DEV Community: scarlett8285

Robotic Process Automation in Banking-Transformation Unseen!

scarlett8285 — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 10:52:18 +0000

Forrester predicts that the RPA services market will hit $12 billion by 2023. It has previously projected that the RPA software market will grow to $2.9 billion by 2021.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has captured the interest of IT for good reasons by automating repetitive work and enabling employees to get indulged in value-driven tasks. It let your organization improve productivity, reduce costs and streamline compliances.

Linda Tucci, the executive editor at TechTarget, defines RPA as a “software that can help automate mainly back-office work that is rules-driven, repetitive, and involves overlapping systems: think tasks that search, gather, collate, and update data.

How is RPA shaping the Banking and Finance Industry?

With so many industries in the market space already leveraging the RPA benefits, banking and finance companies are one of them. Here in this blog, I have discussed how RPA is influencing the banking and finance companies. Let's read these in detail.

Customer Service

There are multiple queries that banks have to deal with every day. These include important activities ranging from account information to application status to balance information.

Responding to queries like these that have less turnaround time is surely a tough task to handle. But by implementing banking process automation, the problem can be solved easily.

RPA can automate rule-based processes such as these and can respond to the various queries in real-time. It can also reduce the turnaround time to seconds thus allowing human resources to do other high-value tasks.

With the help of Artificial Intelligence, RPA can solve queries that require decision making. This is one of the major applications of RPA in banking and finance industry. By using (NLP) Natural language processing, the Chatbots can understand the natural language to chat with customers and respond to customer queries just like a human.

Read: Is the advent of AI in eCommerce a Silver Bullet?

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Compliance

As globalization continues to increase exposure to multiple regulatory regimes and jurisdiction, compliance has NOW become a focal point of all companies across the globe. Maintaining regulatory compliance is undoubtedly a daunting task! This is why companies these days face a lot of challenges in meeting the compliance needs.

Applying techniques driven by RPA in banking and finance projects can help overcome this challenge. A survey by Accenture said that 73% of respondents believed that RPA can be a key enabler in compliance.

Several processes of compliance oversight operations can be enhanced through RPA implementation leading to high-quality compliance. You can incorporate RPA solutions into your projects too. All that you need is to hire RPA developer to leverage the incredible benefits of the technology.

Read- “5 insights on how Robotics can drive financial services compliance modernization”.

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Accounts Payable

Though accounts payable is a simple process it is a time-taking task that requires extracting vendor information, validating it and then processing the payment. These processes take a lot of time to get completed.

Robotic Process Automation using optical character recognition (OCR) solution can solve this problem. OCR can read the vendor information from the digital copy of the physical form and then provide all the information to the RPA system.

Later, when RPA gets the information, it can validate the information and then process the payment. In case an error arises, RPA can notify the designated executive for resolving it.

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Credit Card Processing

Do you know how long it takes to process credit card applications? Traditional credit card processing took weeks to validate customer information before the credit cards got approved. This created a lot of dissatisfaction among the customers and also cost a lot to the banks.

However, with the help of RPA, banks can NOW process large applications within hours. RPA validates information like required documents, background checks, credit checks on the basis of which, it can approve or disapprove a specific application.

Mortgage Loan

Did you know how long it takes to process a mortgage loan? In advanced countries like that of the United States, the process takes approximately 50 to 53 days. The complete process of approving mortgage loans has to go through various checks such as credit checks, repayment history, employment verification, and inspection.

This is why the process of mortgage loans takes too much time. Even a minor error can slow down the process. Robotic Process Automation can help to accelerate the process by reducing the processing time to minutes from days.
Thus, applying solutions driven by RPA in banking and finance projects will surely prove to be a profitable deal!

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Fraud Detection

The advent of digital systems has revolutionized the business world today. But it has brought along a serious threat to secured transactions. Fraud transactions have become a major concern for banks.

Implementing Banking Process Automation techniques can solve the issue. Let’s see how RPA does so. An RPA driven approach tracks the transactions and raises the flag for fraud transaction patterns in real-time thus reducing the delay in response.

In some cases, RPA has been used to prevent fraud by blocking accounts and stopping the transactions.

Read:“Is the Big RPA Bubble here to Stay?”

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KYC Process

Know Your Customer (KYC) is an important process that the banks have to carry out for every customer. This process includes 500 to 1000+ FTEs to perform necessary checks on the customers.

Banks spend more than $384 million per year on KYC process compliance, says Thomson Reuters. It means that the KYC process is a time-consuming process that involves a lot of effort and resources.

To overcome challenges such as these, banks have started using RPA for validating customer data. By leveraging RPA in banking and finance services for the KYC process, banks can now complete the process with minimal errors and resources.

General Ledger

Do you know what things are required for preparing financial statements? It is important for the banks to keep the general ledger updated with information like revenue, assets, liabilities, expenses, and revenue for preparing the financial statements.

Financial statements are the public documents that are accessed by the public, stakeholders, and media. The information that is filled in while preparing these documents needs to be done accurately. This is because even a small error in the report can badly affect the bank’s reputation and image.

With such a huge amount of data to handle, it is bound to have errors. Here RPA plays an important role. RPA helps to reduce the huge amount of data handling thus saving a lot of time.

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[Read- “The Robots are coming to Corporate Finance”]

Account Closure Process

Handling so many customers at times becomes a tedious task for the banks. With such a large number of customers present, the banks get an account closure requests on a monthly basis.

While there may be so many reasons for account closures, one of these is when a client fails to provide a mandatory document. But with Banking Process Automation, it is NOW easy for banks to track such accounts.

Using RPA techniques, the banks can send automated notifications and can also schedule calls for the required document submissions. Moreover, in some exceptional cases like the client failing in submitting KYC documents, RPA even allows banks to close the accounts.

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Final Words

RPA has brought in a lot of changes in the way finance and banking companies work by enabling them to do more with less human resources and at a reduced cost. This is why many finance leaders these days are embracing Robotic Process Automation to structure more efficient finance teams, reduce costs and improve compliance.

A survey in the financial section by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that 30% of the respondents were not only experimenting with RPA but were on the way to adopt it enterprise-wide. You can also hire developer for reaping RPA benefits to scale your business growth.

Also, more than half of the respondents (nearly 53%) in Deloitte’s third annual RPA survey said they’ve already embarked on their RPA journey. Deloitte expects the figure to reach 72% in the next two years.

Leverage RPA in your ongoing projects also to get the incredible benefits of this advanced technology!

Intriguing Facts to Know before You use Python Applications!

scarlett8285 — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 11:48:22 +0000

Python has been an industry leader for quite some time now and it is being widely used in various fields like finance, banking, big data, signal processing, and many others.

This high-level programming language (Python) has been associated with big names like NASA, Walt Disney, Reddit, Instagram, Venmo, etc. It has also been used to strengthen Google’s internal infrastructure and in building applications like YouTube.

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Besides being liked by large enterprises, Python is loved by the developers too. According to Stack Overflow Developers' Survey 2019, Python is the second "most loved" language with 73% of the developers choosing it above other languages prevailing in the market.

All thanks to the incredible advantages that Python provides because of which it is also used for web development. Python offers multiple frameworks for web development. Some of these include,

Django
Pyramid
Turbogears
Web2py

You can also hire web developer that can incorporate Python benefits for creating dynamic web apps for your business needs.

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Facts that will drive you crazy!
So, in this blog, I have listed some interesting facts that will surely arouse your curiosity in Python. Let's read further to know more about these.

Python was a hobby project

You will be amazed to know that Python was a hobby project. Python was created in December 1989. Guido Van Rossum, the creator of Python was looking for a hobby project that could keep him occupied during the Christmas week.

Rossum already had something in mind. He was thinking of writing a new scripting language that would appeal to Unix/C hackers. He called it Python.
With the widespread use of Python Applications these days, the same hobby project is dominating the market space today.

Why was it called Python?

This is another interesting fact that will surely surprise you. The language’s name isn’t about snakes. It is about a popular British comedy troupe Monty Python (from the 1970s). Guido is a big fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. So, he chose to name the language “Python”.

The Zen of Python

Now, this is getting even more exciting. Are you wondering what '' The Zen of Python '' is? The answer to this is right here. It is a poem written by Tim Peters , a major contributor to the Python community. He wrote this poem so as to highlight the philosophies of Python. If you wish to see this poem, then you can type “import this” in your Python IDLE.

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Flavors of Python

Python comes in various flavors. Some of these are listed here. You can have a quick look at these to know more about Python applications.

CPython- Written in C, it is the most common implementation of Python
Jython- Written in Java, it compiles to bytecode
IronPython- Implemented in C#, it is an extensibility layer to frameworks written in .NET
Brython- Also known as Browser Python, it runs in the browser
RubyPython- it bridges between Python and Ruby interpreters
PyPy- it is implemented in Python
MicroPython- It runs on a microcontroller

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Big Companies that use Python

Many big names in the business world use (or have used) Python for their products/services for leveraging the advantages of Python. I have listed the names of some of these below. You can also hire Python developer for integrating Python benefits into your project.

NASA
Google
IBM
Yahoo! Maps
Walt Disney Feature Animation
Facebook
Netflix
Reddit
Quora
Amazon
Dropbox
Pinterest
Youtube

Python is also the first choice for big data companies. To know the reasons, please

Read: “Why is Python Programming a perfect fit for Big Data?”

No braces required

Unlike Java and C++, Python does not use braces to delimit code. If you are using Python, then indentation is mandatory. In case you choose to import it from the future package, then it gives you a witty error just like the same as shown below.

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Functions can return multiple values

One of the major advantages of Python is that a function can return more than one value as a tuple. You can have a look at this code. Here, in this code, the function returns more than one value at once.

This is not possible using Java. In Java, you are allowed to return an array of values instead. This is one of the reasons which makes Python a preferred choice for Big data technology as analysis of complex data is involved there.

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Read: “Is Python for Financial App Development the Right fit?”

Python supports multiple assignments in one statement

Python users will be glad to know that Python lets you assign the same value to multiple variables in one statement. It allows you to assign values to multiple variables at once.

This makes swapping easier and quicker in Python. Do you know why? The reason being that swapping in Python can easily be done using 1 line of code.

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It’s easier to reverse a list with Slicing

One of the advantages of Python is that it allows you to reverse values in a list. For example, if you list some of the values, then by using -1, you can get these values in the list reversed. Here is the code for it.

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Chain Comparison is possible using Python

Python allows chain comparison! At times, you may be required to do more than one comparison at once. Like, if you have a condition in which you need to check whether a value is greater than another and lesser than another simultaneously, then with Python it’s surely possible!

