A Brief Guide To Custom Web Application Development

Gone are the days when a website was enough to show the world your business exists. Today, businesses that focus on addressing customers' specific issues and invest in giving them the best experience are the winners.  This is the reason why more and more businesses are turning to custom web application development. Unlike off-the-shelf web application solutions, these apps are developed from the ground up with the specific intent of aligning with the unique requirements and goals of a company. Not only does custom web app development automate workflows, provide top-grade security, and encourage a company to grow at its own pace, but it also saves money on too many unnecessary features and protection from DDoS or any other harmful attacks.

By developing bespoke web applications, companies can streamline their workflows, automate processes, and enhance productivity. However, it is only possible if you have the right approach, knowledge of the technology stack, and know how to build a custom web app. When it comes to creating a custom web app, there are a number of factors that you need to take into consideration.

Let's explore how to create a custom web application for your business. 

How to Develop Custom Web Applications

In today's era of cut-throat online competition, the quest for efficiency and innovation has led businesses to the doorstep of custom web applications. A custom-tailored digital tool developed through custom web app development can catapult a company into new realms of operational fluency and market responsiveness. Let's get started on the process of how to create a custom web application. The steps will have explanations about how to make web applications and can also be helpful in getting a general idea of what needs one should address when creating an app.

• Ideation

When it comes to creating a custom web application, having an idea and developing a clear vision of your product goals as well as main functionalities is essential. Once you have the idea in place, the next step is to do thorough market research, analyse your competitors closely, and assess their strengths and weaknesses.

• Requirement Analysis

Once you are thorough with the process of ideation and have a concrete idea of what you wish to create, you need to sit with the project managers and sort out how technically feasible it is to turn your custom web app idea into a profitable business. All requirements are sorted out, and the project manager is handed over the SRS and other feasibility reports that contain documents like technical feasibility reports apart from the Software Requirements Specification. 

Once the planning is complete, the project managers assign tasks to the database designers, developers, front-end designers, and testers. 

• Database Designing and Development

The database design and development process kicks off after the requirement analysis. During the design and development, it is decided what data to store in the database, and then the design is used using ER diagrams, normalisation, and denormalisation to develop a database comprising data tables linked together through relationships. Wireframes and mockups are used to create user interface designs, which indirectly help database design by sorting out attributes, entities, and relationships between entities.

The finalised tables and relationships are then transformed into a physical database using various database technologies. Furthermore, the database technology that suits the project requirements must be selected. It can be any form of Hierarchical database, Network database, Object-oriented database, Relational database, Cloud Database, Centralized Database, Operational Database, or NoSQL database. Finally, the physical database is fed with data and tested before being deployed to the web server.

• Front-End Designing

After the database design and development phase is complete, the front-end development phase begins. Front-end development is the functional area of the website and refers to the coding of front-end user interfaces. It ensures that the user achieves their goals without any hitch and becomes a potential customer. While there are a plethora of front-end development technologies, one of the most popular is Blazor, which is primarily a front-end framework for developing interactive web UIs with C#. Blazor comes with two models: Blazor WebAssembly for client-side execution and Blazor Server for server-side rendering. Moreover, the web app developers can combine backend execution and Blazor Server for server-side rendering. 

Both can be combined with backend services built using ASP.NET Core Web API or other technologies. These mature frameworks are used to develop traditional web applications with Server-side page rendering using C#. Web app Developers build interactive web interfaces with these. While selecting the proper framework, web app developers should consider interactive, dynamic UIs, simpler web applications, and JavaScript expertise.

• Backend Development

Upon completion of the front-end designing phase of the custom web application, the back-end development phase starts. The backend of any web application is a combination of custom web programming and in-house data integration support. One of the popular back-end development technologies is the Blazor, which is widely used for backend development as a full-stack UI framework that can be used with backend technologies. Regarding the server side, Blazor technology provides the Blazor server, while it has the Web Assembly for the client side. The Blazor Server is the Blazor model that runs on the server and relies on the backend services for data access, business logic, and other server-side functionalities. Moreover, Blazor handles UI and user interactions, and a separate backend service is required for server-side operations in most cases. Developers use ASP.NET Core Web API as the backend for the Blazor Server applications. While selecting the proper backend framework, web app developers must think of simple data access, solutions for complex business logic, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. 

• Testing

After the implementation of the project is complete, we exhaustively test your application for usability, security, and stability. Some standard tests are unit testing, integration testing, API testing, UI testing, and load testing. Your specific testing methods will depend on the application type you're building and its complexity. However, it's always advised to opt for a combination of unit, integration, and UI testing when it comes to testing most projects. 

• Deployment

After the web app testing is complete and is considered to be bug-free, businesses can start launching their web apps to the market, attracting customers, and making the web apps more visible and searchable on the online service. Several methods are available for the deployment such as Visual Studio in .Net, Web deploy package, CI/CD Pipeline, Web server management tools, and Azure App services.

Popular Methodologies for Custom Web Application Development

It goes without saying that determining the right methodology is often underestimated in the cust web app development cycle. It doesn't matter whether you have a killer project planned. Choosing the wrong method can jeopardise the whole project and force you to start from scratch. Read on to find out a briefing on three common methodologies.

• Agile

Agile method is a project management framework that breaks projects down into several dynamic phases, commonly known as sprints. Teams work in sprints to ensure incremental updates and help in gathering feedback from stakeholders.

• Waterfall

Waterfall methodology is a sequential approach, with phases like requirements, design, development, testing, and deployment, and each phase is completed before moving to the next. It is a structured framework that may lack flexibility.

• DevOps

DevOps involves combining development and operations teams to automate processes, ensure better collaboration, and accelerate delivery. It focuses on continuous integration, deployment, and monitoring to ensure rapid and reliable software releases.

Conclusion

Whether you are a startup or an established enterprise, custom web app development can meet all your current needs, covering all these parameters and even future needs without letting you invest again and again. Custom web applications not only help you turn your business idea into a reality, ensuring a web presence, but they are also your best option for digitising your internal business process and customer-facing units. Are you planning to create a custom web application? Your search ends here with Syngis Software Development. We develop web applications customised to clients' requirements using top .NET web application development technologies. If you have such requirements, we cordially invite you to contact our customer support team anytime.