mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

Join us in exploring the world of modern development, evolving technologies, and the art of future-proof software

Year: 2021

7 web application development trends to watch in 2021

trendsSummary: With the move towards a remote work environment, web application development became increasingly important. Will this demand for web apps slow down in the coming year? What can we expect for 2021? How will web application development evolve and what areas should you focus on? In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the biggest web app dev trends to monitor in the coming year.

The fastest low-code platform just got faster

developmentI’m happy to announce that we’ve recently released a revamped front-end for our m-Power Development Platform! The result: Improved speed and usability. For those unfamiliar, m-Power is a low-code application development platform that lets anyone build enterprise web applications without coding. It creates all types of custom web applications such as report-writing, BI, executive dashboards, e-commerce, customer portals, and mobile applications to name a few.

With this release, we redesigned and rebuilt m-Power’s front-end from the ground up. The main goals of the project: Improve speed, keep pace with current trends, and incorporate new technologies into the interface.

The results: With a revamped front-end, m-Power is now the fastest low-code platform available today. How so? With this latest release, m-Power received a speed boost on several levels:

How to create a customer portal in 11 minutes

developmentA customer portal provides a secure, customer-only area on your site where customers can purchase products, view information, submit support requests, update account information, and more. They help businesses improve customer satisfaction, streamline customer support, and even drive revenue.

But…building a customer/vendor portal is a tricky task. One portal must display different data to different users. If one user logs in and sees data that they shouldn’t see, you’ll have a big problem on your hands. You need a way to not only build all of the applications in your portal, but ensure they have at least 3 types of security set up:

1. User security: The most basic security option, user security limits portal access to only registered users.
2. Application security: Once a user logs in to the portal, application security controls which applications they can access.
3. Multi-tenant security: This type of security controls user access at a row level. That means different users can access the same application but only see the data that they’re authorized to access.

Here’s a question: How long does it take to build a secure customer portal and populate that portal with applications for your customers? A few weeks? Months?

How about 11 minutes?

We just created a video to show you how it’s done. This video walks you through the process of building a few applications, setting up security, and creating a customer portal. We walk you through everything from start to finish so you can see just how easy portals can be (with the right tools).

Want to try it for yourself? Set up an m-Power Test Drive.

Want to read the video transcript instead of watching the video? You can find it here: How to create a customer portal in 11 minutes.

7 technologies that CIOs can’t ignore in 2021

trendsSummary: It’s been a strange past 12 months. As the pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe, it forced businesses to adapt. Many were completely unprepared for the new remote work environment. Many realized they didn’t have the digital solutions needed to adapt. As the pandemic (hopefully) winds down, what technologies will have the biggest impact on the business world in the coming year? In this article, we explore a few more technologies that the modern CIO cannot afford to ignore.