Due to my limited level, the views expressed in this article may not be accurate or even wrong. If you have a different opinion, feel free to leave it in the comments section.

What is nocode, lowcode, procode

  • Nocode: An application can be made without writing code.
  • Lowcode: You can make an application by writing a small amount of code.
  • Procode Professional code: All code for an application needs to be written by a developer.

Since there is no essential difference between nocode and lowcode, lowcode is used to refer to them in general below.

Low code platforms have become very popular in recent years, and articles about low code are frequently seen in the technical community. There are also many low code platforms in China, such as Modao, Yunfengdie, Yibuild and so on.

In this day and age, software is synonymous with productivity. Before in the company to ask for a leave also have to take a note, layers of approval, looking for each leader signature. Now all you need is an application on the software. So it’s not hard to see why low-code platforms are so popular because they free up productivity. Against this is another problem: the imbalance between supply and demand, too much demand, not enough supply (relative shortage of software developers). Low-code platforms have emerged to solve this kind of problem.

For example, operations, finance, sales, etc. need a specific system, but there is no IT department or the IT department is understaffed. This time can choose to use a low code platform, all departments through simple training (familiar with the documentation) can get started development, through the way of drag and drop to generate an application.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The advantage is obvious, through simple training can let a lot of people who do not understand technology start to develop. Reduce costs by delegating tasks that software developers should do. Because software salaries tend to be higher than those for other jobs, using a low-code platform transfers relatively high labor costs to people who cost less (and hire fewer programmers).

But the disadvantages are also obvious, specifically the following points:

  1. A low-code platform is not a one-size-fits-all solution; it can only be used for one business scenario. The current low code platform has some common business scenarios such as workflow oriented, prototype oriented, form oriented, or only simple business scenarios. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.
  2. Customization cannot be achieved. The low-code platform needs to consider different users when developing functions due to the large number of personnel, so it cannot be customized for a particular enterprise.
  3. To reduce costs is to transfer the costs of developers to others, and to reduce the cost of wages. However, in terms of development efficiency, it has decreased. This is because dragging and dropping applications is less efficient than typing directly into code. At my previous company, I developed a low-code platform similar to Ink Knife, and spent half an hour in testing a small app by dragging and dropping. For comparison, I typed code and did it in less than 10 minutes (of course, different business scenarios may take different times, but it doesn’t make much of a difference). However, this disadvantage does not apply to companies without developers.

Overall, the benefits of a low-code platform outweigh the disadvantages. Because there are still many enterprises without IT departments, the low code platform can solve their problems well.

Here’s a practical example. At the last company I worked for, we took on a lot of projects for the same client. These projects are basically the same type of project, with slight functional differences but no essential differences. This client must pay for each of his projects, even though they may be only a few pages different. In order to improve this situation, we developed a low-code product according to the needs of the users, and the users only need to develop their own projects.

As for the client, he no longer has to pay for every project because he can develop it himself. In this way, the cost is reduced. Although it takes longer to develop by ourselves, customers can accept the reduced cost.

In the future

Recently, I have read a lot of research reports on the market of low-code platforms. For example, the 2020 China Low-code Development Platform Industry Overview released by Toubao Research Institute says as follows:

Under the background of the rapid expansion of China’s cloud service market, low-code development services have been initially launched in the past five years. From 2016 to 2019, the financing amount of China’s low-code development platform industry rose from 1 million yuan to 120 million yuan.

Many large companies at home and abroad are also launching or acquiring low code platform, striving for a share of the low code platform on the track. For example, there are Microsoft, Amazon, Siemens and so on abroad, and Tencent, Byte, Ali and so on in China.

I think there’s a lot of potential for low code platforms over the next two to three years, and the market is growing every year.

Some function points of the low code platform

From today’s low code platforms, it’s all about dragging and dropping applications. It can be said that low code platform is heavy front-end, light back-end products, for the front-end technology requirements are higher. I did some research on low-code platforms and wrote a DEMO similar to the Ink Knife. I also wrote three documents to analyze the principle of the function points involved in this DEMO:

  1. The editor
  2. Custom Components
  3. Drag and drop
  4. Delete components and adjust layers
  5. Zoom in on
  6. Undo, redo
  7. Component Property Settings
  8. The adsorption
  9. Preview and save the code
  10. The binding event
  11. The binding of animation
  12. Import the PSD
  13. Mobile phone model
  14. Drag the rotation
  15. Copy and paste and cut
  16. Data interaction
  17. release
  18. Composition and unassembly of multiple components
  19. Text component
  20. Rectangular components
  21. Locking component
  22. shortcuts
  23. Grid lines
  24. Another way to implement editor snapshots

If you want to learn more, take a look at my project, Visual – Drag – Demo.

Online preview:

  • Preview Entry 1
  • Preview Entry 2

Documents:

  • Visual drag component library some technical points of principle analysis
  • Visual Drag component Library Some Technical Key Points and Principle Analysis (II)
  • Visual Drag component Library some Technical Key points and Principle Analysis (III)

One of the things THAT I think is important about low code platforms is repositories. There is no doubt that the more abundant the material base, the better. In addition, the way of adding new materials is suggested to be similar to plug-in, so that it can be convenient to expand. Ideally, the plug-in can be distributed as an NPM package, and adding a plug-in is adding an NPM package. This allows you to add or remove materials without modifying the source code of a low-code platform.

conclusion

In short, I am optimistic about the prospects of low code platforms. If you’re a front-end and don’t have a clear plan for your career, consider going in the low-code direction.