OutSystems Developer Conference: Niels’ journey
In November of 2018, the entire Providit team attended the OutSystems Developer Conference in Lisbon. The conference was dedicated to the development of mobile and web apps on the OutSystems low-code platform. The objective was to strengthen the bond among the team members and to learn new things about app development with OutSystems. Niels, OutSystems Professional Developer and lead developer at Providit, especially enjoyed learning more about microservices, mobile applications, and the use of Microsoft Azure in Outsystems.
The Providit team travelled to Lisbon a day early, to have a day of team building. The team members visited the city center and had a good time together while sightseeing and having a couple of drinks at the terraces. After a relaxing evening on the coast, the team was ready for two days of dedication related to the OutSystems Platform.
Microservices
The first tech talk that Niels attended was part of the Architecture track. “It was a fantastic session”, he says. “Since OutSystems 11, the architecture to build applications has improved a lot. One of the cases on display was a back-end example with several applications using the same server actions. However, the code needed an update. Normally, this means that each application has to be manually updated and deployed. Microservices, a new approach, solves this problem by ignoring manual updates as the applications can use the new code automatically.”
Mobile applications
Niels also learned something interesting during a tech talk about mobile applications. “I asked a question that had been on my mind for a long time: how to synchronize large pictures to your smartphone without impacting its performance? The answer was that it is important to compress the files so that they become small before synchronizing. In that case, it’s possible to keep working on your smartphone as the decompressed files are downloaded in the background. When you want to see a picture, the full file will be downloaded.” The goal for attending the sessions was hereby met: learning new things.
Microsoft Azure
A last tech talk that Niels attended was about Microsoft Azure on the OutSystems Platform. “The presenter explained how to integrate an online tire catalogue with the help of Microsoft Azure recognition software. The result is that customers now scan a tire with their smartphone and receive information about it such as type, width, wheel diameter, and price.” By combine OutSystems and the MS Azure recognition software, the presenter was able to create a great application in no time.
Niels is an OutSystems fan and regrets that he was not able to attend more tech talks during the two-day OutSystems Developer Conference. However, the good news is that all talks are now available on the conference website: https://www.outsystems.com/learn/techtalks/.
Developing apps with OutSystems at Providit feels like home to Niels. “We are a very close group of colleagues and are also friends. Our organizational structure is horizontal, and everyone’s opinion is appreciated. This is often not the case at big IT companies. Last but not least, at Providit I get the possibility to grow personally and professionally. That’s really important to me.”
