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Tech Stacks in Application Development: The Travel Industry

July 29, 2021 Comments Off Roxana read

Across the world, travel is an important resource for both business and pleasure. Many people have to travel for work, are visiting family and friends as restrictions are loosened, and have decided to take vacations while they have the time. But even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the travel industry was still highly influential for similar reasons.

This industry is known for being frustrating with regard to:

Wait times
Flight delays or cancellations
Luggage claim issues
Layovers
The complex boarding and disembarking process

One thing that can make flying less stressful is a smooth booking system, also known as an example of a travel portal application.

What is a travel portal application?

This is the place where people go to book flights, look for hotels, compare ticket rates, see boarding times, and so on. Having apps that can contain this information are useful for individuals traveling as well as travel agencies helping clients set up their destinations.

Development of Travel Portal Apps

Like any app, these are constructed with a tech stack. Primarily, tech stacks consist of frontend and backend software but include any other elements used in the app’s development. The travel industry also contains consultants or companies who aid businesses in travel portal app development, which are a highly recommended resource. Development in different areas of the travel industry such as hotels, flights, Airbnbs, and more will require varying tech stack elements due to the complexity and uniqueness of each type of travel.

Frontend Development

This is everything consumers and travel agencies see. It could be the appearance of the app, checkout system, inventory/lists, etc that they interact with. The most popular frontend development software are:

JQuery
HTML
CSS
js
JavaScript
Angular
React

Backend Development

As its name suggests, this encompasses everything that goes on behind the scenes. These elements include performance speed, scalability, updates, support, security and data privacy, and app management. The following are recommended for this kind of development:

.Net
Ruby on Rails
js
Python
Java
Python

It is important to note that .Net isn’t a programming language. Instead, it’s a framework used in programming. Flexible and most useful with financial-based apps, .Net works similarly to programming languages.

Final Thoughts

The largest factor to consider when constructing travel portal apps is what the app is going to be used for. As previously mentioned, even within the travel industry, there are several different types of travel. Each of these will work better by using frontend and backend tools tailored to that particular app’s goal. Ultimately, app development should look ahead at how big it may grow to. Travel apps must hold large amounts of data or forms and the tools used in development could help or hurt it depending on the tools in its tech stack.

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9 Essential Steps For Building Your Own SaaS Platform

July 14, 2020 Comments Off Roxana read

The SaaS market is huge and can lead to massive revenue if done right. So if you have an idea for a product you want to build, now is probably the best time to get started. In order to do it right though, there are essential steps you need to follow.

Read on to find out everything you need to know if you want to build your own SaaS platform.

Test the market

It’s very important to know the market or industry for your product. Create a simple landing page to showcase how your product is going to solve your customers’ needs. Include a short video presentation and a call to action button so that you can collect emails of your visitors in exchange for free content such as an e-book or discount for when your product is available.

To gain exposure, promote your test page on social media – LinkedIn and Reddit being the best, and don’t forget to install Google Analytics to find out more about the location and demographics of your visitors.

Work out your pricing model

Are you going to offer flat-rate or usage-based pricing? Is your product going to be freemium or paid per feature? You need to determine your pricing model by finding the balance between value and profit.

Think about what your product provides to the customers and what your business needs in terms of revenue and pick the model that best suits your idea.

Write your requirements and specifications

Before building an entire application, you should build an MVP – Minimal Value Product. It will contain your application’s core functionality and will let you easily test your product and get valuable feedback. To build an MVP, you should have all your requirements and details for your product written as clear and specific as possible. If you are a non-technical person, it’s better to hire a consultant to help you with this task.

Choose a tech stack

It’s important to pick carefully the technology stack you want your SaaS product to be developed in. Consider whether it’s suitable for your product and does it supports all the features you need, how big is the developer resource pool, would it be possible to integrate with other platforms or products, and everything else that will ensure you pick the right tech stack.

Find the developers to build your SaaS platform

No matter if you need an individual or a whole theme to build your product, they must have a proven track record when it comes to building and implementing web-based applications. Some of the skills you should look for include frontend development, experience with JavaScript libraries, server-side programming, writing database queries.

Market your product

You should begin marketing your product before building it in order to generate anticipation and excitement around it. Start promoting on social media, build a mailing list, get the word out, and create some buzz!

Get involved in the process

While your SaaS platform is being built, keep in regular contact with your developer or team. This way you can clear all the uncertainties that might come up and make sure your requirements are met and your core features are built to spec. Expect to go through several versions of the product before it’s finally ready to be deployed.

Deploy your Saas platform

When it comes to deployment of your SaaS product you can choose between the two main cloud providers – Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS, that can host your SaaS solution. Before releasing your product to everyone, you can do a private beta test with a selected group of users to make sure there are no serious issues before the main launch and gather valuable feedback on additional features your product might benefit from.

Track the engagement

Your product is finally out in the world, but your job is far from finished! Make sure to monitor user engagement and track KPIs and use all the feedback you receive for the improvement of your SaaS application.

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How to Choose the Right Tech Stack for Your Project

July 30, 2019 Comments Off Roxana read

If you have no idea what a Tech Stack is or how it is going to benefit you, do not worry. You soon will!

