The Benefits: Why Low-Code Platforms Are Driving the Next-Gen App Revolution

The rapid growth of the use of low-code platforms has been transformative for entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses of all sizes, which previously had to rely on labor-intensive, time-consuming, and costly next-gen app development to achieve the same results.

Rapid App Development for Next-Gen Solutions

Low-code platforms have soared in popularity in recent years, with their growth driven by several key factors. Businesses and organizations have sought ways to develop software more rapidly and efficiently without the time constraints and coding skills required by traditional processes.

Low-code platforms address this need by enabling the quick development of apps at a lower cost, powering innovations throughout industries and sectors. Features like AI and Machine Learning also accelerate the process through automated prototype generation, iteration, and bug identification. Research from the Redhat Pathfinder Report indicates that these platforms can reduce app development time by up to 90%.

New Levels of Creative Input in Next-Gen App Projects

Low-code platforms have become more widely used due to their user-friendliness. This allows developers and inexperienced users to contribute to the process of building apps.

The feature has brought a new level of creative input into app development. Anyone with an innovative concept can now build an app. This has also made it possible for entire teams to work on app development, bridging the gap between business and IT, and bringing a wealth of innovative ideas and concepts into the mix.

Cost-Efficient Next-Generation App Development Projects

Yet another key feature of these platforms fueling their growth is cost efficiency. Low-code solutions drastically reduce the expenses associated with developing and maintaining web applications.

As they require few skills and enable quick app development, they reduce labor costs for experienced developers and development costs by up to 70%. They also reduce the need to purchase third-party software plans and the expenses associated with them. Many platforms offer built-in app maintenance tools, helping to eliminate recurring expenses even further.

Scalable and Future-Proof Next-Gen Apps

Low-code platforms are scalable and versatile, making them suited to a broad range of projects and use cases. Users can change applications as quickly as needed to accommodate business transformations and expand their functionalities as their organizations grow.

Platforms that offer robust API connectors, cloud-based architecture and data storage, high automation speeds, and a range of functional development microservices are particularly well-suited to creating scalable next-gen apps.

The Role of Low-Code in Shaping Tomorrow’s Next-Gen Apps

Low-code platforms are increasingly essential in next-generation application development. The technological sector is more fast-paced and competitive than ever, leaving organizations with the task of developing innovative apps rapidly to meet evolving demand.

There is also a growing demand for custom-built applications tailored to businesses’ unique and specific needs. However, there may not always be enough developers available to assist. Up to 90% of organizations are expected to be affected by IT skills shortages globally by 2026, and the costs of hiring developers during this shortage may also be prohibitive.

Low-code platforms provide flexible solutions to these challenges and needs. They enable businesses and clients to develop customized apps quickly and efficiently without having to rely on hiring professional developers. This allows organizations to respond as quickly as possible to market fluctuations and empowers them to address internal requirements with ease.

Low-code platforms also play a key role in enhancing innovation. These platforms enable even non-developers to create next-gen apps, which maximizes the potential for creative new ideas and innovation as a whole. This can drive more rapid problem-solving and produce functional solutions to market needs based on collaborative input.

Considering the dynamic nature of modern markets and consumer preferences, next-gen apps must also be updated and improved regularly to keep their target users engaged. Low-code platforms simplify the process of app iteration considerably, as apps can be adjusted and updated without having to rewrite code. This ensures apps can be consistently improved and personalized at minimal cost.

The Need for Agility and Innovation in Next-generation App Development

The need for agility in next-gen app development is clear. The faster organizations develop and release functional, user-friendly applications, the better equipped they are to navigate market fluctuations and meet the shifting demands of target audiences and regulations.

Innovation is also a vital consideration for app development in 2025 and beyond. End users show a growing preference for user-centric app designs, personalization, and relevance to their needs and interests.

Low-code platforms enable users of all skill levels to collaborate and innovate during app development. This can help produce more user-friendly and relevant applications that prioritize the actual needs, preferences, and behaviors of their target users.

