eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Progress Software shipped the latest release of its Telerik Platform for mobile app development for iOS, Android and Windows Phone applications.
The new release, Telerik Platform 2.0, enables developers to create mobile user experiences with high productivity in a fraction of the time, the company said.
By enabling developers to have complete access to the app development lifecycle from a single app-centric interface, Telerik Platform saves developers considerable effort and time. Developers are able to develop, connect, test, deploy and measure the app from a single unified interface, cutting through the effort often required when working with multiple disparate technologies.
“Today, mobile developers are required to deliver cross-platform apps with powerful back ends, insightful user analytics and engaging notifications—all while keeping development costs to a minimum,” said Brandon Satrom, general manager for Developer Platforms and Tools at Progress. “As a result, the need for synergy between tools and services that support multiple devices, operating systems and business models has never been higher. Telerik Platform 2.0 gives developers a glimpse into what is possible for cross-platform mobile application development, with enhancements to deliver high-quality apps faster than ever before.”
According to a Gartner study, a “major growth driver [for Mobile App Dev Platforms] is the need for high-speed app development and short update cycles that organizations are scouting for to align with their digital business initiatives.”
As part of the latest release of the Telerik Platform, the new unified, app-centric interface makes it simple to integrate cloud services—like push notifications and analytics—into the app development process. In addition, Progress has taken the extra step of bringing this integration to the API layer, providing developers with a single app ID that works across all services and SDKs integrated with the app.
And for enterprise developers who want to include cloud builds in their existing continuous integration (CI) workflow, Telerik Platform 2.0 now includes a beta version of CI build support with a Jenkins plug-in.
“Telerik Platform provides a bridge to mobile development for experienced Web developers,” Greg Wiers, IT application development manager at Cianbro, said in a statement. “It’s a unified mobile development solution that offers a superior development experience compared to existing development tools.”
As one of the most challenging aspects of mobile app development is connecting mobile apps to existing data, Telerik Platform 2.0 enables developers to access enterprise data residing in Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL or Salesforce using a series of connectors powered by Progress DataDirect drivers. Many enterprises have existing legacy data that needs to be part of their mobile apps and developing the integration for this connectivity requires considerable time and resource allocation. Using these connectors, developers can quickly create mobile apps from legacy on-premise and cloud-based data sources.
Progress also announced new additions to Telerik Backend Services, including a preview of aggregation queries and support for the scheduling of recurring cloud code jobs. Developers also get the latest in analytics, including new top-level dashboards, engagement cohorts and more, the company said.
Moreover, the Telerik Platform equips developers and enterprise development managers with tools to develop cross-platform mobile apps and empowers them to choose the best approach, whether Web, hybrid or native, based on existing skills and the needs of the app. Telerik Platform 2.0 brings the latest updates to NativeScript, a framework that enables developers to create native apps with JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
As part of the release, Progress also launched the Verified Plugins Marketplace for NativeScript, adding to its existing list of open-source plug-ins for Cordova/PhoneGap, further extending cross-platform development support for JavaScript developers.
In addition, Progress also has enabled support for iOS 9, Android 6 and Apple Watch apps in its cloud build services. Developers can build, test and debug these apps using Telerik Platform and its expanded debugging capabilities in Visual Studio—along with a redesigned set of Companion Apps.