functionality makes cross-platform development with Flutter more beneficial.

4. Best for MVP

Launching MVP has many benefits: you can attract and win investors, test business concepts, get early feedback for improvement, and verify market demand quickly.

Flutter helps you achieve all these by allowing developers to build native applications for Android and iOS so that investors can get a clear idea about the app and its basic functionalities.

5. Flutter “Widgets”

Every element on the screen of the Flutter app is a widget. Flutter widgets offer extensive capabilities for creating intricate customized designs for apps. The look of the app entirely depends on the code structure and the choice and the sequence of widgets used to build an app.

6. Strong backend

By adopting Flutter, developers can save lots of time and resources on backend development. Flutter is naturally supported by Firebase which Google backs.

Firebase is a Backend-as-a-Service(BaaS) app development platform that provides backend hosting services such as real-time database, cloud storage, authentication, crash reporting, machine learning, remote configuration, and hosting for your static files.‍

Final thoughts: Flutter is the best choice if you….

Want to build apps at a low cost.
Want to (almost) match the performance of the native application.
Have a plan for cross-platform app development.

Cross-platform app development has many benefits such as large market reach, reduced cost and time of development, reduced workload, and cloud integration. On the contrary, building a native app is much more costly, time-consuming, and involves lots of effort.

Therefore, cross-platform app development is booming these days. Flutter has already acquired the first place in cross-platform development, it has strong community support and it is quickly gaining high popularity among the developers.

So, if you have any plan to go cross-platform for app development, do it right with DhiWise Flutter Builder and quickstart your cross-platform app development today with DhiWise — World’s first ProCode platform to build your web and mobile application lightning faster

Watch out for our Youtube video: Introduction to DhiWise Flutter Builder.

‍Sign up today to start your cross-platform app development.

‍

The Origin & rise of Pro-Code Development.

DhiWise — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:30:20 +0000

You might have heard about the term “Pro-Code” in many articles, but have you ever tried to understand what that means?

Why is there so much debate on using the No-Code vs Low-Code vs Pro-Code platform among software developers? And why so many experts believe that though No Code and Low Code are in high demand they can’t replace Pro Code in the coming future.

This article will help you to understand Pro Code, how it evolved over the years, and what will be the future of Pro Code development.

So, let’s get started with a brief introduction to “Pro-Code”.😊

Introducing ProCode:

The term “Pro-Code” refers to the professional software development where trained developers write code while following the best coding practices. Though it looks like a traditional way of building software applications, it has evolved dramatically over years in order to achieve higher efficiency, better quality, and scalability in today’s software development ecosystem.

With the innovative new technologies, programming languages, and frameworks; developers are now able to build advanced, reliable, and highly responsive applications in less time.

The past and present of ProCode: Evolution of the programming languages and the software development approach.

The history of the software language is decades old. The first programming language with the simplified machine code(Assembly language Programming) was introduced in 1949. But shortly after its introduction developers recognized that programming in Assembly language requires great intellectual efforts.

Thus to make things more efficient and simple to understand, new programming languages were introduced (today we have more than 700 programming languages in use ). The following timeline will give a clear picture of programming language evolution over time.

In the above timeline, I have mentioned only a few popular programming languages along with No Code and Low Code programming timelines. However, many other programming languages were introduced to serve various purposes in software development.

Besides that, to speed up traditional app development, developers started using packages, frameworks, and plugins and also adapted new development approaches and methodologies. Well, let’s have a look into the major changes that are shaping today’s ProCode development economics.

1.) The rise of app development, code management, team collaboration platforms, and IDEs

Software applications are not just limited to big enterprises, they are used by everyone from young children to grandparents. This raises the demand for apps, that in turn increases the need for tools and other supported software such as code management, collaborations, and better IDEs.

All these tools and software are playing a major role in reducing the software development and collaboration complexities.

2.) The adoption of the open-source culture

The other major change we are witnessing in the IT space is that developers and enterprises adopted an open-source culture to strengthen the developer’s community. This shift from traditional proprietary to open source not only lowers the cost of development but gives mover flexibility to developers for software customization.

3.) The shift from Waterfall to Agile to DevOps development methodology

Traditionally, during each project implementation, developers used to follow a linear approach to software development such as the waterfall model. However, to deliver products faster, the newer methodology called Rapid application development is incorporated by developers.

The methodology is often implemented using scrum, which is a development framework for developing and delivering sustainable products in a complex environment.

DevOps is the latest methodology that encourages developers to optimize software development processes. Though Agile and DevOps give similar output by introducing agility the production-ready code obtained from DevOps is more efficient in preventing backlogs, testing, deployment, and management.

In short, DevOps helps the developer and deployment team to better interact with each other, so they can keep on improving the service quality in the coming phases of development.

4.) The introduction of the Application Programming Interface

APIs are the sole of modern software development. Though they have existed since the year 2000, it is in the last decade they started gaining traction in the terms of implementation. API allows two different software systems to share data and functionality securely through a highly connected environment that benefits everyone from software developers to end-users.

With all this, software development is getting more sophisticated, smarter, and increasingly effective.

The Future of Pro-Code and its benefits over No-Code and Low-Code development

Though there is a rise in the No-Code and Low-Code platforms, Pro-Code is inevitable, because of the following reasons.

Though Low Code and No Code platforms can speed up your app development, they are still immature and need further improvement in the terms of flexibility, ease of customization, and integrations.
No code development doesn’t require any programming skills but it limits what you can build, you can not control your code and data, and the projects built with it are poorly scalable, and have inadequate integration.

