Fastest way to build web + mobile apps with limited coding experience
Hi all,
So I need to build this freelance - community based platform. It is a trivial programming task, just requires signup/signin functionality, and the ability to rate other users, exchange messages with them and possibly upload pictures on one's profile. Also sorting users by ratings etc.
I have experience making Android apps (Java) and also have used FireBase (firestore and cloud functions) for my apps. However I have no experience building web apps or ios apps, neither have I ever used any web framework. I know basic HTML, JavaScript and also Python. Also have experience with C#.
What is the fastest way to build a MVP? (web app, android and ios)
I have read about the ionic framework used for making progressive web apps? Should I start with that? Can I use my existing knowledge to shorten development time?
Would it be possible to make something like this using Firebase only, because I don't have backend/server knowledge.
I would suggest go with react native. If you have experience working with java, learning JavaScript should na a charm. You can always transport you skill to build front end later. Also I would suggest using node and relational database rather than nosql. I have been in many situations when I had to go back to relational database in midway
Have been wanting to learn node for a while, this is a good opportunity to do so. Thanks for your input!
Java has nothing to do with JavaScript :) I agree with the relational databases tho.
I meant if you are working with java learning JavaScript shouldn’t be hard to learn. I believe JavaScript is one of the easiest language to learn. I agree java and JavaScript are not same :)
Oh, my apologies then :) I misunderstood your comment!
Flutter. https://www.udemy.com/course/flutter-bootcamp-with-dart/
If you want to start with an MVP, go with a web app. You can iterate on it quickly and aren't limited by restrictions imposed by mobile platform vendors (esp. Apple). There is also no wait time to get your app updates approved. And in my experience building apps for all platforms (desktop, mobile, and web), web is the easiest and mobile is probably the hardest.
If you have a little bit of javascript experience then using https://cordova.apache.org/ might be a good option. Getting a project going with it is dead simple (few command line tasks) and you can take pretty much any Javascript/HTML and bundle it up as both an android and IOS app. I've heard good things about Ionic, but there's certainly some overhead to getting started with that.
There's definitely downsides to using Cordova, but if you're looking to some quick and easy it fits the bill.
For persistence if you have experience with Firebase I'd say just use that.
Will take a look, thanks for your input!
It sounds like a cool project. I will do a Weekend Startup MVP Challenge, you might want to submit your idea here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-will-live-stream-coding-a-weekend-startup-mvp-challenge-cf53426483
You could do this as an MVP just as a responsive website. In my opinion, Firebase (NoSQL) is not a good fit for data with lots of relationships, which is usually the case for apps. I prefer SQL databases with preferably a GraphQL API on top.
I see. I am not familiar with GraphQL but will look into it. Thanks for your response.