Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

November 2021

Telpark: Automating a reconciliation process with over 330,000 transactions per year

Telpark is a leader in the parking and mobility sector in Spain and Portugal, and a leading international company. The Appian solution that Deloitte and Telpark's finance department developed to optimize the reconciliation process perfectly coordinates human and robotic efforts in a unified workflow. Hear from a number of representatives how 70% of items are reconciled in an automated way.

Three Ways to Debug Code in Elixir

Elixir provides a very powerful suite of tools that devs can use to observe the behavior of their code and debug errors. There are several different strategies you can use to debug code in Elixir. While it is hard to produce a comprehensive list of all possible debugging methods, we will cover some of the most common methods in today’s post.

A Complete Guide to CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) for REST APIs

Many current web applications rely on near-frictionless and simultaneous access to numerous API providers' Web APIs. However, the web's default is to prohibit such "loose" behaviour, much like a firewall that blocks access to untrusted parties in the name of security. That default, thankfully, can be safely altered. Before doing so, however, it is necessary for both Web application developers and API providers to understand the concepts of Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS).

Integrating Applications Through an API-First Approach

As the enterprise IT landscape becomes larger and more complex, many organizations are finding it difficult to manage all of their systems and services. According to a study by the access management company Okta, businesses use an average of 73 different enterprise software applications — and 1 in 10 businesses use more than 200 apps. On-premise business APIs can help connect these applications, but they come with several noteworthy drawbacks.

We've raised $60M Series C to help you be faster, more efficient and more successful on mobile

We’ve raised a $60m Series C funding round to help us deliver on that goal. Bitrise is already core to the mobile engineering processes of many of the world’s most successful businesses, but — with this funding — we’ll build out our team and technology to make you even faster, more efficient, and more successful on mobile.

7 Ways to Improve Node.js Performance at Scale

Performance is one of the most important aspects of web application development. A fast application will make its users, developers, and business stakeholders happy, while a slow one is sure to frustrate all three parties. In this article, we will consider some practices that you should adopt to scale your Node.js servers. Your servers will then be able to handle high traffic workloads without a degraded user experience.

We've raised $60M Series C to help you be faster, more efficient and more successful on mobile

We're excited to announce that we’ve raised a $60m Series C funding round to help us deliver on that goal. Bitrise is already core to the mobile engineering processes of many of the world’s most successful businesses, but — with this funding — we’ll build out our team and technology to make you even faster, more efficient, and more successful on mobile.

Microservices vs Monoliths explained

If you’re a dev you’ve no doubt, come across people talking about monolith and microservice application architecture. Perhaps you are involved in designing a new system and have been asked to consider both architectures. The conversations are often regarding how microservices are the successor to monolith architecture, but today I’m going to try and layout why it’s not as simple as one being better than the other.

Securing your Applications in Node.js - Part 1/3

Javascript is here to stay! And the server-side Node.js project is no different 💚. This year marks the 12th (Dec 4, 2009) anniversary of the birth of Node.js, and although it may seem incredible, Javascript has been around for 25 years and the web respectively 32 years. The ecosystem of Node.js is mature and supported by an active community of library developers and authors. Being so popular, it also becomes an exciting challenge for crackers.

How to Handle the <Identifier> Expected Error in Java

By definition, an identifier in Java is a sequence of one or more characters, where the first character must be a valid first character (letter, $, _) and each subsequent character in the sequence must be a valid non-first character (letter, digit, $, _). An identifier can be used to name a package, a class, an interface, a method, a variable, etc.

Automate even faster with the Appian RPA Recorder

Appian is dedicated to helping customers automate their businesses, fast! And the new RPA Recorder speeds up your time-to-value by allowing you to record your browser-based task actions. When you're done, Appian RPA creates a ready-to-automate workflow design that you can use on its own or as part of your overall end-to-end Appian-automated business process.

