Zoho revamps low-code application building platform, Creator

CHENNAI, INDIA: Zoho has updated its low-code application building platform, Zoho Creator to enhance and refine the core functionality of the platform further for simplified implementation. Over the last 12 years, the Zoho Creator platform has enabled citizen developers to design and deploy over two million custom applications.

"Zoho Creator is not only making major inroads into no-code development, it is also improving the productivity of app development. Non-technical users can develop their app using the drag-and-drop interface, whereas experienced developers can work directly in the Interactive Development Environment," said Hyther Nizam, VP of Business Process Products, Zoho Corp. "Such a platform provides a huge advantage to the numerous app development companies in India as they can develop apps 10 times faster on Creator 5 than on traditional frameworks."

Highlights of Zoho Creator 5:

Mobile App Creator: This allows users to effortlessly create mobile applications for both iOS and Android, optimized for both smartphones and tablets. Existing applications built on Zoho Creator are automatically mobile-enabled. Users can re-brand these mobile apps, enable location-based data input, customize layouts, actions, and gestures, and use their device camera and microphone to enter data. Users can then publish these custom apps on the app stores, or deploy them within their organizations through Mobile Device Management (MDM) platforms.

Page Creator: This allows users to quickly create custom, interactive pages, and dashboards simply by dragging and dropping pre-built design elements like buttons, charts, panels, and widgets into the page builder interface. With this, users can easily collate data from various sources on a single page. Even with Creator's new drag-and-drop functionality, users with more extensive programming experience can still create pages using HTML and CSS. Pages can also be completely customized for mobile devices.

Form Creator: This offers a multitude of input options by supporting advanced fields such as the geo-coded address field (which marks the location on a map), pre-built full name field (containing both first and last names), audio field, and video field. Users can also customize their web, smartphone, and tablet apps with mobile-optimized form layouts and themes. In addition, Form Creator now includes over 100 customizable templates specific to various business verticals.

Report Creator: With new reporting options like Kanban view, Timeline view and Maps view, users can display their data in multiple ways. These reports can pull related information from other Creator apps, providing users with context for better data processing. All reports are customizable for smaller screens, and custom actions can be triggered with common mobile gestures—such as swiping and long-pressing—making mobile apps feel truly native.

Workflow Creator: This eliminates the need to write code when automating simple tasks like approvals, schedules, or instant email, SMS, and push notifications. For advanced workflows like data integration and custom actions to update information, users can take advantage of Deluge, Zoho’s in-house programming language.

Apart from offering enhanced core features, Creator 5 strengthens the entire platform with the following updates:

App Deck: The new App Deck includes over 50 pre-built, ready-to-use web and mobile apps that can be customized by businesses to suit their needs. App Deck has a wide variety of applications that cover everything from standard business processes, such as like sales, orders, and expenses, to industry-specific implementations, such as logistics, real estate, education, and nonprofits.

Unified Virtual Database: Historically, data stored within applications has been siloed. With Creator 5, all custom apps built on the platform are treated as a single virtual database, enabling seamless integration, data lookup, and reporting across applications. This capability is also extended to other Zoho applications such as Zoho CRM, and third-party cloud applications like QuickBooks.

Zoho One Integration: Applications built on Zoho Creator can now be deployed to users, groups, and departments through the Zoho One Admin Panel. Custom Zoho Creator applications respect access permissions defined in Zoho One, making their deployment within the organization easy and smooth.