Building applications that run everywhere is no easy task; building them in a deadline-oriented, collaborative environment is even harder - but it's not impossible thanks to the emergence of some very thoughtful tools designed for developers.
Ionic, for example, maker of the popular open source Framework for building cross-platform mobile and progressive web apps, recently introduced a set of development tools specifically for enterprise developers and app development teams.
The new
Ionic Pro offering is a cloud-based solution that essentially makes it faster and easier to design, build, test and deliver apps - managing the entire virtual lifespan of those apps.
Developers will be able to prototype and test new app concepts, for example, share apps with clients or others on their team (
remote sharing through the Ionic View app), gather feedback, and monitor their app experiences in order to make future improvements.
The Ionic Framework, which launched in 2013, is reportedly used by more than five million developers thanks in great part to a streamlined code base that makes it possible for applications to run pretty much everywhere - on any device or operating system - using the web as a common platform. This efficiency is obviously critical to enterprise teams, but the launch of Ionic Pro further extends the usefulness of the platform as it now addresses the entire app lifecycle -
from ideation to analysis.
"The Ionic Framework has become popular with enterprise teams because they can target native mobile apps, as well as progressive web apps, all from a single codebase - using languages that are familiar to their in-house web developers," said Max Lynch, co-founder and CEO of Ionic. "With Ionic Pro, we're taking it even further by helping teams address the entire dev lifecycle - from design and testing, to tracking errors and shipping hot code updates."
The solution will likely be most appealing to developers with clients that have more rigorous standards.
"Ionic Pro has been a huge advantage for us. Our clients have very demanding workloads with tight timelines to make app updates," said Mike Sigle, vice president of product development at Napa Group. "The live update feature allows us to test changes and push them directly to users, without waiting around for the app stores. That's huge for us. We're already using Pro successfully and fully intend to introduce Ionic to more of our clients."