Innovative apps can, in turn, increase adoption rates, maximize user retention, and ultimately ensure the success of next-gen apps, even in highly competitive markets.

AI-Powered Innovation for Next-Gen Applications

As their capabilities continue to expand, low-code platforms will offer versatile new features and updates for users. Shortly, users can expect to see enhanced integration abilities, a heavier focus on partial or full automation, and a more intuitive user interface.

Artificial intelligence integration will also become a more common feature. AI can streamline and automate more complex tasks and use insights from vast data sets to help users create more effective and engaging web applications for segmented target audiences.

Open source inputs and community-based improvements may well pioneer the development of next-gen web apps in the future. As low-code platforms become easier to use and democratize app development, developers and users can contribute more to their advancement. Many will add several useful extensions, patches, and features to accelerate their growth.

This democratization is expected to fuel exceptional levels of speed and innovation and will bring dynamic new ideas, concepts, and systems to the future technological market.

Future Trends in Next-Gen Application Development

AI-powered low-code platforms

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are increasingly integrated into low-code platforms to streamline development processes further.

The AI-powered low-code tools of the future will be able to automate menial and repetitive tasks, identify areas where workflows can be optimized, and generate snippets of code according to natural language inputs. In essence, this means a user could describe the functionality they want their app to provide in simple language. The platform would use this prompt to create a custom-built prototype with no coding required.

All these capabilities will accelerate next-gen app development and enable citizen developers to build complex, intuitive, and niche-specific apps and software.

Additionally, AI will drive next-gen app development in the future by predicting bottlenecks in app functionality and performance, identifying and fixing potential bugs, and creating more personalized user experiences.

Increased adoption in large enterprises

Large enterprises are increasingly adopting low-code platforms to streamline operations, enhance customer engagement, and modernize legacy systems while reducing costs and development time. These platforms enable rapid app development within strict security and governance standards, improving agility and efficiency. As their capabilities in prototyping and iteration advance, large enterprises can accelerate development cycles and more effectively adapt to market demands.

Additionally, the cloud computing market is predicted to reach $1,240.9 billion by 2027. This growth is expected to increase low-code adoption as it facilitates seamless scalability and integration within cloud environments. With cloud providers offering robust security and compliance frameworks, enterprises can deploy low-code applications faster while ensuring flexibility and operational efficiency.

Expansion of low-code ecosystems and integrations

Low-code vendors will continue to expand and update their platforms as demand grows. Many providers are already pivoting towards supplying versatile APIs and integration abilities. These enable low-code apps to connect effectively with a broad range of databases, existing enterprise frameworks, and third-party services.

As these functionalities expand, they will enable the development of more deeply integrated and extensive solutions. The expansion of the low-code ecosystem has also given rise to dedicated marketplaces for connectors, premade components, and sophisticated templates, all of which will accelerate app development even further.

Embracing Low-Code for the Next Generation Apps

Low-code platforms can effectively transform the app development process for every organization. They’re making it exponentially simpler for businesses to build, test, and update applications, fueling innovation and creativity across the wider technology industry.

As these platforms continue to evolve, driven by their democratization of tech development, they’re set to play an invaluable role in technological advancements. With their applications becoming wider by the week and AI providing intuitive automation to complement their abilities, these platforms are certainly here to stay.

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There are various types of applications provided in Comidor App Designer. You can choose the one that fits better your needs from the following options:

1. Table applications: 
   • The Sequential process-based: Choose this type when you want to monitor processes that are simple with only sequential tasks, with scheduling, state, completion, etc.
   • The process-based workflow: Choose this type when you want to monitor process-enabled records, with scheduling, state, more complicated workflow steps, loops, automation steps, completion, etc.
   • Simple Non-process based: Choose this type of table application when you want to create a table of data-driven records. No workflows can be related to this type.
2. Report applications
3. Kanban applications
4. Portal applications: This type is used by developers to design a portal with custom objects and commands, to which non-comidor users can have access.

