BROUGHT TO YOU IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE DZONE GUIDE TO DYNAMIC WEB & MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT Dear Reader, Table of Contents Welcome to the 2018 DZone Guide to Dynamic Web and Web Mobile 3 Executive Summary Application Development. Since February 2017, I have managed the BY KARA PHELPS Web Dev Zone here on DZone. In that time, the fields of web and mobile 6 Key Research Findings development have seen interesting changes, from backend runtimes BY JORDAN BAKER to how developers create dynamic UIs and mobile applications. 12 Mobile Apps, APIs, and Secrets BY PAULO RENATO And at the heart of this revolution sits JavaScript. A language originally created to only execute on the client-side of a web browser 15 Diving Deeper into Dynamic Web & Mobile Application now has the ability to create servers and backend logic, run native Development mobile applications, and, of course, deliver expectational user 18 Infographic: The 12-Factor App experience on the front-end. Through the use of particular tech stacks, such as MEAN (Mongo-Express-Angular-Node) or MERN 22 Security Best Practices for Managing Mobile API (Mongo-Express-React-Node), developers can now create full- Access Tokens BY ISABELLE MAUNY stack applications using the JavaScript ecosystem. Additionally, the emergence of React Native and NativeScript gives JavaScript 25 What Developers Need to Know: 3 Tips for Effective developers the ability to create fully native mobile applications. Mobile Testing BY CLINT SPRAUVE But JavaScript is not the only actor on the stage of web development. 27 Executive Insights on Web and Mobile Development Drawing upon other subfields of software development, such as BY TOM SMITH DevSecOps, database development, and integration engineering, web and mobile application developers are being tasked with 29 Web & Mobile Application Development Solutions Directory integrating authentication protocols into their code, integrating APIs and API calls, and sending database requests. Machine learning, big 36 Glossary DZONE.COM/GUIDES data, and AI are even making in-roads in web development, allowing DZONE.COM/GUIDES sites and their developers to monitor user behavior for patterns. Web DZone is... development is now, more than ever, a multi-faceted field. BUSINESS & PRODUCT PRODUCTION EDITORIAL MATT TORMOLLEN CHRIS SMITH SUSAN ARENDT In this guide, expert mobile and web developers from across CEO DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MATT SCHMIDT ANDRE POWELL MATT WERNER PRESIDENT software industry cover various topics that relate to web and mobile SR. PRODUCTION COORD. PUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR JESSE DAVIS G. RYAN SPAIN EVP, TECHNOLOGY SARAH DAVIS PRODUCTION COORD. app development. We’ll take a look at securing and managing APIs PUBLICATIONS ASSOCIATE KELLET ATKINSON MEDIA PRODUCT MANAGER BILLY DAVIS with access tokens, how mobile applications utilize APIs, testing PRODUCTION COORD. KARA PHELPS CONTENT & COMMUNITY applications, and more. NAOMI KROMER MANAGER SALES SR. CAMPAIGN SPECIALIST TOM SMITH CHRIS BRUMFIELD JASON BUDDAY RESEARCH ANALYST SALES MANAGER CAMPAIGN SPECIALIST MIKE GATES Given the astronomical amount of information, technologies, and FERAS ABDEL MICHAELA LICARI CONTENT TEAM LEAD SALES MANAGER CAMPAIGN SPECIALIST tools available on web and mobile development, there’s no way one JIM DYER JORDAN BAKER SR. ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE CONTENT COORDINATOR developer can master them all. But we hope this guide helps you MARKETING ANDREW BARKER SUSAN WALL ANNE MARIE GLEN achieve your development goals and learn something interesting SR. ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE CMO CONTENT COORDINATOR BRETT SAYRE AARON TULL ANDRE LEE-MOYE ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE DIR. OF MARKETING along the way. CONTENT COORDINATOR ALEX CRAFTS SARAH HUNTINGTON KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER DIR. OF MARKETING LAUREN FERRELL CONTENT COORDINATOR BRIAN ANDERSON WAYNETTE TUBBS Thank you again for reading and your continued support of DZone. KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER DIR. OF MARKETING COMM. LINDSAY SMITH SEAN BUSWELL ASHLEY SLATE CONTENT COORDINATOR We hope you enjoy the 2018 DZone Guide to Dynamic Web and Mobile SALES DEV. REP. SR. DESIGN SPECIALIST Application Development. JORDAN SCALES KRISTEN PAGÀN SALES DEV. REP. MARKETING SPECIALIST DANIELA HERNANDEZ COLIN BISH SALES DEV. REP. MARKETING SPECIALIST LINDSAY POPE By Jordan Baker CUSTOMER MARKETING MAN. CONTENT COORDINATOR, DEVADA SUHA SHIM ACQUISITION MARKETING MAN. THE DZONE GUIDE TO DYNAMIC WEB & MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT PAGE 2 OF 37 THE DZONE GUIDE TO DYNAMIC WEB & MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT Executive Summary KARA PHELPS - CONTENT AND COMMUNITY MANAGER, DEVADA Web application development continues to skyrocket in demand, without applications and services (otherwise known as software-as-a-service, a slowdown in sight. Every organization needs a web developer (or two, or SaaS). 