The Present

How does software get built today? The image of software engineers hunkering down over their computers is a familiar sight and is representative of how things work today. Building software and apps is the domain of experienced computer programmers and coders, of which there is a real shortage. This global phenomenon (check out a finding from the European Commission, for example) is not new, and will only get worse.

The Future

Now, imagine a future where non-coders are able to build and maintain apps. It may sound far-fetched and impractical now, but this is where we believe the world is heading. With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, IT literacy and competency are rapidly increasing all over the world. With the emergence and growth of low-code platforms, and the feedback from the Joget Workflow community, the trends point towards a future where more and more people are becoming creators, not just consumers of software.

At Joget, our vision is a business world where apps can be built and managed anytime, anywhere. But just as how smartphones revolutionized photography for the average person as opposed to professional photographers, software development professionals will still play a big role at a deeper level. However, the time is ripe for everyone to be able to create software when required. Imagine someone walking around with an iPad to build apps anytime, anywhere. Dragging some elements here, dropping some stuff there, everyone is empowered to create.

Well, “touch to build” is arriving in the upcoming Joget Workflow v6. Watch this space for updates!

As an open source platform to easily build enterprise web apps for cloud and mobile,

the upcoming Joget Workflow v6 will have a dual pronged focus: User Experience (UX), and App Maintainability and Performance. Following the previous article which offered a sneak peek at what to expect, here’s a more detailed look at what’s to come.

User Experience

Enhanced App User Experience for Desktop and Mobile

Say goodbye to uninspired user interfaces expected in business apps, as v6 will provide a Universal Userview Theme that embraces Google’s Material design philosophy. Responsive to fit desktop and mobile devices, the theme allows for simpler and more flexible configuration, while still allowing fine-tuning via custom CSS or JavaScript.

Customizable App Center with Joget Marketplace Integration

The App Center, the default landing page providing access to apps and seamless integration with the Joget Marketplace, is now a customizable app! Adapt the App Center to specific needs, or even replace it entirely if required.

Dashboard Capabilities

One of the frequently requested features, a Dashboard Userview element now provides the capability for multiple elements to be presented in dashboard format for better information visibility.

Calendar View

The Calendar Userview element displays events in a familiar monthly, weekly or daily calendar view.

Unobtrusive Admin and Design Interface

The focus is on the apps, so the administration and app design interface is designed to be discreet and to stay out of the way. A floating design button toggles to show the Admin Bar and Front-End Edit Mode to show elements directly within the app.

Design Apps Anytime, Anywhere with Support for Touch Devices

Touch devices are now supported! App designers can now use tablets or touch screen PCs to design all the processes, forms, lists and userviews. Dragging, dropping and configuring elements using your fingers or a stylus makes building and maintaining apps more accessible anytime, anywhere.

App Maintainability and Performance

Improved App Maintainability with Advanced Tools

The major challenge in app development is not building it the first time, but rather maintaining and evolving it over time. A big focus in v6 is improving app maintainability hence the new Advanced Tools which will make it easier to manage dependencies, while adding support for automatic merging of concurrent changes. For improved accountability, all changes to an app are now captured in the system audit trail as well.

Enhanced Configuration Options for Codeless Apps

The Joget Workflow platform allows for almost limitless extensibility via plugins and custom coding. However, the requirement for coding makes it less accessible to non-coders. In v6, there are now additional configuration options in various elements to allow for simple configuration instead. For example, retrieving data from multiple forms can be accomplished using simple form selections, instead of using custom SQL JOIN queries.

Improved Performance with Userview Caching

Caching is now available for all userview pages. Requiring just a couple of settings, any userview menu and page can be easily cached to eliminate bottlenecks and reduce server-side processing. When used appropriately, caching can greatly improve the performance and scalability of apps.

Database Connection Monitoring and Leak Detection

A new feature incorporated into the Performance Analyzer now provides monitoring of database connections at runtime. When logged in as an administrator, the Performance Analyzer displays the number of active and idle platform datasource connections at the top left corner of the app userview.

There is also database connection leak detection, which works for both BeanShell scripts and custom plugin code. When a possible leak is detected, a warning will be captured in the logs to allows administrators to identify the page causing the problem.

Additional Plugins Out of the Box for Greater Flexibility

v6 includes additional useful developer and integration plugins to cater for more complex app requirements.

More JDBC and BeanShell plugins are now available out of the box to allow for custom SQL and BeanShell code in forms and lists.
The Permission Userview Menu element allows userview permissions to be configured in the front-end app.
There is also a new Sync LDAP Directory Manager that allows LDAP and Active Directory information to be synchronized with the local user directory.

Latest Upgrades Under The Hood

Joget is built on Java using the proven and popular enterprise libraries Spring Framework and Hibernate ORM and in v6 they will be upgraded to new stable releases (Spring 4.3 and Hibernate 4.3) to take advantage of all the performance, stability and security improvements available.

Resources

While v6 is in the works, check out the current stable v5 release through the following resources:

For on-premise installation (http://www.joget.org/download/), or on-demand (https://cloud.joget.com).
Joget Marketplace: https://marketplace.joget.org
Video Tutorials: http://www.joget.org/videos/tutorial/
Knowledge Base: https://community.joget.org
Language Translations: http://translate.joget.org

NOTE: The features in v6 are subject to change prior to release.

Enterprise applications have gone from being just optional add-ons to mission critical tools, necessary for smooth business operations in many organizations. A recent report by Apperian reveals that a vast number of corporate employees in 91% of the enterprises surveyed used work-related apps in 2016.

Worthy of note is the fact that a majority of organizations are planning to put more time, money, and effort into internal app development this year, thanks to the value apps bring to business — improved internal communication, increased operational efficiency, more seamless collaboration, anytime/anywhere access to data, and so on.

While this is good for workplace productivity, the problem is that as demand for business apps increases, internal developers may be forced to compromise quality in order to deliver more quickly. But business users have greater expectations — they want great user experience (UX) comparable to the ones found in consumer apps.

So how can you ensure you deliver a good enterprise app that's successful?

This post answers the question, but let's first have a brief look at what a “successful enterprise app” is:

A successful enterprise app is one employees find helpful — even delightful — to use. It does at least one of the following:

Solves employees’ problems and makes their jobs easier.
Fixes efficiency issues.
Streamlines complex business processes in an organization.
Capacitates effective collaboration between both individuals and departments.
Curtails costs of time and money.
Allows organizations to quickly and easily identify and take opportunities.
Enables employees to continue working outside of a traditional workspace.
Improves workflow and approval processes.
Provides secure access to information.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Here are the most important things you need if you want to build internal apps that deliver these benefits:

1. A clear purpose of the app with an appropriate framework

One of the first things you will need is a well-defined, basic conceptual structure of the app you're trying to create. This comes at the ideation stage. The fact is, without an idea of what you want to build, you won't be able to actually build it.

Determine what problems the application will solve. This sort of structural framework will help you build an app that serves a clear purpose, something that's necessary for an app to be considered successful.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Don't try to generalize the purpose of the app but make it task- or process-specific.

We'd even recommend you get all the major participants to come together to deconstruct the app idea down to the crux of its core value proposition, and then build up from there. You may also want to talk to the target users — employees — to understand their pain points and gauge what they actually need. This will keep everyone on the same page regarding what to expect, streamline the development and deployment processes, and increases the app’s chances of being adopted by employees and eventually succeeding.

2. User engagement

Great user experience is an important feature of every successful app. Without it, your app will be treated with disinclination by employees.

What should you do? Create better UX.

A good idea might be to try to make your enterprise apps go head to head with well-built consumer apps in terms of UXD.

Here's why:

Generally, people are accustomed to consumer apps that are intuitive, clean, and user-friendly. You need to integrate these attributes into your enterprise apps. Statista forecasts that by the end of this year, over a third of the world’s population will own a smartphone; that's an estimated total number of almost 2.6 billion smartphone users in the world. This will amp up market demand for business-focused apps that meet the high performance and usability of consumer apps.

Your aim should be to build something that's truly exciting and engaging for people to actually participate. It should be to proffer a solution that’s better than and different from the clutter employees see out there. It should be to create stuff that offers a more convenient way of interacting with job-related tasks, making it rewarding to use. Only then will it be used to the same degree as consumer apps.

Don't know where to start? Here are a few guidelines to give you a leg up:

Keep all interactions within the app short and straightforward.
Provide as much information as necessary to easily complete each action… sort of quick walkthroughs.
Offer some level of customization so each user can tailor the app to their own needs.
KISS it. (Not literally though; I'm talking about applying the ‘keep it simple, stupid’ principle when dragging and dropping those design elements.)
And don't forget that UI is a key factor in user experience design. A flabby, strewn interface can turn users down forever.

3. Multi-platform accessibility

Where and how people access your apps matter. Build it for just one platform and you might be excluding a number of employees from the experience.

Bring your own device (BYOD) is becoming increasingly popular in the corporate world. According to a report by Gartner, an IT-research and advisory firm, employees use an average of three devices in a typical work day in the modern workplace. The report mentions that as wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) gain momentum, that number is expected to increase to five or six devices per day. This means for your enterprise app to gain ground, it needs to be cross-platform.

We recommend you go with a web-based app. That way, it’ll be available and used across devices regardless of platform or OS. Joget Workflow makes it easy to quickly create enterprise web apps that are mobile-optimized and cloud-ready.

4. Your IT team's support

It is not uncommon to try to have a go at building apps on your own, especially when using a no-code/low-code platform like Joget. But here’s what:

You need your IT…

Not necessarily to write code but to help minimize the roadblocks that may once in a while pop up during the development process and in the future. For one, you don’t want to make your IT feel as though you're replacing their jobs with a third-party service. Remember, they'll be responsible for managing the app after it’s developed and deployed. You need to work with them from day one and not only when you run into technically complex issues you can’t resolve on your own.

With IT involved, you can be sure that you will be getting internal support like quickly handling minor bugfixes (this saves you from bugging your software vendor every time, which in turn saves your organization time and money) and their expert contribution, which all go to add to the overall success of your enterprise application.

5. Adoption strategy

Successful app development does not end with just the build process; it continues to deployment and adoption. And until the app fulfills its purpose, it's not successful. How can the app fulfill its purpose when it hasn’t been adopted and used by employees?

A study conducted by SAP points out that 78 percent of enterprise apps are abandoned after their first use.

Here's the rub:

The app development process may not be the hard part, but adoption. Some organizations struggle with this. This is why you need a good adoption strategy in place.

To start with, create an app that's enthralling and easy to use as discussed in point #2 above. Most times, employees are typically already swamped with too much work. For example, they might already be overwhelmed by the high number of emails they get each day. Introducing “another burden” will only result in a slap in the face for your app. Not nice!

Some gold nuggets to give you a kick in the butt?

Offer incentives if you have to, but the best adoption strategy should be building an app that incentivizes its own adoption through its features and benefits.
Talk them into using the app; if they understand it will help make their job easier, then they will use it.
Follow up after the initial deployment, stay engaged with users, and identify and solve complaints.
Sometimes, all you really need to do is train the staff on using the app.