Access App Designer

In order to access App Designer go to the main menu on the left side of your screen and select the icon App Factory > Application Builder > App Designer

In the unit that opens, you can apply the following actions:

1. Create an App
2. Import an App
3. Reload the Database
4. Search for an existing App.
5. Apply filters based on the App type, Status (Pending Publish, Published), whether it is Basic or Supportive, and Categories, and click the “Apply” button to check the results counter and correspondingapps. 
   • In the preview of each app, you can see the title, category, and image of this app.
6. Reset all filters. All apps are shown again.
7. Open and edit an existing App.

Create Apps

• Click on the “Create an App” icon to open the creation form.

• Depending on the Application Type, different fields will appear.

• Give the Application Name and Description
• Choose a Menu Header from the existing options, or add a new Menu Header. By defining an option, the app will be displayed in your Menu icon. If left empty, your app will be shown in the menu, in the Packages menu header.
• You can also classify your app in a proper Category. Choose one Category from the existing options, or make a new Category. Categorization will help you find easier your apps in the App Designer. Based on the category you choose, the app will be also displayed on the respective sub-menu.
• Collaborators are the field where you determine which users will be able to see the application in the User Apps menu.
  • For a table app, you can also make it Process enabled, by clicking on the respective checkbox. If so, you are able to link a Workflow to your App.
• Select whether this app is Basic or Supportive.
• Define if this app has a Kanban view. If enabled, table records can be displayed on Kanban boards.
• There is an option to upload an Image for your app.
• Click Save to create your App, or Close to cancel.

Once you save your app, you are redirected to the view form. Comidor guides you through simple steps to design your App.

1. Dashboard

In the step Dashboard, you get an overview of your application. In particular, you are able to view:

• Quick Stats:
  • Number of forms, Steps, and Widgets that are created in this app
  • Graphs that show the application activity timeline and the Apps Overview status.
• Basic Info:
  • the Type, Category, and other parameters
  • You can click on the pencil button to edit the above info
    • You can define whether the application is Public or not.
    • You can lock your app by checking on the Locked option. With this option, only the user who locks the app will be able to edit the app (in all steps). All the rest users will just be able to view the app, but can not edit it.
    • By checking the Has Customizations option, the application will not be exportable.
    • Put a flag to remember if this application Has application parameters.
• Collaborators: the users or groups that have access rights in this App.
• Comments: an area where users who have access can write and view comments.

2. Process

In the second step, you can fully design your process in terms of the number and the looks of the process steps, your Data model, Table View, and User Forms.

Depending on the app type, different functionalities are available.

When the Kanban view is enabled, you have the ability to customize the fields that you want to display on the Kanban boards in the Table View. Simply click on the edit icon for each field that you want to show in the Kanban view and check the “Is Kanban Field?” option.

Before publishing the app, remember to go to the Configuration step and select the “Group By Field” and the “Title Field“. The “Group By Field” is used to categorize boards, while the “Title Field” will serve as the title for each board. This ensures that your boards are organized, structured, and tailored to meet your specific requirements.

3. Graphs

In step 3, you can design your app Graphs or Widgets. Comidor Widgets are the ideal choice for data visualization. Get the most updated data on the visualization format you define.

• Create your own personalized dashboard in seconds.
• Combine multiple views of data to get richer insight.

You can easily create a new Graph, by clicking on the “+” icon.

Find out more about all types of Widgets and how to create them.

4. Advanced

Get the most out of the App Designer with this advanced options step by including user tabs in your records or the table of your app, event scripts, and field rules to show or hide fields, sections, or tabs in forms when specific conditions are met. This step is available only to Table applications (non-process & process enabled).

User Tabs

Use tabs to have complete control over the accessibility of your application.

• The tabs appear inside records (as a tab at the left part of the record) or at the summary table of the application.
• A tab can be a table from any Comidor entity, HTML, or widget.

