These days, companies have a need to deliver a mobile companion app for their main desktop application, or a standalone mobile app for some new data usage scenarios. A .NET developer trying to address these needs would be faced with a complicated choice. On one hand, there are a lot of hybrid app frameworks that try to help deliver a cross-platform solution, including our own DevExtreme. On the other hand, a native solution built with native platform tools or Xamarin should provide better performance, look & feel, and memory consumption. But even when the only platform that has to be supported is iOS, a clear winner in the business market right now, a developer still has to master Objective-C and, more importantly, UIKit with all the quirks and paradigms that are unfamiliar for a .NET developer. This will probably take several months, in most cases more than a year. Wouldn't it be better to spend this time focusing on the core functionality that is important for your business and just use an automatically-generated UI that accesses this business logic and data?
Of course this makes sense, but what to use? At last there is now a fast, elegant, and inexpensive solution to help you - DataExplorer. It allows a developer to have a custom native iOS app that accesses his business data via an OData web service. This app will include a full range of easy-to-use data analytical functionality such as grouping, sorting, filtering, and search; a choice of a UI shell, list and form screen types with a variety of navigation methods between them; a native iOS 7 look, feel, and performance - all this without writing a single line of Objective-C code and waiting for months (if not years) for a solution. Distribution of the app is very simple: just upload a finished app on a server or send it to all users by email and you are done - no need for a Mac, an Apple developer license, or any submission to the App Store.
Building a DataExplorer app is very simple: you provide an OData web service and a UI is generated based on the metadata of this service. You can also add screens manually if you want more control. Additional screens can be added and unneeded ones removed at any time. After screens are created, you can customize them to fit your requirements: fields can be hidden/shown/rearranged, their headers changed, corresponding grid columns resized and frozen if needed, fields can be organized in groups for the form presentation, and so on. In addition screens have their own options like grid lines, alternating rows, text size, etc. You can customize the presentation of specific fields: show numbers as currency or percentage, provide a template for complex values like address, choose a date and time format. All this is done inside DataExplorer itself using its built-in app builder and you get a WYSIWYG view during the entire process.
Like any new solution, DataExplorer has some limitations in this initial release: it's read-only - you can access, shape, and analyze your data, but cannot edit it; the data presentation types are limited to lists and forms - so no charts or maps, for example; detail screens cannot be shown side by side - they are placed on tabs or in a separate view. But even in its v1 form DataExplorer provides a beautiful solution for the scenarios that it covers.
You can learn more about DataExplorer and its features on our website. Also there are 5 short tutorial videos to help you get started. Download a free version of DataExplorer and give it a try! The only limitation of this version is inability to export/import the built apps - they can only be used locally. You can buy a full version that has no limitations from the App Store.
If you have any questions or suggestions please post a comment on this blog post or create a ticket in our Support Center. You can also reach me directly at vlad@devexpress.com.
DataExplorer can save your organization both time and money in the scenarios where it's a good fit and allow you to focus on the functionality that is core to your business.