We advise you don’t force users to adopt your app. They should make that choice on their own on the basis of it being a better option. Otherwise, get back to the drawing board and create something better.

What You Don't Need

So above we’ve discussed some of the most important things you need to make your enterprise app successful. Good stuff, but here’s what you don’t necessarily need:

Coding skills!

Codeless development is growing in popularity. Rapidly. It's the future. And this means anyone can easily develop and deploy apps quickly using talent they already have.

If becoming a professional programmer intrigues you, great. But if you’re interested in building usable apps in minutes without gambling with quality, then you don’t necessarily need to learn to code; just learn how to work with technology. The trick is to take the next step by getting started with Joget Workflow today if you aren't already doing so.

Have you noticed the fuss that's been going on lately about Rapid Application Development (RAD)? A lot of people seem to be talking about it these days. While that's generally good for the industry, there's a problem.

Arising alongside this rave are misconceptions and myths about the technique.

The problem?

Harboring these misconceptions and myths can cause you to misjudge certain concepts which will ultimately result in you making decisions that can affect your business negatively and slow down your organization's progress.

At Joget Workflow, we've worked with quite a number of really awesome organizations and developers who’re using our RAD technology to create great enterprise apps. We've also come across a number of people who had one of these misconceptions or another.

Today, we want to try to lay some of the confusions to rest. We've put together the top ten of these widely held misconceptions so you're better equipped to make smarter decisions and move your business forward.

Ready? Let's jump right into it:

Myth #1: RAD is for creating small applications only

Due to the fact that RAD is a development technique for quickly building minimally-coded software applications, some people tend to believe that it's designed to handle only small applications. But that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Of course, small applications can be built with RAD tools, but it's not limited to those kinds of projects. There are several success stories where applications created with RAD have thousands of users and are processing millions of transactions.

Myth #2: RAD tools are for business users only/RAD tools are for developers only

There are two schools of thought here…

The first one argues that rapid application development is a technique specifically reserved for business users to be able to build apps more easily. The other school of thought believes that RAD is designed solely for pro developers to make their work easier.

While these ideologies are partially true (because RAD makes life easier for both IT and business users), RAD is built for both, not just one of the two groups.

RAD platforms with no-code/low-code functionality provide extremely easy to use drag-and-drop visual development environment for both business users and professional developers, which means the idea behind RAD is to make it possible to develop apps with minimal technical skills in less time.

Myth #3: RAD is for small businesses, not big organizations

Some people are of the opinion that rapid application development is for startups, and not for big organizations. But that's incorrect — big businesses do use RAD but may not tell you.

If you are a big business, there are scads of benefits you can get from rapid application development. For instance, your development and testing time can greatly be cut down due to the reuse of patterns.

Myth #4: If you can code, you should always code instead of using RAD platforms

Well, this assumption is not just delusional but also very finite in scope. Imagine getting told that those who can walk should always walk instead of using cars.

Just as cars make movement easier and faster, RAD tools do the same when it comes to development.

People who can code will benefit a lot from RAD and are probably the best people to make the best use of RAD technology, as they have loftier technical skills and understand development better. In addition, they can easily create add-ons, plugins, and other relevant components to create apps that deliver great experience and meet business needs more intuitively.

Myth #5: You will need expert intervention for professional security and database design

Yes, it's true that professional apps usually require primo security and decent DB design. And in traditional development, the incorporation of these elements are usually handled by expert developers.

With the arrival of RAD, some people still think that achieving professional security and DB design requires expert intervention. But that's totally untrue.

Rapid application development tools come with new technologies including drag-and-drop form builders, automatic table creations, configurable security, and so on. From a security perspective, platforms like Joget Workflow have been scanned and rated by industry leading security services such as HP Fortify On-Demand. With this, non-coders — business users, product managers, and citizen developers — can easily and quickly create apps with top-of-the-line security and automated database design.

Myth #6: Rapid application development will steal the job of the dev

You know, one of the reasons why some developers are at sixes and sevens as to whether or not to adopt RAD methodology is because they erroneously think that RAD will take their job and leave them with nothing.

But hey, don't be misled!

RAD is not a threat to your job security; it's a tool for honing your craft, becoming much more productive, eliminating redundancies, saving time, and making more money in the process.

The world is fast changing and so is the way we work. You don't need to change your job, but rather, change how you work. For developers, it's RAD.

Myth #7: RAD applications cannot be integrated with other business tools

This again is caused by misinformation. A 21st century RAD tool should be able to integrate your applications with other business tools.

For instance, Joget Workflow makes it extremely easy to securely connect your enterprise apps with third-party tools via APIs in a reliable way. Plugins can be downloaded from the Joget Marketplace or custom-built by developers. Business users can in turn use these plugins inside an app without having to write a line of code.

Myth #8: RAD platforms cannot support lots of features

So you think rapid application development works just for ‘light’ apps, huh?

Wrong!

While some RAD platforms may not fully support gobs of features, there are those that let you develop apps that are rich in functionality. And some platforms even make it possible for these features to be customized as per business needs.

Myth #9: You can't create sterling UI/UX using RAD tools

Professional apps built using traditional methods usually have compelling user interface/experience and involve senior front end developers who are adept at HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Some people think creating such UI/UX is only possible with the manual, traditional method.

But here's the kick:

Great UI/UX is achievable with rapid application development methodology.

With RAD tools that have visual development capabilities, out of the box templates can replace the immediate need for UI/UX experts; and point-by-point adjustments can then be done where necessary.

Myth #10: It takes time to build big apps

While some folks think that you can't build major apps with RAD, some others think that the bigger the app idea, the more time it'll take to build it with RAD. They believe there are no limits to the size of your idea but that the real hitch comes when you try to incubate that idea.

Yes, it used to take weeks (even months) to develop big apps, but that’s the old way. In the new era, RAD platforms with minimal coding requirement let anyone with an idea to build an app quickly. That's one of the core objectives of RAD — rapid development.

So don't limit your creative imaginations. Instead, get your hands on a worthwhile RAD tool like Joget Workflow and soar.

Tell you what, over at Joget Workflow, we've witnessed situations where usable apps were developed within hours with our RAD platform, and prototypes within minutes.

And things are getting even more exciting as we're looking to roll out our next major version.

Joget Workflow v6 is coming with lots of upgrades with special focus on user experience, mobility, maintainability, and performance. It'll make building an app super easy, with minimum time and coding requirements.

We hope this article has helped to clear some of the confusions around rapid application development. Please feel free to leave your thoughts and questions in the comment section below.

Business process automation (BPA) is considered a powerful means for streamlining business processes and approval steps, cutting costs, eliminating human errors and redundancies, and generally improving operational efficiency.

Joget Workflow lets you build workflow and business process management (BPM) applications that convey these benefits and more.

Now the question is this:

After creating your workflow/BPM applications, what are the most effective strategies that can help your team get the most out of such tools?

In this post, we gather seven best practices for doing just that.

Why does this matter?

Business process automation is a phenomenal tool that can completely change the way teams work. However, to experience this positive change to the hilt, you need to learn how to best implement the system and not just execute it lethargically.

In most cases, all that's required to achieve this is the right information coupled with germane actions. Read on to see our recommendations.

Get your team on board

BPM is not a one-man show. In automating your organization's workflows and processes, you need everyone’s support, from employees to upper management. You also need to get buy-ins and contributions from those who will be participating in the new system. Regardless of your position, going it alone could mean you're setting up yourself for failure.

Everyone needs to be on the same page regarding the tasks needing automation. So involve your team in the project (yes, BPA *implementation* is a project and should be treated as such) from the beginning. This may include process owners/managers, workflow participants, the IT team, and other relevant stakeholders.

Brainstorm and plan together. Ask about their expectations. Let them contribute their ideas. And be sure to treat each idea with respect, even if you may not get to use it eventually.

Why? Because it's only these people (especially prospective users) that can tell you their pain points and the best areas to automate, without which it'll be difficult to get the most out of automation.

Also, get them to commit up front to using the app so you won't have to struggle through deployment.

2. Keep your business objectives in mind

While successful automation could be one of your organizational goals (inter se), you need to set up BPA in such a way that it supports your broadscale business objectives, complements your team’s effort, and aligns with your vision.

Start with thoughtful planning, even before kick-starting the app development process. Decide on what you want — in line with your business objectives — and how you’re going to use the tool you create to achieve it. Doing this will make BPA more beneficial to your organization.

3. Choose a project manager

Just above, I mentioned that the implementation of business process automation is and should be treated as a project — seriously.

Now, one of the best things you can do to make your BPM strategy more effective and eventually get the most out of it is delegating the supervisory responsibility of the project to someone. Assigning a manager to administrate all the behind-the-scenes aspects of the project will only ever increase your chances of getting better results in a timely manner and within budget.

This person will be responsible for managing the entire project, from the app development stage to deployment and to the implementation phase; he should also be responsible for getting feedback and providing analytical reports for making improvements.

Here are some more things he will be responsible for:

In terms of communication, he'll be the main contact point for matters relating to the workflow application.
He’ll work with the software provider.
He should ensure everything runs smoothly and that every automation advantage is being harnessed to its maximum.
He should keep an eye on the system and suggest ways to optimize the same for better performance.
He'll receive feedback, suggestions, and complaints from users and ensure that appropriate support is provided.

Apart from getting the most out of automation, one other benefit of choosing a project manager is that since it's the same intelligence overseeing the whole project, proper organization and effective monitoring will be easily achieved for excellent delivery.

4. Operate with knowledge

Operating from a position of knowledge, as opposed to running blindly, is indispensable for a successful business process automation.

There are two stages to doing this:

Getting the history
Testing, tracking, and measuring the new system

What's getting the history about?

Before bringing the new BPM system into operation, try getting an idea of what’s been going on with the current system. Get and evaluate information on how the process or workflow was managed in the past to find out how to best implement the new system.

On the other hand, after you've actually implemented the new automated system, you should perform regular testing and optimization. For this to be possible, you will need to track and measure your BPA metrics to see what processes are working well and which can be improved upon.

The information you discover will guide you to make data-driven decisions and take more appropriate action in optimizing processes, all of which are necessary for making your BPM project an unforgettable one.

5. Go with simplicity

You don't want to end up with a tool that's way too complicated to deploy, manage, or work with. Complexity makes your tools less desirable by potential users. Employees want applications that are simple, user-friendly, and responsive.

Here are some ways to achieve this:

Don't over automate. The trouble with some businesses is that they try to automate everything. But it isn't every process that needs to be automated. Do your homework by researching to find out the “automatable” processes in your organization.
Keep the features and data to minimum. Employees do not want to be bombarded with features and information they don't need to see. Moreover, unnecessary data and components in an app or business process can distract workers and contribute to redundancy and inefficiency.
Unclutter your app’s user interface (UI): The better looking an app is, the more it'll attract users, and by extension, the more enjoyable and simpler it'll feel to use.