• You can easily create a new Tab, by clicking on the “+” icon
• The Record type is by default the name of the App and disabled
• Select the Type of Tab you wish to create (Table, HTML, or Widget)
  • In Type Table:
    • Give a Title to the Tab
    • In the “View Tab in“: choose record.
    • Select Query: the query to define which fields to be fetched as columns from which tables
    • Where Clause: type a specific condition to be met
    • Access Code defines who can access this tab
  • Select Type HTML when you want to add guidelines or other important information for a specific app:
    • Give a Title to the Tab
    • In the “View Tab in“: choose record or table.
    • Access Code defines who can access this tab
    • Unit-action – insert the HTML here

1. • Type Widget: a tab to monitor all the widgets (general or application widgets)
     • Give a Title to the Tab
     • In the “View Tab in“: choose the table option.
     • Access Code defines who can access this tab
     • After saving this tab, click on Add widget button to Select the widget you would like to be displayed
     • All added widgets are displayed in Linked widgets. You can click on the ‘-‘ to remove a widget from this tab.

Event Scripts

In this tab, you are able to write scripts for a certain Data Type to be executed before/after/on a specific event.

Click on the “+” icon to create a new Event script:

• Add the Procedure Name.
• Choose the Data Type (apprec, task, process, dataset) and define where you want the script to be applied.
• An Event Type can be inserted, updated, deleted, etc.
• In the Procedure Body add your code.
  •  This is for advanced users to write their procedures.

Field Rules

Data Objects

With data objects in Comidor App Designer, you can power up your applications and quickly and easily create any type of data set you need.

• Create data sets, variables, lists, forms, records, or action data types and define their properties. Use those data objects in event scripts.

5. Configuration

In this step, you can make the configuration of the Application.

• Decide what you would like to include from the Basic options
  • Notes, Tags, and Links
  • If the Kanban view is enabled, define the “Group by Field” and the “Title Field“. The “Group By Field” is used to categorize boards, while the “Title Field” will serve as the title for each board.
  • The ability to create, edit, and/or delete an entry
  • The History tab
  • Allow user layout change; the ability to change the table’s categorization, and the pin button to remove columns.
  • Decide if you want to have the print/export options in the summary table of this app
  • The ability to track file views
  • If the task window is maximized
  • For Process-enabled apps with workflow, you can set the app to Automatically start the process, which means the state of the app will be set to running and the workflow will start as well.
  • Decide if you want to block it from mobile
  • Decide if you want to hide the execution information
  • Define the Save and the Cancel Task buttons
  • Define a Primary Field (Record Identity: Appears in lists, etc). From the drop-down list, choose one of the fields you created in Step 2.

• Customize your data by:
  • Setting a Prefix and Suffix to the app and an Incremental No Field; select a number field from the Data Model for which you want to auto-populate a number. eg. for this app the requests will get CP-1, CP-2, etc.
  • Selecting a default categorization for the table view based on a specific field (Title, Priority, etc.) – up to level 3.
  • Choosing a specific field to display the Summary table ordered by ascending or descending order.
  • Apart from the default table filters (Period, Status), you can define your own custom filters. Choose up to 3 key value lists to be your filters in your table application.
  • Granting rights to your app; define to whom each entry is assigned, send notifications, Admin 1,2, and Supervisor. Choose users, groups, or dynamic options such as Creator, creator’s Manager, etc.
  • Setting up to 3 numeric fields, to be displayed in the table as Sums (Sum fields 1, 2, 3).

• You can fully customize the app layout, by selecting font sizes and colors in CSS Design options.

• You have the option to add your custom CSS in the Custom CSS settings.

• You have the option to add your custom Js in the Custom Js settings.

6. Analytics

The Analytics step is only available to process-enabled table apps and provides the designers, with insights into each Workflow’s real-time usage.

Dashboard tab: Set Analytics Filters to get the results you wish.

