Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

January 2023

A pragmatic guide to BuildContext in Flutter

As a senior Flutter developer, a big part of my daily job consists of reviewing code, mentoring other developers, and helping them with their problems. One mistake that I noticed developers repeating on many occasions is misusing BuildContext. I analyzed why this happens and came to the conclusion that it is because of an incomplete understanding of what BuildContext is, how it works, and its scope and lifecycle.

Push Notification Testing and Troubleshooting

In today’s landscape, the mobile app industry, undoubtedly, is highly competitive. That’s why marketers always keep an eye out for the latest trends and coherent strategies to be one step ahead of their competitors. Of all the tactics, one thing that might always work is providing customers with the best user experience possible. You need a strategic course of action that instantly leads you to your customers. But how?

Top 10 iOS Libraries of 2023: Stay Ahead of the Game

This is the most fertile time for app development since the launch of the App Store 15 years ago. Our industry is in the grip of several simultaneous revolutions, each of them bending, flexing and moulding to the others. 5G promises to make our apps 10 times faster; wearable technology lets them wrap themselves around our bodies; artificial intelligence enables them to learn from us and get smarter every day. But this torrent of innovation brings challenges, too.

Tiny Flutter: The future of Dart & Flutter on small devices?

Dart recently added experimental support for the new RISC-V CPU architecture and the first boards with these new chips are now starting to be available. One of these is the Sipeed Lichee D1, a RaspberryPi type device that is able to run Linux and Dart. At the same time, tiny but very cheap OLED screens are showing up in all sorts of devices, from soldering irons to high end music synthesizers. But what does it mean for Flutter and its mission "Beautiful apps for every screen" when the screen is 1 inch with a resolution of 128x64? Is that even possible? In this talk I'll cover how to get Dart running on one of these boards, how to use these tiny screens from Dart and what parts of Flutter can help with using screens this small.

Top 10 Android Emulators for PCs in 2023

According to a poll conducted in 2022, more than 2.65 million Android applications and 494K+ publishers were on the Google Play Store alone. This number demonstrates the need for enhanced testing techniques for mobile applications. Android emulators for PCs will help you do that. There are various Android emulators on the market. Each differs in compatibility, user experience, usage, and pricing. You will need to pick the Android emulator that suits your needs.

Introducing the official Codemagic integration for Runway

Codemagic is now officially integrated with Runway, the DevOps platform for mobile. But wait, you might be wondering, isn’t Codemagic already that as a CI/CD for mobile? Aren’t the two services interchangeable? In fact, it’s quite the opposite — they’re powerfully complementary.

Your Complete Guide to TeamCity vs Jenkins [2023 Edition]

Build. Test. Deploy. Every real-world application development involves the above three stages. But do they need to be in the same sequence? Let’s start with the Waterfall model; it is sequential and moves forward in phases. But as the industry evolved, it became obsolete. Agile methodology took its place, which works iteratively to overcome its predecessor’s drawbacks. Yet again, the industry evolved to look for something more collaborative; agile no longer served the purpose precisely.

Importance of a Good QA Environment

Once upon a time, development teams battled a widespread problem: gaining access to a stable QA environment. One of the biggest nightmares of a developer is developing a new software or feature that fails to function in the real world. This is where the exposure to the relevant environments where you can extensively test your code before putting them into production works as a boon for you.

Accelerate Digital Transformation With a "Mobile-First" Strategy

In today’s world, being connected anywhere and anytime is the most crucial aspect for anyone, and mobile phones as a device are one of the most critical enablers. With smartphones and internet connectivity, having access to content has become a click away. Purchase decisions and payment modes have been greatly influenced by the mobile landscape, so it has become important for companies to provide a great user experience across platforms and devices, with mobile being the prime device.

What is Smoke testing? - A Detailed Guide

“What is a smoke test” is a widely asked question when it comes to software testing. A smoke test is a type of software test that verifies that the most important functions of a program work. It is also known as “Build Verification Testing” or “Build Acceptance Testing”. The goal of smoke testing is to determine if a build is stable enough to proceed with further testing.