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String literals can concatenate together

Another fact about Python that will surprise you is that if string literals are separated by a space, then Python automatically concatenates them together.
So, ‘Hello’ ‘World’ becomes ‘HelloWorld’ as shown here.

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Python influenced JavaScript

Python is one of the 9 languages influencing the design of JavaScript. Other languages that influence its design include AWK, C, HyperTalk, Java, Lua, Perl, Scheme, and Self.

for- and while- loops can have else statements

Yes, that’s true! In Python, the “else statement” is not limited to if and try statements. If you are adding an else block after a for- or while- loop, then the statements inside the else block will get executed only after the loop completes.

In case if the loop raises an exception or reaches a break statement, then the code under the else statement will not get executed. This can be of great help while conducting search operations.

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Using “ _” gets the value of the last expression

Using an underscore in Python allows you to get the value/result of the last expression. You can refer to the code to gain clarity.

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The Bottomline,

I am pretty sure that by NOW you would have got a clear idea why Python is in vogue these days. These listed interesting facts will surely help you know more about the language and its benefits. You can incorporate these benefits in the next upcoming project for scaling your business growth.

Top 7 E-Commerce Development Trends to watch out for in 2020!

scarlett8285 — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 11:30:21 +0000

Ecommerce businesses should anticipate a 265% growth rate, from $1.3 trillion in 2014 to $4.9 trillion in 2021, says Statista.

With online shopping becoming popular these days, people NOW prefer to buy stuff online rather than purchasing from brick and mortar stores. After witnessing such a huge growth in the eCommerce industry, it wouldn’t be wrong to say,

Ecommerce development is here to stay!

All thanks to the emerging ecommerce development trends prevailing in the market! We have discussed these trends in the blog. Read further to know more.

Ecommerce stores strive hard to keep up with the customer’s interest. They do so, not only to allure the users but also to increase customer retention. For connecting well with the customers, it's important for the ecommerce companies to offer their users with what they want.

In the beginning, e-commerce was about getting commodity products online as cheaply as possible. But now, it's about selling emotional products – the things that people really cherish. – Jason Goldberg

eCommerce Trends in 2020!

Acing the e-commerce game is not a cakewalk. It is not just about creating a website, bringing in products and then selling the same. The E-Commerce industry is one of the most dynamic industries.

So, in order to stay competitive and an edge above your competitors, you need to keep up with the ever-changing trends. Let’s have a look at some of the development trends transforming the e-commerce industry in the coming year.

“Ecommerce leaders will have to keep with these changes (and trends) to survive and stay ahead.” Linda Bustos, an Ecommerce Expert

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Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence has revolutionised the business world! It has become one of the major development trends in the eCommerce industry. In the coming days, it is expected that more and more organizations will embrace this technology to bring changes in several functions that they perform.

83% of businesses say AI is a strategic priority for their businesses today.

AI applications help in rendering an improved personalized experience to users by identifying market patterns. This is why companies these days are leveraging AI-based personalization strategies to boost business revenues. You can also hire ecommerce developer to build an online store for your business.

The playing field is poised to become a lot more competitive, and businesses that don’t deploy AI will be at a disadvantage, said Paul Daugherty

      Also <a href="https://dev.to/scarlett8285/is-the-advent-of-ai-in-ecommerce-a-silver-bullet-57ci">Read</a>- “Is the advent of AI in eCommerce a Silver Bullet?”

Also, using Artificial Intelligence helps businesses to study customer behaviour based on people’s browsing history thus allowing them to provide with what their customers desire for. AI benefits have greatly influenced the eCommerce space. It is no wonder to say that,

AI is a tool, the choice about how it gets deployed is ours.-Oren Etzioni

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Augmented Reality (AR)

The Augmented Reality (AR) market size is estimated to increase by over 195 billion U.S. dollars, increasing from roughly 3.5 billion in 2017 to over 198 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, says Statista.

There is a huge demand for online shopping these days as it makes shopping so convenient. But, there are many customers who still like to shop using the traditional ways. They would prefer to experience and see the product before they buy it.

That is what Augmented Reality (AR) does. It provides a whole idea of how something will look and feel in real life. For example, if a customer wants to buy a chair online, then AR will let him know how it would look inside their living room.

AR is revolutionising the way we shop by bridging the gap between digital and physical worlds –Muchaneta Kapfunde

In order to stay at an edge above your customers, you should certainly incorporate the AR feature in your eCommerce store so that the customers stay inclined to buy your product.

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Voice Search

Smart voice-search devices like Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri are disrupting the market space delivering users with required information. In fact, voice-empowered shopping has become a popular trend in the eCommerce space.

The voice search usage is seeing a huge growth and is being recognised as a trailblazer in the eCommerce development industry. It has become a preferred way of shopping that enables the customers to buy things online using voice searches.

Voice-based shopping is expected to jump to $40 billion in 2022.

So, you can use this technology while building your Ecommerce store. All that you require is to use relevant and long-tail keywords in the product page so that it appears in the queries made by the customers.

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Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is not a new term in the e-Commerce space. In fact, some companies are already using it and have achieved 17% percent higher CTR using marketing automation.

Marketing automation techniques allow you to schedule social media posts and to automate email marketing. You can send out personalized emails to your prospects and customers for nurturing lead conversions. This is why,

Global marketing automation spend is expected to reach $25.1 billion by 2023 from $11.4 billion in 2017, says Forrester.

Using marketing automation, you can use people’s shopping history to display new promotions and products so as to render an improved customer experience. Also, you can entice your users to buy from you which is very essential for any website to be successful. Even Joel Anderson, Walmart CEO said this,

“You can’t just open a website and expect people to flood in. If you really want to succeed you have to create traffic.”

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Enhanced Shipping Options

The shipping strategy that you choose is the key to your online store’s success. A survey stated that,

38% of customers say they’ll never shop with a retailer again following a negative delivery experience.
60% of customers have chosen a competitor with more convenient delivery options.
45% of customers have abandoned a shopping cart because of unsatisfactory delivery options.

Amazon recently implemented enhanced shipping options using specialized drones deliveries in the USA. By assimilating the benefits of Google Maps, these drones can identify the shortest route to the delivery destination thus allowing you to deliver products in time.

Clearly, drone delivery will become one of the popular development trends of the eCommerce industry that will revolutionize the shipping methods being adopted so far by online businesses. Hire web developers for building enticing apps to increase customer engagement for your online business.

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Social Payments
The coming year 2020 will render an incredible shopping experience to the consumers with the availability of social payment options. Popularized by Paypal, social payment options let the users pay for their online purchases using social media.

At present, almost all major social media platforms have come up with their own versions for online payment. ApplePay, WhatsApp Pay, GooglePay, Facebook payments, and Twitter Buy are some of these.

These social payment methods have contributed a lot in the eCommerce development. They work similar to a digital bank account, the only difference being that these work on a social media platform.

Subscription-Based Models

Ecommerce businesses have derived a number of benefits from the subscription-based models. This is why, Subscription based models have become one of the most noteworthy eCommerce development trends in the business world.

The subscription e-commerce market has grown by more than 100 percent a year over the past five years.

People prefer subscription models for buying products only if they are good enough in providing an end-to-end experience along with other tangible benefits, such as lower costs or increased personalization.
So, it's important that the online businesses offer the best subscription models to the customers that compels them to keep returning back.

The Bottomline

So, in this blog, I gave an exclusive sneak peek of the eCommerce development trends ruling the roost in the year 2020. You can incorporate any of these in your online store, in order to win and stay ahead of your competitors playing in the eCommerce field. Never forget the success mantra,
“Always deliver more than expected.” -Larry Page, Co-founder of Google

Always remember that connecting well with your customers and offering them with the right thing at the right time is the secret to a successful online venture.

10 Best Laravel eCommerce Packages for your Online Store!

scarlett8285 — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 12:08:37 +0000

Online shopping has become a trend NOW! As a result, a number of eCommerce sites can be seen burgeoning in the market space allowing users to find anything immediately in the e-store. No wonder, online shopping gives more happiness as compared to traditional brick and mortar shopping.

In the beginning, e-commerce was all about getting commodity products online as cheaply as possible. Now, we’re moving into the more exciting phase of eCommerce, where it’s all about selling emotional products - the things people really cherish.” said, Jason Goldberg.

With large enterprises focusing more on customer satisfaction more than ever before, one can see the eCommerce industry growing at an unprecedented rate all over the world. Ecommerce businesses will observe a 265% growth rate, from $1.3 trillion in 2014 to $4.9 trillion in 2021, says Statista.

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Why Laravel for eCommerce?

Laravel is an excellent option to choose for building an enterprise e-commerce app. Laravel is a PHP framework, that offers a great platform for creating applications from scratch. You can also build an eCommerce app for your business. For this, you need to hire offshore laravel developer that can help in creating highly engaging apps for scaling business growth. Using Laravel for making eCommerce apps offers,

High Scalability
Complete Customization
Stability and Flexibility
Lesser Cost
eCommerce packages

Availability of Laravel eCommerce packages makes Laravel the best choice for building eCommerce sites. Here, I am listing out the top 10 Laravel eCommerce packages for making your own online store.

Aimeos

Aimeos is one of the best Laravel eCommerce packages. It is a Laravel e-commerce package that can be integrated into Laravel 5 and 6 applications. The package comes with adaptive and rich features. Aimeos provides customizable themes, multilingual support, and an SEO ready shop system.

Advantages of using Aimeos

The package supports more than 100 payment gateways with the help of the Omnipay PHP library.
It has multiple channels, multiple vendors, and multiple inventory capabilities.
When used along with a database and optimize service, the package can provide a web speed of up to 40ms.
It is available for free.

AvoRed

AvoRed is an open-source eCommerce package written in PHP. Known as the best Laravel SEO package, AvoRed provides a mobile-friendly interface to the users. This Laravel package helps you to concentrate on your business activities by creating a category and attributes with management ability to keep track of your order, customer information, and inventory management.

Advantages of using AvoRed

AvoRed monitors the order itself and handles the data for clients.
The package has a marketing module that allows you to send a promotional email.
You can easily customize the Open Source Laravel Shopping Cart as per your needs using AvoRed.
The platform allows you to create product entities like category, attributes, etc.

Bagisto

Bagisto is a standalone shop system application with best-in-class features embedded in it. It is an open-source Laravel package that has a native right to left support. This Laravel package has gained huge popularity within a short span of time as it offers incredible Laravel user management and multi-warehouse inventory management options.

Advantages of using Bagisto

Bagisto offers functionalities like Multi-Currency, Localization, Access Control Level, Multi-Channel and, Payment integration.
This Laravel Package renders easy installation with multiple channels and multiple store inventory.
It also provides quick access to the administrative portal.