• • Narrow your results to tasks that were assigned to a specific user or group.
  • Select the period of time you are interested in.
  • Click on Refresh and the following graphs are populated: Analytics Totals, Instances per State, Tasks per User, Delayed tasks per User, Tasks per Team, Delayed tasks per Team

• Pinpoint the total and delayed instances and tasks that were created within one workflow. Cost is calculated based on the duration of each task multiplied by the cost rate of the user that completes each task. See more in the Services unit.

Analytics Preview tab: Set Analytics Filters to get the results you wish.

• Choose between Total or Delayed Tasks to be displayed.
• Monitor the Duration and Cost of each step.
• Select the period of time you are interested in.
• Click on Refresh. The diagram is updated and in each task, for each chosen filter a row is added with the data from the run time. (value & percentage).

• View workflow analytics with the “Delayed Task” Filter to measure the scheduled time and the actual time it took for a task to be completed. This feature enables users to identify bottlenecks.  Each task will have the chosen filters ((Total tasks, Delayed tasks, Cost, Duration, ineffective KPIs) with counter & percentage. The tasks with delays will be highlighted in red, whereas those with no delays in green.

• View workflow analytics with the “Total Task” Filter to measure how many times every task is executed in total. This will identify your “critical path”, and your process “optimal path” and ultimately help identify where the focus should be on for better resource management.

Publish

Finally, click on the Publish button in order to Publish your app.

Your app is ready to use!

Find out more here.

Edit Apps

If you want to edit an existing User App, go to the main menu on the left side of your screen and select the icon App Factory > Application Builder > App Designer. From the list of all applications, select the one you wish to edit.

• Click on the pencil button to apply any changes to the Basic info of the Portal application.
• You can navigate through steps 1-6 by clicking on the respective step and applying any change you wish. Do not forget to publish your changes.
• Click on the Actions button and choose Export if you want to export the current application.
• You can delete a User App if you wish.  Open the App you want to delete, and from the actions button, click on the Delete option.
  • A confirmation pop-up appears. Click Confirm to proceed with the deletion or cancel.
  • You can also check the Linked Entities that will be affected in the respective tab.
• Finally, you can choose the copy option to copy the current application. A pop-up appears where you can define the application name of the copied app.

Run Apps

• While viewing an app in the App Designer, you can easily run it! Click on the Play button on the top right of your screen and the quick add form of this app will be populated.
• In case there is no quick add form, a respective message appears and you are directed to step 2, in User forms to create a new quick add form.
• In order to view the User Apps you have created and published through App Designer, go to the menu on the left side of your screen, and select the Packages Icon. A list of all the published apps is displayed here under the category you chose in Step 1 of App designer. In case no Category is chosen, the app will be shown below Custom Apps.
• Select the one you wish to access and it will open in a new tab.

By clicking on the “+” icon you can create a new entry of this app. (In order to see the “+” icon, you should have checked first the respective option in the Configuration step of App Designer). A new tab opens with the form that was created in the App Designer. Fill in the fields and click on Save to add this entry.

If the App is process enabled and linked with a workflow it will have State (Opened, Scheduled, Running, etc.) and also some more Tabs in the left-side menu, such as Workflow tasks, attachments, and workflow audit based on the configuration of the App in the App Designer.

If you have selected the primary form of the app to be also visible in the quick add menu, you can easily initiate this App, from quick add and by clicking on the name of this form.

Import Apps

Comidor provides you with the functionality to Import User applications that are created in the App Designer in an XML format.

In order to Import an application, you have to open the App Designer.

• Click on the Import an App button.

• Choose the respective .xml file for the application you want to import and click on Save.

You can correlate the involved parties, by typing their name or choosing them from the pre-defined options in the drop-down list. The group mapping is available for:

• Groups
• Users
• Roles

After that, you have to reload the Database, by clicking on the “Reload DB required” red button on the bottom right corner of your screen.

If the Database is reloaded, go to the App Designer and publish the imported application.

Your app is ready to use!

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