50 percent of respondents are developing enterprise business or 10) to help reach customers and interact with them, and the nature apps, and 27 percent are developing native mobile apps. of the job is always in flux. New languages, tools, and frameworks are constantly overtaking each other in the race to solve the latest critical IMPLICATIONS issue. It’s a face-paced industry with a thriving community. As cloud adoption continues to increase and mature at the enterprise level, more organizations are creating web apps to meet the needs of The overlap between the fields of web dev and mobile also keeps cloud-based businesses — and those of consumers. growing. It’s no longer just “mobile-first” — mobile is a given. This year, we combined our web development survey and our mobile survey for the RECOMMENDATIONS first time. We asked 818 professionals in web and mobile development to SaaS operates on a subscription model, asking users to purchase weigh in on the state of the industry and the range of technologies they a license and typically support services. Organizations can then use. Here are a few key trends we noticed. deliver software to users without asking them to install anything, and standardized APIs integrate customer data and various functionalities ANGULAR STILL DOMINATES, BUT OTHER with on-premise software and other SaaS applications. When developing OPTIONS ARE GETTING LOUDER web apps like this, it’s crucial to put processes in place to make sure DATA they’re consistently available, easily updated, and secure. 55 percent of survey respondents have used the Angular framework; 52 percent have used AngularJS. React trails at 40 percent. 66 percent of IT’S CHROME AND ANDROID’S WORLD; WE DZONE.COM/GUIDES respondents, however, are interested in using React, compared to 43 JUST LIVE IN IT percent who are interested in using Angular, and 30 percent who are DATA interested in using AngularJS. 97 percent of survey respondents said they actively develop for Chrome, IMPLICATIONS 64 percent for Mozilla Firefox, 41 percent for Internet Explorer; 30 percent Angular doesn’t have backwards compatibility, so it’s a bit surprising to for Safari, and 26 percent for Edge. As for mobile platforms, 82 percent see so much interest in its predecessor, AngularJS — although it makes of survey respondents said they develop apps for Android, 59 percent for sense that developers wouldn’t want to refactor their existing code. iOS, and 25 percent for React Native. Front-end web developers are still predominantly most familiar working with the Angular and AngularJS frameworks, but they are increasingly IMPLICATIONS drawn toward React. While React is technically a library, not a framework, Chrome is the overwhelming favorite browser for developers, thanks in it offers a wide range of open-source integrations and maintains part to its excellent developer tools (although Firefox has a great set as performance during asynchronous data requests. well). Chrome is also widely used outside the tech community, helping to ensure a broad reach for Chrome-targeted web apps. When it comes RECOMMENDATIONS to mobile, Android is still the top choice. Apps using this platform tend to New developers would be well-served to learn JavaScript, and it certainly be written in Java, and 82 percent of survey respondents (equal to those wouldn’t hurt to get familiar with Angular and TypeScript, the subset of who said they develop for Android) reported that their company uses the JavaScript that Angular uses. They still dominate the current landscape. Java ecosystem. However, major companies rely on React, like Facebook (which created it) and AirBnB. React’s popularity among developers is also significant, so RECOMMENDATIONS this is a good time to study up. Chrome and Firefox use may be widespread, but you should still test your YOU’RE PROBABLY BUILDING A WEB APP app in other browsers — people do use them. And, while iOS products DATA dominate in North America and parts of Europe, Android is still the 85 percent of survey respondents are currently developing web preferred platform for app development. THE DZONE GUIDE TO DYNAMIC WEB & MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT PAGE 3 OF 37 THE DZONE GUIDE TO DYNAMIC WEB & MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT DZONE.COM/GUIDES DZONE.COM/GUIDES THE DZONE GUIDE TO DYNAMIC WEB & MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT PAGE 4 OF 37 THE DZONE GUIDE TO DYNAMIC WEB & MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT Clients who scale up test automation discover that increased test cases yield tons of test results data. It’s critical to harness technology Conquering Test to crunch the results and identify real issues. Results Data With Visual Perfecto has solved the pain of test automation results with: • Insights into the CI pipeline Analytics • Risk/focus heat mapping • Summary results list • Single test report "In three years, every product [we make] will be obsolete. The only • Visual validation question is whether we will make them obsolete or somebody else will." Open-source solutions like TestNG or JUnit have their place but come – Bill Gates with delays, security issues, and don’t scale well. If this quote doesn’t make you feel nervous about continuously innovating in your apps, you are one cool cucumber. THE BOTTOM LINE DigitalZoomtm is the DevOps team’s best tool to conquer mountains Most of you are practicing Agile; some are on the path towards a of results data.