Embedded web app

The web has revolutionized all aspects of our modern world, including and especially the way in which end users’ access and engage with their software. A web app is one of the best ways to deploy a secure, always up to date, and modern interface for users who demand high performance, attractive interfaces and features, and a familiar computing environment.

What is embedded web development?

Creating an embedded web app allows you to take full advantage of all that the modern web has to offer, including to implement technologies and basic features that end users are familiar with, interfaces from apps that they are already comfortable with, and browsers that are ubiquitous. Leveraging the browser, CSS, SVG, HTML and secure transfer protocols helps you deliver a safe, secure, always up to date embedded application no matter the device that your end user employs to access the web app.

The main challenges of embedded web development

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Developing within constraints

Web developers are often blessed to work on superior machines with massive computing power, expansive memory, and a permanent connection to mains electricity. Web apps built to run on powerful machines look great – right up until you try and run the same app in a constrained embedded environment with less system resources.
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Device security

Expertise is required to ensure that the app safely and securely accesses the key components of the device. With many embedded devices connected via Bluetooth or offering NFC functionality, it can be a challenge to ensure that these basic components are only accessed when necessary, and then only in a secure manner.
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Rapid change

Web development is one of the fastest moving areas of application development. This rapid change leads to ebbs and flows in popularity for libraries that are considered ‘essential’ and ‘must haves’ to create an build an app before being discarded as ‘old’ and ‘dated’ just a few months later. Keeping up with these shifts, note and and knowing what will last is difficult but so important, too.

Key elements to consider

Planning

  • Identify hardware constraints
  • Identify use cases
  • Identify touchscreen limits

Development

  • Agile workflow
  • URL to client
  • Testing & validation
  • Delivery to app stores

Post-delivery

  • Roadmap planning
  • Updates
  • Security
Somfy smart building

SUCCESS STORY

Building a web application for Somfy Commercial Building solution

After a UXUI consulting phase, our team of application experts got to work building:
  • A web application that could seamlessly integrate with Somfy’s new and existing hardware.
  • A user-friendly interface that simplifies complex tasks, such as controlling multiple blinds across large buildings for device management.
  • Developed a 3D building mockup tool to help users visualize and manage their blinds effectively.

How to develop an embedded web application

The beginning of any embedded web application development project consists of understanding and note the use case for the web app, the hardware it will be accessible from, and any limits or constraints relating to the screen interface.

Via discussions between your internal teams and our engineers, we identify any hardware constraints so that our developers can create and build an embedded application that will load on the potentially low-powered devices with few system resources of your end users. Understanding the compute, memory, and battery constraints allows our teams to create and build the high performance app you expect.

These discussions about details are additional information also an opportunity to identify use cases for the app. Those, functionalities and features in embedded applications will be important for the end users. With deep experience in a variety of domains, our engineers can leverage their knowledge of different industries to offer suggestions that your internal teams may have missed before aligning on a final list of use cases for embedded applications.

Finally, while every embedded web embedded application will be presented on a screen, certain screens in certain use cases demand extra attention. For example, should your device have a touchscreen, we will identify touchscreen limitations in use cases where users wear gloves on the display or demand larger buttons.
With the project planner, our teams can begin the web app development process.

Witekio software engineers work in sprints of two to three weeks as part of an agile development process. Intermediate goals are set for each sprint and regular communication with your teams is maintained throughout the development period. This agile method ensures that the creation of the end result is aligned with the expectations you have set for the web app you want to publish.

Throughout the development process, your teams have access to the app via the sharing of a URL for a web-page to your teams. As the web app is being built for browsers and will be accessible to users via the web-link, it is also accessible to your teams via a simple weblink. This keeps you appraised of the project and its progress.

All web apps go through a rigorous process of testing and validation to ensure that the final embedded application is bug free, works the way that it is intended to work, and that it is secure from bad actors and data leaks in all details. Once we notice the embedded application is free from errors and ready for release, our teams conduct a handover.

The final embedded application can be delivered to your team as a codebase, published to the web, or delivered to the Android and iOS app stores so that users can have immediate access to the tools on their mobile devices. The defining quality of a web app is its accessibility, and our teams work with yours to maximize the availability of the app to the market.
Web apps are easily and rapidly updated, and expectations from end users never stand still. Post-delivery, it’s important to think about next steps and following features to implement in the embedded application..

Our teams work with your own internal product owners and customer success managers to undertake roadmap planning for your app. While the embedded application is live, it is also inevitable that the app will need to be updated, functionality added, changes pushed to production, and security enhanced over time. The roadmap plans and prepares for support.

Updates are easily pushed to market with embedded web applications, and changes to the app are apparent to end users the next time they load the app in their browser. Witekio teams can help ensure that updates are smoothly executed and that embedded browsers are refreshed to reflect the updated code of the app.

Finally, applications on the web need to have their security assessed regularly. Bad actors rarely lose their appetite for attacking embedded web applications and seeking to exploit the data that those embedded applications process, store, or manage. Regular security reviews and security updates are an essential part of managing a commercial embedded web app.

The main benefits f embedded web development

Embedded web apps are device and operating system agnostic. As long as your end user has access to a web browser, they will be able to access your app, take advantage of all of its functionality, and interact with the app effectively. There is no need to consider whether a user will have access to your web apps on a Mac or a Windows PC, a display of a handheld device or wearable, or build different apps for both Android and iOS. Embedded web apps can be created and built once, deployed once, and served to users worldwide immediately.
Developers can take full advantages of all of the possibilities of the modern web environment and the capabilities of web browsers to deliver a user experience that looks great and invites interaction, such as user clicks. Implement, for example, animations, video, audio, the latest form and style features for your embedded applcation – it’s all available to web application developers. End users appreciate that the app they are using, whether on an embedded browser, a smartphone, or a desktop computer – feels modern, fast, clean, and positively reflects the brand and company behind it.
The underlying philosophy of a created embedded web app is that it is able to be updated instantly, as easy as pressing F5 on a keyboard or reloading a browser tab or a website. This sort of control means never having to worry about over the air (OTA) updates or long update cycles for your apps. Instead, agility is rewarded, and updates for the apps can be pushed weekly, daily, or even more regularly. The moment that a user opens the app, the latest version of the app will be presented each and every time. As long as an end user is connected, they’ll always be running the version of the software you want them to run.

Witekio can support your embedded web development project

As long as there has been a Witekio, we’ve had developers building embedded web applications. Our engineers keep themselves up to date with the latest trends, fashions, features and libraries for web app development projects and have a stellar track record of creating and delivering projects that add value for clients. End users and clients both appreciate the skill that Witekio teams deploy in building embedded applications and the attractive user interfaces that engage and delight. Contact our team with your message for your request on our website today to discuss how we can support you to build the embedded web application that will lift your device to the next level.
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