New Mendix Release Enables No-Code Delivery of Multi-Device Mobile Apps for the Enterprise

SOURCE: Mendix

BOSTON – October 21, 2014 – Mendix, the enterprise app platform as a service (aPaaS) company, announced major enhancements to the Mendix App Platform, drastically reducing the time, cost and effort for companies to deliver multi-channel and mobile apps. With this new release, Mendix empowers both business users and developers to easily build cross-platform mobile apps that provide the rich, native experience enterprise users are clamoring for.

Build Once – Deploy Anywhere

These new capabilities support Mendix’s multi-channel strategy of enabling organizations to build apps once and deploy them anywhere, eliminating the cost and complexity of supporting multiple platforms and devices. This multi-channel development strategy is crucial to the enterprise, where mobile apps are typically a part of integrated processes and larger applications.

According to a report from Forrester Research (“The Future Of Mobile Application Development,” Forrester Research, Inc., Jan. 17, 2013), “A mobile app strategy is not sufficient if you want to be successful in your future mobile development efforts. You need to think of mobile apps as one component of a larger, modern, omnichannel application architecture and structure your development strategy accordingly.”

Mendix Puts Mobile, Cross-Platform App Development in the Hands of Every Developer

The Mendix App Platform has long enabled both business users and developers to rapidly build web and mobile applications with its signature visual, model-driven development approach. With its latest release, Mendix is breaking new ground by putting the development of multi-device apps in the hands of any developer, allowing them to easily build mobile apps that leverage native device functions in a cross-platform environment that greatly reduces cost and complexity.

“We are seeing significant demand from our customers and partners for apps that are multi-channel by default, particularly those designed to engage customers,” said Derek Roos, CEO and co-founder of Mendix. “With this new Mendix release, we’ve broken new ground for our users and put powerful capabilities in the hands of all developers to accelerate innovation in the enterprise.”

New and Enhanced Features to Rapidly Build, Test and Deploy Multi-Channel Apps

– Responsive UIs Made Simple – Pre-defined layouts for smartphone, tablet and desktop user interfaces (UIs) enable functionally oriented developers to build responsive multi-channel apps without getting bogged down in device-specific UI adoptions.

– New App Widgets for Native Device Functions – New widgets in the public Mendix App Store allow developers to easily leverage native device functions (e.g., Contacts, Camera, Geolocation, Barcode Scanner) without any technical knowledge. These widgets are completely open source and available on GitHub for the Mendix Dev community to fork, extend and enhance.

– Instant Testing of Native Capabilities – The new Mendix Developer App, available in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Microsoft Windows Store, allows developers to quickly pair their mobile device with their development environment simply by scanning a QR code. They can then instantly test the mobile apps, including their native device functions.

– One-click Native App Packaging for Apple, Google and Windows App Stores – This release includes an industry-first one-click integration with PhoneGap, an open source framework for quickly building cross-platform mobile apps. Leveraging the Adobe PhoneGap Build service from within the Mendix App Platform, developers can automatically create packages for their apps that can be published in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Microsoft Windows Store.

“As a long-time Mendix partner, FlowFabric has a successful track record delivering mobile and multi-channels apps for clients on the Mendix App Platform,” said Kjeld Cornelissen, managing director at FlowFabric. “We believe this new Mendix release will be a game-changer for mobile app development, making it even faster and easier for our developers to build intuitive apps that work on any platform and on any device.”

Mendix – A Full Range of Mobile App Development Options in One Platform

This new release adds to the full spectrum of Mendix’s mobile app development capabilities, giving enterprises the flexibility to use the approach that best meets their needs. In addition to the new features for hybrid mobile app development, Mendix applications can be used as mobile web applications. Also, Mendix’s rich set of platform APIs provide comprehensive mobile backend services for user management, authentication, security, messaging, etc., as well as integration with various back-end systems to be leveraged by native apps built using a mobile platform SDK and tools.

Available Now

These capabilities are now available as part of the latest Mendix App Platform release. To learn more about Mendix’s mobile app development capabilities, visit www.Mendix.com/mobile.

About Mendix
Mendix is the app platform as a service company for the enterprise. We enable companies to build, integrate and deploy web and mobile applications faster and with better results, effectively driving ROI in days, not months. For more information, visit www.mendix.com and follow the company on Twitter @Mendix