Developing multiple apps from a single code template
Tourist guide
TownApps is an SME based in the Midlands producing mobile apps tailored to individual cities in Ireland, the UK, the US and Canada. The TownApps application is a tourist guide of hotels, restaurants and places of interest.
Code-base
Multiple entries exist in the app store corresponding to city partners that have subscribed to the app type. For instance, TownApps could have several apps available (Athlone, Dublin, Galway, etc.). Each app is subscribed to by a city partner, each able to manage business listings within that city, while app users (mobile phone users) can view listings by category and can give the listing a star rating and make comments. Despite this almost identical nature of the city apps, each app stems from a separate code-base. This means that the Dublin and Galway version of TownApps each have their own code-base despite only differing in elements such as title screen and content listing. The purpose of this project was to integrate development so that apps could be produced from a single code-base in combination with a unique city configuration.
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Irish company
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countries
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Innovation Partnership
“Townapps inherited an old platform to publish our original apps. This platform was built on unstable technology and wouldn’t allow us to scale our business internationally in a cost-effective, secure, flexible and future-proof way. Our clients wanted a host of new offerings including live trails and other critical user engagement techniques. We engaged the team at COMAND with the assistance of an Innovation Partnership to travel the journey with us and give us the necessary software development expertise and advice. The end result is a very balanced solution to roll out our much improved apps in faster time. There are now very few limitations on the many new commercial opportunities that we can bolt into our existing platform as and when these opportunities arise.”
Joe Connaughton
CEO, TownApps
The TownApps & COMAND partnership
The final project resulted in a complete system for the configuration, build, and deployment of multiple mobile apps with an associated cloud-based website, database, and application functionality from a single template with minimal owner involvement. Online apps can now be produced from a single code-base in combination with a unique city configuration, reducing delivery time, maintenance time, and creating greater end-customer features.