6. Standardize the fundamental operations

One of automation’s major benefits is its ability to simplify complex processes.

To get the most out of it, you need to standardize the basic operations that most support this simplification. Standardization makes it easy to work more quickly and within regulations; this contributes to business process optimization.

7. Be prepared for change

Business process management is designed to help organizations identify areas where changes are necessary, so that they're able to get to the next level of operational efficiency more quickly.

With this in mind, you need to prepare your work environment to support this sort of change. If opposed, the benefits that comes with automation may never be realized.

Moreover, you need to be ready to make changes as no process is written in stone. What you initially thought was running smoothly might turn out to be a candidate for tweaking.

Change must be anticipated, recognized, articulated, approved, implemented, managed, measured, and rewarded.

It's time to get started

You wouldn't get the most out of something you aren't working at, would you?

Business process automation offers a plethora of benefits (which we will cover in another post). To enjoy these benefits, you need to first get a go at it.

Joget Workflow is an open source web-based workflow solution that helps organizations build workflow and business process management applications, which can bring together the people, processes, and information needed for effective performance. With it, you can automate business processes using Joget's Process Builder, create enterprise web apps that deliver results, and do a lot more.

A few years ago, we published a post about the advantages of Joget Workflow and why everyone needed to pay attention to the platform. Back then, Joget Workflow was in its third edition and in the post, we talked about the key benefits offered by the v3.

But years have come and gone and Joget Workflow has gone through a handful of upgrades and revisions, and new features have been added, too. More importantly, the platform has evolved from being just a workflow and business process management (BPM) engine to a full-fledged suite of tools for building business applications that matter.

This simply means there are more things you can do with Joget Workflow now than we covered in the v3 post back in 2011.

So we’re putting this together to help you have a more comprehensive knowledge of what you can accomplish with Joget Workflow, plus some major advantages associated with the platform. But before we get to that, let's quickly get a handle on what the platform is about, for those who don’t know.

What is Joget Workflow?

Joget Workflow is an open source web-based workflow software to easily build enterprise web apps.

But Joget Workflow wasn't always like this. Initially, when Joget Workflow was first rolled out in 2009, the platform was crafted as an open source workflow management system for automating business processes and people-driven workflows. However, we wanted something more than that. So in 2012, we advanced from being a workflow system to a full-blown web application development platform.

Today, we've reached hundreds of thousands of downloads, with an army of incredibly happy users.

So what’s the thing with Joget Workflow? What makes the platform loved by people the world over? What are the benefits that are pulling together this troop of die-hard users? Let's have a look:

What Makes Joget Workflow Unique?

See, organizations are continuously looking for easier, quicker, and cheaper ways to build and deploy business processes and enterprise apps.

Traditionally, these two are handled manually. Manual business process management comes with lots of problems including high costs, human errors, inefficiency, unnecessary paperwork, and lots more. On the other hand, traditional software development is slow, requires high costs to maintain code, is designed only for software experts, among other downsides.

Occasionally, software providers have tried to resolve these issues through the development of workflow automation/BPM products and rapid application development (RAD) tools respectively.

But the problem is this: Most of these BPM and RAD products are typically constrained and limited in their capacity to deliver desirable results in a timely fashion. They’re essentially process-centric, which means no versatility.

This is where Joget Workflow comes in handy.

The Joget platform fills the gap by combining the best of both BPM and RAD, to allow both business users and IT professionals easily and quickly develop usable end-to-end enterprise web applications that support cloud and mobile, in a cost-effective way.

Digging Deeper Into Joget

To get a clearer picture of the awesomeness of Joget Workflow, it necessary to drill down a bit further into it. Here are the tools you'd come across in Joget:

1. Process Builder

Process Builder is a tool for building and modeling business processes. You can use it directly in the web browser and so does not need to be installed.

With a drag-and-drop interface, you can easily add, edit and execute processes, monitor ongoing and completed processes, and integrate with external systems using plugins.

2. Datalist Builder

The Joget Datalist Builder lets users build, design, and organize their data in tabular data lists which can be sorted, paged, and filtered.

Its drag-and-drop interface makes building data lists even easier as you can easily add new columns, for instance. Users can use configurable data binders to load data from different sources, extend those data binders using plugins, and easily preview their tabular data listings.

3. Form Builder

Form Builder is a useful tool with a drag-and-drop feature for easily designing web-based forms.

It offers flexible form layout and configuration, wizard-style property dialogs, and the ability to extend form element types using plugins.

4. Userview Builder

Userview Builder is a web-based solution for seamlessly designing front-end user interface (UI) for applications. You can add forms or data listings, configure and select what you want to be displayed, and enable mobile view for mobile devices, or even preview your web app UI.

Just as the above-mentioned tools, it requires no client-installation but supports a drag-and-drop environment.

Userview Builder makes use of forms and datalists to support CRUD (create, read, update, delete) for data management. It comes with configurable userview design themes and can extend userview functionality using menu type plugins.

5. App Generator

The Joget App Generator tool helps to accelerate web app development. Users can generate apps from forms and as well auto-generate lists, processes, and UI. It also makes it easy to create prototypes in minutes.

There are also ready-made process templates available for those who don't feel like generating processes from scratch.

What More Can You Do With Joget Workflow?

User Management: Joget Workflow also lets you manage users, groups, and organizational charts with its user management tool. And through plugins, you can do things like integrating users to external directory systems like LDAP or Active Directory.

Integration: Using plugins built on JavaScript and JSON APIs, you can integrate with external web-based technologies like PHP and .NET, portals like Microsoft SharePoint, CMS platforms like WordPress and Joomla, and vertical solutions built by SI or ISV.

Plugin-Oriented Architecture: Joget Workflow has a good deal of plugins developed and managed by a group of remarkably talented software engineers. With this dynamic plugin architecture, users can enhance and extend functionalities, bring data into data lists, and integrate with external systems like JSON, SOAP, and SQL/JDBC as there are pluggable elements in forms, processes, and UI.

Front-end Edit: This feature is designed to improve web app maintainability. It eases development as lists, forms, and pages can be edited without sweat. Perhaps, the most beautiful part is that you get immediate results even while still making the tweaks.

Joget Marketplace: One remarkable thing with Joget is that it doesn't leave you needing to design and build your apps from scratch. In the Joget Marketplace, you can find apps to use as templates, easily import and export apps, and seamlessly download ready-made apps and plugins.

The Joget Advantage

Joget Workflow is designed with the end-user in mind. Thus, it is built to deliver the following benefits.

1. Simplicity

From design to usability, Joget Workflow is simplicity-typified. Unlike what's out there, you don't need to go through complex steps to build apps or create processes. With just a web browser, you can turn your ideas into apps and maintain them properly, without the need to go through the long process of installation.

And if you don't feel like lifting a finger but want your processes to start running already, there’s the Joget Marketplace with a fistful of ready-made out of the box apps and plugins you can use right off the bat. There's also the hosted Joget Workflow On-Demand service for quickly building custom apps and automating processes without worrying about any infrastructure issues.

2. Cost-saving

One of the major challenges faced by organizations in the area of BPM and application development is high costs in terms of money and time. Some tools on the market today, cost a pretty penny but actually deliver low value.

Joget Workflow saves costs of time and money. Rather than investing separately in a BPM tool and RAD product, organizations can get better returns on their investment at a lower cost. You also won't have to waste time switching back and forth between a BPM platform and a RAD tool.

To top it off, Joget Workflow’s focus on simplicity reduces the time it takes to build apps from months to weeks or days, or even just minutes for working prototypes. This goes to save you money and eliminates unnecessary headaches.

3. Zero/low level of programming knowledge requirements

So you need programming knowledge to be able to develop apps, huh? Well, not with Joget.

Here, anybody can easily build operable apps without writing a line of code. Why? Joget Workflow supports both codeless and low-code development.

For pro developers, Joget helps to reduce the time and effort it takes to build apps, while accelerating process and increasing productivity.

For non-technical users, you can be sure to create apps you love even without ever knowing what code means. It's the 21st century, remember.

4. Flexibility and versatility

Imagine using a system that doesn't allow you the freedom to customize your work to what you want, or that only lets you fribble around one ironbound developmental activity illiberally. I bet you wouldn't want to work with that kind of tool.

Unlike many BPM and RAD products on the market, Joget Workflow offers great flexibility and versatility.

We believe these two are very vital for software, especially for areas like business process management and application development.

To start with, our platform is open source. It can be used to create versatile enterprise web apps to execute various business functions. And web apps created with Joget Workflow can be used on any device without being OS-dependent or platform-centric.

Plugins and APIs are available to integrate and extend to external systems as you like.

5. Accountability and security

If you've ever used software that caters to a business need, you'd know the importance of accountability and security in software.

The good thing is, at Joget, we pay great attention to these concerns. We understand that unsatisfactory security can lead to serious issues for users, so we work to ensure that our users get the most authentic security possible, coupled with openness and accountability.

THE FUTURE OF JOGET

We've made tremendous progress in our efforts to bring our next major edition on board.

While Joget Workflow v6 will carry on the good attributes found in v5, it's an even better edition. It'll come with great stuff but our focus for v6 stays around User Experience (UX), Maintainability, and Performance.

Feel free to leave your questions and thoughts below and we'll be happy to help.

Is it possible for someone without any coding knowledge to build applications? If yes, how well can they do and should we trust such applications to work well and contribute meaningfully to business?

Well, this post kicks off the series, Coding for Non-Coders. It's a series of posts we will be publishing here with the aim of empowering non-technicals to be able to easily and quickly build enterprise applications, no matter their level of programming chops.

#Flashback: Back in time, those who wished to develop apps but lacked technical expertise had to rely on traditional developers and IT to meet their development needs. For them, coding and development were herculean tasks they didn't want to get into. So they took to the option of outsourcing all their development work to software experts and the costs weren't so low.

Our earnest vision at Joget has always been to champion a world where anyone can seamlessly create their dream enterprise application at any time regardless of whether or not they can code, a work environment where even the least technical person can churn out a working app that can contribute to business.

The beautiful thing is that things have changed dramatically from how applications were developed in the past. Non-coders who have an idea but not the technical know-how are taking it upon themselves to create their own apps; they can now implement a no-programming approach towards building applications.

This is called Codeless Development.

Codeless development makes use of a drag-and-drop interface to build enterprise applications without the need to write code. It requires no programming knowledge to work with as the “developer” doesn't need to interact with any code or any technically difficult-to-use tool to build their applications. This method of development relies on models and templates as opposed to strict coding.

Although the term “codeless development” along with related terms like “no-code development” and “low-code development” have existed for just a few years now, the technique is not entirely new.

And here's another thought: Even though it's called “codeless development” the technique isn't devoid of code. The truth is, there is some code somewhere. But the code is pre-developed and packaged (read: hidden) in an environment that will only require the user to visually develop applications.

