App Making Platform

Can you provide more details about your "app making platform"? Is it for mobile apps or web apps, how will it work (web version vs desktop) etc. Describe it as much as you can to get a good advice on how to get started.

Thanks Ivan... It's for mobile apps, basically we'll offer a 3 to 4 step process for non-coders to develop apps on their Desktops with a mobile simulator to show them their progress. It's going to have different categories like (Restaurant, hotels, Magazines etc) which would require the use of different templates, designs & user experiences. From using a few of these platforms, what i have discovered is they've literally just developed a framework and templates to leverage on existing platforms like twitter, youtube, instagram etc So the question is, what skills are required to build this framework? You can have a look at "Appmachine.com" as an example

Hey Susan,

Coinciding with Ivan's question, regardless of what type of app you are wanting to create you might want to dedicate a few months to learn the necessary skills to build your app. Not only will you gain valuable skills but you will also remove yourself from having to rely on 3rd parties to build your app.

Being on Treehouse already, you are in a great place to get started. :)

Ok, so there're many technologies involved in building an app like this. You'll need to use many languages on pretty high level. It's possible to make an app like this with no programming experience, but you'll need to work hard. First of all, you should take Front-End Development courses learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc. Then you should get backend development skills (the most difficult part). You'll obviously need databases and a backend programming language like PHP or Ruby. To start, just complete PHP Development track here on Treehouse. When you get basic web development knowledge, you should look into mobile app development, and see how mobile apps are built (you can skip WP at the beginning and concentrate on iOS and Android). Not sure if these "app making" websites actually create native apps or just make some sort of webview in app and use web technologies inside it. Anyway, after you understand how to build websites and mobile apps, you will need to find a way to generate mobile apps dynamically using some specific technologies (not sure how exactly). And then combine everything to create final product.

So this won't be easy because this product is a combination of many modern technologies. In fact, I'm not sure if your idea is really different from all existing solution and if it actually worth spending your time on it, but it's a different question..

Oh wow...err another option for me is to actually create a team with the necessary talent to accomplish the task. This platform i think is the future of app development (sort of like the wordpress of apps). I currently just released an app using one of these platforms and it's amazing. It works as a hybrid app, using both native and web functionalities. When you leverage on popular platforms like youtube, twitter and rss feeds, the integration is seamless and works exactly like a native app. I think what they've done is to build the framework using native features so navigation is pretty cool and doesn't lag like html5 apps. If i were to assemble a team...who would i need?

Susan omosa, definitely a web developer with strong backend skills and mobile app developer (or you can try to find another web developer who have some experience with mobile app development).

Thanks Ivan...appreciate it