In response to customer feedback, we are always adding new features to the ViziApps mobile app development tool. By enhancing the tool, we’re enabling enterprises and small businesses to more quickly and easily design and publish mobile apps to promote their business and strengthen customer and partner relationships.

One of the newest features in ViziApps is Snap to Grid.

This feature lets app creators easily place widgets or other graphics in a design, positioning and sizing them just the way they want them to fit. By making it easier to align design components in an app, Snap to Grid helps speed ViziApps-built mobile apps to market.

A recent survey by App Central revealed that many enterprise mobility projects are not necessarily covered by IT budgets. Instead they may be funded by business units, marketing, sales and executive accounts. As a result, enterprises often must scramble to find the budget and technical resources needed to meet requirements for mobile apps that can boost employee productivity and enhance customer relationships.

With ViziApps, any enterprise group can design and build their own mobile apps at no cost. Then, after their app is completed, ViziApps charges a low monthly subscription publishing fee, based on number of app pages and users. Making updates to a published app is free. Updates are pushed to app users automatically, at no additional charge.

As a result, enterprises can take advantage of the ViziApps no-coding approach to mobile app development to design build mobile business apps in much less time than a traditional software development project would take. When the need for a new mobile app arises, users with sophisticated computer skills can create branded apps quickly. And because ViziApps fees are very low, both business units and IT teams can now provide mobile apps for use by customers, employees, partners, suppliers, and others on a very reasonable budget.

New, disruptive technologies are enabling business and IT people to create robust, visually appealing, data-centric mobile business apps quickly and cost effectively. Using a tool like ViziApps Studio provide step-by-step directions on how to get a ViziApps-built app published in the Apple App Store or in Google Play.

To publish an app in the Apple App Store using ViziApps, for example, you just need to complete three steps:

• Prepare the data, icons, images and other items that will be used to promote your app in the App Store with iTunes Connect
• Brand and build the code for your app using ViziApps
• Deploy your app to iTunes Connect with the Application Loader.

Deploying An App to iTunes Connect

The process for deploying an app to iTunes Connect has changed over time, so be sure to download and refer to the current iTunes Connect Developer Guide for the latest information.

Knowing what you will need to take your completed mobile business apps through the build and app publishing process will help you plan your time at the onset of your mobile app development project to make your apps available to your users on schedule. By clearly understanding the steps you will need to complete to meet the unique requirements of the Apple App Store and Google Play, you will avoid unnecessary delays and ensure that your mobile apps will be ready when your users expect to start using it.

Near Field Communications (NFC) is set to change our culture! NFC will change how we pay, how we find stuff and how we enter secure spaces. It’s in our mobile devices so anyone can use it just by sliding our device over a tag. NFC is that new technology that enables your smartphone or tablet apps to read NFC Tags and interact with other NFC enabled devices with a simple tap.

You may already be using NFC in your Android phone to make credit card payments, download product info from store shelves, navigate your way in a tradeshow or open your office door.

Many new Android devices have NFC support built-in, and it is heavily rumored that Apple will add NFC support for it’s next version of iPhones and iPads.

ViziApps now supports NFC for its hybrid mobile apps running on Android devices, and we’ll add iOS NFC support when Apple adds NFC in those devices. Mobile NFC can open whole new possibilities for the user experience and interaction with the physical environment in your ViziApps apps. It opens up a host of opportunities for potentially every app user with an NFC-enabled mobile phone. Here’s a small sample of Mobile NFC use-cases:

• eWallet and mobile commerce transactions
• Trade Show exhibit floor navigation
• Retail mobile-to-shelf promotions and loyalty programs
• Product inventory and replacement parts tracking
• Field Service equipment and location tracking
• Marketing and Social Media campaigns
• Secure access to facilities

Here’s how it works. ViziApps gives you 3 options for NFC Tag responses:

• Tag Info: Displays the NFC Tag info in a webpage popup. This is useful for testing NFC tags when developing your app.
• Display Payload: Displays the website from the URL in the payload of the Tag.
• NFC Callback: Passes the tag info to a JavaScript function you create for your app.

