21 September 2016

Today, giving the fact that there are a lot of new and innovative programs, it is time to discuss why Meteor remains one of the greatest tools for rapid prototyping.

Meteor abstracts away the configuration-related details, leaving us with just the set of tools needed to create apps: real-time, JavaScript client and server-side, the packages system, build system, minimongo, and so much more.

We can turn an HTML wireframe into a functional application in a surprisingly reduced number of steps. We’ll be diving into the process of creating apps with Meteor, and we will demonstrate how quickly we can transform the initial sketches into a real application, thanks to the ease of Meteor development.

Initial sketches

Sketching should be the first step to explore concepts quickly. This step is essential and can save you a lot of time; by putting the ideas quickly on paper, you can evaluate them to see if they are worth exploring further. Besides, in this way you will make sure that the idea is in agreement with your business plan before moving forward.

Define basic app structure

A big mistake many beginners make is trying to create an application without having a clear idea of what exactly are they trying to build. You don’t have to figure it out from the beginning, but you have to have some plan.

Defining the basic app structure begins with establishing the *appname*. Then, it’s necessary to remove all the files created by Meteor and replace them with a custom structure, as mentioned below:

  • HTML files to create the interface,
  • CSS files to assign styles to the interface,
  • Java files to define app logic,
  • Directories, collection, libraries, and packages to keep everything well organized.

Creating the UI

Meteor has standard templates, but in general, everyone is building all the templates in static HTML before adding reactivity with Meteor.

Installing packages

Meteor comes with some standard accounts systems, including the Account-UI package.  (login, registration, and password recovery). This is useful for prototyping and can be extremely easy to integrate into your website.

Configure routes

In this stage are created all the required routes, that will allow you to browse through all the static templates and check the application structure. The last step is to add the basic CRUD operations.

These are the absolute basics of creating customized accounts for your Meteor application. Since everything (both client and server) is written in pure Javascript, Meteor makes it simple to get a basic prototype up and running in a day.

Photo source: https://pixabay.com

 

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