What is Git Checkout Remote Branch? How It Works, When to Use It, Examples, Tutorials & More

Git is one of the most useful tools for developers and development teams. And Git checkout remote branch makes it easier to collaborate and review. Let’s learn about it today. As developers, we work with Git often. In fact, at Stackify by Netreo, we have a Git page where you can see quite a few repositories. Like many developers and groups, we migrated our version control to a Git-based system a few years back. So working with Git is a big part of our ongoing work.

Creatio: Low-code development Platform for Business

CRM or customer relationship management is not a new technical term businesses use for maintaining their contact in the market. The software is known for its automation commands which monitor a business’s inside and outside activities. Including marketing strategies, lead generation, and customer support, companies rely on CRM for controlling a significant section of their business, which earns a better return for them.

Introducing Dynamic Observability: A no-code integration between Elastic and Rookout

In recent years, Observability has become a de-facto standard when discussing development and maintenance of cloud-native applications. The need to develop an observable system and ensure that as it runs in production, engineers will be able to detect performance issues, downtimes, and service disruptions, has evolved into a rich ecosystem of tools and practices.

Adapting FMEA Steps for Modern Risk Management

If you’re in a regulated industry, you or your team has likely had to use Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) for compliance. But because of the way regulated industries have to balance between the world of very strict quality standards and also high-velocity Agile processes, traditional FMEA has to evolve in order to meet the challenges that are arising in this new reality.

Appian 21.4: Further Extend the Reach and Impact of Your Organization

As digital transformation continues full steam ahead across all industries, organizations are challenged by limited resources in a setting where speed to market is essential. We’re excited to announce Appian 21.4, which has new capabilities that extend the reach of your organization, delivering powerful mobile, AI, and data capabilities that let you connect with your customers anywhere. Only have a few minutes?

Ways to debug App slowness

One of the most important variables in determining the essential success of your company's IT infrastructure is the efficiency of your apps. Having a slow-running application, on the other hand, is a burden on the company's overall performance. Developers must rectify a slow application and determine the root cause of the problem promptly. The top five reasons for SaaS user churn are performance-related issues, which is a major revenue loss that can be avoided.

Apache vs NGINX: How to Choose The Right One?

Web servers are the backbone of the internet. Without web server software like Apache and NGINX, the internet might not be what it is today. However, they are no longer interchangeable. The discussion between Nginx and Apache has been going on for a long time. Both of these servers are industry giants, collectively providing more than half of all web pages on the internet.

Prefix by Netreo Earns Veracode Verified Standard Recognition

Huntington Beach, Calif. – November 17, 2021 – Netreo, the award-winning provider of IT infrastructure and application performance management solutions, today announced that Prefix by Netreo has earned Veracode Verified Standard recognition for proven security practices in application development. Veracode Verified Standard status confirms that code development processes meet AppSec best practices and further boosts the security posture of Prefix by Netreo.

WSO2 Recognized in Two New Gartner Reports for Full Life Cycle API Management

I’m proud to share that WSO2 has been recognized in two new Gartner reports for full life cycle API management. We are sincerely grateful to our many satisfied customers for providing their feedback on how WSO2 has been instrumental in driving their digital transformation initiatives. We appreciate the time they took out of their busy schedules to help us out. Now, on to the details.

App Development: 3 Ways to Add an API to Your App

Applications that use a REST API architecture are designed to be loosely coupled and transfer information quickly. While this architecture focuses on transferring data between clients/servers, it can also apply when interacting with other systems and users. In the world of app development, the need for better, faster, and easier-to-understand APIs is growing, and REST APIs are dominating the legacy modernization conversation.

5 Ways API-Led Connectivity Is Changing Business

With more data and systems at their fingertips than ever before, organizations need a concrete strategy for how to connect them with their own enterprise IT. This has led to the rise of API-led connectivity, which offers a dramatic shake-up to the way that companies access and integrate these technologies and services. In this article, we’ll explore five industries in which API-led connectivity has changed the business landscape as we know it.

