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Capability
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Alpha Anywhere
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Xamarin
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Fast Onboarding to the Platform
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It takes a beginner about 90 minutes to build a sophisticated mobile CRUD app in Alpha Anywhere by following a tutorial. Developers in Alpha Anywhere typically become competent (and confident) in about 2 months, and faster with more focused training or mentoring.
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It takes a developer months to get up to speed with to the point where they can build simple applications. That's because Xamrin is a code-intensive platform and requires skill in C# as well as other languages.
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Support for Citizen Development
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Alpha Anywhere fully supports no-code citizen development by allowing users to create screens, buttons, fields and objects and perform CRUD operations, as well as loging/logout with built-in genies; as well as offering hundreds of predefined actions that developers use use via a list metaphor. Low code blocks can be interspersed with traditional coding. Alpha Anywhere also offers mentoring, which allows citizen developers to work directly 1:1 with a "personal trainer" as they build their apps or get up to speed with the product.
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Xamarin is designed for use by experienced C# programmers.
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Ability to Add Code as Needed (Low Code)
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OutSystems provides less control by providing far fewer event hooks. [Client-side: Built in JavaScript editor is simple text editor, without Autosuggest or ability to easily reference objects used in the application. Moderate to High JavaScript skills Required. Server-Side: No Server-Side editor provided. Developers must use Eclipse or Visual Studio – general-purpose tools that are not specific to OutSystems. Moderate to High programming skills required.]
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Speed of Developing/Updating Apps
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Alpha Anywhere includes a local version of its server that runs on the developer’s machine and can instantly show changes, just by clicking the refresh button.
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Xamarin is not a low code platform, reducing speed of development. Development and updates require a seasoned developer.
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Ease of Data Integration
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Alpha Anywhere provides many tools for working with REST services, JSON Data, XML, SOAP and oData. Plus it lets you quickly change data sources when you switch from development to deployment. [Working with External Data: Alpha Anywhere includes native SQL drivers for all popular SQL backends (SQL Server, MySQL, MariaDB, and many others). Alpha Anywhere uses connection strings that allow access to thousands of tables at once. For Web services, Alpha Anywhere supports the oData standard to allow developers to inspect and connect to external data structures. Working with Internal Data: Alpha supports ONLY external databases – so there are no restrictions in the use of 3rd party BI and reporting tools.]
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Xamarin does not include native drivers.
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Robust Offline Capability
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Alpha Anywhere has robust offline capability built-in, with data synchronization and intelligent conflict resolution included. Citizen developers can implement this fundtionality without code.
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You can build applications with robist offline capabilities, but these need to be coded by hand - often increasing the complexity of an app 3X.
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Built-in Analytics and Reporting
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Alpha Anywhere includes a built-in banded report writer for server-side reporting. Client-side templating reports can also be generated and viewed offline on a mobile device.
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Xamarin does not include built in reporting.
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Handling and Storage of Large Image, Audio and Video Files
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Alpha Anywhere allows images to be stored in either local storage or in the devices file system. Media files can be transferred directly between the device and Amazon S3 without going through an application server.
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Xamarin does not have Amazon S3 integration and does not have special functionality for dealing with large media files.
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Built-in Mobile Optimized Forms Builder
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Alpha Anywhere includes mobile optimized form technology. Mobile forms offer speed data capture for forms workers with features like: larger buttons or swipe capablities for one-handed input; customized keyboards for numbers-only data fields, digital ink, and image capture and annotation that can be done without a stylus.
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Xamarin does not have this important feature.
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Predictable Pricing
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Alpha Anywhere offers transparent pricing based on the number of application servers needed for deployment. As a result, development costs and ongoing costs (TCO) are easy to predict.
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As with any coding-intensive solution, it is difficult to predict the number of hours required to code and test a solution, making it harder to predict development costs.
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