Thinking no-code development is limited? The apps developed can be deployed in private or public clouds, on-premise or to mobile devices, and can be extended and integrated with mainframes and other external systems, mostly via plugins. This means you can do more with apps built through this methodology.

Now, there's a common fallacious thinking that codeless development threatens the job security of the developer; but the fact is that no-code/low-code platforms are designed to accelerate software delivery and heighten the dev’s productivity level while streamlining and quickening the development process.

It also expands app development beyond just developers as it is geared more toward business users.

Why business users? Because businesses are frustrated with having to go through long, tedious development process; they want to handle their own development in an effortless manner. They see codeless development as being more agile and less baroque. More importantly, organizations want to lower cost and save time, and codeless development helps them achieve exactly this. For instance, the Joget platform lets users dramatically cut down the costs and time it takes to build new apps. Instead of writing code, you basically build your app by easily dragging and dropping elements.

If you have yet to adopt codeless development, it's time you signed up for your free Joget account here. In our next post in this series, we will talk about why you need to develop your own apps and also look at the potential benefits you stand to gain by using the codeless development approach.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below.

In our first post in the series, Coding for Non-Coders, we mentioned that our aim with this series is to empower non-developers to effortlessly build enterprise applications. In the post, we found that it's actually possible for a person with little or even zero coding knowledge to build applications, using a Codeless Development approach.

In part three of this series (which is the next post), we will take you through the step-by-step process of building an enterprise web application without any programming skills. But before then — and on a deep-thinking, heart-searching level — why should YOU build your own enterprise apps? Apparently, there are umpteen professional software experts out there; is it a brilliant business move to build your apps in-house in place of paying an experienced dev to do it?

Here's what we've discovered in our interactions with organizations around the world:
We've found that a good number of organizations want to create their own business-to-employee (B2E) apps. While that’s definitely a good thing, there is a problem:

The team members of these organizations, in most cases, do not know how to code. Yet, these enterprises do not necessarily want to outsource the development task; they want the apps built in-house.

Why? Because they've realized the numerous boons associated with internal development and are looking to avoid the interferential disbenefits that come with the traditional method of outsourcing app development.

The points below should help you have a clearer picture of the importance and benefits of building your own business applications internally.

Quicker turnaround time: One of the biggest challenges faced by organizations regarding building enterprise apps the traditional way is lengthy time requirement. On average, it takes about seven months to a year to write a single app, traditionally. Considering this extensive time input, it's worth developing your apps in-house since codeless tools can dramatically speed up the development process while saving an ample amount of time.

Reduced costs: Another major reason you should build your own enterprise apps is the cost of development and maintenance. The price tag of outsourcing development is surprisingly high. On average, it costs north of $250,000 for an app to be developed. Not everyone can afford that high an amount, hence the need for internal development. With just a small fee, your team’s dream of building any app they want at any time can become a reality.

Practical empowerment: In-house development empowers a broader base of your workforce — departmental people, product managers, process owners, and so on — not just IT. These non-technical team members usually have valuable domain expertise and inventive ideas, and with an opportunity to create their own apps using visual, drag-and-drop tools, they'll be able to develop their skills, make meaningful contributions, and extend their expertise to benefit the organization some more.

Smart solutions to problems: Fostering a world in which everyone can build apps would not only address the traditional app backlog faced by many organizations but would also enable organizations to find new and innovative ways to *quickly* solve internal organizational problems. Think of a situation where you need to readily manage internal bookings within your organization. Can you easily and quickly create an app to handle that? Oh well, yes! But with a no-code/low-code tool like Joget Workflow.

Trendiness: You know, the world is fast changing and work has gone from the way it used to be to a smarter approach. It's the same with development and how we use devices these days. In fact, Gartner says that before 2020, when people go online, they'll use their tablet or smartphone first instead of traditional computers. This means the demands for enterprise applications by employees is proliferating at a time when developer resources are in short supply. With this in mind, it's only intelligent you find a way to build apps internally. Gartner even mentions that by 2018, more than 50 percent of all enterprise apps will be created by business users, using codeless development tools.

Increased productivity: Imagine being able to effortlessly and quickly build, at any given time, enterprise applications that can immediately enhance your team's operational efficiency and increase workers’ productivity, without the need to contact any pro developer. Now, that's the sort of benefit you get when you equip your team to build applications internally.

Complete creative control: In traditional app development, there's the problem of control, customization, and versioning. Businesses that wish they could customize their app to something more custom-tailored usually have zero or very little chances of doing so given that the application wasn't written by them, and customization will most likely require coding. If they finally get to do it, such customization, versioning, and maintenance most times come with extra costs. Using no-code/low-code platforms to build your apps cuts off these unnecessary headaches and expenses while giving you complete creative control of your apps.

The points discussed above prove it's worthwhile for organizations to build their own B2E apps. With these benefits, coupled with the simplicity of codeless development tools, creating your own apps should be something you definitely do, even as a non-coder.

You can start with Joget Workflow, one of the world's leading open source platforms for building enterprise web applications that employees love.

This is the second post in the Coding for Non-Coders series. If you haven't had any chance to read the first post, you can do so here. In part three, we'll show you exactly how to build applications with no coding requirements whatsoever.

After months of intensive development, we're proud to announce that the beta for Joget Workflow v6 is now available for download!

What's New in Joget Workflow v6?

v6 has a dual pronged focus: User Experience (UX), and App Maintainability and Performance.

USER EXPERIENCE AND MOBILITY

User Experience (UX) and mobility are the Achilles' heel for enterprise apps. To address this, new features in v6 include a Material-design inspired user experience, mobile device responsiveness, dashboard capabilities and many many more.

With touch support for designing apps (imagine using an iPad to build and maintain apps!), building beautiful and user friendly apps will be easier than ever.

APP MAINTAINABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

The major challenge in app development is not building it the first time, but rather maintaining and evolving it over time. A big focus in v6 is improving app maintainability, with additional tools to manage dependencies and to automatically merge concurrent team changes.

Performance is also another key focus area with tools to help app designers optimize their apps more easily through easy-to-use caching, and to prevent common app performance bottlenecks such as detection of database connection leaks.

Get Started

Check out all the details in What's New in Joget Workflow v6, and Get Started in the Joget Workflow v6 Knowledge Base.

A few years ago, it wasn't entirely practicable for non-coders to build applications due to the difficulties and technicalities of coding. In fact, coding wasn't something to discuss in the average workplace except by IT.

However, technology has changed a lot of things on the app development front and it's now not just practical but also easy for non-developers to create working apps through codeless development, as we've discussed in parts one and two of this series.

Today, we will show you, in eight simple steps, exactly how to create enterprise web applications for your organization, using the Joget platform as our primary tool.

For the fact that this post targets non-technicals, we'll try to keep it free from technical jargons as much as we can while still delivering value. And where we use a technical term, we'll explain it. Let's go straight up into the steps:

STEP #1: IDEATE WHAT APP TO CREATE

Ideation is the starting point into every new project, right? Sure! So the first thing you'll need to do in creating your enterprise application is to develop an idea of what app to build.

This is where you have to define the purpose and mission of your app, its core appeal, and where it fits into the organization's overall strategy.

When it comes to ideation, you have to be very strategic, otherwise, you may end up struggling with the adoption of the app by users. Put differently, it's not just any idea that works.

For your app to carry a lot of weight with users, it should aim at solving a real-world problem for your organization. It could be efficiency problem, process problem, or just any effective organizational problem that needs solving.

Usually, these sort of problems are always almost everywhere in an organization; so you might not need to look too far. Whatever idea you arrive at, it should generally do at least one of the following:

Simplify complex business processes
Reduce costs
Save time
Make employees’ jobs easier
Enhance effective collaboration
Allow secure access to information
Resolve efficiency issues
Make it possible for employees to continue working outside of the traditional office
Streamline and improve workflow and approval processes
Amplify opportunities for the organization
And more.

To develop even a more feasible idea, consider involving potential users (employees). Ask questions and get them to contribute ideas. Talking to prospective participants helps you validate your idea, which is important for an app to be successful.

STEP #2: DETERMINE AND DETAIL FUNCTIONALITIES AND FEATURES OF THE APP

After you've identified a need within the organization and aligned your app idea accordingly to resolve it, it's time to solidify things by properly detailing what should go into the app.

At this stage, you might want to make a list of all the major features and also research the functionalities you'd love in the app. You can brainstorm with your team and ask them what to expect.

By detailing things down, you will be able to:

Give your idea a structure
Ensure each use case makes sense in reality
Pre-design the user experience for better delivery
Arrange features beforehand and map out the priority of your app’s content
Connect the dots from one element to another.

If your app is looking to resolve a problem, it's vital you find out the pain points of the prospective users so as to be able to resolve them spot on.

STEP #3: CHOOSE YOUR TOOL AND SIGN UP

By now, you have your app’s use cases outlined and a mental picture of its structure. The next step is to choose an app builder platform to create your app.

Of course, we’re discussing codeless development here so the tool you choose should definitely be a no-code/low-code platform with which you can easily build apps with little or zero coding knowledge.

In our bias, we recommend Joget Workflow as your go-to development platform. It can save you tens of thousands of dollars.

STEP #4: CREATE YOUR APP

With your app idea birthed, the feature set mapped out, and the functionalities defined, it’s time to further establish your project by connecting and fusing these individual pieces together.

From step #1 up to step #3, you've been preparing for the main job. Now, it's time to actually create your app. This step is probably the most technical part of this whole process, so you need to pay special attention to it.

And don't worry about the intricacies involved with development; codeless development is simple. It basically involves dragging and dropping visual elements to create what you want. Moreso, we will be using Joget Workflow, a really easy-to-use platform that makes development even enjoyable.

The first thing you would want to do in actually developing your enterprise application is to create a prototype of the app. The general idea of prototyping is to represent as close to the final product as possible, for testing.

You can use Joget Workflow to create a working and fully functioning prototype, where users can actually use the system. This way, you get the users to participate directly and they can see what they are getting from the onset.

To prototype with Joget Workflow, use the App Generator. With it, you’d be able to generate a fully functioning prototype from a form. Here’s a helpful tutorial on how to use the App Generator.

Understand that not all enterprise web applications require prototyping, especially simple and small apps. But for big apps, it's smart to create and test prototypes.

After you've created and tested a prototype of your app, and are satisfied with it, it's time to create the full application.

Creating a Joget Workflow app typically involves five simple steps as shown below:

i. DESIGNING A NEW APP

This is the step which starts the build process.

Here, you're required to enter the details of your new app, including App ID (without spaces) and App Name.

For step-by-step instructions on designing a new app, see this tutorial.

ii. DESIGNING A FORM

In this step, you're to design a new form for your app using Joget's Form Builder. You will be required to enter a Form ID, Form Name, and Form Table.

Add caption

Follow the instructions in this tutorial for a detailed guide on designing a form.

iii. DESIGNING A LIST

The third step involves designing a list using Datalist Builder.

This is where you get to create a list of cumulative field values from all workflow process instances associated with the form.

