What Is Low-Code? Building a Low-Code Application

As explained in part one of our “What Is Low-Code?” series, low-code applications are built using a low-code application platform, or LCAP. This type of development requires far less coding than traditional app development, as it uses a more graphical approach both to building and designing applications. And though the process of creating applications with low-code is far faster and easier than with high-code methods, low-code applications are still suited to a wide variety of use cases, including enterprise-grade workflows.

How do you build a low-code application?

So, what actually goes into building a low-code application? As with any application development project, you need to start with some prep work. It’s important to have a clear understanding of the needs and issues you’re addressing with your application, who will be using it, and what kind of access your users will need. These requirements will form the basis of your development plan. Collaboration between business and IT is key here, and this is where you will begin to see the unique benefits that low-code offers.

In the initial planning phase of any low-code application development project, a process model is generally drawn to represent the sequence of steps needed to carry out your process.

When using low-code, the process model you create can be configured to actually perform the activities needed within the application, such as assigning a task to a user, writing data to a database, or transforming the data in some way, for example. Once all the steps have been configured, the process model can be saved, used, and reused within any application where that process is needed. Process models can also be modified to create new activities or update existing activities.

When using low-code, the process model you create can be configured to actually perform the activities needed within the application, such as assigning a task to a user, writing data to a database, or transforming the data in some way, for example. Once all the steps have been configured, the process model can be saved, used, and reused within any application where that process is needed. Process models can also be modified to create new activities or update existing activities.

How does a process model become an application?

Using the process model to depict each step within the process results in a map of business users’ requirements for the application. Developers can then more easily determine what functionality needs to be created for each action within the application.

To go from a process model diagram to a working application, you need to create the elements that provide the required functionality. These can include the following:

• Interfaces, such as forms, reports, and web pages, for users to enter data and information and access visualizations of that information.
• Bots, which are used in robotic process automation (RPA), for automating tasks that don’t require input from human users.
• A data store, or a connector to an existing database, so any entries made by humans or bots can be recorded.
• Expressions, which are composed of one or more literal values, operators, functions, and variables and return a value based on these inputs. Expressions help you build powerful logic into your processes.
• Queries, which are requests for data from your data source.
• Decisions, which guide an action or output based on whether certain conditions are met.
• Constants, for when you need to set values that don’t change.
• Groups, to help in both securing your application and its various objects as well as surfacing aspects of the application’s functionality to the users who need it.

Low-code for faster, easier development.

Low-code development platforms provide tools to create these elements without the need for long-form coding. For example, when creating an interface, developers can choose from a selection of layouts and templates and add design components to create the desired functionality.

Or, when creating a decision, a low-code platform makes it easy to formulate the logic and parameters needed to deliver the correct information. Here, a point-and-click build method replaces manual coding, with built-in testing capabilities to quickly spot check for any flaws in the logic. In the example below, a decision has been created that can be used by an insurance provider to evaluate various criteria when determining the correct policy premium for a new customer.

Low-code, not no-code.

Though LCAPs provide drag-and-drop, point-and-click tools for creating the actions and functionality required for many processes, more experienced developers can always access the underlying code to customize or enhance their low-code applications.