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Laraship

Laraship is a Laravel Multi-vendor e-commerce platform that enables sellers to promote their products under a single hub. It provides more than 10 payment gateways and multiple themes. This Laravel package is one of the most powerful search engines. Powered by Laravel 5.5, Laraship has all the features of an online store platform.

Advantages of using Laraship

The eCommerce package helps in selling tangible products, digital products, and affiliate external products.
Laraship allows you to add products and promote your store. The available demo content helps in defining the products that you offer.
Laraship also provides enticing fronted themes so the users need not worry about the designs anymore.

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Shopist

Shopist is in great demand these days! It is one of the best Laravel eCommerce packages prevailing in the eCommerce space. Being an extremely easy and powerful framework for Lavarel, it offers excellent features that allow the users to design.

Advantages of using Shopist

It has a powerful multi-vendor system.
Shopist is integrated with product design using which the users can design.
Reviewing, reporting, google Recaptcha and mobile SMS are other features that Shopist offers to its users.

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Vanilo

Vanilo is a good PHP framework that is popular in the eCommerce industry. Just because of the unique features that the package provides. It is a pure Laravel e-commerce platform that provides flexibility. Also, the ease of using Vanilo further makes it more to even more popular for making eCommerce sites.

Advantages of using Vanilo

It also provides stability and testability.
Vanilo offers simplicity and extensibility.

RedminPortal

RedminPortal is considered to be one of the best eCommerce Laravel packages. Being an ideal package for making eCommerce websites, RedminPortal provides you with the ability to edit product, promotion and a lot more things.

Advantages of using RedminPortal

RedminPortal allows you to upload payslips and let your workers access it, anytime and anywhere.
This Laravel package can be used to organize meeting sessions.
The eCommerce package offers UI to administer users and groups.

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GetCandy

GetCandy is an e-commerce API package in vogue these days. This popularly used eCommerce package offers Rest API and admin interface to manage products, orders, and users. It also uses back-end for the progressive web application.

Advantages of using GetCandy

GetCandy is a combined e-commerce API and administration system that helps to manage products, orders, and users.
It helps you to create amazing and enticing online stores for rendering an improved user experience.
Using GetCandy allows the users to get complete functionality of the store.

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LaravelShoppingcart

LaravelShoppingcart is an e-commerce package of Laravel that is easy to use. Being simple and less complex, this LaravelShoppingcart has limited but incredible features instilled. It can be used without facing any issues and that’s why it is preferred for creating eCommerce sites. It can integrate into existing Laravel 5 which have added cart features embedded in it that can be useful while creating an eCommerce app.

Advantages of using LaravelShoppingcart

Simple and less complex
Easy to use
It can be handled and managed easily without any issues.

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Mage2

Mage2 is an e-commerce package offered by Laravel that helps in adding various features to your store. Using Mage2 allows you to download or add different snippets to the core code instead of a single installation.

Advantages of using Mage2

Using Mage2, you can choose and select the functionalities that you want in your e-store.
Mage2 helps in customization of the e-store very quickly and easily.

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Final Words

So, these are the top 10 Laravel eCommerce packages that you can use for getting more users hooked on your app. All that you need to do is to hire dedicated laravel developer who will help you in making an online store with ease by using these Laravel eCommerce packages.

There are plenty of apps available in the online business today, and if you're not using the best ones for your business, you could probably lag behind in the competition. These Laravel eCommerce packages help you outperform your competitors in the market.

You can’t wait for customers to come to you. You have to figure out where they are, go there and drag them back to your store said, Paul Graham.

Is the advent of AI in eCommerce a Silver Bullet?

scarlett8285 — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 09:03:55 +0000

Last Sunday, my nephew gave me a surprise visit at my place. He showed a new app on the play store. Being a tech savvy, I like to explore new apps and what’s happening in the technology across the globe. So, I happily started viewing the app. Later, when I did a research to know more about the widespread use of eCommerce apps, I came across some startling facts which I would like to share with you guys.

According to Internet Retailer estimates, Amazon accounted for nearly 37 cents out of every dollar that U.S. consumers spent online in 2018 and more than 5 cents of every retail dollar that U.S. consumers spent.

Amazon is an eCommerce powerhouse. In 2019, this giant retailer is expected to hit a 52% market share in the US and almost 14% worldwide. Clearly, leveraging AI in eCommerce is one of the reasons behind the great achievement. With more than 100 million Alexa devices being sold, this Amazon’s smart speaker maintains a 70% market share in the US. Do you know which technology does Alexa work on? It is one of the most popular Amazon products driven by Artificial Intelligence.

Amazon’s potential to harness AI is the secret behind its GREAT success. It goes without saying that it is the Amazon’s AI capabilities that helps in analyzing customer behaviour through their search patterns and accordingly design a targeted marketing strategy for rendering customized recommendations. According to rejoiner, Amazon’s recommendation engine drives 35 percent of the total sales.

It is now clearly evident how using Artificial Intelligence has turned out to be a real game-changer for the eCommerce industry. So, what are you waiting for? You can hire magento developer and use AI in your next eCommerce app too. Let’s have a closer look at some of the benefits of leveraging AI in the eCommerce eco-space.

Improving Customer Experience

“Among all the technology trends shaping 2019 and beyond, the adoption of AI to improve Customer Experience will surely be one of the most promising ones,” says Jessica Ekholm, VP Analyst, Gartner.

The advent of AI in eCommerce has certainly improved Customer Experience more than ever before! AI helps to vamp-up customer experience and it does this by empowering self-service round the clock. AI-driven chatbots for examples render automated assistance to customers by resolving online queries without any need for human intervention. Thus, using AI helps you to connect with your customers allowing you to understand their needs which is essential for any business to drive results. This is why Business Insider experts predict that by 2020, 80% of enterprises will use chatbots.

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Rendering Better Search Results

Have you ever abandoned your online purchase just because the product results being displayed right in front of you were irrelevant? If yes, then surely you would not prefer to shop from that site again.

This is why large enterprises NOW are using AI display customer-centric search results for displaying relevant results to the desired ask. eCommerce websites are increasingly leveraging NLP (or Natural Language Processing) and Image Recognition to analyze the user language and produce better product results.

Clarifai, a popular AI company is availing the AI benefits in eCommerce by building smarter applications that can see the world as people. In their words, “Artificial Intelligence with a Vision.” Intelligent applications like these empower businesses by providing a customer-centric experience thus ensuring improved search results for the users.

Another well-known app company Pinterest is partnering with eCommerce stores for its new offering Pinterest Lens. Thus using AI in eCommerce sites has helped its users to find matching items in the store directly from their image on Pinterest. People will not abandon their search anymore because now they are able to find their relevant product when asked.

Such developments driven by Artificial Intelligence not only helps businesses to generate better revenues but also reduce customer’s pain. This is why Larry Page said these words,

Artificial intelligence would be the ultimate version of Google. This ultimate search engine would understand everything on the web. It would understand exactly what you wanted, and it would give you the right thing.

Forecasting Sales

“Forecasting should be treated for what it really is: A science.”

It is important to create accurate forecasts so that you can drive the right conclusion using the collected data and facts. This is the beauty of using AI. It’s brutally honest and lets you know the accurate measurement for driving meaningful data insights.

Good sales forecasting is essential for your business to grow! It is one of the AI benefits in eCommerce that has completely reshaped the way we analyze data these days. Instead of merely accessing the data as done earlier, AI and Machine Learning NOW help you comprehend the data’s impact on your business. It allows to know how a company interacts with its data.

The AI algorithms read the sales pattern and drive useful insights to design marketing strategies for improving sales. So, leverage AI in eCommerce as AI acts as a force multiplier in heightening the accuracy of sales forecasting to scale your business growth. Companies boasting accurate sales forecasts are 10% more likely to grow their revenue year-over-year and 7% more likely to hit quota, says a research conducted by the Aberdeen Group.

Source

Targeting Potential Customers

With the newly developed AI algorithms, businesses can directly communicate with customers allowing them to understand their needs. AI allows companies to read the minds of their customers helping them to engage the right audience. All thanks to the AI-driven algos! Using these, AI analyzes data and search patterns to render improved personalization thus allowing you to target potential customers.

So, you can use AI in your eCommerce app too. This will help to increase engagement rates and decrease time transactions. For this, you need to hire react js developer who can help you in building enticing apps for your business needs. Other advantages of using AI include inventory management, better future recommendations based on customer searches, and prediction of the right product. This is why large enterprises NOW foster the use of AI more than ever before!
According to IBM's latest studies, the adoption of AI-driven intelligent automation in retail and consumer product industries is expected to increase from 40% to 80% in the next 3 years.

Source

Enhancing Cybersecurity

A study, by U.S. cybersecurity software giant Symantec, said that 978 million people across 20 countries were affected by cybercrime in 2016. The victims of cybercrime lost a total of $172 billion — an average of $142 per person.

Also, in the 2017 Official Annual Cybercrime Report, it’s estimated that cybercrime will cost $6 trillion annually by 2021 while the figure was $3 trillion in 2015.

As you can see cybercrimes are on the rise. They are the biggest threat to eCommerce platforms these days. This is why app owners are looking for ways to keep customer data secured at their site. Thanks to the advent of AI algorithms that proficiently examine the data traffic, access and transfer. These algorithms carefully inspect the data and if there is a security breach, then AI programs can detect these to prevent cyber attacks.

So, with the integration of Artificial Intelligence and deep learning into security solutions, eCommerce platforms can NOW prevent cyber threats and increase the security of their databases.

Source

Final Words

By now, you must have realized how AI has reshaped the eCommerce industry. With improved customer experience, important, better search results and accurate sales forecasting, AI has completely transformed the eCommerce market. Newer AI algorithms have helped business owners in keeping the data safe and secured.

Sales teams can chalk marketing strategies and personalize the sales cycle through AI-driven applications helping them to target the right prospects at the right time. So clearly, Artificial Intelligence dominates the market as it provides better recommendations to users making it easier for them to find their desired product quickly. Right product display helps to create more chances of engaging the right audience. Remember,

“Your most unhappy customers are your most important source of learning,” said Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder.

Vue vs React: Which JS Framework to choose in 2020?

scarlett8285 — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 13:04:32 +0000

Did you know that an alluring user interface helps you drive more traffic? It may be surprising for you, but it’s true that the online representation of your website creates the very first opinion about your brand.

Design is the new basis of Competition said Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup. The first look of your business page is very important as it plays a decisive role to prompt approval or discard of your product or service.