QR Code Test: How To Check If a QR Code Works

QR codes are quickly becoming an essential part of our digital lives. As these QR codes become more widespread, software testers must understand the importance of testing them. Testing QR codes requires unique skills and knowledge that can be difficult for inexperienced testers to acquire. This tutorial blog post will discuss the basics of QR code testing and why it is so important.

The Growing Need for Advanced Analytics to Fuel 5G and Edge Solutions

Organizations have been focused on enhancing customer experiences to enable quicker responses to services and to provide localized behavior for many years now. However, with the Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Cities, Gaming technologies and Self-Driving Cars going more mainstream, there is an even greater need for organizations to react faster to customer behavior and bring solutions closer to the customers.

9 Major Reasons for Mobile App Failure and How to Avoid Them

Are you thinking about launching a mobile app? If so, it’s important to know that not all mobile apps are successful. Many mobile apps fail shortly after their launch for various reasons. Mobile apps have become an integral part of our daily lives, allowing us to stay connected, stay organized, and get things done more efficiently. However, not all mobile apps are successful. Many mobile apps fail shortly after their launch for various reasons.

Key Differences Between Top-Down and Bottom-Up Integration Testing

Once Unit testing is over and you integrate separate modules to form a complete system, Integration testing comes into the picture. It follows certain specifications to examine the interaction and behavior of different modules as they come together to build a system. As such, Integration testing follows two approaches—Top-down and Bottom-up—that offer an organized way of building a programming structure, all the while continuing the testing processes.

How to Identify and Troubleshoot Issues in Your Electron App

As developers, it’s easy to get fixated on the mobile sphere. We’re now spending 4-5 hours a day browsing apps on our phone (that’s over 1,800 hours a year), which means a huge volume of demand is channelling into Android and iOS projects. But desktop apps are booming too.

Ensure Seamless Audio-Visual Quality for iOS Apps with Sauce Labs

With the latest manual testing feature from Sauce Labs, you can test your native iOS application’s audio output and video streaming quality to ensure a seamless customer experience. Game development studios, media companies, educational institutions, and entertainment platforms all rely on their app’s audio and streaming capabilities to evoke powerful and engaging experiences for their customers.

What is Unit Testing, and How Does It Work?

If you’re a software engineer, chances are you’ve encountered the term “unit testing” at some point in your career. But what exactly is unit testing, and how does it work? You’ve written a few lines of code and want to ensure they work as expected. So you run the code, and boom, it all falls apart. In the digital age, broken code can mean lost money, frustrated users, and a lot of wasted time. That’s where unit testing comes in.

Best Android Emulator for Linux - 2023 Edition

On 25th August 1991, a computer-science student in Finland posted the following message on a Usenet newsgroup: “I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since April, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).

Effective mobile testing strategy to help streamline testing

Today's smartphones are far more than a device used for calling or texting. With several apps installed, they can become your virtual personal assistant. In a mobile-centric digital world, delivering an immersive mobile experience with consistent quality is a real challenge, where QA strategy plays a critical role. Carefully planning out what should be executed is the first important step to delivering fully-functional applications, gaining high retention rates and achieving business goals.

A Complete Guide on Beta Testing Apps

When creating iOS or Android apps, you go through the beta testing stage, often done after alpha testing. Consider this a soft launch for your app, allowing your beta testers to try it and provide feedback on what needs improving and what you can remove. Beta testing apps gain real-world experience and learn how your app will operate when used by actual people.

Creating WebView Content Blockers with Flutter InAppWebView

In this article, we are going to learn how to create a custom Content Blocker for our WebView instances using the flutter_inappwebview plugin. Content Blockers are usually used for blocking ads, but you can also use them to block any other content. Blocking behaviors include hiding elements, blocking loads, and, on iOS and macOS, stripping cookies from WebView requests.