DEV Community: Ray-Carter

What Makes PWA a Great Option for iOS Despite the Platform Limitations?

Ray-Carter — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 12:47:05 +0000

Most of you must be aware of PWA, which is a perfect blend between native mobile apps and websites and offers similar functionalities as native apps. Without the need of going through the long installation process of the app, PWA can be loaded with just a push of a button from the user’s mobile homepage. The service workers in PWA enable them to provide the best of both web and mobile native apps. The best thing about these apps is they have cache mechanisms enabling them to work in offline mode.
With immense benefits, PWA App Development services have been gaining huge popularity enabling businesses to deliver a swift and smooth mobile native customer experience. From better web traffic, enhanced customer engagement to quicker conversion rates, PWA makes them possible. Almost every browser and platform support PWA but its support on Apple’s platform Safari is restrained compared to Google platforms like Chrome & Edge. However, it does not mean PWA doesn’t work on iOS at all! In this article, we will learn how PWA is a great option for iOS despite the platform limitations.

What is iOS Web Apps?

The web apps in the iOS platform run in a standalone mode similar to other native apps and it was launched in Safari three years ago but has positive as well as negative sides as compared to Android and iOS native apps. Talking about the capabilities, it has support for geolocation API, sensors, audio output, camera, speech combination, Apple Pay, and more. While on the other hand, Apple’s caching limit is just 50 MB making heavy, HD audios/videos slow and frustrating. Features like Bluetooth, beacon, Siri, Face ID, Touch ID, push notifications, etc. doesn’t work with the iOS web app.

PWA vs. iOS Web Apps

Talking about Apple, Safari supports server worker caching using parts of web manifest file and has a service worker cache limit of 50MB but it doesn’t come with push notifications or background sync. While Chrome and Edge support native adds to home screen prompt but it is not there in Safari. We know what all are missing in PWA for iOS but it is not as bad as it seems. One of the best features of the web platform is its capability to progressively enhance many features when a browser does not support them natively.

Honestly, Apple was the one that supported the concept of a web app for the first time when they released the HTML-based apps for the iPhone. These apps provided the concept of annually adding a website to the home screen & launch in a full screen but it couldn’t deliver expected results as service workers did not exist. Though the iOS experience of PWA is different from other platforms, it is improving with every update of Safari. Instead of calling PWA, Apple prefers to call HTML Apps or Web Apps.
Top Examples That Shows PWA Implementation on iOS is Successful
When we talk about the progressive web app, we are taking time to create a better customer experience that is aimed to make customers happier with higher engagement rates. Even if PWA has some iOS platform limitations, most of the brands using PWA have witnessed an increase in their iOS engagement numbers.

Here are some of the PWA examples on iOS that shows how it can improve key performance indicators-

AliExpress PWA is one of the best examples of fast and sleek mobile design having a small footprint but still functions as a complete hub for shopping & browsing the marketplace. With PWA built by Aliexpress, they have witnessed an 82% increase in iOS conversion rate even when Safari doesn’t fully support service workers.
Another big brand, Washington Post’s Progressive Web App has been an eye-opener as it has seen a 5x increase in engagement. Some may be surprised with the result as service workers that play a main role in faster/offline experience is not supported on iOS and web notifications works only on desktop Safari, not on Mobile Safari. We can agree that even without service workers, the PWA was faster than the mobile site.
Mynet, a website with news, videos, games, entertainment content & more launched PWA that uses Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for the content. Through PWA, the brand saw an increase in mobile web experience by 4x times that helped them in increasing revenue by 25%.

It is clear from the above section that even with limitations; PWA on iOS is never a bad choice as it helps in providing a better web user experience and Apple will soon be beating the competition and performs even better than Chrome, Edge, and other browsers.

Closing Statement
Though there are some limitations for Progressive Web Apps on iOS, there are many brands that have gained better customer engagement rates after upgrading their business websites to a PWA, especially on the iOS platform. Hopefully, you must have got an idea of how PWAs can be a good choice to target iPhone and iPad customers for your application. If you are still confused, get in touch with the expert team of our iPhone App Development Company to build PWA for your brand and target iOS users for an impactful positive response.

Find out what’s New in Angular 10

Ray-Carter — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 06:33:28 +0000

Digitization has become the most essential aspect for every business as most of the customers today prefer to use online services. Having a mobile and web presence is important not just for big brands but also for startups. One of the common platforms for developing mobile and desktop web apps is Angular, a TypeScript-based open-source web application framework that is led by the Angular team at Google. Angular 10 was released this year on 24th June but with the beta version. This is the major release that covers the entire platform with the framework, Angular Material, and the CLI. Before you hire a developer, let’s find out everything you need to know about Angular 10 and how it will boost the web app development process.