Therefore it is only suitable for the common use cases where the user is allowed to implement a single logical pattern.

Similarly, Low Code development that requires some level of programming skills also has a lack of scalability issues, chances of vendor lock, and poor data security.

However, the success of any software application depends on its functionality, the nature of its code, its usefulness, scalability, security, and technical feasibility. Here, ProCode development has the power to meet all these.

The only thing that most people worry about in ProCode development is “speed”. But after looking into the advanced programming languages and frameworks like Flutter, React, Kotlin, Swift, JavaScrip, Laravel, and Node.js we can easily say that developing an app with such technologies is much easier due to their simplicity, code readability, rich libraries, strong dev community support, open-source nature, and abundant learning resources.

Still, if you think the ProCode development is a complex task I have something to share with you about how the advanced LowCode and ProCode platforms are coming forward to make software development a breeze.

As I said earlier, Low Code platforms are not yet mature, but most of them started their journey towards advancement. Some Low Code platforms are now providing access to app source code that gives more freedom to developers. While In the case of ProCode development, users already have that freedom.

Most importantly, the software industry will always require qualified professionals/ProCode developers to build, secure, custom, complex workflows, and user interfaces and seamlessly integrate the system with other software.

So now you might be thinking, is there any advanced ProCode platform, and if yes, what makes it unique in the Low Code and NoCode development race?

Meet DhiWise the world’s first ProCode development platform

“The platform provides the capabilities of low code and ProCode development under the same roof.”

It brings ProCode development to the next level by accelerating web and mobile app development. The platform generates customizable clean code that provides much-needed flexibility in app development.

So, What is unique about DhiWise that makes it the best choice for full-stack app development?

Converts Figma design to iOS (Swift), Flutter, Android (Kotlin), or React (Web) code in minutes.
Facilitates development with powerful backend technologies like Laravel and Node.js.
Generates quality code with your preferred architectural pattern- Clean Code and MVC.
Allows you to download your source code and modify it.
Provides GitLab and GitHub integration.
Can be connected with your preferred data sources like Firebase and Supabase and also enable you to quickly upload Postman Collection to configure API requests and responses.
Allows to set up the conditional flow in the Mobile app builder.
Can build app-specific workflows with the logic builder.

Watch our Youtube videos to learn more about DhiWise.

Visit our website and sign up today!

DEV Community: DhiWise

How to convert Figma Design into Flutter Code: 5 Steps Guide 🦋️

Figma 🖌

Flutter 👩💻

Lets Get Started 🚀

How to Convert Your Figma Design into React Code: Step by Step Guide ⚛️

Figma 🖌

React.js

Lets Dive deeper into it🚀

Flutter Cross-Platform: The King of Multi-Experience Development

Rising demand for cross-platform development?

Why Flutter for cross-platform app development?

The growing popularity of Flutter multiplatform

How does it simplify your cross-platform development?

What makes Flutter cross-platform development a unique approach for delivering a Multiplatform experience to the end-users

Conclusion

Want to speed up your Flutter cross-platform development?

Advanced TypeScript Cheat Sheet for Types, Interfaces, Control Flow, and More

What is TypeScript?

Advantages of TypeScript

Advanced TypeScript cheat sheet

TypeScript Primitive+Advanced Types

Interfaces

Type vs Interface

TypeScript Classes

Private keyword **vs **Private fields

If Statements:

Expressions:

5 Reasons to use Node.js with React.js for Web apps

Could we use React with NodeJS for Web application development?

Is it compulsory to use React and Node js together in web application development?

Top 5 reasons to use React with Node.js

1. Helps to maintain a high server load

2. Helps to maintain real-time data

3. Helps in developing single-page applications

4. Simplify building JSON for your APIs

5. Technologies of the MERN stack project

Ways Micro Frontend Architecture is Revolutionizing App Frontend Development?

What is a Micro Frontend?

Why should developers implement Micro Frontend architecture?

Benefits of Micro Frontend architecture

How does Micro Frontend architecture work?

Summing up:

Top 10 Flutter Animation Packages to Make the UI Feel More Intuitive

Top 10 Flutter Animation Packages to Make the UI Feel More Intuitive

Top Flutter animation packages

1. Animations

Benefits of using the Animations package

Material motion defines the following transition patterns.

Installation:

Installation:

Installation:

Installation:

Installation:

Installation:

Installation:

Installation:

Installation:

Installation:

Flutter Database Options: How to Choose the Right Database for Your Flutter App?

Introduction to the app database

Popular Flutter database options for relational and Non-relational databases

Non-Relational database options for Flutter

A quick review of available Flutter database options

Bottom line

Firebase Services: How to Speed up Development Process ? (Alternatives)

What is Firebase and what are its best features?

Limitations

Why to build Flutter Apps on this unknow “Pro-code” platform?

“It’s Time To Go Beyond Just Figma To Code”

‍Popular tools, and platforms available in the market to convert Adobe XD and Figma to Flutter code.

1. Figma to Flutter plugins by Figma platform

2. Adobe XD plugin

3. Flutter Flow

4. FlutLab IDE

5. DhiWise

Wrapping Up

Build Cross-Platform Apps Quickly with Flutter — The only wise choice

A Flutter overview: Going cross-platform for app development with Flutter

Why choose Flutter to build cross-platform apps?

Private keyword vs Private fields