I’m always excited to share the latest features of the JourneyApps Platform, and the new ways in which we’ve helped our customers be more successful. We’ve ushered in 2019 with some big, innovative strides. Read on to see my favorites so far.
Sandvik customer success story video
Before we dive in, I wanted to share a new video of our success story with Sandvik Mining & Rock Technology, a multi-billion dollar manufacturer of mining equipment. Our offline technology was a key enabler for this solution. Enjoy!
Save workers time with easy industrial hardware integrations
Bulk barcode scanning with keyboard emulation mode
Barcode scanners have permanently changed the landscape for working with physical goods and assets. That said, integration with specific laser barcode scanners has traditionally been difficult! In addition, the usability of apps that integrate with scanners can be clunky, making working with scanners slower and more frustrating than it needs to be.
We’ve enhanced our Hardware Integration Engine to integrate seamlessly with any scanners that support “keyboard emulation” modes. Users can now scan multiple assets sequentially without any required taps or clicks in their apps in-between scans. These updates mean that developers can test new hardware without spending any time on integration, and users of the apps can focus on their work and scan barcodes in bulk, saving them precious time in the field.
Deploy apps over-the-air with confidence using Runtime Version Management
We’re very excited to announce a groundbreaking feature called Runtime Version Management that gives developers the ability to choose the version of the JourneyApps Runtime their app should use in the field. We’ve reimagined what the JourneyApps Container can be, and completely overhauled it and split it from the JourneyApps Runtime. From now on, users will not need to update the JourneyApps Container as often, and JourneyApps Runtime updates will happen over-the-air on all platforms.
Runtime Version Management has a number of significant benefits for both developers and app users:
1. Users can get new features, faster.
Deploying new features to users becomes simpler, because Runtime version updates can happen over-the-air on all platforms. After a developer selects a new version for their app, they can click “Deploy” and all app users will get the new JourneyApps Runtime, with all of its features.
If you have been using a Mobile Device Management (MDM) system, new versions of the JourneyApps Container had to be distributed to users through the MDM. Now the JourneyApps Runtime, similar to your custom app, can be distributed over-the-air to users, without any intervention required by the person managing your MDM, saving them considerable time.
2. No more unexpected app changes.
With Runtime Version Management, developers are 100% in control of all aspects of their app. When we release new versions of the JourneyApps Container and Runtime (with new features!), users will only get access to it when developers are ready to deploy it to them, and not a moment before.
3. Consistency for all users.
For a specific app, all users will now be running the same version of the JourneyApps Runtime, which means that the app will look and behave the same for everyone all the time.
We’re very excited about the long term impact of Runtime Version Management on developers’ productivity, and how this brings a more consistent experience to their end-users.
Build apps collaboratively with our new GitHub integration
Developers rejoice! You can now link your app code to a git repository to allow for better development as a team. You can then work on different git branches and complete work using git best practices, including code reviews and methodologies like trunk-based development or git flow. If being able to build features in parallel wasn’t enough to be excited about, developers can now also enforce security best practices on their application code using all of GitHub’s functionality such as branch protection to ensure that only authorized changes are made to production apps.
Interactive tables with smarter, more intuitive user experience
We’re actively challenging ourselves to build UI components that allow app users to do more in less time. We have made huge strides in what users can do with tabular data. The ability to edit data in tables is wildly popular, and now we’ve made this editing experience a lot more powerful. Here are a few of the highlights of our latest data tables:
- Tables can be filtered with smart, context-aware filters.
- Columns can be frozen to the left or the right of the screen so that users never lose context when scrolling horizontally through lots of data.
- We’ve introduced a new type-ahead dropdown component which makes it super-simple for users to fill in complicated tables in no time at all.
- Our new tables can work with thousands upon thousands of rows at once without any slowdown.
- When on a tablet or phone, the most applicable keyboard is displayed when editing a cell, making it lightning fast to enter numbers or other text.
And there’s still a lot in store for tables in the coming months!
That’s it! We’re incredibly thankful for your continued support, and cannot wait to send you more updates about new features coming your way soon.