Major Updates with the Release of Angular 10

The latest release of Angular focuses on quality tools and ecosystems not on new features. From the new date range picker in the Angular Material UI to the compiler upgrade, we are here to highlight the latest features of Angular 10 and its impact. Another follow-up point release to Angular 10 is Angular 10.1.0 that was released on 2nd September that brought performance improvements to the compiler & router with a new message extraction tool.

Here are some of the latest features of Angular 10-

TypeScript Support
One of the features of Angular 10 is support for typescript 3.9. if you are thinking what Typescript is? It is a language used by TypeScript compiler to type-check the code that builds on JavaScript adding syntax for type declarations or annotation. This helps in cleaning readable JavaScript that runs on lots of diverse runtimes. Along with error-checking, Typescript has the functionality for rich editing and speeding up the compiler.
Language Service
The language-service-specific compiler helps to check multiple typecheck files with the help of an interface that generates ScriptInfos as required. Another update with Angular 10 that safeguards the inhouse core functionality is the removal of autocompletion from HTML entities.
Browser Configuration
Another update is the configuration of the browser for new projects that are meant to outdo older and less used browsers. However, it disables ES5 builds by default, which is why you have to add the required browsers in the browserslist RC file to enable.
New Date Range Picker
The Angular Material UI component library of Angular 10 comes with a new date range picker. Two components will be used for this feature, i.e. mat-date-range-input and mat-date-range-picker.
Compiler Interface
To wrap the actual ngtsc compiler, a compiler interface has been added in Angular 10 along with name spans for property reads and method calls. Apart from this dependency information, ng-content selectors, the angular language service is also added to the metadata.
Optional Setting for Strict Projects
Angular 10 comes with the good news for strict project setup enabling them to create a new workspace with ng new (ng new --strict). After the flag is enabled, the new project starts with new settings that improve maintainability and provide assistance in catching bugs on time allowing CLI to perform advanced optimizations.
New Compiler Entry Points
The latest release of Angular has a program-based entry-point finder that helps in processing only the entry points reached by a program defined by a tsconfig.json file. Through this feature, one can speed up the process in places having a higher no. of dependencies with a smaller count of entry points, reducing the file size. This avoids storing unnecessary empty arrays unlike in earlier versions where ngcc parse files of the entry points, which is time taking process.
Better Performance
As discussed above, the size of the entry point is reduced which helps to improve the performance. Instead of computing every time, the caching of dependencies is executed with the entry point and is read from there.

Conclusion

As we can see, Angular has become an essential part of every web and app project. With the ease of use and its versatility, it has gained huge attention among many expert developers across the world. Soon after it released the Angular 10 version, it came with its first point release, Angular 10.1 for the performance improvements to the compiler and address router & core bugs with a new message extraction tool. If you are planning to hire Angular developers to upgrade your project with Angular 10 or use for a new project, get in touch with the experts of reliable Web Development Company San Jose to ensure a smoother path ahead for the development.

Top Features your Restaurant Management System must include

Ray-Carter — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 13:34:44 +0000

Depleting orders, lesser staff to function, and negligible hope around, businesses are facing the toughest of the situations. It is hard to stay intact in tough times, especially for the restaurant business struggling to maintain regular sales. In the drastically changing technology-centric environment the processes have been changing from manual to automated.

Restaurant owners nowadays are inclined towards next-gen technologies and mobile applications while the challenge in the process is often based on the management. Having an ideal restaurant management system to power the business is a tedious task, well with today’s technology advancements, it can be the easiest one! But, having the best in class food ordering system isn’t enough, you must have the required features included.

Must-have features of a Restaurant Management System

Every restaurant software development company must be having their list of preset features, but you might not feel all of them be a must-have! Here’s a list of the most required features you should include in your restaurant management system-
• Tracking Sales
Restaurant owners deal with innumerable tasks and payments either released or received through various mediums. In this case, it is imperative to have a software tracking the data and making the process simpler. Complete tracking of the sales data helps in making the right decisions and focusing on the financial aspects. Once the sales data is in place, you have the power to make smart choices and manage the rest of the spending and expansion accordingly.
• Inventory Control
This is one of the must-have features for a restaurant business. for instance, if you have a food listing on your restaurant website and some of the listed products have already been sold, you may not be able to remove the sold outs efficiently while following a manual process. In the case of a smart food ordering system, it becomes easy to manage the inventory and understand what you require immediately.
• Quick Menu Setup
Once a system is live you might have to make changes in pricing, stocks, and anything displayed on the website. For the amendments, a restaurant owner/admin must have an easy menu setup option to easily configure and get going quickly. Before you finalize over a POS System, make sure it does help you make a few adjustments in the menu, in case it's taking a lot of time, you might need to consider for other possible options offering better services.
• Business Reporting Ability
Being a business owner you might not spare time to evaluate the company performance on a regular basis. The business reporting system is quite appropriate in performing the evaluation while choosing the suited system, remember to opt for a flexible system so that it works automatically and send quick alerts based on the user-defined performance indicators and preset factors used to evaluate the performances. This just not only saves time but also gives access to operations and addresses the issues which are blocking the way to business growth.
• Food Ordering App
Customers today are busier than ever and that’s the reason why coming down to a restaurant isn’t always an option. Food ordering mobile applications serve the purpose of getting their most loved dishes to the people around and letting the restaurants elevate their sales. In case you’re still looking for a restaurant software development company to work on your food ordering app, ask for a demo and check out how the interface will look, ensuring if the same is having the required features.
• Speed
Your food ordering website is clearly nothing if it’s not fast enough! A slow system can be quite chaotic for the users or the management people handling the regular tasks. No one wishes to send a bad impression to their customers and as a business owner prefer looking for the aspect of swift loading websites and the systems to avoid unnecessary hassles and provide the users with a smooth experience.
• Loyalty Program
Loyalty is returned and a loyalty program lets the customers feel valued enough to return the loyalty they have received. 40% of restaurants are already offering some kind of loyalty, while 57% want to love a place that offers one. You are certainly lacking in the run if you don’t have a loyalty program for your regular customers. Introduce a customer-friendly loyalty program to let them feel valued and grow your business at the same time.
• Technical Support
There may be situations when your staff isn’t available in full strength or your system is down, here we need a technical support system. It’s a great help to have support for restaurant POS. before you look for a POS system to integrate, do ask for the technical support queries.