You'll need to select the source of the data, edit columns, plus a couple other functions.

Go here for details on designing a list.

iv. DESIGNING A USERVIEW

Step four is where you get to design the front-end interface of your app using Userview Builder.

You can develop a theme from scratch but there's also a list of preloaded themes you can choose from for quicker development.

Here's a quick tutorial on designing a userview with Joget Workflow.

v. DESIGNING A PROCESS

The final step in creating a Joget Workflow app centers on process design. You can complete this step using Process Builder.

For help, check out this step-by-step process of designing a process.

STEP #5: TEST IT… AGAIN

After you've created the full app, it's important you test it again. You will want to test the use cases, user interface, navigation, and individual screens to see if the experience is good enough.

All the components of your app should properly work at this point, and your app should be visually appealing as well.

STEP #6: INTEGRATE AND EXTEND YOUR APP

You may find it necessary to extend the functionalities of your app. For instance, you might want to extend an account payable workflow automation app to allow vendors to submit invoices directly to the AP department.

This can be done using plugins. Joget Workflow has a robust plugin architecture you can take advantage of to enhance and extend the functionalities of your app and integrate it with external technologies such as JSON, SOAP, and SQL/JDBC.

STEP #7: DEPLOY YOUR APP AND GET TARGET USERS TO ADOPT IT

So you now have a well-built app created and tested. Well, it's time to launch it.

App development does not end at just creating the app. It involves making sure the app gets adopted and used by the people. You wouldn't say you created a successful app if nobody is using it, would you?

We recommend you always get buy-in from potential users and other stakeholders even before creating the app. It's also intelligent to have adoption strategy.

STEP #8: GET FEEDBACK AND MAKE IMPROVEMENTS

Now that your app is in it’s fully functioning form, and with more users taking it for a spin, you may find that you need to make a couple of tweaks to bring it out fully.

Development is a process; it continues. Don't stop working on your app. Continually update and improve it based on user feedback and on new technologies.

Keep an eye on engagement. Why? Because user behavior and interaction with your app will go a long way to giving you insight into the strengths and weaknesses of your app, giving you ideas on how to improve and enhance your app.

Also, be open to constructive criticism and listen to complaints. Work with the support team of your software provider to fix technically complex problems.

Building an app can be very easy, especially with the right tools and information in hand. You don't need to be a professional coder to do so, as codeless development has totally changed the game.

We hope you try out Joget Workflow, but you ought also to try out the steps given above to build something employees will be happy to use.

This is the part three of the series, Coding for Non-Coders. Feel free to check out parts one and two if you have yet to do so.

Enterprise applications are a phenomenal innovation that has changed and ameliorated the way people work. It's growing in popularity and enterprises are buying into it to make work easier, increase operational efficiency, and open new opportunities for growth.

While organizations are investing more and more in enterprise applications, there's a certain impediment to securing a return on such investments. It has actually been rocking the enterprise application industry for a while and it's a major concern for some organizations.

In our previous post in this series, we took you through the step-by-step process of building an enterprise web application for your organization. It could pass for a disservice if after showing you how to build apps, we do not show you how to deal with what is probably the biggest problem that's been hindering some organizations from getting a return on their app dev investment.

But happy are you because with this post, we've got you covered.

Okay, so what's this problem? It's failed adoption.

See, survey after survey show that user adoption is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) deterrent to high returns on enterprise application investments. In fact, in most cases, the difficult part of enterprise app initiatives isn't always the development but the deployment and adoption parts. This study conducted by SAP specifically found that 78% of enterprise applications are abandoned after their first use.

But this doesn't have to be. We believe if you plan your strategy pretty well and diligently implement it, you can achieve great success and obtain high returns on your investment in the end.

This post intends to provide you with smart strategies for successfully getting users (employees) to adopt your enterprise apps. But before we get to that, there's a basic requirement you need in place.

MAKING YOUR APP ‘ADOPTABLE’

To start with, your app must be desirable for it to be adopted. This primarily begins with your app idea. If your idea is not worthwhile and auspicious enough, you won't be able to create great apps, which could lead to failed adoption.

So for the strategies given below to work effectively, you must first base your app on a good idea. We always recommend looking to solve real-world problems within your organization.

Employees should find your app exciting, helpful, and delightful to use. This is the first step to making an app adoptable, without which every other adoption strategy will likely fail.

After getting this out of the way, it's time to apply some smart user adoption strategies.

SMART ENTERPRISE APP ADOPTION STRATEGIES THAT WORK

1. GET BUY-IN FROM POTENTIAL USERS

The truth is, people will most likely stick with what the state. So one of the first things to do is to get potential users to buy into the app early on even before you go on to build it. Let them make a commitment to using the app. For this to be effective, you will need to carry them along throughout the development process — from ideation to testing.

For one, this helps to validate your app idea. It tells if they will use the app when it's fully created or not.

Apart from being a tool for developing full-fledged apps, Joget Workflow is a great prototyping tool as well. This means it allows the end users to get involved in the app development process from the very beginning. Through an iterative cycle of change and continuous integration, end users are able to solve their current, and perhaps, anticipate future problems.

2. TRAIN USERS ON THE APP USAGE

One reason employees may abandon an app is their inability to use it.

First off, you should make your app easy to use. Then make provision for the training of employees on how to use the app.

This is particularly important for complex apps with more than a handful of features and functionalities.

You should also provide helpful in-app guidance by including usage information within the app.

3. MAKE IT EASIER FOR USERS TO FIND YOUR APPS

This one is a no-brainer. Ideally, you need to let users know where your app is so they can find it.

With Joget Workflow, users can access the apps you create from the App Center. They will only be able to see the apps they have the access permission to.

Alternatively, they can access the apps directly via a dedicated URL.

If you want ready-made Joget Workflow apps and plugins to satisfy immediate business needs, you can always get those at the Joget Marketplace.

4. COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY

When it comes to strategic deployment of enterprise applications, communication is key.

What exactly should you communicate? The benefits.

If you communicate the benefits of your app to prospective users, they'll want to use it. If they know it'll help them, they'll buy into it.

This is one reason why it's important for your app to have a clearly defined goal that aims at solving a real-world problem. Apparently, the more benefits your app offers, the greater your chances of getting employees to use it.

5. PAY ATTENTION TO SIMPLICITY AND QUALITY

Look, employees are already using consumer apps with great qualities, and it seems they are accustomed to those apps. It's only natural for them to demand the same level of quality, simplicity, and intuitiveness in enterprise applications.

The downside is that if you don't provide them with these qualities, they will abandon your app and go back to the consumer apps they are used to. Part of your adoption plan should be to make your app as high in quality as the best ones out there.

6. GIVE MOBILE ACCESSIBILITY

The world is not just changing technologically, it has actually changed. The way people access information and use apps nowadays is practically different from how they used to do it a couple of years back.

Instead of traditional desktop computers, mobile is king.

Moreso, some workers these days do work on the go. Your app needs to be mobile-friendly for them to be able to use it.

7. ALLOW PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY

Apart from your app being mobile-friendly, it ought also to be compatible with the platforms your employees use.

Since it's likely that employees may use all the major platforms, the best approach is to make the app cross-platform compatible. This means making one app available and able to run on multiple platforms. One of the benefits is that it improves your app reach while cutting down on loss in performance.

At Joget, we always advise that it's not necessary to put all the time and resources in building many different versions of the same app for different platforms. We recommend you create a web app instead. This way, the web app will be available in the cloud and can be used across multiple platforms and operating systems.

This is even more important now given the increasing trend toward bring-your-own-device (BYOD). Organizations are encouraging BYOD and employees are loving it.

Joget Workflow lets you build enterprise web applications that are mobile-optimized and crowd-ready so that your employees can use it no matter what devices they bring.

8. INTEGRATE WITH SYSTEMS THEY ALREADY USE

One of the quickest way to make someone start using something is to fuse that thing into their own life.

It's not different with business applications. Basically, your app shouldn't try to “refashion” the way employees work, but improve it.

Integrate your app with the tools already in use within the organization.

For example, Joget Workflow offers different plugin types for integration with systems like SharePoint, Google Apps, and Slack.

9. USE INCENTIVES

Another thing you can do to drive adoption for your app is to incentivize it. People will be more inclined to downloading and using an app if there's a valuable prize attached to it.

A great way to implement this is to start a healthy contest where the department or the individual that makes the most use of the app gets a goody reward. You may need to set up tracking to achieve this. To track, you can always add tracking mechanisms into your apps (e.g. you can embed Google Analytics).

10. PROMOTE THE APP INTERNALLY

If they don't know it exists, they won't use it. Internal promotion could range from just casual announcements at meetings to something more formal like creating bulletins or even banners.

Do whatever makes the most sense to you as an organization, but consider getting the c-level workers to use the app first. When other employees see it, they'll be encouraged to follow suit.

11. SET UP INTERNAL HELP DESK FOR USERS

So you do occasionally get tech support from the services you use, huh?

Is anything wrong with providing an avenue for your app users to get the help they need internally? Of course not!

Providing internal support for your app users only goes a long way to make deployment easier and increase usage. Additionally, it'll show that you're serious about the initiative, which encourages users the more.

What to do at the help centre? Just to name a few…

It can serve as an in-house walk-in centre for getting help on how to download or use the app. This means a place for getting information

It can be a place where users easily go to leave feedback or complaints

It can be a place for fixing technical issues or walking users through technically-difficult activities

CONCLUSION

In business, there's the fallacious argument that if you build it, they will come; but of course, that's half-truth. If you build, they won't necessarily come. If you want to see results, you'd have to proactively go for it.

Enterprise app user adoption plays by the same rule — to get users to adopt your app (and to increase returns on your investment), you need to practically set out and implement strategies that work… except you have a really really awesome app that people are eager to use.

There are two parts to setting out and implementing adoption strategies: knowing the right strategies to implement, and actually implementing them.

We've done our part by providing you with information on some helpful strategies. The other part, unfortunately, we cannot do for you. It's in your hands to act accordingly.

These strategies are mostly non-technical, which means they're something you should be able to do without any technical limitations.

It's also critical to plan your adoption strategy to enhance user retention.

Feel free to have a look at the parts one, two, and three of this series or just check out the latest Joget Workflow v6 Beta for many new features and improvements in user experience (UX), mobility, app maintainability, and performance.

TL;DR

Some of the types of apps you can create using Joget Workflow include business process/workflow, scheduling/bookings, collaboration, request, tracking, management, submission, approval, information/notification, analytics, security, and financial applications.

It's the era of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the market demand for enterprise applications is skyrocketing. Technology costs are going down and organizations are realizing the importance of offering their employees the freedom to choose the devices and apps they want to work with.

Gone are the days when workers had to sit all day in front of a traditional desktop computer. They now prefer a smart approach to work and enterprise applications are at the center of it all. Gartner even predicts that by the end of 2017, the market demand for this type of apps will grow at least five times more than IT teams’ ability to deliver them.

