Evaluation Guide
Zoho Creator | Features
Unleash the power of versatility. Explore features that make business transformation effortless.
Overview
Too often, brilliant ideas never see the light of day because the people who have them lack the technical skills to make them a reality. On the other hand, many talented engineers are hamstrung by a lack of good ideas. The Zoho Creator platform brings these two groups together, empowering them to create powerful applications that can transform their businesses.
By giving non-technical users the ability to develop easily and deploy sophisticated applications, Creator enables them to put their good ideas into action quickly and efficiently. And by providing developers with access to a huge library of reusable components, the Creator platform helps them save time and accelerate the delivery of high-quality applications. As a result, the Zoho Creator platform is making it possible for more good ideas to see the light of day, driving innovation and transforming the way organizations function.
Moreover, because the platform is built on robust, scalable infrastructure, it can support even the most complex applications. With the power of the Creator Platform behind them, people can create truly transformative solutions that can change the world.
If you're considering Zoho Creator as your low-code platform of choice, our evaluation guide will help you make the right decision. In this guide, we'll cover the A-to-Z of Zoho Creator—how it works, what it's capable of, and who it's best suited for.
Built for every developer profile
Zoho Creator supports three types of developer profiles:
Citizen developers
Power users who are not professional developers but have some technical skills
Traditional developers
Professional developers who are familiar with coding
Mixed-development teams
Teams that include both citizen developers and traditional developers
Zoho Creator supports different developer profiles by providing a drag-and-drop interface for creating forms and applications, as well as a robust scripting language for customizing the behavior of those forms and applications.
The scripting language, Deluge, is similar to popular programming languages like Java and JavaScript, making it easy for developers with a background in traditional programming to get up and running quickly with Zoho Creator. For developers who prefer a more visual approach, the drag-and-drop interface makes it possible to create sophisticated forms and applications without writing any code. And for those who fall somewhere in between, Zoho Creator provides a rich set of API options that allow for extensive customization.
Experienced developers can take advantage of these scripting capabilities to customize the application to their specific needs. They also can use Zoho Creator's API to directly access data stored in their applications—or they can use the platform's built-in scripting language to add custom code as needed.
The development process
Requirements management
Requirements management is an essential phase in any software development process. It involves the detailed documentation, identification, and monitoring of requirements throughout the project's lifecycle. Zoho Creator, for instance, provides a cohesive approach to this critical process.
Zoho Creator allows you to manage your requirements within the same platform that you use for developing your software. This means you can keep track of requirement modifications, assign responsibilities, and generate progress reports without having to switch between different platforms or tools.
Zoho Creator also simplifies the process by offering pre-built templates for common requirement types, thereby reducing the learning curve and speeding up the setup process. The aim is to create a seamless bridge between the development team and users, ensuring that the final product meets user needs and expectations. The integrated approach to requirements management fosters better communication, faster feedback loops, and, ultimately, more successful project outcomes.
Visual modelling
Zoho Creator provides a visual modeling environment that helps you design and build applications quickly and easily. With visual modeling, you can create an application by dragging and dropping components onto a canvas, and then connecting them together to create flows. Flowcharts provide a clear and concise way to represent complex processes, making them ideal for use in applications.
Creator's visual modeling tool is based on the entity-relationship model, which lets you visually represent the data and relationships between entities in your application. You can use the visual modeling tool to create new applications or modify existing ones.
In addition, visual modeling can be used to create data models that specify the structure of your data. This is especially useful when working with large data sets, as it can help you identify relationships between data items.
One-click deployment
Zoho Creator provides one-click deployment to prevent configuration drift and environment inconsistencies. This means that you can deploy your Zoho Creator app to any environment with just one click. This is because the platform uses a declarative approach to configuration, which means that the configuration is stored in the codebase itself. As a result, there is no need to manually configure each environment separately.
The platform also provides third-party support for one-click deployment on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This enables the user to quickly create an environment that exactly mirrors their production environment, complete with all the necessary infrastructure and applications. One-click deployment is a major time-saver, as it eliminates the need to manually provision and configure each individual component. In addition, it ensures that the development, testing, and production environments are identical, which helps reduce the risk of errors and unexpected behavior.
Agile methodology x Zoho Creator
The Zoho Creator platform has been built to work with Agile methodology; it emphasizes iterative delivery, collaboration between cross-functional teams, and constant stakeholder feedback. With its new set of features in version 6.0, it enables rapid application development with little or no coding. Combining these two approaches can help organizations deliver high-quality software faster and with less risk.
The Agile process begins with a high-level overview of the project requirements, which is followed by a series of iterations, or incremental batches. During each batch, the development team works on a small piece of the project, with the goal of delivering a working product at the end of each sprint. This iterative approach allows for constant feedback and rapid innovation, which is essential for success in today's fast-paced business environment. In addition, Agile methodology helps to ensure that all stakeholders are aligned with the project goals and objectives.
DevOps x Zoho Creator
Zoho Creator provides an abstraction layer that makes it possible for application development to be decoupled from the underlying infrastructure. The platform also enables the separation of concerns between application development and operations. This makes it possible to apply DevOps practices to the development and deployment of applications.
Zoho Creator makes it possible for governance and compliance with best practices to be enforced at the code level, without sacrificing flexibility or agility. Developers can still “low-code” their applications using visual models and declarative rule sets, while DevOps pipelines are used to automatically bake in governance and compliance processes. This results in increased security and quality for low-code applications, without sacrificing the speed or agility that's essential to successful digital transformation initiatives.