Airtable: Database made simpler

The post pandemic period is one wherein being tech-savvy has become an absolute necessity. Today, business-houses have got to store huge amounts of data while simultaneously analyzing it. And although spreadsheets could combat this problem to an extent, they’re not a dependable solution in the long run. This is why the need for a versatile database management tool has risen, which can have all your information and ideas just a click away.

Spring vs. Spring Boot, Whats the Difference?

Spring is the most popular application development framework in Java. However, over the past few years, Spring has become increasingly complex because of added functionalities. Starting a new project usually requires going through a lengthy process and takes a lot of time. To avoid starting from scratch and to save time, Spring Boot was introduced. Spring Boot uses Spring as its foundation layer and allows developers to build a standalone application with none or minimal configuration.

.NET Core vs. .NET Framework: Side-by-Side Comparison

.NET Core vs. .NET Framework is a popular debate in the IT community. Many individuals and enterprises are curious to learn about the aspects of these Microsoft inventions, so read on. We will begin with an overview of these technologies, their benefits to end-users, and their relevance in this digital age. Feel free to use these links to navigate the guide.

Monolithic vs. Microservices Architecture: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Microservices have gained a lot of traction in the last few years. Ever since the dawn of time, monolithism – packaging all your modules into one colossal codebase – was the default way to go when building software applications. However, as applications have had to cater to increasing volumes (of millions) of users over the internet over the last decade, scalability and flexibility have become ever more critical.

Using Low-Code to Solve the 3 Biggest Challenges of State and Local Government

State and local government agencies in the US are facing heightened demand to address a long-avoided issue: outdated technology. The existing solutions these government organizations rely on are not user friendly, limit collaboration by siloing essential data, and make processes longer and more cumbersome than they need to be. Yet, despite the limitations that result from outdated solutions, it should come as no surprise that only 60% of states have a digital strategy.

Learning to Code: A Quick Guide for Beginner Programmers

Would you like to learn to code and build popular websites or apps? Do you know the necessary steps to achieve this goal? Most people start by reading popular programming books or subscribing to online courses and tutorials that teach coding. While this approach may seem enjoyable at first, you’re likely to encounter confusing concepts and inadequate assistance quickly frustrates most newbie programmers.

A Concise Introduction to REST APIs

A REST API — or representational state transfer application programming interface — is a data interface that allows for the creation and consumption of resources. It’s not just for GET requests, but also for other HTTP verbs such as PUT, POST, and DELETE. REST APIs can also handle CRUD (Create, Read, and Update, and Delete) operations. In this way, a REST API is a software bridge between two levels of abstraction in a system.

WebSockets Tutorial: Going Real-time with Node and React

Everyone seems to be making chat apps these days, but messaging apps are merely the tip of the iceberg. Consider this for a moment, within the real-time domain, there are a plethora of different things you can create. We'll start with some fundamental concepts and work our way up to see how to go real-time with Node and React in the following post. By the end of this article, you will have created a very simple real-time application. That will be a lengthy post!

How to Fix Unreachable Statement Errors in Java

Statements are foundational language constructs that have an effect on the execution of a program. Statements are similar to sentences in natural languages. In Java, there are three main types of statements, namely expression statements, declaration statements, and control-flow statements 1. As a compiled programming language, Java has an inbuilt mechanism for preventing many source code errors from winding up in executable programs and surfacing in production environments 2.

Antalis Go Live with Appian

Antalis is a leading professional paper distributor and provider of packaging and visual communication solutions in Europe and Latin America. Antalis provides one of the most extensive and diversified range of products and solutions in the market. They offer their clients a deep level of service in terms of customization, expertise, and logistics, mainly through their 110 distribution centers around the world.