These days JavaScript frameworks along with HTML and CSS has become a crucial part of front-end development. Choosing the right framework for your web app is surely a daunting task. Among these frameworks, Vue & React have NOW become the most preferred choice for building business applications. In this blog, I have provided detailed information on these two dominant technologies. Let’s read further to know more on Vue vs React.

ReactJS

Created by Facebook, ReactJS is a JavaScript library. It was developed to resolve the issues that Facebook was facing while managing the traffic. ReactJS allows users to create a highly engaging and creative user interface for business applications. The latest version of React that was released on 6th May 2019 is Version 16.8.6. ReactJS has served major industry verticals including healthcare, eCommerce, social networking, and many more.

Read:“Why is ReactJS the best fit for your Social Networking App?”

VueJS

VueJS, being the youngest member of the JavaScript family was launched in the market five years back. Soon after its launch in the year 2014, it became a popular framework choice among app developers. Evan You, an ex-engineer of Google created this framework which had a blend of all the successful JavaScript technologies. Though Vue.js is not backed by a reputed organization, it is largely used by large enterprises for web app development. This progressive JavaScript framework enables you to build mobile apps on Android and iOS platforms. All that you need to do is to hire iOS developer for making apps like these.

ReactJS or VueJS: Which is more popular?

With new frameworks being launched every now and then, the popularity of these JavaScript technologies keeps on changing. The latest trends of their popularity is not a constant affair. It entirely depends on the number of users that access the business applications built using these frameworks. This is why these javascript technologies keep exchanging their positions in popularity graphs after every few months. Let’s have a look at the latest statistics of 2019 to find out which is more popular between React and Vue.

Statistic#1: Google Trends

The search trends on Google for these two JavaScript technologies are shown in the line graph. It can clearly be seen in the graph below that when it comes to popularity, ReactJS is way ahead in these searches as compared to Vue.js.

Statistic #2: Stack Overflow Survey

Among the most loved Javascript technologies, ReactJS topped the list as per the statistical data collected through a survey. With remarkable features embedded in ReactJS, gradually it is becoming a preferred choice of the developers in the tech industry.

React VS Vue: Performance

Both Vue & React help you to design alluring app interfaces that attract the users. The changes in an application can best be seen in the user interface and in the DOM. It is of two types that includes a virtual DOM and real DOM. The kind of DOM greatly affects the performance of any programming technology. In this blog, we will provide you with detailed information on how each of these technologies performs.

React

ReactJS has a virtual DOM which is lightweight. The use of a virtual DOM enhances its performance to a great extent. This is the main reason that compels the app developers to use ReactJS for front-end development. React is not browser-specific and helps to eliminate the problem of inefficient performance. This further adds to its popularity.

Vue

Just like React, Vue also works with a virtual DOM but it provides a faster performance in comparison to React. So, in terms of performance, Vue clearly wins the race by ensuring a bug-free performance to its users. You can use Vue to create captivating interfaces for your applications. You just need to hire app developers who have proven expertise in developing business apps.

React VS Vue: Community Support

Well! How do you know whether a framework is popular or not? It’s the community support that gives the idea. It is very important for software technology to be widely accepted by the users. It is only then that it can flourish and prosper. If technology is popular, this motivates the new users too. They get committed to a specific technology for a longer span of time. Vue or React, let’s know which of these frameworks has greater community support.

React

Developed by Facebook for maintaining increased ad campaign traffic, this JavaScript library is of great use in creating alluring front-ends of varied business applications. Since the Facebook team is involved in adding new and advanced features to enrich the functionality of ReactJS, this makes it a reliable choice among the React developers.

Vue

While a big brand backs up the creation of ReactJS, Vue has none. It is developed by an ex-google engineer but not backed up by any top brand. This weakens the reliability of this framework and makes it less popular among app developers in the market.

But crossing this hurdle, Vue has gained unexpected popularity and support from the developers. Vue has successfully created its support on its own. The credit goes to the splendid features that are embedded in VueJS.

React VS Vue: Framework Size

Vue VS React: Which of these has a larger framework size? ReactJS is slightly bigger in size than Vue.js. The size of frameworks can have a significant impact on development projects. While the framework size for React is 100KB, it is 80 KB for VueJS.

React

Though being bigger in size, ReactJS needs support for the execution of some tasks from other libraries. Routing is an important task among all these. Its small size makes it an ideal choice for app owners aiming to build lightweight applications.

Vue

Vue.js is slightly smaller in size than ReactJS which makes it more suitable for developing light-weight applications. So, this framework can become the most preferred choice if you aim to build lightweight applications suiting your business specifics.

React VS Vue: Learning Curve

Vue VS React: Which is easier to learn? To understand this better, we need to have a look at the learning curve of these two technologies. The learning curve is the ability to apply the codes of a particular framework and library by the developers. Prior knowledge about this helps you to hire developer on the particular framework that you choose. Between these two, Vue is easier to learn for the developers as per the statistics.

React

Though Vue is easier to learn, still developers prefer to select React over Vue because it was launched prior to VueJS. Created by Facebook also makes it a more reliable choice for the developers.

Vue

Since Vue is easier to learn, it is a preferred choice among developers. Large enterprises chose VueJS for creating simple applications with an enticing user interface.

Choices preferred by Developers

React VS Vue: Flexibility

Vue or React: Which of these offer you with greater flexibility? These frameworks are offered with a number of tools that you can choose to work with.

React

React does not have much to offer. There are only some tools that can be integrated with React. These include React routing and Redux. React also provides the developers with MobX to manage official tasks. This feature proves to be very beneficial for app developers who can leverage the advantage of creating dynamic applications.

Vue

Vue offers a number of tools to its users. Unlike react, there are certain things that are provided on the official site of Vue to the vue.js developers. Moreover, a great advantage that is offered by VueJS is server-side development supported by a Vue service side render. Vuex for state management and Vue Router for routing are some examples of these.

Examples of React VS Vue

Both React and Vue have been used in various applications. Popular among these are listed here:

React

Facebook: It is used to manage ad campaigns.
Twitter: It is a social media platform that is known for its ability to enhance the network quickly.
Instagram: It is a social platform that allows photo sharing.
Whatsapp: It is a messaging app that is extensively used all around the globe.

Vue

GitLab: It allows the developers to form team codes or copy codes.
9Gag: This is known for sharing memes and other trending content.

Final Words on Vue VS React

Vue or React: Which is a better choice for your application? This depends on your business use-case. Now, this depends on the type of applications that you wish to develop. If you are creating an application with less complexity, then VueJS is a good choice. For highly complex applications, ReactJS can be preferred which possesses diverse functionalities.

In case, you are looking for custom app development services, then you can either hire Vue js developers or Reactjs developers to make feature-rich applications for boosting the online presence of your business. Consult the best app programmers and coders available in the industry and discuss your project needs.

In order to hit the anticipated enterprise’s targets from your business apps, it is important to ensure they are crafted professionally and in line with the best practices. Vue vs React: you can choose any of these JavaScript frameworks that will help you to achieve your desired business goals. Accelerating business growth, raising conversions, cutting on costs, and raising conversion rates can be some of these.

Is Python for Financial App Development the Right fit?

scarlett8285 — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 07:48:01 +0000

Everybody is talking about the growing popularity of Python in the industry these days. With its widespread use across major industry verticals, Python has for sure become the hottest topic of discussion among the developers as well as product-based companies. Let’s see what Peter Norvig, Director of search quality at Google, Inc has to say on this.

"Python has been an important part of Google since the beginning and remains so as the system grows and evolves. Today dozens of Google engineers use Python, and we're looking for more people with skills in this language."

Python in vogue these days!

With so many programming languages prevailing in the market today, Python with its unique features and incredible performance dominates the app industry. A press release by Coding Dojo asserted that top-ranked Python is a general-purpose and open-source programming language used by big names such as Reddit, Instagram, and Venmo.

When we talk about its growth in high-income countries, Python has emerged as a clear winner there too. As per Stack Overflow Trends, Python claims to be the fastest-growing major programming language. When it comes to serving the financial industry, then also Python for financial app development is the most preferred choice among developers. Let’s read further to know the reasons.

Do you know the best fit for your next Financial/Banking App?

Python is the most sought-after language that is appropriate for creating banking applications. eFinancialCareers (employment website from the Wall Street Journal) added Python to six best programming languages for the banking industry. Major characteristics that will compel you to choose Python for banking app development include,

High-level programming language
Easy to learn and understand
Simple and Concise
Suitable for Iterative and Rapid development
Can be used for Prototyping and Production code
Provides a large number of tools and libraries

Why choose Python for building Financial/Banking Apps?

Python has attracted two million new developers over the past year. Do you know why is it so? Well, there are many reasons responsible for creating such a huge demand for the language. We will soon discuss these in detail. Python is used in almost all industry verticals but its major applications can be seen in the banking and finance sector. Let’s read further to know why is Python the best fit for your financial/banking apps.

Works well with Algorithms

Algorithmic problems are one of the major challenges that developers face during the development of any banking and financial app. Since a banking app has to deal with large numbers, hence it should be smart enough to work with mathematical operations. Since Python has a similar syntax that is the closest to the math syntax being applied in financial algorithms, this is why Python for financial app development is the best choice.

Renders better Vectorization

Hire Python developer who can use Python for rendering better vectorization to your app using NumPy. It is a library of Python that supports high-level mathematical functions, multi-dimensional arrays & matrices. Using this library can help you create a single line code for 40,000 calculations thus speeding up the development process and quality of your financial/banking app.

Provides Quick Compilation of Code

Python offers a quick code compilation of the software being created thus making the overall software development faster and easier. Python libraries like Cython or Numba provide the developers with crucial functions that help compile the Python code into machine code statically or dynamically which makes the processing speed much faster resulting in creating the app in less time. This is why Python for financial app development is a good option to consider.

Makes Instant Conversions

Using Python allows the developers to convert any mathematical or algorithmic statement to simply one line of Python code. Since a banking app has to deal with data and complex calculations, using Python for sure makes the task simpler and takes less time.

Improves App Performance

Python has a large number of auxiliary libraries that help to improve the overall performance of your application. These libraries modify the process of interaction with mathematical tasks. But it totally depends on the developers to choose the right library that meets the app needs. You can hire app developers available in the market to leverage these features offered by Python for banking app development.

Using Python in Finance

My favorite language for maintainability is Python. It has simple, clean syntax, object encapsulation, good library support, and optional named parameters said, Bram Cohen. Due to its incredible features, Python is the most popular language being used in the financial service industry. Other than using Python for financial app development. Here are some of the industries being served by Python.

