Every software developer dreads setting up a new application. There are tedious, repetitive steps that must be followed. “Flatlogic”, a startup led by CEO Philip Daineka, takes the tedious nature of repetition out of the development process, reportedly saving developers at least 250 hours of work per app.
Flatlogic works by offering developers a guided process that automatically sets up the basic dependencies for a project.
The process works as follows :
Users need to sign up for an account with the Cloud platform & connect their GitHub account. Once that is complete, they can start building an app. The developer is prompted to name the app & then select the languages or frameworks they want to work with for the frontend. Next the user must select the CSS option for frontend display, the option here is Material, but Flatlogic plans to add other options in future. Next the developer is prompted to select the type of backend they want to use, options include SQL & NoSQL databases. Options available on the platform at present are React, Angular, Vue, Node.js, Laravel, PostgreSQL, MySQL.
Once the frontend is sorted the process moves on so that developers can set up the “logic” of the application, which means structuring the databases. Databases are used to store information added by users to the application & it is the process of writing the code to create, update & delete information that is the most tedious & repetitive task a developer faces.
Initially, the developer must create tables to store information & structure them to work with each other, for instance if the app has a login structure so that users can perform actions, there must be a user table & tables which connect to the user table by ID for actions that the user might take, for instance, purchasing an item on offer. Flatlogic creates the tables for the app instantly, all the developer needs to do is name the table, name the fields in the table & set which tables relate to each other.
After setting up the tables for an app, the developer must write code for forms so that users can insert information. Flatlogic offers a form builder that allows developers to quickly & easily set up forms for each table created. The processing of forms would be the next task for the developer, but Flatlogic handles this automatically, giving the developer the choice of “Posting” or getting the information without writing any code. The final task of writing code to update & sort the information is also handled by Flatlogic’s software, so the developer can move on without writing a single line for these tedious tasks.
From there the developer can commit the code to GitHub & launch the app on Flatlogic’s Cloud. This makes developing CRUD applications a breeze. There are paid subscription plans to can buy.
Image credit: Flatlogic
