A real low cost technical architecture upgrade.

Project background

Heng East point cargo network is based on the development trend of the logistics industry and national policy to guide the development of the network freight platform, its main function of carrying “vehicle cargo information release, matching, freight payment and distribution, credit management.”

As for the development staff composition of the project, it is only “core development 2 + internship development 2” for a long time, which is unable to support the daily business iteration. At the same time, combined with the policy adjustment of online freight platform in 2020, as an online freight platform, our mobile App needs to embed the SDK plug-in of the supervision platform, so that the daily business operation data can be connected with the system of the supervision platform and unified management standards.

The difficulty arises.

Because the existing development team is mainly composed of Java engineers, and only two developers can connect with the SDK of three parties, the development resources are suddenly limited. The selection of UNI-App existed in the original project, and it was quite difficult for our existing team to realize the access of the native SDK without the support of the technical team of the other side. At the same time, considering that the subsequent “Order Goods App” should have the ability to access the original SDK, our perspective began to turn to “how to ensure the smooth completion of joint commissioning test of the project and improve the robustness of our own App”.

We started sifting through the various cross-platform App development technologies on the market, comparing uni-App, Weex, Flutter, mPaaS and other cross-platform development frameworks.

As a Java developer, the comparison of these cross-platform frameworks is only a first impression. There is no in-depth analysis of the pros and cons of each framework, which is only applicable to the selection of technical reference for specific needs in existing projects/projects.

Currently, I only have Java and vue. js development ability, so I cannot quickly master a new voice or native UI component development ability in a short time. However, due to business requirements, we must completely improve the robustness of App, so the team decided to replace UNI-App with mPaaS.

Access Process Review

As a Java developer, I am familiar with the syntax of vue.js, so I began to contact and test the framework capability of mPaaS, especially the part of small program container, and began to understand the relevant knowledge of Android development in August 2019.

From June 2020, I began to try to independently access mPaaS small programs, carry out function migration for the Dot Store App and formally access the regulatory SDK plug-in.

Before the official use, I have learned about the specific features of mPaaS products and the differences in development and configuration between different versions of mPaaS. Finally, we decided to directly implement the basic functions of the cargo network based on “mPaaS small program Demo” and adjust the functions accordingly. To meet the needs of its own service features. There were also some small problems during the period, which were successfully solved with the support of the mPaaS r&d team.

We also suggest that if you are new to mPaaS, be sure to test the steps provided by the official documentation and the existing Demo to avoid all kinds of abnormal errors caused by the compatibility of the technical framework.

Finally, thanks to the continuous upgrading and iteration of mPaaS applet, the access and update of the applet components of The Dot Store App has become easier and easier, and the technical threshold has been greatly reduced and optimized.

Looking back at the scene when the first version of point-of-purchase App was connected to mPaaS small program container, there were only two technical developers in our team at that time, and another student had to take care of operation and other development matters, so there was only one person actually developing the App.

Faced with such a situation, we can only choose to take risks. But in essence, what we really trust is the ability of mPaaS to have a framework that is compatible with native applications and applets, and the speed of response from the mPaaS technical team.

We chose existing apps to be directly connected to mPaaS for development. In order to speed up business iteration, we only included the core functions of the original App and the ability to monitor SDK in the first version of the online goods App, and completed the iteration according to the actual business needs.

At present, based on mPaaS applet, The App has successfully realized the function of automatically entering the applet after starting from the welcome page, and directly calling the custom API to realize the welcome page destruction and the permission verification of android terminal. It is expected that we will officially launch in late August to replace the original App and provide services for customers.

Value of precipitation

Looking back at the process of accessing mPaaS applets, we also benefited a lot. For Java development students, we no longer need to learn Android UI, familiar with HTML can be directly page development, really at a lower cost to upgrade the technical architecture.

Therefore, the developed business on the Web side can be quickly migrated to the mPaaS small program. Only simple adjustment can meet the processing needs of mPaaS business logic, so as to avoid the repeated writing of business logic code and ensure the consistency of dual-end business logic. Reduce the problem of inconsistent project implementation due to business understanding differences in multi-party collaboration.

After implementing mPaaS access, we need to update the App only when the native SDK plug-in changes or is added. Function adjustment, change and upgrade of general small programs can realize upgrade without users’ perception, avoid disturbing users, and also fully meet the demands of rapid iteration of our business.

future

As a non-professional App developer, we sincerely hope that mPaaS can launch a plug-in market or platform to directly provide developers with universal basic API services or functions such as face core, image recognition, mobile phone number verification and so on.

The developer’s appeal is actually quite simple, and there is value to personal and business growth if you can focus on developing the needs of the business, rather than repeatedly tapping into generalizing capabilities.

In the future, “Ordering App” will continue to rely on mPaaS and make use of the existing mobile component capabilities to help the App continue to upgrade. To provide customers with simple, convenient and practical App experience based on customer needs and actual business. As for “Ordering App”, we also keep open, hoping to communicate with more developers about the problems encountered in the process of accessing and using mPaaS, and jointly build the developer ecosystem of mPaaS.

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Learn more about “mPaaS applets”

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