Banking Software

Usage- For building payment solutions and online banking platforms. Python is used for developing ATM to enhance payment processing.
Examples of products like these- Venmo, Stripe, Zopa, Affirm, Robinhood

Data Analysis

Usage- To analyze large datasets and humongous financial data. Major Python libraries being used include,

Pandas- Simplifies the process of data visualization and allows carrying out sophisticated statistical calculations.
Scikit and PyBrain- Offer solutions that are equipped with powerful machine learning algorithms to enable predictive analytics
Examples of products like these- Iwoca, Holvi.

Cryptocurrency Market

Usage- To carry out cryptocurrency market analysis for getting insights and predictions. Moreover, the Python data science ecosystem called Anaconda helps developers to retrieve and analyze cryptocurrency pricing.
Examples of products like these- Dash, enigma, ZeroNet, Koinim, Crypto-signal

Stock Market

Usage- To create solutions that help to create the best trading strategies that provide predictive analytical insights into the condition of specific trade markets.
Examples of products like these- Quantopian, Quantconnect, Zipline, Backtrader, IBPy

Top Apps built using Python

A number of advantageous features come in handy while using Python. This is why Python has become a favourite choice for app development. Here are some of the popular apps built using Python,

Instagram

hire react js developer

Uber
Spotify
FinTech Companies using Python

The Bottomline

Market Trends disrupting the finance industry are on the rise, so it won’t be wrong to say that the finance industry is a dynamic space where entities keep changing. In order to keep pace with these fast-developing changes, you need an app that gives you a competitive edge above the others. Having seen all the benefits of using Python, I am sure you would have certainly by now know why is Python the right technology stack for your next financial/banking app.

10 Most Popular JavaScript Frameworks List in 2020!

scarlett8285 — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 13:43:27 +0000

Javascript frameworks are like cars! They enter the market with new styles and features every single year! Out of all the Javascript frameworks making into the markets every year, a few of them are widely accepted and are adopted by app development companies to innovate and develop, whereas, the others, over time, extinct!

It is absolutely imperative to stay updated with the latest Javascript frameworks for 2020 if you are looking to capitalize on the tech industry in the above mentioned year. What do I mean by that? I mean, if you are aware of the most popular javascript frameworks for 2020, you are in a position where you can make an informed decision, and stop your investment in the JS frameworks, that have almost perished.

Today, I am listing out the top 10 javascript frameworks that you need to keep in mind to capitalize on the tech industry in the year 2020.

Angular

Do you know, at present, Angular is one of the most used javascript frameworks within the tech industry? With the kind of potential this script possesses, it will hold its position and remain one of the most popular javascript frameworks in 2020.

Angular is a complete feature framework and has been handsomely adopted by high-end companies across the globe. Why is Angular one of the top 10 javascript frameworks for 2020? It is majorly because it gives you advantages like a complete set of tools, high-quality code generation and simple, yet elegant programming style.

Angular’s quality, it’s features and its adoption within major app development companies have made it one of the most popular Javascript frameworks for now and for the future.

React

React is also one of the most used javascript frameworks in the industry. React was developed, and is maintained by Facebook. It’s properties and features make React one of the most popular Javascript frameworks for 2020.

React framework is essentially a design library, based on the user interface. It is one of the most preferred javascript frameworks for developing responsive one-page applications and cross-platform applications. The React javascript framework is oozing with new and impeccable features like it’s compatibility with multiple libraries, flexibility, easy maintenance and of course, small file size.

To know more about the ReactJS framework, Read - What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of ReactJS

Big brands like Whatsapp have also stated and recommended that React is, and will continue to be one of the most used javascript frameworks in the year 2020.

Are you looking to hire react js developer?

VueJS

VueJS is one of the most accepted javascript frameworks in the mobile app development market. VueJS incepted in the year 2014, by Evan You. Today, VueJs is giving excellent competition to other javascript frameworks and has marked its place as one of the most popular javascript frameworks.

Vue comes with exciting and exceptional features and functionalities like the ease of integration with other programming languages and it’s quality of a hassle-free setup. Dont delay, hire Vue.js developers now!

VueJS is one of the most used javascript frameworks and some of the leading organizations such as Garmin, enjoy efficient mobility services because of the Vue javascript framework. Vue, along with the above-mentioned javascript frameworks, is undoubtedly going to lead the tech industry in 2020.

Redux

The year 2020 will also witness the rise of Redux! This framework is generally used in amalgamation with React in order to design a user interface, managing execution actions, updating visual information and so on.

Redux, essentially makes managing your application a lot simpler. However, what makes Redux one of the most popular javascript frameworks for 2020 is its capability to manage the displayed data and its response to user actions.

Express.JS

Express js is one of the underdogs in the world of javascript frameworks and libraries. However, the year 2020 will witness the rapid growth of the Express.js framework.

Why? This is because Express.js is free and opensource software. Express .js is popularly combined with Node.js in order to develop web apps and APIs.

Some of the main features that Express.js has like its simplicity, extensibility, flexibility and high performance are helping the framework grow and is making it one of the most popular javascript of this time. The year 2020 holds a bright and exciting future for Express.js.

Backbone

Just like its name, the framework possesses a lot of swag! Backbone is amongst the most used javascript frameworks to date, and it will witness a lot of popularity in the year 2020. Backbone is primarily a lightweight javascript framework offering communication features based on the events that take place. Amazing, isn’t it?

Backbone Js’s synchronization with backend projects is phenomenal as it delivers explicit support for RESTFul APIs. Backbone is considered to be one of the best javascript when developing MVP as it gives you the option of streamlining views and models.

Just like React and Angular, big companies like USA Today use Backbone to meet their development requirements.

Polymer

Polymer came to a picture because it was developed and introduced by none other than, Google itself. The Polymer javascript is primarily open-source allowing developers across the globe to build world-class and impressive web solutions. Polymer supports one-way binding as well as two-way binding. Nice, right?

So many features that the Polymer javascript facilitates makes it one of the Top 10 Javascript frameworks for the year 2020.

Polymer javascript framework has been used by Google for various services that it provides like Google Earth and Youtube. Also, Giants like Netflix and Coca Cola rely on this framework for smooth functioning. Polymer js is all set to make it big in 2020.

Meteor.JS

Meteor.js is one of the upcoming javascript frameworks primarily based on Node.js environment. The thing with Meteor.js is that it is quick and is generally amalgamated with the environment of the application, with the intent of facilitating fast prototyping. Meteor.js also simplifies cross-platform application development.

Another great property that makes Meteor.js one of the Top 10 Javascript frameworks is that it collaborates with MongoDB databases very easily, and allows distributed data protocols to autonomously transmit data changes without requiring synchronization codes.

Moreover, the Meteor.js framework is usable along with Angular and React.js frameworks. Lookout for Meteor.js in 2020 as it makes it big.

Node.JS

Node.js obviously has to be apart of the Top 10 Javascript frameworks for 2020. Being one of the most preferred javascript frameworks for cross-platform app development, Node.js is an open-source javascript framework. The frameworks runtime environment facilitates Node.js with a fleet of benefits to app developers like the ease of learning, full-stack development options, higher performance, and a bigger community.

Node.js being one of the most popular javascript frameworks has been a part of big brands like Wallmart and GoDaddy. It is going to absolutely incredible watching Node.js rule the world of development in the year 2020.

Ember

Last, but not least, Ember is an upcoming javascript framework that deserves a lot of attention, and app development companies must look out for it in 2020.

Ember is primarily an open-source javascript framework working on the lines of MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel,) which is amongst the best frameworks for developing single-page web and mobile applications.
Some of the key features and functionalities that make Ember one of the most popular javascript frameworks include explicit debugging facilities and the fact that it provides the option for full-stack development. With so much on its platter, Ember is positively one of the top 10 javascript frameworks to look forward to in 2020.

The year 2020 is all set to be a benchmark in the world of technology and development. With so many emerging technologies and the need for developing applications, the year 2020 is all set to take the industry a step ahead!

The above mentioned are the top 10 javascript frameworks to look out for in 2020 as they have the potential to change the landscape of the development industry. It is highly important for app development companies to keep a wide eye open towards these frameworks in order to capitalize on the app development market.

Flutter vs Xamarin vs React Native - Let the Battle Begin!

scarlett8285 — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 11:47:15 +0000

According to Statista, 21.3 billion apps were downloaded from Google Play in the year 2019. However, the Apple app store dominates the consumer spending market, holding a worldwide share of 64%.

Many a times, it is quite a laborious task to choose the right platform for building mobile applications. If you wish to get a mobile app developed that can run across multiple platforms, then choosing the right platform is a must. For this, cross-platform mobile app development can be the right option.

This mobile application development allows you to hit two birds with one stone! It means you can make your app available on Android and iOS simultaneously by using a single codebase. There are several cross-platform app development frameworks like Xamarin, React Native, Flutter, Ionic, Sencha, Titanium, Monocross, etc.

But, in this blog, we’ll be discussing and comparing the first 3 frameworks that are arguably the most popular among all cross-platform frameworks - Flutter vs Xamarin vs React Native. This will certainly help the mobile app developers in deciding which one would be the most effective and beneficial to them as compared to others.

Xamarin

Xamarin is an open-source platform that was founded in 2011 and was acquired by Microsoft. It offers the option of code reusability and shareability with other platforms while providing access to native APIs. This cross-platform development technology uses C# programming language to create a mobile application that can work exceptionally well on platforms like iOS, Android, and Windows mobile. You can hire Xamarin developer to get hybrid mobile applications designed for your business.

Pros of Xamarin

Performance: It is known for having native-like performance levels. Xamarin.Forms assist developers to avoid difficulties and instead, design views quickly.

Complete App Development Framework: Microsoft Visual Studio, .Net, and C# are all you require to build mobile applications with Xamarin, thereby making it a complete app development framework.

Flawless User Experience: It offers strong design tools. Microsoft Visual Studio and Xamarin studio help designers to render seamless user experiences and UIs.

Codes Work on Multiple Platforms: Xamarin is the right choice for you as it enables you to create code that works on more than one platform.

Cons of Xamarin

Large App Size: For releases, Xamarin apps can add approximately 5 Mb and upto 20 Mb for debug builds. The reason for the larger app size is the translation of C# calls into native calls.

Complex Applications: Xamarin is quite a good option for apps with a simple UI. However, when it comes to creating complex mobile games or applications, using Xamarin might not be a great idea as you’ll have to spend plenty of time writing specific codes.

Platform-Oriented Code: You require knowledge in native programming languages such as Java, Swift or Kotlin as you never know when you’ve to re-write the parts of the UI in native code.

