Mobile Application with Real-Time Data Available to the User at any Time

Today, individuals access the Internet using a variety of devices. When the quantity of these devices is compared, ordinary users utilize mobile phones the most. There are various reasons why customers are increasingly using mobile phones and less frequently laptop and desktop PCs. The size and weight of mobile phones are important because they cannot be compared to other devices in this industry. Mobile phones are the only type of computer that the user can always have with him and that takes up very little space. The app ecosystem is fantastic, and users can simply access the desired software. There is something for everyone in the large assortment of applications. When compared to other devices, mobile phones are simple to use and usually finish everything in a few clicks. They utilize cutting-edge wireless technologies that are always being improved. Affordability is another deciding factor. Mobile phones are significantly less expensive than other devices, which is reason enough for some people to choose that item.

Mobile phones have long been used in the corporate world due to their numerous advantages. In some cases, using a mobile phone instead of a laptop or desktop computer to accomplish business makes more sense. Elephant Solutions’ customer wanted to go closer to the goal and better his company model by incorporating a mobile application into his everyday business operations. The client’s initial concept is to create a mobile application that will use real-time data from the server.

The major requirement of this project is the client’s request that the application’s data be accessible to users at all times. The user needs to have a device through which to access that data. These two requirements lead to the third, which is the selection of the type of device and application to be developed as part of the project. After establishing the type of application, the selection of technologies is critical for this type of project. The choice of technology, on the other hand, is determined by the functions that the application will execute. Choosing the number of developers and the development methodology is critical for both the organization providing the services and the client because these are the requirements that will define the duration, quality, and price of the final product. Elephant Solutions conducted a careful examination of each criterion individually to meet all of the specified requirements. In this circumstance, it is the only way to estimate the time required to construct such an application.

Several obstacles arose for the Elephant Solutions team of developers during the mobile application development strategy.

The client intended for the project to be implemented as a mobile application development. However, the question that arose right away was whether the client only required a traditional mobile application or an application that could later be modified and upgraded to be used on other devices if necessary.

Because one of the requirements of Elephant Solutions’ client was that the mobile application be available to users at all times, users must have access to the mobile application even when the Internet connection is unstable or when the user does not have an Internet connection at all. The developer team found this proposal to be an interesting challenge.

The technologies that will be used to construct the application’s design are also determined by the type of application chosen. Clients that demand a somewhat more advanced design and clients who desire a simple design on their applications are two types of clients. Typically, a simpler design is beneficial for mobile applications so that users can navigate much more easily, which is what the client intended in this situation. However, the technology used is still determined by the type of mobile application. Technologies here play an important role for both developers and clients because choosing good technologies will make the developers’ work much easier, while the client will gain shorter production periods, a lower price, and a higher quality result.

The next challenge for Elephant Solutions’ developers was determining how to appropriately manipulate data because the mobile application will also be used offline. Furthermore, one of the most significant aspects of developing applications for mobile phones is interoperability between different devices and browsers, which also needed to be addressed in this case.

In discussions with the client, the Elephant Solutions company’s developers concluded that the client will require an upgrade of the existing mobile application shortly, which could include the potential use of the identical mobile application on other devices such as laptops or desktop computers. This knowledge altered the course of development during the planning phase, and the mobile application was launched in a different direction.

The development team’s initial responsibility is to establish the type of application and technology stack that will best suit the specified project and the agreed-upon plan. Because the client’s major goal is for the data to be available to the user at all times, and there should also be the option of upgrading the mobile application, the Elephant Solutions company’s development team settled on a Progressive Web Application (PWA) type of application. When the internet connection is unstable or entirely lost, PWA is an excellent solution. PWA is the right form of application for this project since it can act as both a website and a mobile application at the same time. Because the application will be treated initially as a mobile application, the development team took a mobile-first approach to development. The mobile-first method indicates that while developing an application, the first step is to create a version for mobile phones, followed by versions for other devices.

Data entered into forms by users must be kept somewhere and made available for offline use. The development team handled this type of problem by integrating synchronization into the process. Because PWA was the preferred choice, the development team chose the Dexie.js library to streamline the development process and ensure browser compatibility. PWA provides numerous alternatives for storing data on devices, with IndexedDB being selected as the best solution. The Dexie.js library acts as an IndexedDB Wrapper, addressing some of the key issues with the native IndexedDB API, such as ambiguous error handling, low query performance, and code complexity. The development team took advantage of the benefits provided by the Dexie.js library in this project, which is a great database API with a well-designed API design, robust error handling, extendability, and change tracking awareness.

In addition to the previously mentioned technologies, a tech stack that comprises the JavaScript programming language and additional libraries such as jQuery and the Bootstrap framework was employed to suit the client’s needs for PWA development. The Bootstrap CSS framework was picked as a solution for establishing the appearance of the mobile application’s necessary components such as forms, navigation, and other interfaces. Bootstrap was chosen by the development team because of its mobile-first approach to front-end development, as well as the flexibility it gives for responsive design.

After resolving the client-side storage issue, the data could be retrieved from the server, and the development team continued work on the mobile application. The emphasis in this stage of mobile app development was on synchronization. The first synchronization was critical since the fields that the client would generate in the form had to be validated first. This is precisely why synchronization was introduced into this procedure. The administrator should initially label specific fields as primary, and the user should be required to fill in those marked fields following synchronization. To prevent the problem of server overload, the Elephant Solutions development team solved it by separating the data during transmission into little chunks that were transmitted every few minutes. The final hurdle in the synchronization development phase was determining how to avoid data duplication and how to send only new updated data to the server rather than all data. The answer was to establish flags when storing data that would allow recognition of data that was not on the server. Synchronization with the server is set to check for updates every 5 minutes. During synchronization, flagged data is transferred to the server, and flags are automatically removed from the same data in the local database to minimize data duplication on the server and potential mistakes in the next synchronization.

After the Elephant Solutions development team completed the creation of the synchronization component, the testing phase began. Outstanding results were quickly reached and the mobile application functioning as expected.

Projects like this show how complicated problems may be solved simply. The entire development process will be considerably more effective if the client has a clear idea of what he wants to acquire from the final result. A common issue that arises in such scenarios is a lack of technical competence, in which the customer is unable to make an accurate appraisal of all necessary features right from the start. This type of issue is also caused by a country’s lack of technological growth. The state needs to stay up with technology so that its population can fully utilize its capabilities. This allows the client to know exactly what is realistic and possible to achieve, and what is not so that a lot of time will not be wasted on these things. On this project, the client of Elephant Solutions had a clear vision of what he wanted, which, when combined with the technical expertise of the development team, allowed for even greater results. All of the client’s comprehensive recommendations were supplemented with additional technological experience, which is why the originally planned mobile application took on an even more complex shape that can be upgraded. When a client has a brilliant idea and understands exactly what he wants, implementation is straightforward, all that is needed is a successful IT company to help transform that idea into a reality.

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