How to transform a native app a Super App?

One of the most outstanding novelties of GeneXus 18 , is that it allows you to transform a native application, existing, and developed with any technology, a Super-App .

Yes, thanks to GeneXus, today any app, developed or not with GeneXus, it can become a Super App , allowing solutions that are already popular can scale to Super App without the need to do the work of reprogramming.

What is a Super App?

“A Super App is a digital ecosystem that offers a variety of services that are not necessarily related to each other, but co-exist within the same application. Usually arise as an application that covers a specific need, and then evolve to contemplate other services.”.

“With GeneXus 18 it is possible to convert an existing application into a Super App, with all the Mini Apps that need it. These Mini Apps are going to be loaded dynamically, that is to say, that they are not going to be applications that are going to be pre-installed in the device, but to demand and to the consideration of the user you are going to download and run as native applications. The Mini Apps can be developed internally or by a third party, through partners,” said Paul Mazzilli , an expert on Super Apps with GeneXus.

Here we share a collection of steps that must be performed to convert a native application that exists in a Super-App, shared by Mazzilli in the presentation of Super Apps & Mini Apps with GeneXus 18 , event Enterprise Low-Code 2022 .

Steps to convert a native application that exists in a Super-App

Step 1

“Incorporate “GeneXus Render”, which is the module that will give the capacity to the existing application in to become a Super App, and thus to be able to dynamically load the Mini Apps. This module is available for Android and Apple. Therefore, you will be able to incorporate it in a very simple way in your project in XCode or Android Studio”.

Step 2

“To get the list of the Mini Apps, which must be listed on the Mini App Center, which is the repository or the platform where they will be recorded and catalogued all the Mini Apps. From there, the manager of the Super App give permissions for this Mini App is part of your application. The GeneXus Render will have the ability to access, by means of an API, the list of Mini Apps that are suitable for this Super App, or that were developed for this”.

Step 3

To design the interface that you are presented to the users to discover and access the different Mini Apps.

The API that returns a list of Mini Apps have different functions:

Display the full list of the Mini Apps, which can appear as a horizontal list or as deemed to be more suitable for users.

Display the list of Mini Apps that are relevant to a particular time or window of time.

Display the list of Mini-Apps which are next to the user, either by location, or because it is associated with a place or physical trade.

Step 4

“To develop those functions that you want to expose for those who work in the Mini Apps. These mechanisms of integration are the features that minimize the friction on the part of users. What's an example? Make the payment through the Super App, so that each Mini App doesn't have to implement it, or have direct access to that information.”

About payment methods

“It is an interaction that can be silent or through a screen, that is to say, the Super App could show a screen with all forms of payment that your user has registered into the Super App. The Mini App will not have knowledge of that information, it will simply perform the invocation. The Super App will handle the payment, and you will return to the Mini App the result of that action, which in the case of successful payment, would be the authorization code for that payment, or an error otherwise.”

Step 5

“Model and develop the Mini-Apps (if you know how to build a mobile solution with GeneXus, you'll make a Mini App). In fact, the applications today, they are in the stores, can be generated as a Mini-Apps for one Super App. In some cases, should be considered to be the remedies set forth by the administrators of the Super App, which can be aesthetics or graphics, integration with payment platforms, among other aspects”.

Step 6

“Deploy the Mini App. The backend services are deployed as in any other mobile application. As far as the component of the frontend, instead of compile it and publish it, what must be done is to catalogue it in the Mini App Center. That is to say, the result of this process of generation with GeneXus already have all the necessary information (metadata) to be able to publish in the Mini-App Center. How and where? Where the administrators of the Super App, we've been given access to do that publication.”

Step 7

“Wait for the review. Once published the Mini App, the administrators of the Super App should test the solution to determine who actually works in the Super App. When these tests are passed, the Mini App will be available to be accessed from the Super App. At run time, what we see is that the Super App you are connecting through an API to the Mini-App Center to get the list of Mini Apps that are available for use in this Super-App”.

Step 8

“Once the user selects one of these Mini Apps, in that instant is automatically downloaded to the application, is rendered in a completely native within the Super App and the user begins to interact with the Mini App, which in turn will have access to their own backend services”.

GeneXus and the Super Apps

GeneXus account with all of these components to build a complete solution of Super App, and a Mini-App, and the biggest advantage: the ability to transform any native app a Super App.

GeneXus has all the resources, the modules, the documentation and examples in GitHub , so that you can transform your application into a Super App; and model and build Mini-Apps, via the generator for Native Mobile apps.

In parallel, work is already (it's in beta) on the possibility of creating the Super App from the GeneXus.

“GeneXus is the only platform that provides you with all the components and the technology to build a Super App from tip to tip. GeneXus has the experience of more than 30 years in the market generating code automatically to create innovative solutions with minimal effort. And we can not only provide all the products that make up this ecosystem, but through our network of partners we can help them to build the full vision of Super App, and Mini-Apps”, highlights Mazzilli.

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