App Design Property to Set NFC in your App

To enable NFC support in your hybrid app, just go to App Properties, and select “Set Near Field Communications”. Then select the type of action you want when an NFC tag is read and save your selection. When your app runs, your selected action will happen as you slide your mobile device over a tag.

Example popup of a web page based on reading an NFC tag

There are few things more important to Internet and mobile users than sharing, and now ViziApps brings sharing to mobile app creation. Even for small projects, it’s very common to have multiple people collaborate in different ways to design and test a mobile app. ViziApps new App Sharing feature allows any user to share any of their app designs with any other ViziApps users.

App Sharing solves critical needs for team development:

• Developers can share their app with others for evaluation and testing
• An app can be shared with a UI design specialist for consultation and improvements
• Contractors can be included into a team when needed, and then their sharing can be revoked when the contract is complete
• After an app has been released, different people can be assigned update and maintenance tasks
• Managing the important controls for publishing through one individual so a company keeps a secure relationship to the App Stores and Mobile App Management Systems
• When developing apps for a customer, briefly sharing app designs with them, so they can validate the features and test for themselves

Sharing an app is easy. The person creating an app clicks on the new “Share This App” button in ViziApps Studio, and enters the username of other ViziApps users. They declare whether the users are Developers or Testers. A Developer can edit an app design and test it in both Preview Mode and on any mobile device, then share their changes with the App Owner. A Tester can test an app, but not edit an app.

The person that created the app remains the App Owner, and is the only one that can publish to the App Stores. The App Owner can also revoke sharing of their app at any time. There is no limit to the number of apps that can be shared, or how large the app sharing team can get.

Now, with ViziApps App Sharing, enterprise teams and the contractors that serve them can manage the complete cycle of designing, testing, and publishing their mobile apps.

One of the most useful ways to present complex information and multiple choices to a mobile app user has been the touch-enabled scrolling table. We all use these tables every day on our smartphones when reviewing our email inbox, Twitter feed, and similar lists.

When building custom mobile apps, the scrolling table is often essential for showing results of data queries and responses from REST APIs. The earliest mobile apps kept the presentation to the user very simple – each row would typically show one or two lines of text and maybe a picture.

Now that mobile apps are working with ever more complex data sources, users need to see more information packed into the scrolling table, but it has to be presented in a visually appealing way so that the user can make sense of all the information. This is exactly what you can achieve with the new Custom Tables feature from ViziApps.

Designing a Custom Table

The design process for Custom Tables follows the ViziApps no-coding approach with free-form graphical design of the mobile app page layout.

The ViziApps developer first creates a design pattern that will be used by the table. This is a fast and familiar process which is just like building a new page. One customization that easily adds impact is to include a background image such as a color gradient. Something as simple as changing the color palette can inform the user at a glance that they are looking at a different data set.

You can mix any number of images, and size them and place them wherever you like within the design pattern. The image contents can be preset (as when using a background image), or determined dynamically and individually for every row based on the results of a data query. Text labels can also be placed anywhere within the design pattern, and set to any font, color, and size that you like. Text labels can also have fixed content, or dynamic content for every row based on a data query.

By adding fields to the design pattern, it’s possible to build up practically any size, complexity, and style of table rows that you can imagine. When the design pattern is ready, you can define a new table by specifying your design pattern instead of defining table row fields, and the design pattern can be re-used to define multiple tables.

The excitement happens when you hook up your new table design pattern to a data source such as a Google Spreadsheet, Intuit QuickBase, Salesforce.com, or SQL database. With ViziApps’ no-coding approach to data management, you will quickly assign your data source columns to fields in the custom table, and start enjoying table design without limits!

The ability to privately publish and manage mobile business apps is essential for many mobile business processes executed by employees, partners, or customers. Now you can select the Apperian EASE Mobile App Management option to publish your apps from ViziApps to your Apperian account with one click.