Popular Brands that Rely on Xamarin

Supergiant Games
APX
Skulls of the Shogun
The World Bank
Olo

React Native

React Native is a JavaScript structure for composing robust, genuine, natively rendering mobile apps for both Android and iOS. Launched in the year 2015 by Facebook, React Native has emerged as a brilliant cross-platform mobile application development technology. This open-source platform enables developers to build iOS and Android applications with a few native components and JavaScript. In order to get a custom-tailored web application crafted for your business along with the mobile application, then all you need is to hire ReactJS developer.

Pros of React Native

User-Interface: It offers a simplified and high-quality user interface. This is the main reason why it is often called an open-source JavaScript rather than a framework. Since it has been developed and supported by Facebook, it is quite reliable.

Ready-Made Components & Access to Native Functionalities: React Native offers an enormous library of UI components, enabling faster development time. Additionally, it also provides access to native functionalities such as accelerometer, camera, etc.

Fast Refresh & Quick Reload: It allows developers to make changes to the applications immediately without having to recompile the apps. The best part is that you can fix the syntax errors and save the file again during a Fast Refresh session.

Cons of React Native

Complex User Interface: React Native is not fit for developing complex transitions and animations. Moreover, the output of the app takes a long time as compared to native apps.

Navigation: The navigation composed in React Native is not seamless and smooth. However, it enables third-party plugins but does not provide robust security like native apps do.

Brands that Craft Application with React Native

Walmart
Instagram
Bloomberg
Facebook
Tesla

Flutter
Being a new entrant in the race, Flutter is an open-source platform, created by Google and is based on Dart, which is easy-to-learn as well as quick object-oriented programming language. This allows for easy cross-platform mobile application development. Flutters also provides its own gadgets that are quick, adjustable, and appealing.

Pros of Flutter

Hot Reload: With the help of faster code implementation, it allows the developers to fix bugs quickly. It also enables developers to instantly view the changes made in the code on hardware, emulators, and simulators.

Customizable: Though Flutter offers a vast library of pre-built widgets, still you can create your own or can even customize the pre-existing ones. Besides, it offers CLI tools, APIs, pre-built widgets, and almost all the tools required for cross-platform app development.

Cons of Flutter

Large App Size: Flutter apps are comparatively larger than other frameworks. This can force the developer to compress images, minimize the number of packages and libraries used, and reduce the usage of animations.

Native APIs: It does not expose several native APIs. Since Flutter is a new framework, developers are required to build libraries themselves. Additionally, it is not compatible with Continuous Integration, such as Jenkins and Travis.

Popular Apps that Count on Flutter Platforms

Google Greentea
Google AdWords
Hamilton Musical
AppTree
OfflinePal
Flutter vs Xamarin vs React Native

If you are given an option to choose the best cross-platform app development among Flutter or Xamarin or React Native, which one will you choose? Confused? Don’t worry! To ease your problem, we’ve come up with the real differences among the three frameworks based on the following parameters:

Security

Security of the application and source code is quite imperative and that’s why it always comes at the top in every app developer’s list. When we talk about Flutter or Xamarin or React Native, which framework do you think provides the highest security support?

Well, as already mentioned above, React Native allows third-party plugins and does not offer robust security support. So, React Native lags behind in the race while choosing the other two will surely help you to get access to highly compatible and robust secured cross platforms.
App Speed

App speed has always been a major concern for app owners. Today, every user looks for a mobile application that is responsive as well as quick. Among all three, Flutter offers faster app development. Though Xamarin and React Native also perform better, but when compared with Flutter, it is a bit slower. The speed of the app mainly depends on the functions, features, development process, and other terms. So, it is quite tough to compare on the instant but we can conclude Flutter as a faster cross-platform mobile app development technology.

Community Support

When discussing community support for Flutter vs Xamarin vs React Native, Xamarin loses the competition due to limited community support. On the other side, Flutter and React Native have a better community & it is preferred by several users. As per the GitHub survey, React Native has more followers and stars as compared to Flutter. Undeniably, in terms of community support, React Native is the clear winner.

Customization

React Native allows third-party plugins, making the customization easy and compatible. Xamarin Live Reload feature and Flutter’s Hot Reload feature allow both platforms for live changes. However, Xamarin and Flutter have pre-install layout elements, thereby providing freedom of customization to the app developers while accessing these cross-platform mobile app development frameworks.

Popularity

Which one do you think is the most popular framework among Flutter or Xamarin or React Native?

Well, React Native is the most popular technology for cross-platform mobile development and several developers use this framework to build custom-tailored applications.

On the other hand, Xamarin is not free and is usually considered for premium users, which makes it all the more reason for them to rely on React Native.

Flutter is free and is significantly popular as well but when it comes to popularity among developers, React Native takes the lead.

Usability by Developers

Flutter is based on Dart which is an object-oriented programming language and is quite easy to learn especially for newbies. The Xamarin works on C# that is also simple to learn. Although React Native is widely used in development, working on Java is easy for every app developer. In a nutshell, React Native and Xamarin are the easiest cross-platform app development technologies.

Conclusion (TL; DR)

Flutter vs Xamarin vs React Native- Which framework to choose?

Every framework has its own pros and cons, so it is quite difficult to compare frameworks and give the final thought. As discussed above, Flutter offers faster app development and is an optimal choice for developers who want to craft their mobile applications in minimal time whereas, Xamarin enables developers to reuse 96% of the existing code which is quite higher than other frameworks.

On the other hand, React Native is the easiest and popular cross-platform app development technology with good community support. To be concise, it solely depends on which framework suits your mobile app development needs. You can either rely on Flutter or Xamarin or React Native. It’s all up to you!

How to Build A Food-Ordering App like GrubHub, DoorDash, etc.?

scarlett8285 — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 06:41:24 +0000

Some people like one thing, some people like the other, but everyone loves food. And what's better than reading your favorite novel, or watching your favorite TV series, while being able to order food in the comfort of your own home? Several amazing restaurants right at your fingertips and all you need is a mobile app.

The Food Delivery industry continues to grow, and trust me, it doesn’t even need an economist for you to realize that. Look around - you will see the food delivery transports all over the place. When you see food delivery apps like GrubHub, DoorDash, Uber Eats, goPuff.

It all probably makes you feel that you’re too late, but you couldn’t be any more wrong! All you need is the right strategy, and find a company that offers app development services, and vola! You’ve done 90% of the work. Remember - quality always comes through.

If you don’t believe me, then have a look at the forecast below, which clearly indicates how the food tech market has been on the rise and will continue to grow every year:-

                        <a href="https://miro.medium.com/max/753/0*inTLv0hIidOyML8M.jpg">(Image Source)</a>

The Aggregator Business Model

The aggregator model is what has been popularly accepted by several popular food delivery app owners. The Company acts as a mediator between the customer and local restaurants and manage everything in between. They offer access to the user to browse through various cuisines. Mainly, the job of a food delivery app owner is to facilitate the order.

What Are the Key Features of Food Delivery App?

One of the crafty things about food ordering app development is that you will get to create several products for all stakeholders to make the system work. Allow me to explain who these stakeholders are:

Well, you obviously need to create a customer application through which all the orders will be made.
Secondly, you need an Admin Panel (a Web-App) where you’ll manage and supervise all the requests.
Lastly, a courier app will be needed as long as your idea isn’t built around another solution.

It's better to foster 3 versions of your Food delivery app.

                         <a href="https://stormotion.io/blog/content/images/2017/06/3-types-of-delivery-app.jpg">(Image Source)</a>

How To Make a Food Delivery App like Seamless?

If you want to survive in this competitive market, you have to be smart enough to take the right decision at the right time. You have to show your presence to promote your business. I have tried to gather all the challenges that barricade the app development process for all startups:

You are not sure about how you can attract your audience or where your audience is.
You have no idea wherefrom you can hire mobile app developer for your app or how many versions you need for your app.
You are not sure about the features that should form your food delivery app like Seamless.
You don’t know how to even begin partnering with cafes, restaurants or other food delivery services.

You cannot really start your food delivery startup with a belief like – “everyone loves delicious food”,” food is our common ground or universal expression” or “ home delivery is very convenience”. Going ahead of the competition is not an easy task. To have a strong niche in the food delivery industry, you have to overcome these messes and take a fresh start. You should know how to make a food delivery app like Seamless! You should also hire android app developer who will help you accomplish the right food delivery app like Grubhub. Let’s start with finding your crowd.

How To Find The Right Audience To Market your Food Delivery App?</b?

                              <a href="https://engineerbabu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/food-ordering-app-engineerbabu4.png">(Image Sources)</a>

Defining the right audience for startups is way beyond just ‘tasty’ meals. You have to understand what sets up apart from the crowd and how that’s beneficial for you to attract a large audience. You can always think of creating your layout unique and yet appealing for the audience. For this, you should the right Food-ordering app development idea.

Nowadays, food delivery apps like Grubhub are used mostly by people with a busy lifestyle, such as working-class professionals, entrepreneurs, and students who spent most of their time studying. These should be the primary target of your app if you want to attract a large audience or boost your business.

You have to define your audience zone as well. So if you are targeting busy professionals, you have to look for healthy food options and deliver freshly cooked food. On the other hand, If you have the USP to serve delicious fast food within minutes- then you can easily grab the attention of busy millennials who love to grab a pizza with a beer and enjoy Netflix. Diet is surely not a priority for them. They are not making a ‘healthy eating resolution’ on New Year’s Eve! They just want to eat delicious food.

Everything That A Customer App Is Comprised Of

While you are creating the customer app you should keep the UI very interactive. So, the user can easily access the nearest restaurants corners right from the navigation. For any user, let's find out what tempts him to place the order:

Easy User Registration And Account Setup
For any user, the journey with the app begins right at the sign-up. You must cut the crap and make sign-in easier for the user so that they can sing-in within seconds. You can also give them an option to log in quickly through their social media accounts.

Moving On To Finding A Perfect Restaurant
What will user’s do after a quick signup? Find good restaurants to order some delicious food. So, give users quick access to find nearby restaurants or cafes using their GPS right after their signup. You also provide a detailed list of restaurant information, cuisines list, prices, special combos, prices, and reviews.

Ordering the Food
Now, the menu is all set and the user must be ready to order by this step. Provide your users with an option to add the dishes or meals in their cart. And don't forget to add a delete button to erase a mistake!

Okay, So Where Is The Food?
Waiting for food can be really difficult. How to make the wait for food look better? With real-time order tracking! The main idea of food ordering app development is to make them wait seem smaller. Your user can be anywhere. So, make it convenient and fun with GPS real-time tracking.

Don't forget to update the food Status. After an order is accepted, the courier can update the status so that the customer can get information about the order. There are basically 3 main types of statuses:

Accepted/rejected.
Picked up.
Delivered.

Once the courier updates status to “delivered” and gets a confirmation from the customer, you will receive the payment. And the job is done!