Now is the Time to Enter the Low-Code Economy

Low-Code. This is a new term for many, and it raises questions. The first is “What is it?” Suffice to say, low-code is a new way to build software applications that is faster and better than traditional coding. A more urgent question is “why do we need it?” What kinds of shifts has the world seen that have caused something like low-code to gain prominence? We need to take a few steps back to understand how business and the tech industry have evolved.

How To Fight Document Overload with Low-Code and IDP

In a Harvard Business Review article, Thomas C. Redman references a project by AT&T, the world’s largest telecommunications company, where the simple task of reducing invoicing errors uncovered something shocking: over 40% of invoicing data contained errors that cost the company tens of millions of dollars. Even in 2021—the age of digitalization—poor quality data is wreaking havoc in businesses, costing the United States a staggering $3 trillion per year.

How to Customize Your Kong Developer Portal

A developer portal is a storefront to your APIs (the products) that internal and external developers are trying to consume. The Kong Developer Portal provides a single source of truth for all developers to locate, access and consume services. With intuitive content management for documentation, streamlined developer onboarding and role-based access controls (RBAC), Kong’s Developer Portal provides a comprehensive solution for creating a unified developer experience.

Replacing the FMEA Risk Assessment: How to Manage Risk in an Agile World

Product failures and defects can occur on many different shapes and levels, impacting any part of the user experience, functionality, and even safety. In the past, organizations were taking the approach of of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) for risk assessment. This allowed teams to identify and prevent failure before a product or update is released.

5 Features that Save Developers Time in the Appian 21.4 Release

Did you know it takes an average of six months to build and deploy a basic enterprise app? It’s time to get our hours back. Low-code platforms like Appian cut that dev time in half or more. Design your apps securely and quickly using visual workflows so you can spend your time coding creative custom features instead of working on non-value adding, monotonous development tasks.

Best Developer Tools: 5 APIs That Make Life Easier for Developers

Looking to understand more about what the best developer tools on the market? Here, we’ll have a look at 5 essential APIs that will make life easier for any developer. APIs are critical to enabling applications to communicate with each other. For example, they let your email app talk to your bank’s website, and they let the different programs on your computer work together seamlessly.

Types of Exceptions in Java

Java is an object-oriented programming language. It supports a variety of techniques, including exception handling. This Java feature allows developers to control exception-related runtime issues. In Java, an exception is an event that happens during the execution of a program and prevents the program's instructions from flowing normally. Exceptions are bugs or errors that we don't want and that prevent our application from running normally. In this article, we are discussing exceptions in Java.

Top 9 Database-as-a-Service Products

Data and information are the main currency of the 21st century. When managing applications, we have to deal with reams of data and store it for future use, either in our file system, in the memory of the application or in designated data management apps, also known as databases. Traditionally, databases have been local applications that required installation, management and maintenance.

10 Most Significant Vue.js UI Component Libraries in 2021

Vue.js, popularly known as Vue is an open-source model which is quite popular in javascript. Vue.js is a progressive javascript framework, which is used to build UIS (user interfaces) and SPAs (single page application). It is quite famous for its fast-moving curves. Day by day Vue has collected a lot of victory, since its establishment from 2014. The main reason for its victory by winning the hearts of many developers is its flexibility, ease to use and simplicity.

How to solve your Node.js problems up to 4x faster

A bug on your Node.js application can mean many things: In other words, a bug on your Node.js application can mean a lot of different things depending on the industry you are working in. Some industries can't afford 5 minutes down; others can afford weeks down. Even more important, the software - correctly working - can impact lives.

Low-Code vs. No-Code: What it Means for Insurance

As insurtechs and tech giants continue to disrupt the market, traditional insurers are under increasing pressure to modernize and keep pace with customers’ digital expectations. This trend shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, global insurtech investment reached a record $7.1 billion in 2020, with overall funding up 12% from 2019, according to Willis Towers Watson. It seems like everywhere you look there’s new technology promising to solve business challenges or inefficiencies.