A Tech Stack is basically the stack of technology you will use in each part of your project. It’s like preparing everything you need to put in your suitcase for a holiday. Let’s take a closer look!

What is a Tech Stack?

A Tech Stack is the set of tools that are needed in order to build and power an application. It is a mixture of software apps, frameworks, and programming language. As well as the set of tools used, it is also the link that combines the operations.

It can be broken down into the front-end, the side that the client sees and the back-end, the server.

Understanding the Back-end

It is crucial to know that the back-end is the ins and outs of an application. It has to run smoothly, particularly if there are aspects other than just HTML. In terms of structure, the back-end is made up of:

Programming languages- Python, PHP, JavaScript
Frameworks- Swift, Objective-C, Django
Databases- MongoDB, MySQL
Server providers- Apache, Nginx

Each part is interlinked and works with each other. You can’t just add a part because it is funky, this will affect the running of the program. Choose back-end solutions that are commonly used. If one day somebody else works on your program and has no idea about the programming language you use, you might have to start all over again.

Understanding the Front-end

Considering this is the part that app users will see, you have to design a front-end stack that is convenient, accessible and clear. There are typically two main parts to front-end stack:

HTML- structures and puts content in the right place
CSS- the presentation, including backgrounds, colors, and font size and style

If there is an element of interactivity, you will need JavaScript, which will control the where, how and why of the presentation. Libraries are used to control this element, for example, jQuery, and they fit into frameworks, for example, Ember.

What you need to know about Stack Technology

Never take Stack Tech for granted- it is what defines how your app will be. Because of how closely they are linked, you must choose each tool with a lot of thought and listen to developers’ advice. A developer may even be able to show you new technology that is more suitable for you.

New ideas are great if you are just beginning your project. If you have started, you will have to explain to the developer exactly what tech stacks you have used. There are advantages and disadvantages to each technology used. Now we will have a look at how to make your tech stack powerful.

How to make the most out of your Tech Stack

A clearly defined platform

You need to know precisely what your project is going to be able to do so that tech stack documentation can be prepared. You need to know if you are going to make a web application or mobile application, both have different tech stacks. You know how different an Android is to an iPhone, so are their tech stacks.

A good place to start is by knowing about your target audience is. Are they more inclined to pick up their mobile or switch on their desktop? This has to be decided early on so that you can decide on the correct platform to use, whether that is a single platform or multiple.

If you have decided on an MVP, the best option is a single platform. It will be more economical.

Defining the requirements for MVP

Regarding mobile and web applications, MVP is the most important thing. MVP is like a way to proof run of your project, testing its viability and what its competition is like in the real world.

MVPs are your starting point, start with a set of tools that will allow you to achieve your goals. Stacks will normally grow from this. Even though you are just starting out, you still need to have a long-term plan in place that will be built into the configuration from the outset.

Scalability Requirements

While scalability can be adjusted throughout the process, you need to have the foundations before you can make the changes. There are two forms of scalability:

Vertical scalability- adding more elements to your app
Horizontal scalability- being able to run more on a device

They are equally important. Imagine an e-commerce tech stack. Scalability is about keeping both the flexibility and the mastery of the operations.

Is your team an expert in technology?

Behind every good app, there is an excellent team! If your team is struggling to use various technologies, it is absurd to think of a non-tech-savvy person using it. This is more relevant if there is a technology that your team is not used to. An excellent way to resolve this problem is to outsource a team extension.

If you hire a team or just one contractor, make sure that communication and collaboration are above excellent!

Performance Requirements

At the end of the day, the performance of your project is what really matters. You can get performance stats from the business requirement and from seeing what the technology is able to do. It is all very well if the product is concept-wise (it reaches the right target audience), but if it isn’t functioning to the full extent, what is the point?

Performance requirements are related to the speed the system reacts and the number of requests it can process at a certain rate. You need to choose an option that will fulfill the performance requirements for your project. If along the way you don’t feel like it is working, don’t be afraid to move on to alternatives.

The Costs

As with any type of project, you need a budget for your tech stack. Here is where things get a bit more complicated. Software development can cost more than you would think. Here is a break down of potential costs:

Hosting costs for keeping the product
The salaries of developers
Licenses and technology education
Cost for maintaining your project

Keep a close eye on each element of your budget and resist the urge to spend more unless it is absolutely necessary. The fact that software development is so fast-paced, on occasion, it is difficult not to spend in order to keep up.

Examples of Tech Stacks in the Real World

Below you can see two examples of tech stacks. It is not advisable to just copy these. Remember that a tech stack has to be specific to the project.

Spotify tech stack:

Nginx
Python
PostgreSQL
Kafika
Hadoop
Google BigQuery
Google Cloud Dataflow
Bootstrap
Java
Amazon S3
Cassandra
Storm
Google Cloud Bigtable

Slack tech stack:

Javascript
MySQL
Java
PHP
Apache HTTP Server
Android SDK

Conclusion

Hopefully, now you not only understand what a tech stack is but also the importance of selecting tech stacks that are suitable for a certain project. There are numerous options but don’t get overwhelmed or side-tracked by them. Stick to your plan!