But here's the long and short of it:

Despite this uptrend in enterprise apps demand, your app must be based on a viable idea for it to be used. At Joget, we've always advocated choosing your app ideas with great meticulosity, vision, and strategic thinking. So today, we're offering you a cheat sheet for some broad-brush enterprise app types so you can have a ready-made, off-the-rack list of app ideas you can quickly turn to for immediate inspiration. Here it comes:

1. BUSINESS PROCESS/WORKFLOW APPS

Business process and workflow applications are used to carry out or enhance a set of related tasks, performed to accomplish a specific organizational goal. They help you, mostly in an automated manner, to complete a series of logically structured activities that produce a specific service or product in the end.

An example is when a purchase order (PO) is created to be approved and issued to a vendor. The PO would usually have to go from one desk to another internally. If done manually, this process can take weeks or even months to get to the final approver. But with a process-driven application for processing POs, you can procure goods much quicker than ever, every time.

‘Every time’ because with business process/workflow applications, repeatable business processes can be completed following the same pre-set pattern, which goes to save costs of time and money, remove redundancies, and improve operational efficiency.

2. SCHEDULING/BOOKINGS APPS

In your organization, if you're always making arrangements so that people can use, do, or have something at a later time, then you probably need a scheduling/bookings app.

This type of applications allows workers to register for some future activity or condition, schedule engagements, set aside time for something, or reserve something (such as a room or seat) in advance… even on the go. And once those have been approved, or if any changes occur, they can be alerted instantly.

3. COLLABORATION APPS

Collaboration apps are useful for allowing individuals and departments to team up to accomplish an end.

Without the right tools, collaboration can be ineffective. But apps of this nature not only enhance collaboration but also help in providing a better visibility of activities among collaborators, drive innovation, and maintain a people-oriented culture in an organization. Additionally, collaboration apps help off-site teams to easily connect with the team back at base on a regular basis.

4. REQUEST APPS

Request apps enable workers and departments to request for something without the usually expensive and space-eating paperwork.

Requests made via apps can range from employee-specific requests like HR-related requests (e.g., leave, health claims, and promotions) to general requests like service, equipment, or information requests. You can create several different request apps for different purposes.

Take a cue from Blue Bird Group. The company uses Joget Workflow to build a helpdesk system for managing all SAP system requests, which are put through a rigorous approval cycle prior to development.

5. TRACKING APPS

Tracking apps are great for tracking, monitoring, and controlling things like processes, orders, workflows, requests, documents, employee activities, etc.

For instance, we do have a ready-made app on the Joget Marketplace called Simple Inventory Tracking. Users can use it to control and track office stationeries, consumables, and computer equipment for free.

6. MANAGEMENT APPS

Management apps have several use cases. For one, you can create an app for managing projects, activities, or assets. Another example is building a customer relationship management (CRM) solution to allow authorized employees quick access to customer data (e.g., contact information, sales history, etc.) from anywhere and at any time so as to improve overall customer satisfaction and increase retention rate.

We even have a Job Recruitment Management app for easily managing a job recruitment from start to finish.

7. SUBMISSION APPS

In the day-to-day operation of a business, different documents usually need to be submitted for vetting, approval, and more. As a 21st century organization that understands the limitations of the paper-based system, you will need an app for enabling submission of documents and reports. The submitted files can be routed to the appropriate persons for further actions.

8. APPROVAL APPS

Manual approvals are the bottleneck of many businesses: they lead to unnecessary wait-times.

If a document, decision, or request needs to be manually approved by a manager, it would have to wait until the manager returns from their two-week vacation from the Sacred Valley.

An app which allows approvers to initiate approvals from anywhere, anytime can be a great time-saver or even godsend.

9. INFORMATION/NOTIFICATION/TUTORIAL APPS

Keeping all the workers and stakeholders updated about happenings in the company can feel like a herculean task if it is done the traditional way.

An app that displays internal announcements and news can be an effective way to keep everyone in the loop. The app can provide general information covering the whole organization or serve a particular team. For instance, an app that provides inventory information can be of great benefit to the sales team. They can use it to provide real-time demand information to clients on the phone.

You can also build apps for notifications. A perfect example is when a customer submits a support ticket; an internal notification app can notify the appropriate team to quickly take action on the ticket to attain greater customer satisfaction.

To enable notifications in Joget Workflow apps, you can use any of our notification tools like the Slack Notification Plugin, Slack Webhook Plugin, or Mobile Push Notification Plugin.

10. ANALYTICS/REPORTING APPS

Analytical applications are useful for capturing statistics and analyzing reports.

For example, Baosteel Construction, a company specializing in structural steel, needed a system for capturing employee and department satisfaction. They reached out and used Joget Workflow to create the system. Now the company's management and HR department are able to capture staff satisfaction for statistical analysis and reporting.

11. SECURITY APPS

There might be situations where you need apps for controlling access to certain systems.

Whether it is to create user IDs, set access permissions, or trail user activities within those systems, Joget Workflow can come in pretty handy.

12. FINANCIAL/ACCOUNTING APPS

Finance holds an important place in business. Financial/accounting applications not only improve efficiency and overall performance of financial operations but also eliminate errors while saving you money.

For instance, accounting activities like invoice processing and account receivables are usually considered tedious and boring. A well-built system can save your accounting team from these problems while making their work exciting.

Apart from our Simple Invoicing app (which comes with receipt management and can be used as a template to create your own accounting apps), we also have the HR Expenses Claim app. It allows users to make expenses claims which must be approved before it goes to Finance.

CONCLUSION

All these are some of the types of apps you can create using Joget Workflow, an open source platform to easily build enterprise web apps for cloud and mobile.

Generally speaking, the apps you create should stick to solving YOUR organization's problems. The ideation should be custom-tailored to meet your business's specific needs.

This list is only suggestive but not exhaustive. It's meant to give you a general idea of what is possible.

So while these ideas are a good place to get thinking, it's crucial you ideate and build your apps with your organization's needs in mind and also consider existing workflows and culture within the company.

In a recent Forrester report, retail executives predict that digital will drive 58% of their sales by 2020. Another set of executives, this time in the professional service industry, believe that 49% of their revenue will come through digital channels by the same year.

What does this mean? Well, it means only one thing: The future of business is digital, and as they always say, the future starts now.

Armed with the foresight of digital impact, smart business leaders have moved to embrace low-code platforms, like Joget, to accelerate digital transformation (DX) in their organizations so they can maximize their chances of succeeding. These executives are constantly seeking ways to use digital tools to reshape customer relationships, internal processes, and even business models. For them, it's no more business as usual.

To remain competitive and relevant, accelerating digital transformation should be one of your prime goals as a 21st century organization. Let's see how you can accelerate your digital transformation journey with Joget.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DEFINED

In its best sense, digital transformation means different things to different organizations, thus there's no universal definition of it.

However, when rooted in the context of how Joget helps you achieve and accelerate digital transformation, we can define digital transformation as the positive change resulting from the integration of digital technology (Joget) into relevant areas of business with regard to how your organization operates and how you engage your employees with the ultimate aim of delivering value to customers.

Along with a keen focus on DX, the Joget low-code development platform offers a simplified and clean interface for easily building and maintaining apps. This speeds up development, minimizes end-user training, and ensures consistency across internal systems so you can easily achieve your digital dreams fast.

But wait…

WHY DOES DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION MATTER?

Here's a quick rundown:

DX fosters efficient work environments, allowing for innovation, creativity, and better decision-making.
It lets organizations automate tasks and workflows, which boosts operational efficiency and saves costs.
It reduces error in data management while speeding up the flow of information.
It enhances better collaboration among teams and people.
It increases productivity and boosts employee morale as they don't have to perform repetitive and monotonous tasks but instead focus on driving value for the organization.
Great innovations come into play in terms of how your employees work and meet customer needs. For instance, through digital advances, employees can access information from anywhere and at anytime which enables them to work without limitations.
For digital customers who want “fast service”, DX equips your employees to match the speed with which consumers want to be served.
Better customer experience (CX) is achieved because when your team works better, they deliver better CX.

With Joget, you can achieve these digital benefits plus more.

ACHIEVING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

How do you achieve and accelerate DX?

From an operational point of view, it’s about planning, designing, building, and deploying leading-edge business apps several times faster.

Here are some steps you can take to accelerate digital transformation:

First, determine the digital transformation objectives of your organization. Start with an audit to identify where you currently are in your digital journey and then describe where you're driving the organization to digitally. Whatever your digital objectives are, ensure they align with your organization's overall vision.
Map out the journey. Accelerating digital transformation is easier if there is a well-devised strategy at hand. But how do you devise an effective strategy? First, get to understand how Joget works. (For the record, Joget lets you build enterprise web applications that you can use to enhance scads of business processes within your organization.) With this understanding, enumerate in your strategy the types of apps you want to create, how they will be used, and what they'll each do for your organization. Also include how you plan to deploy these apps for successful adoption.
Identify digital advocates in the organisation. You need high-level advocates and a digital team. They'll be able to contribute during the planning stage of development. Joget is built in a way that team members can easily work collaboratively to build apps. From the onset, end users/business team members can participate directly in the development as you use Joget to create a working prototype (where users can actually use the system before a full version is developed) and model business processes. To create a prototype with Joget, use the App Generator with which you can generate a fully-functioning prototype from a form.
Set up an agile IT operating architecture that allows for incubation of new approaches. With a drag-and-drop functionality, low-code platforms are user-friendly, easy-to-use tools, yet powerful. As a result of its user-friendliness and ease of use, you can easily harness the power of citizen developers, hence better collaboration between business and IT on new innovations. This bridges the gap between business users and development, ensures that app development is aligned with your business goals and that new ideas are incubated successfully. To help you build digital assets even faster, Joget can also integrate with tools like SharePoint and Slack for enhanced collaboration.
Build and deploy Joget apps strategically. To accelerate digital transformation, you need the right digital tools to act as the vehicle through which you convey and converge digitization. With Joget, you can build these kinds of digital tools. Joget comes with a plenitude of features and subtools like the Builders, App Generator, and a wide range of plugins for any organization to build and extend Joget Workflow apps. Joget apps can range from a simple database-driven app, to a complex approval process, or even a full-fledged solution (e.g. CRM) which incorporates workflow, data management, and reporting. In our “Coding for Non-Coders” series, we dedicated two complete posts to ‘how to build enterprise apps without any coding’ and ‘how to successfully deploy your apps for adoption’ respectively. Check them out, they'll come in handy here.

JOGET CAN ACCELERATE YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY

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To succeed in the digital economy, speed is key — customers want to be served fast, employees are demanding for quicker ways to complete tasks, and competitors are not slowing down in their operations either.

To be able to meet this need for speed, you need a platform that supports rapid, collaborative app development. This is critical for accelerating digital transformation.

Joget combines the speed of low-code development with the advantage of business process automation to put your digital transformation on the fast track, empower citizen developers, fuel quicker business processing, and increase back office efficiency. Evaluate all the digital touchpoints your employees interact with, then use Joget to build a holistic system that accelerates digital transformation.

