There will come a time when anyone - even those not skilled in the nuances of programming and development - will be able to create powerful applications. And that day may come sooner than you think.
Caspio, for example, a "low-code" platform for building online database applications, just announced a new version (9.9) of their offering that includes "
Triggered Actions" - an approach to automating application logic through a visual drag-and-drop interface. Using logic-based builders like this is nothing new really, but coupled with Caspio's existing capabilities and you end up with a rather excellent product.
What this means is that even the non-technical will be able to build rather advanced custom Web applications that can do things like capture data, share information or automate vital business processes and do so both faster and cheaper.
The new Triggered Actions feature includes a set of visual interlocking blocks (see image below) used to define application logic, data manipulations and calculations that execute on specified data events. An inventory application, for example, could utilize Triggered Actions to reconcile inventory as new orders are processed.
"Business transformation strategies are demanding increasingly-sophisticated application functionality," said Caspio Founder and CEO Frank Zamani. "Caspio's 9.9 release demonstrates our commitment to meeting these requirements while retaining the intuitive interface that has made our platform so popular with business users."