Built for every developer profile:
The key components of the platform's DevOps include:
Key roles x Zoho Creator
These roles include application developer, business analyst, and system administrator. Each role has its own set of responsibilities and skills that are necessary for the successful implementation of low-code solutions.
As an application developer, you'll be responsible for developing the business logic for your applications. This includes working with the low-code platform to create the user interface, data models, and workflow diagrams. You'll also be responsible for testing and deploying the applications you create.
As a business analyst, you'll be responsible for identifying the requirements for your applications. This includes working with stakeholders to understand their needs and translating them into functional requirements. You'll also be responsible for reviewing the applications you develop to ensure they meet the needs of the business.
As a system administrator, you'll be responsible for managing the low-code platform itself. This includes installing , configuring, and maintaining the platform. You'll also be responsible for ensuring that the platform is available to users when they need it.
What kind of projects can you build on Zoho Creator?
Gartner's Pace-Layered model provides a framework for understanding the different types of software projects and determining which are good fits for low-code development on Zoho Creator.
The model classifies software projects into five categories: strategy, transformation, foundation, applications, and data. In general, low-code platforms are a good fit for foundation, application, and data projects.
Strategy projects involve developing a long-term vision and plan for the enterprise. They're concerned with high-level decisions about where the business should go and how to get there.
Transformation projects are focused on making significant changes to the enterprise in order to achieve the goals set forth in the strategy. These changes can be organizational, cultural, or technical in nature.
Foundation projects establish the basic infrastructure that's needed to support the enterprise. This includes developing core competencies, common capabilities, and shared services.
Applications are the software that directly supports the business processes of the enterprise. Data management projects are concerned with storing, securing, and maintaining data. Low-code platforms can provide significant benefits for application and data projects, by simplifying development and deployments, automating manual processes, and enabling rapid innovation.
There are some common use cases that are perfect fits for low-code development on the Zoho Creator platform:
Application prototyping
Application prototyping is the process of quickly creating a working model of an application in order to gather feedback from stakeholders. Low-code platforms offer prebuilt components and templates that make it easy to create prototypes without writing any code.
Process automation
Process automation is the ability to automate repetitive tasks or workflows in order to improve efficiency and accuracy. Low-code platforms offer a visual workflow designer that makes it easy to map out process flows and then automate them with code that runs in the background.
Custom applications
Custom applications are built specifically for an organization's needs, in contrast to off-the-shelf products. Low-code platforms offer readymade components that can be used to build custom applications without having to start from scratch.
Line-of-business (LOB) applications
Line-of-business (LOB) applications are enterprise applications that support critical business processes, such as customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP). Low-code platforms offer a wide variety of prebuilt LOB components that can be used to quickly build these types of applications without needing extensive coding skills.
Integrating legacy systems
Zoho Creator's powerful integration capabilities make it possible to connect legacy systems with new applications. This allows organizations to leverage their existing IT investments while still taking advantage of the latest technologies.
Pace-Layered model x use cases
The Zoho Creator platform's use cases can be mapped to all five layers of Gartner's Pace-Layered model.
- The strategic layer is focused on long-term planning and high-level decision making. The low-code use case for this layer is the development of prototypes and proofs of concept (POCs).
- The tactical layer is focused on near-term decision-making and resource allocation. The low-code use case for this layer is the development of rapid, iterative applications.
- The operational layer is focused on daily operations and transactions. The low-code use case for this layer is the development of mission-critical applications.
- The compliance layer is focused on ensuring compliance with regulations and standards. The low-code use case for this layer is the development of audit trail applications.
- The security layer is focused on protecting data and assets from unauthorized access. The low-code use case for this layer is the development of identity management applications.
Zoho Creator | Technical capabilities
Scalability
Zoho Creator applications are built on a micro services architecture, which makes them highly scalable. The modular nature of micro services means that each component can be scaled independently, allowing for horizontal and vertical scaling as needed. Zoho Creator applications can also be deployed in a variety of environments, from on-premise to the cloud.
High availability
Zoho Creator applications are designed for high availability and can be deployed in a variety of configurations to meet different availability needs. For example, Zoho Creator applications can be deployed in an active/active or active/passive configuration.
In an active/active configuration, all nodes in the cluster are active and processing requests. In an active/passive configuration, one node is active and processing requests while the other nodes are standby, ready to take over if the active node fails.
Fault tolerance
Zoho Creator applications are also designed to be fault tolerant. In the event of a failure, Zoho Creator applications can automatically failover to a standby node without any downtime. Additionally, Zoho Creator applications can be deployed in a clustered configuration, which provides additional redundancy and fault tolerance.
Security
Zoho Creator takes security seriously and offers a number of features to help keep data safe. Zoho Creator applications are built on a secure platform that includes role-based access control, data encryption, and auditing. Additionally, Zoho Creator provides comprehensive documentation on application security best practices.
Performance
Zoho Creator applications are designed for performance and can handle large amounts of data and traffic without issue. Zoho Creator uses an optimized database architecture that is specifically designed for performance and scalability. Additionally, Zoho Creator applications are compiled into native code, which makes them faster than interpreted languages, such as PHP or Java.
Extensibility
Zoho Creator applications are highly extensible and can be customized to meet specific needs. Zoho Creator provides a number of extensibility points, including custom widgets, custom pages, custom actions, and custom Java code extensions. Additionally, Zoho Creator applications can be integrated with third-party systems using web services or the MX SDK.
Ease of use
Zoho Creator applications are easy to use and require no coding knowledge to build or maintain them. Zoho Creator uses a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to build prototypes quickly or production-ready applications with minimal effort. Additionally, Zoho Creator provides comprehensive documentation and support to help you get started quickly and easily.