A Secure Payment Gateway is a Must
A secure payment system not only builds the user's trust but also avoids the chances of fraud in the future. Make the payment safe, secure and fast. Choose the popular payment gateway solution.

                           <a href="https://stormotion.io/blog/">(Image Source)</a>

Ok. But How Does The App Owner Gets Control Over Their Own App?
There is a major prerequisite that could’ve probably slipped your mind had it not been for this article. I’m talking about the Admin Panel. The app owner needs an admin panel to manage a range of things from accepting, updating all sorts of information, setting prices, to managing customers and courier bases.

                            <a href="https://www.innofied.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/restaurant-web-admin-image.jpg">(Image Source)</a>

3 Important Steps For The Restaurants

Register Your Restaurant
The first feature is the same for the users as well as the restaurant owners. It’s always better to have as much information about the restaurant as possible for a number of reasons. It helps keep things organized for you and they get to have their unique IDs so as to minimize any kinds of errors.

Fill Up Your Relevant Details For the Consumer
Display content with information about the food menu, the prices, the contact details, the offers, and everything else that may help a consumer to drive customers to your restaurant. Be creative by adding attractive images of the food item, offer competitive prices and obviously, have a variety of food items to offer, every little effort helps you improve your conversion rate.

Specify Your Parameters
Maybe you allow cash on delivery or you only accept payments via specific modes only. Maybe you only deliver food to a particular radius and not beyond that. You have to realize that you have complete control over all these parameters. So all you need to do is specify them, doing which will help you reach out to your target audience easily.

                             <a href="https://dribbble.com/shots/2204213-List-of-orders-for-Restaurant-Owner">(Image Source )</a>

How to Choose The Right App Development Company For This?

The trickiest thing is to find not just any app development company, but the right food ordering app development company. You’ll get many of them over the internet, but it's important to judge them right. So, to find the right company to support your food delivery app like a seamless idea, ask a few questions like:

Company’s Experience
I’m not saying that a company that hasn’t existed long enough doesn’t deserve a chance. In fact, you can get cheaper services from them as the price is the only USP they have in their initial stages. However, if you wanna make sure that the app development company delivers a great quality product, you have to take this rule of thumb to the core. Have a look at their testimonials, check out their reviews on the internet, you get the idea.

Do They Follow The Agile Food Ordering App Development Process?
This is a very crucial part of any project. The agile process helps in keeping a tab over the latest project milestones and the problems during the progress at every step. Agile app process helps in understanding your requirements better and help you with the project completion in the best possible way.

Do The Developers Follow The Standard Coding And Utilize The Latest Frameworks?
Any app development company you choose, must provide you with the best development service. Considering it all involves business analysis, lean app development, quality assurance by continuous testing, and launch of the app, there must be a standard coding and latest framework that they follow.

What Technologies Are Developers Following?
For a more reliant, secured and performance efficient food delivery app like Grubhub and Seamless, native platforms like Android and iOS provide great payment gateway integration SDKs. To get detailed information about the restaurants and food corners, hire iOS developer that will explain you the same in great detail.

To make business processes more flexible, you can use JavaScript on both frontend and backend. MERN Stack commonly comprises of Mongo, Express, React and Node are the most widely used tech stack today for better performance, single page application creation, scalability and a lot more.

Conclusion

In short – you should stop second guessing and start planning to make a food delivery app right away. From recruiting employees, contacting restaurants, to advertising and most importantly – developing the food delivery app right, there’s a lot of work to do. Just take the leap of faith, hire app developer, and things will work out.

7 Good Reasons To Use ReactJS for App Development!

scarlett8285 — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 08:58:46 +0000

Before we Begin,

The first look of your web application directly affects your business growth. If you did not know this before, it is high time that you gather more information about the same and act on it accordingly. You can search for the best front end developers available in the industry and get more audiences hooked to your web apps.

It is very essential that web applications designed for your businesses are alluring and highly engaging. No matter, you are busy in a meeting, attending a conference, talking to your employees or perhaps doing anything in the world, a business app should compel viewers to hop right onto the screen leaving everything aside.

But, have you ever thought about how could you drive more traffic to your apps. React JavaScript is the answer. It is awesome. It is indeed! React JS has made a strong presence in the app development industry. Big enterprises such as Netflix and Apple, use ReactJS which makes it a popular choice among web app developers.

As per the statistics provided by Statista, among all the JavaScript frameworks, libraries, and tools used by developers worldwide, 27.8 percent of them use Reactjs for building business apps. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages of using React and its use cases.

What are the Major Challenges Faced while making a Web App?

Undoubtedly, making an app is not a cakewalk. Choosing the wrong strategy to execute your plans can drive you crazy. Any loopholes or flaws in the app development process can cost you a lot, resulting in huge business losses. Surely, this is not what you are looking for. As in the words of Liu Xiang,

              Challenges are meant to be met and overcome

While your competitors are chalking out the right strategy without wasting a single second, it is a must for you to get the right plan of action before you start with web application development. Let’s have a look at some of the challenges that you face while creating a web app.

User Experience and User Interface

With the advent of digital marketing, highly responsive and creative websites are expected now. Your app should be enticing enough to retain the interest of your audience. One more thing that is important is easy navigation. If your users get frustrated or get confused while going through the app, then it becomes very difficult to retain your users. You can choose the best coders for the process of React web development to enrich the look of your web page.

Scalability

Balancing the load between the servers is another challenge that you may face while doing web application development using ReactJS. You should not throw all the load on a single server. Instead, you should design software applications that can work on many servers. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) can help in resolving this issue when more and more servers are added.

Performance

Good website speed plays a major role in making it successful. Slow apps are considered as a failure. Customers abscond websites that take too much time to upload. This damages the revenue and reputation of your company. Some of the performance issues that usually occur include poorly written code, un-optimized databases, high response time, etc.

Knowledge of Framework and Platform

Sound knowledge of frameworks and platforms before developing an app helps to boost the app performance. Web platforms provide libraries that are required to develop a web application or website. If the developers do not have enough knowledge about the same, then this comes as a challenge while developing a web app. With React web development, you can surely overcome this problem as it already has inbuilt libraries.

Security

While making an app, it is important that your app is secured. Especially if it is dealing with vital information such as payment details, contact information, and confidential data. Security threats can damage the functioning of your apps. Some of these include Cross-Site Scripting, Cross-Site Request Forgery, Shell Injection, Phishing, Session Hijacking, etc. You may also want to read about the common mistakes in React Development.

Source

Why choose ReactJS for Web App Development?

By now, you have come to know about the challenges that arise during web application development. But React can help in resolving all these issues. You can read further to know why should you choose React JavaScript to create web applications suiting your business specifics.

Easy to Learn and Understand

When it comes to developing an app that helps you engage more users for scaling your business growth, then what else can serve your purpose better than ReactJS? This JavaScript library is easy to learn and understand. Any react js developer can easily master it quickly without facing issues. All that you need is to have a basic knowledge of the below-mentioned things.

HTML/CSS: You should have a good understanding of HTML/CSS, which makes it easier to learn Reactjs.

JavaScript: You should know about JavaScript and more about what is DOM.
ES6: This is the advanced JavaScript. It allows you to write code in a clever way.

Node/NPM: While Node.js makes it possible for you to run JavaScript outside of the browser, NPM (node package manager) allows you to install libraries like React to your project.

Webpack: It is a JavaScript module bundler that helps to compile/run React.

Reusability of Code Components

Earlier, ReactJS was rigid and it did not allow the developers to reuse the code components. Later, when Facebook took over React, a lot of functionalities were added that made the entire task a lot simpler for the developers. Code reusability not only saves the time of the developers but also helps them from not getting hooked in the hassles of writing the entire code time and again.

All the components of ReactJS are isolated from one another. This makes all the components to work independently. So, making changes in components does not affect the other components thus making it easier for the webmaster to handle the task. This is why ReactJS is a preferred choice of large enterprises for web application development.

Stability of Code

Well, using React JavaScript helps you in building a dynamic app for your business, it offers a number of advantages to the developers too. Higher code stability is one of these. The coders can easily make changes in the code structure. They need not worry about the impact that it can have on the parent structure while changing the child structure. This reduces the complexities faced by the developers while coding. In case, you wish to know more, you can hire reactjs developers for creating custom-tailored web apps with an alluring interface.

Quick Rendering

What is the most important thing that helps businesses to gain profits and gives you promising results? A quick rendering technology that can assist in accomplishing tasks in a faster and quicker manner. Saving time surely cuts down the cost that is spent on app development. This is not possible while using most of the front-end technologies.

This flaw was carefully observed by the development team of Facebook, who overcame this obstacle by implementing a virtual DOM that helped in removing bottlenecks from code rendering thus making the entire web application development process easier than ever before.

SEO Friendly

Now here comes the most dominant feature of ReactJS which makes it so desirable. Many search engines face troubles and struggle hard while reading JavaScript-heavy applications. Although Google has made the relevant and needed adjustments, there are many other search engines that still face issues.
The evolution of ReactJS has come up with a great solution to this problem. React uses a virtual DOM. It sends a request to the browser thus rendering it as a regular web page. This makes it easy for the search engines to crawl your website or mobile app, which increases the chances of getting ranked on the top of the search engine index.

Helpful Developer Toolkit

ReactJS is simple to learn and execute, hence the task becomes all the more easy for the newly hired coder. React offers the best-in-class debugging and design tools. You can also download the browser extension called, “React Developer Tools” for both Chrome and Firefox.

React Developer Tools is a Chrome DevTools extension for the open-source React JavaScript library. It allows you to inspect the React component hierarchies in the Chrome Developer Tools.

Strong Community

The worldwide use of ReactJS for app development is growing with each passing day. The great performance offered by React is one of the major reasons behind this. Earlier, React was primarily used for internal use, but it was later introduced to the world. And now, its gaining prominence all over the world.
With React becoming better and better, it is used by a number of companies to create custom-tailored web applications. React has more than 100 contributors on GitHub and an active community of ReactJS developers on major platforms such as StackOverflow, Slack, Reactiflux Chart, Freenode IRC and different forums. Besides these giant enterprises, even small startups choose to go for React web development. You can clearly see the widespread usage of ReactJS from this.

Top 5 ReactJS Websites built using React Framework

ReactJS is being used across major industry verticals these days. Some of the popular websites built using React include.
Facebook
Instagram
Airbnb
Netflix

The Bottom Line

To sum it up, React is an ideal choice for your next web application development. It is an open-source technology and easy to learn as well. In order to develop an app that suits your business specifics, you need to know well about your project needs.

