My first app using Telerik Platform

I've recently been using Telerik Platform for mobile development, so I thought it may be useful to give an overview of my experiences, especially as I've previously used Xamarin for mobile development.

For those that don't know, Telerik Platform is a complete mobile development ecosystem consisting of a suite of Telerik technologies rolled into a single unified platform. There are tools for development, testing as well as backend services such as data services, email / SMS services and business logic services, analytics and user management. All of these are accessed from your Telerik Platform account (depending on your subscription level of course).

The backend services may be implemented in your app using any combination of the folling APIs and SDKs.

- Javascript SDK
- .NET SDK
- iOS SDK
- Android SDK
- RESTful API

As can be seen, all mobile platform development environments are available to the developer.

All the tools you need across the entire lifecycle of your mobile app are all accessed from a single location. Unlike other development platforms, Telerik Platform is more than just a development tool, it contains the full complement of tools to manage the entire lifecycle of your app.

There are two key options to choose from when deciding how to build your app. You can choose either a hybrid app or a native app. I won't go into the pros and cons of the different approaches as this is beyond the scope of this article. Suffice to say that if you opt for a hybrid app you are using Apache Cordova. If you opt for a native app you are using Telerik NativeScript. In my case I was building a hybrid app. The reasons were as follows:

- We wanted to target all mobile platforms (at the time of writing NativeScript does not support Windows Phone)
- The app was fairly straight-forward with limited access the device's capabilities
- The learning curve was less steep due to the fact that a hybrid app employs web skills such as HTML, CSS and Javascript, all of which are familiar to me. The areas where I was less familiar was with using Telerik's Kendo UI components and the underlying MVVM architecture. Thankfully there are numerous examples and documentation, and being a competent web developer I picked these up fairly quickly.

The backend services are really a powerful addition to the development experience. The option of using these from the cloud reduces the reliance on local infrastructure, such as data and email servers. You can build your entire app from their cloud portal. There is a Visual Studio plugin you can download, which is useful, but I predominantly used their cloud portal.

One of the best things I enjoyed about Telerik Portal is their AppBuilder technology. This allows you to test your app in a simulator with varying combinations of platform (Apple, Android, Windows) and screen resolutions. And best of all, you can download the app to your own device using the Telerik development apps. Building your app generates a QR code. This QR code is then scanned using your device using the Telerik development app, which then copies the app to the device. No pesky USB cables or installing/configuring emulators are required. This is a genius piece of technology. Your code changes are reflected immediately in the simulator, and can be tested on the physical device by simply swiping the Telerik development app. From coding to testing on a physical device has never been simpler.

All in all I have been very impressed with Telerik Platform, and would certainly recommend that it be included on your list of candidate development platforms if looking at going into mobile.