Thanks to the great feedback from our beta testers, we’re pleased to announce the availability of the new Joget Workflow v6 Beta 2 release. This release contains many new features, enhancements and fixes as we strive to become the best open source workflow and low-code/no-code application platform.

What’s New in Joget Workflow v6 Beta 2?

Enhanced Security with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

User logins can now be secured with built-in support for Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), working with TOTP standard mobile apps like Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator.

Excel-Like Functionality With the Spreadsheet Element

The Spreadsheet element provides Excel-like functionality with formulas and functions, as well support for file and image uploads.

Improved User Experience with AJAX Support in Multi-Paged Forms

Multi-Paged Forms provide an improved user experience with AJAX support, allowing for switching between pages without the need for full page reloads.

Improved JSON Tool for Integration

The JSON Tool provides more built-in integration options to external systems, with support for POST requests, request headers, payloads, debug mode, etc.

Simpler Email Configuration with Platform-Wide Settings

Platform-wide default SMTP email settings are now available in the General Settings, allowing a single configuration to be applied across all apps and plugins.

Tons of Miscellaneous Improvements and Fixes

The full detailed list of changes are available in the CHANGES.txt of the installation bundles.

All these changes are on top of all the great stuff already available in the first beta as described in What is New in Joget Workflow v6.

Get Started

Download and get started with Joget Workflow v6 Beta 2 now. If you’re already running the first v6 Beta, you can upgrade your installation.

Please note that beta releases are meant for test and development purposes. For production environments, the stable release Joget Workflow v5 is readily available.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. AI is a hot topic in technology today, with rapid advancements and increasing adoption in many areas e.g. smartphones, smarthomes and self-driving cars among others. AI and automation in business has tremendous potential, and will change the future of the workforce.

Introduction to TensorFlow

TensorFlow is an open source AI library for machine learning. Built by Google, TensorFlow is designed for implementing, training, testing and deploying deep learning neural networks.

Neural networks are used in a variety of applications, notably in classification problems such as speech and image recognition. The TensorFlow site provides a number of tutorials to get started.

Incorporate AI Image Recognition in Joget Workflow

As a low-code application platform for rapid application development and business automation, Joget Workflow allows you to extend functionality of the platform via a dynamic plugin architecture.

In this example, we will look at incorporating a trained TensorFlow neural network model into a Joget Workflow v6 app.

Overview of the Demo

To illustrate the use of image recognition in an app, let’s design a simple Joget Workflow app:

Allow a user to upload an image
The uploaded image will be labeled and classified based on the image recognized
The workflow process then routes to different activities depending on the image label

For demonstration purposes, let’s assume we are looking for images of lions, because lions are awesome!

Develop AI Image Recognition Plugin

The TensorFlow project provides a sample model and Java code for labelling images.

We encapsulated it into a Joget Workflow process tool plugin that provides configuration options to select the file upload field, and determine where to store the results.

Design App for Image Recognition and Classification

Using the Form Builder, a simple form is designed to upload a file.

The App Generator is then used to generate the full working UI.

Using the Process Builder, a simple process is designed to handle the activity routing based on the image classification upon form submission, as per the process diagram below.

The AI Label Image tool is mapped to the AI Label Image plugin developed earlier.

AI Image Recognition App in Action

Once the app is published, click on the “Upload Image” link to upload the image.

The trained neural network in the sample uses a pre-trained Inception model (http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.00567) that recognizes about a 1000 different image labels.

Uploading an image of a lion will route to the “Lion Activity”.

On the other hand, uploading a different type of image (such as the car below) will route to the Non-Lion Activity.

What’s Next?

This small example serves to demonstrate the potential of harnessing AI in your apps and workflow.

Download the app and plugin for this demo, and get started with TensorFlow and Joget Workflow.

DevOps? What’s That?

DevOps is the combination of software DEVelopment and IT OPerationS to deliver software faster. It is a hot movement in the technical community today as part of an organization’s digital transformation strategy.

For the OPS portion of DevOps, there is great focus in practices like continuous integration and technologies such as containerization and IT automation with tools like Docker, Kubernetes, Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Jenkins, etc.

On the other hand, a big advancement in the DEV portion of DevOps is the emergence of low code platforms such as Appian, Mendix, Joget, etc.

Simplifying the Dev in DevOps

All that is a whole lot of complexity to digest. At Joget, we believe that it is inevitable for app development to become more accessible and manageable, to coders and non-coders alike. As an open source application development platform, we adhere to the 3 key principles of simplicity, flexibility and openness.

Let’s take a scenario where your organization requires a way to book meeting rooms more efficiently.

What does it take to get from, well, nothing,

to a full-fledged production ready app that allows users to:

Create and Manage Rooms
Make Room Bookings
Approve Room Bookings in an Automated Workflow Process
View Room Bookings in a Calendar
Generate and View Reports on Room Bookings
Not forgetting, requiring mobile versions of all that!

Now, that sounds like an enormous amount of software development effort in traditional terms.

Build the Full App Without Coding in 30 Minutes, No Marketing Fluff

With Joget Workflow v6, it is possible to accomplish all this within 30 minutes. And, it can be done without coding and you essentially drag-and-drop, point-and-click and configure your way through instead. It’s also possible to use your touch device to build it.

Watch the 30 minute video below, which demonstrates an authentic, real-time example of building the app from scratch. No special effects, no marketing fluff :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjRZML2mqI

The app built on the Joget Workflow platform, once published with a click, is now available to users over the web. And users can also download the Joget Mobile App from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store to access the very same app with the UI automatically tailored for mobile devices.

Get Started with Joget Workflow

To get started with Joget Workflow v6:

Visit the Joget Workflow v6 page
Learn with the Getting Started Guide in the Knowledge Base.

Learn with more Video Tutorials

In recent times, enterprise application development has advanced greatly with the introduction of new technologies and techniques like the no-code/low-code dev approach, but that doesn't mean it's completely without some challenges. In fact, the wave of innovation that's going across the development market has brought with it new challenges that both professional developers and business users are coming across on a regular basis.

Today, we want to discuss three of the most commonly encountered problems in the app development process and how Joget v6 can help you fix them effortlessly.

1. LACK OF “PRE-RELEASE” REVIEW AND TESTING

One of the main causes of application failure/error is lack of pre-release review, or testing; it's a major threat to successful enterprise application development.

Being one of the most fundamental stages of the development process, testing is necessary for discovering bugs and receiving feedback from users. It ensures that the app is working as intended and that every requirement is met.

Beyond complete elimination of the testing process, there's also the problem of poorly-performed test cases which take place across organizations. And it's not uncommon for such test cases to introduce errors in the application. It can leave the app in a buggy state, unnecessarily increase development time, and ultimately sabotage user experience.

At times, poor testing can be as a result of the tools you use. But most times, it's usually as a result of internal shortcomings like:

Lapses in the testing process
Rushing it due to overly aggressive deadlines
Testing conducted without seriousness or import given to it
Scarcity of skilled testers
Pure ignorance etc.

WHAT TO DO:

Determine your test objectives. Your team should have clear goals and objectives which are metric based, to have a quality testing. And the test objectives should include both internal and external goals.
Collect data and fix bugs. Testing is pointless without getting feedback, keeping an eye on test metrics, and solving problems for improvement. Collecting data will need you to maintain traceability between the requirements, test cases, and bugs.
Create a prototype. A prototype is an early model or release of software built for testing. Through prototyping, you'd be able to easily test your app — for working, visual, user experience, functionality requirements as well as for identifying and removing errors.
Traditionally, testing is often conducted as an afterthought at the end of the development cycle; this creates room for some weaknesses. But Joget allows users to test their apps even while still in the works, so that vulnerabilities can be addressed in a timely and thorough manner.

It does this by letting you create effective prototypical version of the enterprise web application you intend to create. With this prototypical version, users can participate directly in the development process, contributing their ideas from the onset. This saves precious time and ensures users get all requirements.

In Joget, you can easily generate a prototype from a form using the App Generator tool.

2. INFERIOR SECURITY

Security has always been a major concern in enterprise application development. It's a key part of both the build process and the product, and yet one of the most common issues facing developers today.

The 2016 HPE Cyber Risk Report finds that 72% of web apps have at least one encapsulation flaw, and that 90% of these vulnerabilities are caused by security functions such as access control and encryption.

Good app security ensures application confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It ensures that unauthorized access to the system is adequately detected and controlled, especially in critical applications or those that process sensitive information.

Joget v6 comes with an enhanced security, built around Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) which works with Time-based One-time Password (TOTP) security tools like Google Authenticator and Microsoft Authenticator.

MFA is a security measure aimed at securing user logins. It works by adding an extra layer of protection to a username-password combo.

Overall, Joget v6 has a 5-star HP Fortify On-Demand Security rating.

3. DIFFICULTY IN MAINTENANCE

Building an app for your employees is great, but there's much more to app development than initially building and handing it in. If you want your app to remain useful over the long term, you'd have to incorporate maintainability into your strategy.

App maintenance is so critical that traditionally, industry experts would usually advise you budget, for maintenance, about 15 to 20 percent of the original development cost, which means if your app costs $100,000 to build, you should roundly estimate to invest about $20,000 per year to maintain the app.

You wouldn't purchase a car and not expect to invest in maintenance liabilities like gas, servicing etc., would you? It's the same for apps!

But the problem is this:

Some of the business apps in existence today were initially built in an unstructured manner and then patched on an as-needed basis. This results in what is called “spaghetti code.” Spaghetti code is almost impossible to debug and maintain given its complex and tangled control structure. To add to the problem, when changes are effected in this kind of construct, there's usually a higher risk of creating new defects unintentionally.

Joget follows a no-code/low-code approach for building enterprise web applications, and a key focus in Joget Workflow v6 is enhanced app maintainability, supported by the new Advanced Tools.

CONCLUSION

In building your apps, it's important you concretely address these three key issues:

Testing and reviewing the app with potential users to uncover and eliminate problems, and to make improvements.
Adopting or activating adequate security measures
Pushing for a platform that provides effective maintenance tools.

Doing this will ensure you don't run into trouble with your app, but maximize your chances of winning.

You can see more good stuff available in Joget Workflow v6 here. As at the time of writing this, Joget Workflow v6 is available but only in beta for testing works. If you want a stable release for full development, Joget Workflow v5 is readily available here.

This article is contributed by: Angelique of Boomerang Bags :)

Recently, an Impact NPO Charity Hackathon weekend event was held in Wellington, NZ. From Friday (Aug 11) to Sunday (Aug 13), IT professionals, designers and volunteers with a wide range of different skills came together to help local charities and NPOs to find solutions for their IT problems and challenges.

One of the four participating local charities was the NZ Branch of Boomerang Bags, a community driven initiative with the goal of reducing and eventually eliminating single-use plastic bags by diverting textiles and fabric from landfill and creating reusable bags hand-sewed by local communities.