The Top 5 Benefits of Low-Code Development Platforms

According to a recent report by Appian, 84% of companies surveyed have turned to low-code tools to reduce the strain on their IT departments. In the same report, 43% of organizations surveyed reported greater agility and 43% reported reduced cost. Given these numbers combined with rapidly changing market conditions, companies must embrace digital transformation. Below, we’ll discuss the benefits of low-code development platforms and how it enables companies to remain agile.

5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs APIs

Once you find a platform that makes it easy for you to execute an effective API strategy, it becomes obvious why your business needs a standardized, secure and documented APIs. If you’ve had negative experiences with APIs that can take a long time to build or don’t offer the functionality you want, it’s time to take a pause and learn more about how you can benefit when you have an advanced API management platform working for you.

15 Best JavaScript Chart Libraries in 2021

The need to show data as a chart or table has become more critical for every organization as data gathering has increased. To produce a dashboard and charts that everyone can understand, developers must mix many database records. However, since the introduction of chart libraries, data visualization has improved. Interactive charts are now available through libraries and plugins.

Coding Java Applications the Serverless Way

Serverless Java applications use modern cloud computing to let developers focus on business logic rather than infrastructure. In a serverless environment, the infrastructure provider takes care of scaling, runtimes, resource management, security and other specifics. Concerns such as number of instances to run and which OS to use are managed by Function as a Service (FaaS) platforms, allowing developers to focus on application code.

How Low-Code Platforms Are Democratizing Financial Services Automation

Financial services industry leaders overwhelmingly choose low-code platforms to manage their automation—81% of industry-leading companies say they are ahead or far ahead of competitors in adopting low-code platforms. What makes platforms so appealing to these companies? Well, many things, but not least the way they enable non-technical employees to design and manage applications and automation workflows with little to no developer support. In other words, their ability to democratize automation.

Updated ELK Stack Guide For 2022 (Installation, Tutorials & More)

The ELK Stack has millions of users globally due to its effectiveness for log management, SIEM, alerting, data analytics, e-commerce site search and data visualisation. In this extensive guide (updated for 2021) we cover all of the essential basics you need to know to get started with installing ELK, exploring its most popular use cases and the leading integrations you’ll want to start ingesting your logs and metrics data from.

Tools for Improving an App's or Website's Appearance

Since the time we are born, we are told not to judge a book by its cover. Naturally, this principle has never been meant to apply solely to books. The phrase is a way of reminding people that the appearance of anything, whether it be a book, app, or even a person, doesn’t necessarily indicate whether it’s valuable or not. To some degree, this can be an important lesson to remember. However, there are instances when physical appearance can tell us something about a business or individual.

Adding a Real-Time Layer to Datadog Observability

We all know Datadog. It’s a powerful and established tool that developers, DevOps, and SREs use for anything ranging from monitoring their application’s performance and searching their logs to having an end-to-end understanding of the environment. The nature of cloud-native applications makes the three pillars of observability – (Metrics, Logs, Traces) – needed more than ever to get visibility into your application.

Introducing Appian Mobile Complete Offline Capabilities | Appian

We all know how frustrating it can be to lose a network connection, especially while we’re working. That’s why Appian is excited to introduce complete offline mobile capabilities to Appian Mobile as part of the 21.4 release. Mobile offline capabilities allow employees to use their mobile business apps with or without a network connection.

What Are Cloud Native Java Applications & Architectures?

Cloud-native has been one of the biggest trends in software development for quite a while. Developing, deploying and managing applications outside of local machines and entirely in the cloud offers countless opportunities to businesses. The cloud computing delivery model helps them bring new ideas to market faster and respond swiftly to customer requests. From a technical point of view, cloud-native development provides faster and lighter runtimes, reduces complexity and stabilizes applications.

