The increasing appetite for automation is driving the need for a better way of developing software – and low-code tools are stepping up to the plate.
Gartner defines a low-code application platform as “an application platform that supports rapid application development, one-step deployment, execution and management using declarative, high-level programming abstractions, such as model-driven and metadata-based programming languages.”
According to Wikipedia, a low-code development platform provides a development environment used to create application software through a graphical user interface instead of traditional hand-coded computer programming. A low-coded platform may produce entirely operational applications, or require additional coding for specific situations.
Saucecode recognised the need for a low-code platform and, unable to find a suitable one on the market, developed its own.
The Z-One platform gives developers access to blocks of services which can be linked together to produce an implementable file that can be ported between different systems.
“It is a true low-code solution that developers can use to accelerate their application building,” says Barry Buck, chief technology officer of Saucecode.
“Essentially, they can build something once and use it many times; learn once and write anywhere. With a small set of standards, they can now achieve a huge amount of productivity.”
He describes the platform as being like a rack for code, which developers can plug in from an open source repository or resource library. These blocks of code would be developed or compiled uing the built-in Z-Studio.
Importantly, Z-One is always completely backward-compatible, so existing code would never be affected by updates to the platform or to any of the code blocks used to create applications.
What enables the fast code development, and ensures that everything works together seamlessly, is the fact that Z-One is strict about separating data and logic.
“The data in the database can and does change,” Bucks says. “Code doesn’t change that often. So you can deploy a standard set of code and, depending on what data is fed into it, it will do different things.
“If there are changes in the back-end, the component can simply be plugged out and a new one plugged in – and Z-One manages all the integration.”
This feature helps in greatly reducing the cognitive load that developers traditionally carry. “Keeping track of how data is being stored, presented and consumed is a big ask,” Buck says. “But once it is standardised you don’t have to think about it again.
“All you have to worry about is the input going into the system and the output you want to come out.”
Because Z-One is based on open source standards it will work across any platform, with any interface.
Saucecode will demonstrate how low-code and Z-One can improve software development at the AI Expo being held at the Sandton Convention Centre. Visit Stand A1 on 19 and 20 September to find out more.
For more information, visit www.spacepencil.co.uk or mail Brian Little on brian@saucecode.tech