Ready to reach the next level? Get on the wheels and find the best-suited restaurant software development company to develop your feature enriched restaurant management system.

Best Programming Language for FinTech Applications

Ray-Carter — Tue, 19 May 2020 11:14:48 +0000

Technology advancements are hiking up and drastically changing the picture of many industries, mostly in the case of fintech. Among the rest of the domains, the financial segment is the one gaining immense popularity among banking, investors, and consumers.
While a smart combination of financial services and technology has collaborated to develop a new buzz called FinTech. It is disrupting the traditional financial services to make the tasks easier, smoother, and faster. Finance based applications are opening up great opportunities for mobile app development companies across the globe. The question here should be which programming language best compliments the development of FinTech Applications, here’s a brief-
• Java
Java has been the oldest so far, the ones who’re gripped in the app development industry must have been known to the legacy of java. The language is one of the most desired programming technology for banking purposes as it offers great security and quite appropriate for building heavily loaded programs to further deal with huge amounts of data. Another aspect why Java has been the long used language is security & portability though it does lack speed and performance to some extent.
• C++
In general, technology is greatly used in FinTech industry. C++ is cherished and widely used for programs where the execution speed and complete efficiency comes in the major role. C++ perfectly suits the programs which require advanced computations and process numerous operations simultaneously. The language also represents itself as one of the best technologies for quantitative and qualitative analytics. C++ is known for its efficiency, code reusability and rich library. While on the contrary, it does not ensure complete security and is a bit complex in nature.
• Ruby
Ruby is best known for its great possibilities, capabilities and characteristics which are necessary for the swift and successful app development. Ruby is dynamic and reflective technology that is capable and sophisticated. Though it is yet to be evolved in order to use it for building digital payments systems, e-wallets, analytics and financial dashboards too. Due to its extensive technological advancements, Ruby is quite a pro in terms of time efficiency, powerful framework and cost-effectiveness. It does carry a few drawbacks on the integration which includes documentation issues and boot speed, making it not the first choice depends on the companies mostly for the financial app development companies.
• C#
C# is designed by Microsoft, it is the amalgamation of the best from C and Java. Known for simplicity, this elegant language is majorly used for building .NET programs for Microsoft operating systems, websites, mobile apps and even for 3D unity games. The language is best known for its cross-language interoperability, Enhancements to C, Number of libraries, and Type safety. While some major drawbacks include low speed and too dependent on .Net.
Why’s Python the best programing language so far?
Python is old but is treated as one of the most popular programming languages in the world. The core development of Python started at the end of the 80s of the last century and the first full-fledged version got released in 1991.
Python is one of the most popular programming languages for the FinTech based applications and is also widely used for banking, insurance, and data analysis processes and industries. It is quite a popular tool to build cryptocurrency markets, majorly known for scalability, concise code, pythonic standards, and powerful network. Carrying a few drawbacks including web browser support and designing.
With time, Python evolved, currently prevailing in FinTech software development, here’s why-
• According to a survey conducted by HackerRank among 20+ US-based companies that are involved in FinTech industry, Python language is preferable for the FinTech industry.
• An employment website from the Wall Street Journal included Python to six best programming languages for the banking industry. Moreover, today Python is the most taught in technical universities,
• Having a quick runtime, Python is being a preferable option for FinTech industries. A few functions can be implemented quite faster with the use of the language. For instance, one function in Python can take around 10 strings of code, whereas C++ will do a similar task with twice as many strings.

These are the few best technologies for FinTech based solutions. Choosing the right technologies and the appropriate python web development company can find in the best possible solutions for your business, letting you stay higher on growth and development.