A brief guide to effective onboarding for mobile engineering teams

A proper onboarding strategy featuring a standard set of processes and tools increases employee retention rates, improves job performance, and creates a happier workforce. In this short guide, we'll look at how poor onboarding experiences can adversely affect mobile development teams, as well as some engineering-specific tips to design great onboarding processes for your prospective mobile developers.

Who needs CMMC certification (Resource Guide for 2022)

If your company works with the US Department of Defense (DoD) as a contractor or subcontractor, you will need to prepare to meet CMMC requirements in order to successfully bid on and win contracts. This recent development has been a significant adjustment for small organisations who wish to work with or continue working with the DoD.

Pixpa: The All-in-One Website Builder

Having an online presence is important, especially in this day and age. Nearly everything and everyone has gone digital and the first step anyone takes when trying to discover new businesses and services is to ‘Google it’. While social media and other such platforms have their place in digital marketing, nothing beats the exclusivity, control and professionalism that having your own website gives you.

Designing Error Messages and a Logging Strategy in Node.js

Error handling is one section of our job that we tend to neglect, especially when working on something new, interesting, or something we just need to get working. We’ll handle errors later, we say — and that’s often a big lie. But that’s not even the worst part. The problem comes when we decide to ‘quickly’ add some code to handle our errors and completely forget about the importance and relevance of a properly constructed error message.

Authorization and Policy Scopes for Phoenix Apps

Authorization (not to be confused with authentication) is vital to every application but often isn’t given much thought before implementation. The IETF Site Security Handbook defines authorization as: So, in short, authorization is about defining access policies and scoping. For example, consider a platform like Github.

Optimize These 5 Functions to Deliver a Connected Insurance Experience

Consumer demand for a digital, connected insurance experience is on the rise. But with disparate legacy systems in place that make it difficult to share data and make informed, real-time decisions, insurance companies are finding themselves in need of new technology to streamline their customer journey.

Your Complete Guide to Automation Testing for IT teams

Software development is a series of trial and error. It takes a conscientious effort and a large amount of time to create a product that meets technical specifications and user requirements. That is why repeated software testing is a significant part of the process, as it allows developers to take notes and improve the product each time. Catching software issues early on can save a company a lot of time and money.

How to Execute a Great API Strategy

Knowing how to execute an API strategy for your organization offers numerous benefits. As today’s business and technology worlds move to cloud-based environments, APIs play an essential role in creating a successful cloud-based infrastructure. Some companies, such as Stripe and Twilio, use great APIs to stand out from their competitors and generate higher revenues. You don’t necessarily need a lot of technical experience to execute an API strategy that delivers quality outcomes.

Top 10 Microservices Benefits

Many companies have embarked on microservices software projects in an effort to make modernize their suite of technology systems and reap the benefits that can come from deploying such an architecture. In the microservices model, applications are divided into a series of interconnected services based on operational capabilities. Each service supports a distinct set of functionality, effectively acting as a mini-application with its own operational logic, adapters, and even database schema.

A Comprehensive Guide To Error Handling In Node.js

Errors happen in every application. Devs have to decide: do you write code to handle the error? Suppress it? Notify the user? Report it to the team? In this article, Ayo Isaiah walks us through every aspect of the JavaScript error system. He'll show us how to work with errors and discuss appropriate choices for real-world scenarios.

Quarkus vs Spring Boot: Which Framework is Right for You?

In modern application architecture and development, there has been a push from monolithic applications towards microservices. This has made microservices frameworks (micro-frameworks) very popular since they make it easier to prototype, design and build microservices applications. Spring Boot and Quarkus are both very popular microservices frameworks for building cloud native Java applications.

Low-Code DevOps - How Low-Code Transforms Collaborative Development in DevOps

At its most basic level, DevOps—a combination of development and operations—refers to a set of practices that streamline application development at every stage, from building and testing to deploying and monitoring. DevOps largely aims to break down silos and improve collaboration for teams looking to increase agility without compromising on software quality. Unfortunately, traditional high-code methods of development present a few challenges to successful DevOps transformations.