July 2017 Summaries

The 2017 Ionic Developer Survey reveals significant trends in mobile app development, highlighting the growing prominence of web developers and hybrid development over native development. Conducted with over 13,000 participants, the survey shows that nearly 80% of mobile app developers identify as web developers, reflecting a shift toward the use of web-based skills in mobile app creation. This shift has contributed to a decline in the use of exclusively native toolsets, with many developers planning to transition to hybrid approaches, which leverage familiar technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Additionally, the survey identifies Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) as an emerging trend, offering benefits such as native-like performance without the need for installation. The survey also highlights the popularity of Google Firebase among developers, particularly for push notifications and backend services, indicating a preference for its ease of use and comprehensive service offerings over competitors like AWS and Azure.

Bill B., Director of Engineering at a large interactive gaming company, successfully transitioned his team of web developers into mobile developers using the Ionic framework, addressing app sprawl and design inconsistencies that hindered employee productivity. Initially facing challenges with outsourced apps and a lack of control, Bill's team, familiar with JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Angular, chose Ionic over Sencha, leading to the successful rewrite of a key internal app. The team's success in using Ionic has been bolstered by its cross-platform capabilities, reducing technical debt through standardization on tools like AngularJS, Node, and AWS, and ensuring consistent user experiences across devices with Salesforce Lightning. Bill emphasizes that Ionic’s openness and integration capabilities have relieved significant stress, allowing the team to focus on innovative mobile solutions that enhance the employee experience.

Ionic Creator has announced support for exporting Ionic 3 projects, allowing users to drag-and-drop custom starter templates in the browser and download functioning projects for local development. While existing projects cannot be converted to Ionic 3, new projects can leverage this feature. The creators of Ionic are also planning significant updates for the tool, transitioning it into a locally downloadable application that maintains its drag-and-drop environment while adding fully customizable code editing. This shift aims to integrate seamlessly with local build tools and emulators, enhancing collaboration with built-in GIT support and enabling developers to work with existing projects directly. These changes, still in development, promise to improve functionality and adaptability, aligning with the evolving complexity of web development tools.

Jorge Vergara provides a comprehensive guide on integrating Facebook Sign-In with Ionic and Firebase, highlighting the process in three distinct steps. The tutorial begins by setting up a Facebook developer account to create an app and obtain necessary credentials. It then moves to the Firebase console to enable Facebook authentication using these credentials, ensuring seamless user login through the Facebook app rather than a browser. The final step involves coding the authorization and authentication process, utilizing the Ionic Native Facebook plugin to allow users to log in and subsequently authenticate through Firebase. The guide emphasizes the importance of proper configuration to enhance user experience and offers a starter template with pre-configured Google and Facebook authentication, simplifying the integration process for developers.

Ionic 3.5.3 introduces significant updates, focusing on enhancing navigation and improving app performance, particularly through the integration of features like ion-split-pane, which expands design possibilities for both mobile and desktop applications. The release of @ionic/app-scripts 2.0.2 further optimizes development by upgrading to the latest webpack version, which resolves previous performance issues, improving build times significantly and enabling better app start-up through "scope hoisting." Looking ahead, Ionic Angular 4.x promises even greater enhancements by adopting standards-compliant Web Components and Stencil, aiming to deliver faster, more efficient applications. The Ionic team seeks community feedback through alpha and beta testing to refine upcoming versions, underscoring their commitment to providing a superior user and developer experience.

In a 2017 analysis, Gartner highlighted the challenges enterprises face in mobile app development, with over a quarter of businesses not having developed any mobile apps in the previous year, primarily due to a lack of talent, time, and financial resources. The traditional approach of hiring specialized developers or outsourcing has proven costly and inefficient, prompting a shift towards empowering existing web developers to create mobile applications using familiar tools. An example cited is a large retailer that successfully used a small team of web developers and the Ionic framework to modernize its ERP systems, resulting in significant time savings and operational improvements. This case illustrates how organizations can overcome traditional barriers and meet the demand for innovative mobile experiences by leveraging internal talent and cross-platform development tools.