In order to hit the anticipated enterprise’s targets from your web applications, it is important to ensure that they are crafted professionally and in line with the latest technologies prevailing in the market. To make an effective app with an alluring interface, you should consider React for your web application development.
You could also hire react developers to help you understand more about React and how can you use it in your business for a competitive advantage. A ReactJS developer will help you in accelerating business growth, cutting on costs, and raising conversion rates.

Kotlin vs Scala: Which Is Good for Android App Development?

scarlett8285 — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 07:38:16 +0000

Android, since its initial release in 2008, has been one of the largest mobile operating systems of all time. The global market is turning mobile-friendly and, currently, there are over 2.46 million active Android apps. JAVA is the base of android app development but with the onset of cross-platform languages like Kotlin, JVM-based programming languages such as Scala are facing major challenges.

There are more than 50 JVM-based languages including the ones with a few argumentations. With new and more capable programming languages in the market, you can now easily shift from JAVA to these languages for Android app development. In this article, we address one of the hottest topics in the developers’ world - Kotlin vs Scala.

Kotlin and Scala are JVM-based languages just as JAVA. Before getting into the specifics of these languages, let’s understand the market presence and the role of JAVA in Android app development.

Good Read: Top React Development Companies in India as per Google Ranking

Java in Android App Development

JAVA is an object-oriented programming language that became popular due to its underlying principle of Write Once, Run Anywhere (WORA). It is a platform-independent programming language that uses the concept of object-oriented programming to include real-life elements in its applications.

JAVA was launched in 1995 and, by now, you can find it everywhere. From Android apps and desktop GUI applications to embedded systems and web apps, numerous apps have been programmed in JAVA. Even a 15-year old JAVA code will run perfectly well with the latest JVM and such is the versatility of JAVA!

People often ask how long will it take to eradicate JAVA from the market? Well, if you start today, it will take at least a decade finding a replacement for every application that runs on JAVA. While the popularity of JAVA might get affected by the launch of new programming languages and their frameworks, but its dominance over the current market surpasses it all.

App developers are always in search of new languages, tools, and frameworks that could help them program efficiently. JAVA has been the best available solution for programming the web for long and has also tackled the issue of memory constraints. But, at the same time, the world of polyglot programming (using features of two or more languages) is here.

Kotlin and Scala support multi-coding paradigms and are both object-oriented and functional. In this article of Kotlin vs Scala for Android app development, the upcoming sections contain a basic definition of the two languages, followed by comparing them under 6 different parameters such as compilation time, pattern matching, code length, and more.

What is Kotlin?

If you are still wondering, here is a Hello World code is written in Kotlin. For those who are already familiar with JAVA or C++, you can see familiar keywords “main”, “args”, “Array”, etc.

Kotlin is an OOP (object-oriented programming) language that rose to its popularity because of its smooth interoperability with JAVA. It connects OOP features such as Companion Object, Smart Casts, Range Expressions, and more.

Kotlin: A Brief Introduction

Kotlin was created by JetBrains and it was launched as an open-source language in 2012. It soon became popular among Android app developers because of its seamless compatibility with JAVA. The initial goal of the developers was to add some new features to the existing JAVA development and hence, solve the unsolvable.

Kotlin is a statically typed language based on the JAVA Virtual Machine (JVM) but it can also be compiled to JS code by installing the basic Kotlin multiplatform plugin and running your project. Besides, Kotlin was also officially recognized as an Android programming language by Google in 2018. Google’s internal operations were also shifted, eventually, to Koatlin from JAVA.

Kotlin: Key Features

Open-Source: Kotlin is an open-source programming language. Up until August 22, 2019, Kotlin had two released versions - v1.2 and, the latest and most stable one, 1.3.50.

Interoperability with JAVA: One of the top features of Kotlin is its flawless compatibility with JAVA. This immediately drew the attention of all the Android app developers.

Supports Higher-Order Functions: Unlike JAVA, Kotlin supports functions that can take a function as an argument and return it as well. This enhances the overall convenience of developers when programming an Android app. Besides high-order functions, Kotlin supports other modern programming concepts such as delegates, extension functions, and more.

Not Your Regular OOP Language: Kotlin is an object-oriented programming language and also supports the functional programming approach.

These are some of the key features of Kotlin that allow Android app developers to create apps with better functionalities and cleaner API. There are over 3.3 billion smartphone users in the world. Hire developers in India for your business and boost your customer reach to a great extent.’

Now that you have a basic idea about Kotlin, it is only fair to understand Scala to the same level to compare them. The next section describes Scala - its origin and key features. Let’s begin.

What is Scala?

Before we begin with the specifics, here is a program to print Hello World in Scala. Similar to Kotlin, you can find a few matching keywords like the “main” function, Array, and “println” with JAVA.

Scala was launched as a general-purpose programming language on the JAVA platform. The name “Scala” (short for SCAlable LAnguage) is derived from the term “scalable” indicating that this language can capable of building scalable solutions (apps) for its users. It got the attention of Android app developers due to its list of added functionalities to the native JAVA language.

Scala is a hybrid object-oriented programming language created with an emphasis on functional programming inclinations such as immutability. Let’s look at how Scala was launched and its few key features.

Scala: A Brief Introduction

Scala was launched in 2004 by Martin Odersky with the idea of tackling the basic drawbacks of JAVA language in mobile app development. Scala developed significantly over the years and, even after the launch of Kotlin in 2012, remained in the spotlight.

Scala has a flexible syntax and comes with advanced features such as macros, fully supported pattern matching, and more, which is a boon for app developers. It is a statically typed programming language and thus saves the trouble of providing redundant information. For instance, you don’t have to specify a type as shown in the picture below.

Programmers who know JAVA or C++ can see the difference. The type of a variable is defined on the right side and the compiler can tell it before compiling the entire chunk of your code.

Scala: Key Features

Object-Oriented and Functional: Just as JAVA, SCALA is an object-oriented programming language. Scala treats every variable as an object with its type and behavior defined by attributes and classes.

Scala is a functional programming language as well. It identifies each function as a separate variable. Each function has its own set of attributes and behavior which pushes its overall functionality to a higher level.

Scalable: Scala is designed to adapt to the increasing demands of its users. From writing small scripts to building industry level projects and systems, Scala can handle everything. Being an object-oriented and functional programming language, scalability comes easy to Scala.

Higher-Order Functions: Scala supports higher-order functions. Advanced features like this distinguish Scala from other programming languages for Android app development. Hire android developer who specializes in Scala to create scalable and highly functional apps for your business.

Immutability: Objects created in Scala are immutable by default and can be changed to mutable. This helps to maintain parent control and manage the defined variable in a better way. You can create mutable variables as well.

Scala has many other important features than the above-mentioned ones. Considering its advanced features, Scala can be a bit challenging to learn for beginners. At the same time, Scala comes easy for programmers who are privy to languages like JAVA or C++. As they say, building new apps is less about language and more about the developer’s logic and creativity.

Using languages like Kotlin or Scala over JAVA for mobile app development is an exhibit of how developers are moving towards polyglot programming. We have listed the key features of both languages. The upcoming section addresses the primary differences between Kotlin and Scala and leaves you to make the final decision on which one to choose as an android app developer.

Kotlin vs Scala - Which One to Choose?

When comparing two programming languages to choose the right one, you should weigh them against different parameters of how you define a good language. We have compared Kotlin and Scala under six important parameters. Let’s begin.

The Learning Curve

Scala ranks 17 and Kotlin stands 11th in the list of programming languages for beginners. Though Scala is praised for its advanced functionality and flexible syntax, it can be a bit challenging to learn. It is another kind of JAVA that offers a good environment and immense support for advanced object-oriented and functional programming.

Kotlin is also an object-oriented and functional programming language. It offers concise coding which allows you to do more with a few lines of code. This not only helps to point out bugs in your code but also makes it easier to learn. Besides, Kotlin works well with JAVA programming tools such as Eclipse, Android Studio, Gradle, and many others.

Code length and Compilation Time

Scala, undeniably, has a unique set of advanced features but a slow compilation speed. Talking about Scala, the development lead of JetBrains, Dimitri Jemerov, mentions in an interview - “its obvious deficiency is very slow compilation”.

Kotlin is an open-source object-oriented and functional programming language and has a large community support. Kotlin compiles faster than Scala and is easy to debug or implement. Besides this, Kotlin is known for its concise coding. A few lines of code can things implemented as compared to Scala.

App Performance

Irrespective of the language - Java, Kotlin or Scala, the individual app performance matters. As a developer or a business owner, you would want your app to perform better. While this parameter is subjective, let’s try to understand the performances of android apps in Kotlin and Scala.

Scala helps you build scalable applications that can adapt to the needs of your users. Kotlin, on the other hand, allows concise coding and is easier to debug. The performance and build time of a piece of code written in Kotlin is easier to predict than Scala.

As an android app developer or a business owner, choose the one that fits your definition of better app development. Hire app developer to build quality android apps for your business or project.

Pattern Matching and Null Safety Management

Pattern matching is a crucial aspect of app development. Scala supports pattern matching against the use of native switch statements and it is one of Scala’s most used features. Kotlin, on the other hand, doesn’t support pattern matching.

One of the nightmares of an android developer’s life is Null Pointer Exception. Kotlin handles this effectively with Null Safety Management by easily distinguishing the variable type that can hold a null value and the one that cannot. Scala’s way to handle a NULL Pointer Exception is not as effective as this.

Brands Using These Languages

Many big brands of different industries use Kotlin, Scala or their frameworks for mobile apps. Kotlin is used by Uber, Gradle, Pinterest, Atlassian, Evernote, Coursera, Corda, Pivotal, and more.

On the other hand, apps using Scala are Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Tumblr, Netflix, The Guardian, Sony, Airbnb, Klout, Uber, Apple, New York Times, SoundCloud, The Swiss bank UBS, Huffington Post, and more.

Community Support

Scala is 15 years old and, over the years, has developed a large community. You can find tutorials, solutions, problems, and other resources at Reddit, Stack Overflow, etc. Kotlin’s community is growing fast but still is way behind Scala’s. You can get help online because of Kotlin’s popularity among business owners and developers is a big plus.

Conclusion

The “right” programming language for android app development (here, Kotlin or Scala) may differ from developer to developer. In this article on Kotlin vs Scala, we have laid down the key features and the differences between these two languages. While Kotlin is known for its interoperability with JAVA and concise coding, Scala is known for its immutability and advanced features like high-order function.

JAVA is everywhere and, in spite of its technical incompetence, cannot be completely wiped out. Choose the language (Kotlin or Scala) that suits the requirements of your next android app development project.

Uber is reaching almost 100 million users through its mobile app. What are you waiting for? Hire iOS developer and android developer to get the perfect mobile application for your business today.