Boomerang Bags NZ operates New Zealand wide and currently has over 45 different communities throughout New Zealand . The NZ charity needed a quick, easy and scalable solution to allow communities to track their waste minimisation impact, and collate statistical data on the progress made towards offering real alternatives of single-use plastic bags that are responsible for a major part of plastic pollution into the ocean. The overall goal was to empower communities and make the impact that Boomerang Bags has more visible to affect wider change throughout New Zealand.

Ali and Jemma from Boomerang Bags NZ

At the beginning of the impactNPO weekend, Boomerang Bags set out to find a solution, built by volunteers that offers:

an easy web based solution to log the impact their community is making for Community Coordinators
visibility of the collective achievements all Boomerang Bags NZ communities have had over time generated through their “working bees”
basic reports and real-time charts for each community and council region
calculation of waste diversion through easy proxy measures like banana boxes, and potential reduction of single use bags (optional correlated to a carbon value, but not critical)
makes it easy to update data and add community based features in the future
offers secure login, integration with other platforms, the possibility for new communities to sign-up, get help and form a new community through an easy process

ImpactNPO weekend at BizDOJO Wellington

The starting point for Saturday was to develop a strategy on how to build and successfully integrate a working solution within just a weekend from end-to-end.

The team, comprising the two representatives from Boomerang Bags NZ Ali and Jemma, a couple of developers, UI designers, generalists and two communications and marketing specialists worked together to make this happen.

The other group focused primarily on the establishment of a comprehensive marketing strategy and social media concept for Boomerang Bags to introduce the new data collection process to the communities. Additionally, a new landing page that serves, inter alia, as integration point for the communities to log in, was set up.

Boomerang Bags Team at impactNPO

Over the course of the weekend, some design specification were immediately adjusted or eliminated due to the highly iterative development that was possible on the Joget platform.

Because all volunteers involved were able to look at the live prototype together, it was possible to ensure the language & interface was right, forms were easy for people to use and Boomerang Bags’ wider needs were met.

By the end of the two days, Boomerang Bags & the volunteers managed to successfully

develop and integrate an online platform to collect and visualise achievement data,
build three easy-to-use forms and processes (“capture fabric donation”, “log created bags” and the “feel good page”),
set up integrated charts of recent event data,
develop a comprehensive marketing strategy design a new landing page – (on top of the goals for the weekend).

Over the following days, the team continued to improve the user interface and functionality based on the prototype developed at impactNPO.

Soon, they will go out to test the solution more widely with some of the Community Coordinators and add additional features such as automatic reminders to track communities’ achievement at or after a community event/sewing bee. The solution is already live for testing purposes since the end of the weekend.

Using the Joget platform at impactNPO was one of the key enablers to build a future-prove platform that can continue to grow and offer support for Boomerang Bags NZ communities as the network is growing and reducing the use of plastic bags and unnecessary fabric landfill in New Zealand.

For any enquiries about Boomerang Bags NZ, please contact jemma@boomerangbagsnz.org.

If you would like to use Joget Workflow for a project in your community, please drop us an email. Cheers!

As an open source low-code / no-code application platform, Joget Workflow allows both non-coders and coders alike to visually build apps rapidly. Beneath this simplicity though, there is a lot going on and performance has always been a priority. The focus is to provide a fast runtime for apps, and we diligently try to ensure that there is as little overhead as possible at the platform level.

The Joget team has been hard at work on Joget Workflow v6, currently in public beta. We have recently been looking into ways to streamline and optimize performance of the platform even more.

This technical article details how this was done for the latest beta release, and could provide helpful tips for your own projects or products. The article gets quite technical and is targeted at developers interested in the inner workings of the platform. Let’s take a look under the hood.

Server-Side Code Profiling

The Joget platform is built on Java, so numerous code profiling tools are available just a Google search away. In our development environment, we used the Netbeans Profiler, a fully featured Java profiling tool integrated into the NetBeans IDE.

Back in 2014, we had already performed performance profiling for v4. Here’s a screenshot of hot spots uncovered during sampling then.

v4 Snapshot Hot Spots

All those prominent hot spots and bottlenecks have been removed since v4 through code optimization and appropriate caching.

In the latest v6 snapshot, we uncovered some additional hot spots in several controller methods that could be possible candidates for optimization.

v6 Snapshot Pre-Optimization Hot Spots

The method calls are actually extremely fast, but it seems that there are many invocations so we decided to try to implement some refactoring and caching using the Ehcache library to reduce the amount of calls needed.

The post optimization results show great promise with all those invocations avoided, which should reduce CPU cycles under high load.

v6 Snapshot Post-Optimization Hot Spots

All avoidable server-side hot spots looks to have been eliminated, so next we moved on the client-side browser rendering portion of performance.

Client-Side Browser Critical Rendering Path and Perceptual Speed Measurement

Using the new Google Chrome Audits panel powered by Lighthouse introduced in Chrome 60, we ran a set of tests to measure the quality of the Joget apps using the latest Material design inspired v6 Universal Theme.

Here’s the audit result before we started the optimization:

Pre-Optimization Performance Audit

The performance score was a lowly 36, with slow perceptual speed for the user who only sees the first meaningful paint of the UI after 4 seconds. Ouch! Why was this happening?

Using the Chrome DevTools Performance Analysis, we discovered that the critical rendering path was unoptimized. This simply means that the browser has to do a lot of work like loading and parsing the HTML, scripts and CSS before it’s able to render something to the user.

Pre-Optimization Performance Analysis

In this particular case:

There is a client-side AJAX request to process a LESS CSS file, and
There was blocking while the browser needed to load all resource files (scripts, CSS, etc) before being able to perform a first meaningful paint.
There were some blocking JavaScript functions during the onload and document ready events.

All these factors collectively delayed the rendering of the page, hence affecting the user’s perception on the page load speed.

Having identified these issues, we got to work addressing them:

The LESS CSS processing was moved server-side using the LESS Engine and cached.
We removed unnecessary blocking of resource loading by making use of asynchronous loading of scripts as well as CSS.
Non-critical JavaScript functions called during the onload and document ready events were modified to be called asynchronously using setTimeout.

With the changes made, running the Chrome Performance Analysis gave the following results:

Post-Optimization Performance Analysis

There was a great difference in rendering speed, with the first meaningful paint time dropping tremendously. The performance audit also shows significant improvement.

Post-Optimization Performance Audit

So, What Were The Optimization Results?

We ran a load test using Apache JMeter to compare the performance of the current stable version of Joget Workflow v5 against a latest build of the optimized v6 code. Running on Apache Tomcat 8.5.16 against a mixed use case test app, there was a 26.2% improvement in throughput (requests per second) so it looks like the optimizations paid off. If it doesn’t sound like much, that’s probably because the previous versions are already pretty well optimized, and this latest optimization effort squeezes out the remaining ounces of inefficiencies.

Version	Throughput (req/s)	Improvement
v5.0.16 on Tomcat 8.5	35.73
v6.0-SNAPSHOT on Tomcat 8.5	45.10	26.20%

Throughput Comparison

What’s Next

With emphasis on performance optimization at the platform level, Joget Workflow incurs low overhead when running apps. This has been the case since v4, and has even been improved upon for the upcoming v6.

If there are any specific bottlenecks, it would usually be at the application level. At the application level, there are various guidelines and best practices that are available in the Performance Optimization and Scalability Tips article in the Joget Workflow Knowledge Base. v6 also provides the Performance Analyzer, and introduces easy to use caching capabilities as described in Performance Improvement with Userview Caching.

To learn more and get started with Joget Workflow, visit https://www.joget.org

It's here! The Joget team is excited to announce that the stable version of Joget Workflow v6 is now released.

Joget Workflow is a modern open source low-code/no-code app development platform that makes it faster and easier to build enterprise applications and automate processes.

Watch the introduction tutorial below to see the simplicity of the platform in action.

Feature Overview

App Center

The App Center is a customizable landing page providing users with quick and secure access to apps.
Seamless integration with the Joget Marketplace allows for easy downloads of additional apps and plugins.

Processes

Drag and drop to visually build and configure process workflows.
Supports simple or complex processes including synchronous or asynchronous deadlines for reminders or escalation requirements.

Forms

Drag and drop to visually build and configure forms.
Many powerful form elements for diverse needs including grids, spreadsheets, signatures, etc.

Lists

Drag and drop to visually build and configure tabular lists and reports.
Built-in support for filtering, sorting, paging and exporting to various document formats.

Userviews

Say goodbye to uninspired user interfaces expected in business apps, drag and drop to build user interfaces that embraces Google’s Material design philosophy.
Responsive to fit desktop and mobile devices, many powerful UI elements such as dashboards, calendar views, charts and many more are available.

Plugins & Integration

Dynamic plugin architecture allows for developers to extend functionality of the platform.
Integration to external systems via various APIs and plugins.

What’s New in Joget Workflow v6?

With more than 1,600 installations worldwide across various industries (including finance, manufacturing, IT, and more), Joget Workflow v6 is the next generation of a proven platform for a wide spectrum of users ranging from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies and small businesses.

Joget Workflow v6 has a two pronged focus: User Experience (UX), and App Maintainability and Performance:

User Experience

Enhanced App User Experience for Desktop and Mobile
Customizable App Center with Joget Marketplace Integration
Dashboard Capabilities
Calendar View
Unobtrusive Admin and Design Interface
Design Apps Anytime, Anywhere with Support for Touch Devices
Excel-Like Functionality With the Spreadsheet Element
Improved User Experience with AJAX Support in Multi-Paged Forms

App Maintainability and Performance

Improved App Maintainability with Advanced Tools
Enhanced Configuration Options for Codeless Apps
Improved Performance with Userview Caching
Database Connection Monitoring and Leak Detection
Additional Plugins Out of the Box for Greater Flexibility
Latest Upgrades Under The Hood
Improved JSON Tool for Integration
Simpler Email Configuration with Platform-Wide Settings
Enhanced Security with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Find out in more detail here: http://www.joget.org/joget-workflow-v6/

Why Joget Workflow?

Joget Workflow combines the best of business process management (BPM), workflow, and rapid application development in a platform that’s simple, flexible and open.

Web-based visual approach empowers non-coders to build and maintain apps anytime, anywhere
Reduces time to market, from months to weeks or days
Apps built are mobile ready, cloud ready
APIs for integration and plugin architecture for extensibility
"App Store" for enterprise apps - Joget Marketplace

The trend toward low-code and no-code open source platforms is disrupting the enterprise app development space. As the world becomes increasingly digital, software is more important than ever to enterprises as part of their digital transformation strategy.

Instead of traditional enterprise software development approaches taking years of effort resulting in inflexible solutions, app development on the Joget Workflow platform is more accessible and manageable to coders and non-coders alike.

Resources

Download Joget Workflow or Sign Up for Joget Cloud
Learn more in the Knowledge Base
Join the community in the Community Q&A
Enquire about the Joget Workflow Enterprise Edition