4 min read

What Is a Component-Based Architecture (and How Will it Help Your Business)?

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Get to know a little bit more about components, the building blocks of Unqork no-code. 


Enterprises turn to rapid application development (RAD) for a variety of reasons, but the most important factor is often an accelerated time-to-market. In a survey of CIOs and tech leaders, only 48% felt that they were successfully keeping up with the increasing pace of business requirements. RAD platforms prioritize speed and agility so enterprises are better equipped to meet these challenges, increase productivity, and complete projects on time.

Among RAD platforms, however, there are a wide variety of different architectures and building styles that might dictate which platform is right for your enterprise. Component-based architectures, which enable speed and scalability in a way that many other enterprise app development architectures cannot, are very popular with no-code creators today. To best understand how a component-based architecture might benefit your organization, it’s important to understand how it works. 

How Do Components Work?

A component is a flexible, reusable object that speeds up application creation and delivery. Components are designed to accept certain properties and data from the server, maintain a consistent user experience, and add additional features to the applications you build. 

For example, think about a common feature that’s present in a number of applications, like the ability to access a device’s GPS. This capability is reused by hundreds of thousands of applications—from navigation apps to postal office locators to housing rental applications—and it’s more or less the same no matter where it appears. Instead of requiring a developer to create custom code each time they want to use a GPS feature, a component-based architecture allows them to access an existing GPS component and stack it together with other components to create a fully functioning application. By turning different types of features into reusable building blocks, a component-based architecture slices development time in half and maximizes your output. 

 

Watch this webinar for a deep-dive into the differences between low- and no-code development platforms.

Low-code platforms can be component-based, but no-code components are far more powerful. With low-code components, there will come a time when you’ll need a component to do something it wasn’t designed to do, and the default option will be to use code to fill in the blanks. As we’ve mentioned before, code often creates more problems than it solves. On the other hand, Unqork no-code’s drag-and-drop, self-validating components change based on the information that gets fed into them, allowing you to build exactly what you need—no coding required. Making changes to your applications or creating new components in a component-based architecture is significantly easier and quicker with no-code.    

Component-Based Building Is the Way to go for the Enterprise Because it…

…Enables Complexity

Enterprise applications are highly complex systems composed of multiple equally complex layers, like data capture, payment, integrations, underwriting, user experience, and more. With traditional application development or other platforms that don’t rely on a component-based architecture, all of these layers must be built on top of each other, which creates dependencies and a single point of failure. 

With a component-based architecture, enterprises can take advantage of a compartmentalized building approach. Global or local-level components allow you to create complex applications and flows that can scale horizontally or vertically as needed. Even better, making use of tried and tested components means you’ll never have to worry about compatibility or writing millions of lines of code that introduce more room for error. 

…Lowers Maintenance Costs

One of the key values of a component-based architecture is its reusability and flexibility. Once a component has been architected, managing and updating it is quick, easy, and code-less. Any changes made to a global-level component will automatically populate throughout the application, so you only need to update the relevant component once—rather than modifying code each time it appears. Every time an update is introduced or a test has to be run, each implementation of this feature will work as well as any other.

Modifying no-code components is simple—they’re built to take on any information that’s put into them, so you don’t need to be a specially trained engineer to build the application you want. Component-based architecture also means it’s easier to remove and replace functionality in the future because you can go in and tinker with individual components as opposed to disrupting the entire ecosystem. With a component-based architecture, you can say goodbye to costly legacy maintenance and time-consuming code changes.  

…Increases Speed 

Naturally, no-code components maximize efficiency by allowing creators to rely on existing capabilities and simply focus on the underlying logic of their applications to create a flow. The reality is that most applications are built around a few key functionalities that are already in use in any number of existing applications. Enterprises don’t necessarily need groundbreaking capabilities, they need to be able to build reliable, well-functioning applications—and fast. A component-based architecture means that instead of wasting your time coding a function that already exists, you can pull from a library of self-contained components. 

A component-based architecture streamlines and automates the most time-consuming parts of enterprise application development so you can focus on what really matters—business efficiency and high-quality user experiences. 

From there, all you have to do to build a fully functioning application is develop the context and business logic (the “glue”) that connects one component to another. In other words, you walk in having 80% of the app building already done for you, so you can breeze through your project backlog in a fraction of the time. Reusing components means you no longer have to rely on specialized skills for app development, you can achieve a faster time to market, and you’ll see increased revenue in the long run. 

Unqork Your Enterprise Advantage

At Unqork, we understand that enterprises aren’t necessarily trying to reinvent the wheel and build revolutionary technologies. What you really want is a way to build that’s easier, faster, and smarter to help you unlock your competitive advantage. 

A component-based architecture streamlines and automates the most time-consuming parts of enterprise application development so you can focus on what really matters—business efficiency and high-quality user experiences. From insurance quoting applications to telehealth appointment applications, components have you covered.

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