ViziApps’ seamless integration with Apperian, Inc., the enterprise mobile application management (MAM) pioneer, enables ViziApps users to publish their apps directly with Apperian’s EASE MAM platform and their own enterprise app store. Businesses often want to distribute and manage such B2E apps directly for employee, partner, and customer user business processes and mobile workflow, rather than expose them in the public App Store and Google play app market.

ViziApps apps are now easy to distribute, manage, and monitor – right from your EASE Admin Control Console and Dashboard. ViziApps enterprise users now enjoy key benefits building their enterprise mobile apps, including:

• 1-Click app publishing with Apperian’s “enterprise app store” platform that hundreds of enterprises are already using today
• Rich mobile app management capabilities to manage and track app updates, apply security policies, manage testing, and track user feedback
• Integrated app signing to sign or re-sign iOS and Android apps for full enterprise distribution, or update existing apps with new credentials
• Faster app adoption and higher ROI through app analytics to tune mobile business processes
• User feedback capabilities that will let users post comments, ideas and report bugs quickly and easily

“ViziApps ability to create business mobile apps quickly without coding, now seamlessly combined with Apperian EASE, provides a powerful and elegant solution for enterprises to mobilize their work force and business processes,” said Cimarron Buser, Vice President of Business Development at Apperian.

Using ViziApps Studio, enterprise and small business users and their IT consultants and Digital Marketing suppliers can now quickly build mobile apps with Apperian EASE App Management without coding. These apps can use native device features and manage data from SQL databases, Google Drive spreadsheets, Intuit QuickBase, Salesforce.com, Force.com, and Database.com to run on iPhones, iPads, and Android phones and tablets.

Create Own Apps, a website that reviews DIY mobile app development tools, has awarded ViziApps a 4-star rating. The site was created to help mobile app builders compare different solutions and find the right one for their mobile app development projects.

We’re delighted to receive this recognition for the ViziApps drag and drop tool, which is used by enterprises and small business to build mobile business apps for use in a wide range of industries. Read the full review here.

See ViziApps’ latest innovations for Rapid Mobile App Development at the MIT Enterprise Forum Startup Showcase at Microsoft NERD Center on June 15: http://startupspotlight.mitforumcambridge.org/

The Mass Technology Leadership Council selected ViziApps to demo our Rapid Mobile App Platform at TechJam 2015. See us there Thursday May 11th in Boston: https://masstlc.proximate.com/btj2015#?p=np

ViziApps instructional videos on YouTube help businesses of all sizes take full advantage of the ViziApps platform to build mobile apps for use by customers, employees, partners, and others. Watch those videos to understand how to use the powerful features of the ViziApps platform for creating apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and Android tablets.

ViziApps is a do it yourself mobile apps platform that enables organizations of all sizes to rapidly design and build custom data-rich mobile applications for business with no coding. Each video focuses on a specific feature or features, demonstrating how to use the ViziApps no-coding approach to build data-rich apps.

The videos offer a convenient way to see ViziApps capabilities in action, either before getting started on a mobile app building project or anytime during the creative process.

Go to the ViziApps Channel on YouTube to find the complete selection of instructional videos on how to build your own mobile business app with ViziApps.

Want to become highly proficient creating mobile business apps? A new online workshop, titled Create Mobile Apps Without Coding, will walk you through the development of a simple but fully functional native app without doing any coding. Using the ViziApps mobile app development tool, plus Google Docs as your database, you will learn valuable app design principles and see how easy it is to build a functional mobile app just using basic computing skills.

ViziApps-certified trainer Neil Perlin will conduct the 6-part webinar from July 9-17, focusing on different topics in each session, such as using an app template for layout, creating pages and page elements, and advanced data management for mobile apps, a key advantage offered by the ViziApps mobile app development tool.

Enterprise business units looking to develop their own apps (without relying on IT for technical expertise or development budgets) will find this webinar especially useful. Attendees will come away equipped to build apps for both internal users and external mobility campaigns.