Choosing a Mobile App Backend: Don't Roll the Dice

Choosing a back end
for your mobile app:
don’t roll the dice!

Cesare Rocchi
studiomagnolia.com
_funkyboy
Saturday, November 30, 13

Outline
• Needs when choosing a backend
Features
•
Overview of different approaches
•

SWIPE CONFERENCE 2012

Who am I?


UX designer and developer


upbeat.it


@_funkyboy


@funkyboy


Who are you?


App Target
• Not apps where mobile is “just a view”
Apps which are inherently mobile
•
From web to app
•
• App needs a back-end


Questions


Have I to manage it?


• At which level?
Am I able to do it?
•
Have I time to learn?
•
• Is it worth it?


What’s the synch model?


• Does it match my goals?
Can I change it if needed?
•
What about protocols?
•


Have I to pay?


Who is to pay?


Impact on UX?


Impact on UX?
• Does it break any ﬂow?
How frequently?
•
is it “ok” with that?
•


Lock-in?


Lock-in?
• How to migrate data?
Switching cost?
•
Code front-end
•
• Data compatibility


Options
• iCloud
Dropbox
•
Custom
•
• Back-end as a Service (BaaS)


What is iCloud?


Synchs stuff


It just works ...


... when it works.


Questions
• Have I to manage it?
•
Who’s to pay?
•
• Impact on UX?
• Lock-in?

• Learn the API
Apple takes care of
•
installation
•
• scalability


Daemon
• Monitors changes
Works on metadata
•
Shreds ﬁles
•
• Supports conﬂict resolution


Special folder, synched


Synched when “appropriate”


Types of Information
• Key-value
Documents
•
Core Data
•


Who’s to pay?
• The ﬁnal user
Your app will use his quota
•
5Gb for free
•


Impact on UX?
• User expectation
No control on upload
•
“Why isn’t there?”
•
• Open the app to synch
• User turns off iCloud?

Lock-in
• Huge
Only on iOS
•
No way to migrate
•


Dropbox


Dropbox
• File-based
Special folder
•
Synchronized across devices
•
• Supports other platforms


• Already set up
installation
•
bandwidth
•
• scalability


• Desktop synchronizes continuously
Mobile apps have to query the backend
•
HTTP API
•
• SDKs for iOS, Android, Ruby, Python


• No conﬂict resolution (revision #)
Data serialization is up to you
•
No ﬁle shredding
•


Who’s to pay?
• The ﬁnal user
Your app will use his disk quota
•
2 Gb for free
•


Impact on UX?
• Authentication the ﬁrst time
User might modify ﬁles
•
Control on the upload
•


Lock-in
• None
Each user owns his data
•
Personal/team usage
•
• ... but nothing more


Similar
• box.net
sugarsync.com
•
google drive
•
• amazon S3


Custom


IaaS

PaaS

SaaS


IaaS

PaaS

• Data
Application
•
Runtime
•
• Middleware
• OS

SaaS

• Data
Application
•


IaaS

PaaS

• Data
Application
•
Runtime
•
• Middleware
• OS

• Data
Application
•

AWS, Rackspace, ...

Heroku, Appfog, ...

SaaS

BaasBox


IaaS

PaaS

•
Application
•
• Runtime
• Middleware
OS
•

•
• Application

Data

AWS, Rackspace, ...

Data

Heroku, Appfog, ...


PaaS
•
• Application
Data


PaaS Questions
• Which language?
Which DB?
•


Heroku


Languages
• Ruby
Python
•
Java
•
• Scala
• Closure
Node.js
•

DBs
• Postgres
MySQL (via addon)
•
MongoDB (via addon)
•


Dyno
• Essentially a process
Web
•
Worker
•
• # of dynos + db proﬁle + addons = backend cost


IaaS

PaaS

•
• Middleware
• Runtime
Data
•
Application
•

•
• Application

OS

Data


IaaS
• OS
Middleware
•
Runtime
•
• Data
• Application

Questions
• Which OS?
Which language?
•
Which DB?
•
• How many machines?


Amazon Web Services


Amazon Web Services
• CDN
Storage
•
Networking
•
• DBs
• Services: email, queue managers
Con: cost estimation
•

Good old way
• Buy a server
pick the hardware
•
install OS
•
• rent space/bandwidth in a farm


Server side frameworks


BaaS


BaaS
• Backend for mobile apps
Files, DB, key-value
•
API SDK
•
• Push notiﬁcations
• Analytics

Baas
• User management
account creation/veriﬁcation
•
Login with Twitter/Facebook
•
• ACL


Baas
• Time to market
Focus on the front end
•


Services
• cloudmine.me
stackmob.com
•
kinvey.com
•
• parse.com
• sencha.io

Blood pact


BaasBox


BaasBox
• No application server
No database server
•
JVM only requirement
•
• Runs everywhere


BaasBox
• User management
ACL
•
Assets
•
• Collections
• Push notiﬁcations

BaasBox
• Download

•

./start


BaasBox on CentOS
yum install java-1.7.0-openjdk
scp baasbox-xx.tar.gz user@host:remotepath
cd remotepath
./start

PizzaBox

Dev

BaasBox
Pizzaiolo

Clients


Asset
curl --form ﬁle=@margherita.png
--form name=margherita
--user admin:admin
-H X-BAASBOX-APPCODE:1234567890
http://localhost:9000/admin/asset


Menu
curl -d "name=menu&meta=[

{

"name": "Margherita",

"id" : "margherita",

"price": 5,

"ingredients": "Pizza con pomodoro e mozzarella"

}, ... ]"
--user admin:admin
http://localhost:9000/admin/asset

Create order
curl -d "{
"list": {"margherita": 2,"quattrostagioni": 2},
"user": {
"name": "Cesare",
"surname": "Rocchi",
"address": "Via delle vie 12, Roma", ...
},
"time": "2013-01-02Z14:21",
"total": 12.5,
}"
--user cesare:cesare
http://localhost:9000/document/orders


Now we are working on
• Service
Business analytics
•


Contacts
• http://www.baasbox.com
twitter.com/baasbox
•
facebook.com/baasbox
•
• github.com/baasbox
• info@baasbox.com

jobs@baasbox.com


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