The perimeter of smartphones is growing exponentially with every passing day, and their juggernaut seems to be in no mood to slow down. With the expansion of technology, people are inclined to use smartphones more significantly, increasing the importance of mobile apps in our day-to-day lives.
To develop an outstanding mobile app, you need to have a high standard of coding. The quality of the code will either make or break your mobile app in the long run in the market scenario. With the ever-evolving market scenario, and from times 2020 and beyond, merely launching a mobile app will not ensure success in the business market. You need to develop a relevant and high-quality mobile app. The mobile app developers need to ensure that all the code quality metrics are considered before beginning the app development.
What is the Quality of Code?
Quality of code is a parameter from which the developers can understand the codes' standard to develop a particular mobile app. The code quality might be good or bad, which is a subjective matter based on the context in which the mobile app is made.
The understanding of a quality code might be different for a web developer from an app developer. Some general standards will help you in differentiating the correct code from the wrong code.
Good Codes Bad Code
For starters, good code is a high-quality and clean code. On the other hand, the bad code is low in quality, and it doesn't have the spine or legs to stand the test of time.
In addition to it, if a mobile app development company develops a mobile app with good quality code, it would be:
• More consistent
• Easy to understand
• Precise and well-documented
• Can be tested on all accounts
The Importance of code quality in app development
A good quality code is deciding factor that differentiates a path-breaking mobile app from a mediocre one. In addition to this, good quality code is essential for your mobile app's security to be more reliable to the end-user.
The entire essence of a mobile app, right from the reliability to overall performance and maintenance, depends majorly on the codebase. The mobile app developers need to use the right set of tools to ensure high-quality code. In addition to this, the developers need to implement different metrics like cyclomatic complexity to monitor the quality of the code over a period of time.
Using these metrics as a standard mobile app development guide will help you reduce complexity and improve the quality of the mobile app.
After understanding the fundamental difference between good code and bad code, we can see the steps that will help improve the quality of the code.
Characteristics of a good quality code
Every characteristic focuses on different aspects of app development. Thus, our readers will get a clear idea and wholesome idea about the ingredients that they need to include in a good quality app.
Authenticity
The higher the code's authenticity, the lower the risk attached that the mobile app might fail. Thus, measuring the code's reliability remains a vital step that will help reduce the possible harm in the future. Therefore, in the quest to measure the code quality of your mobile app and analyze the authenticity, here are a few quick steps to help you out:
• Do load testing, which gives you an idea about how the app will work when a lot of people are using it at the same time
• Keep a keen eye on the recurrence of errors. If you find fewer mistakes, it is a clear indicator that your code is in good health as far as authenticity is concerned.
• In addition to load testing, regression testing can make you realize the new shortcomings in the code when you are making specific changes to the app.
• Before launching the app in the real market, create a market-like situation as it will give you a clear idea about how the app code will work in the real world.
Testing
All has been said and done. We are saying it again 'TESTING' is the most crucial aspect of the mobile app development process code for better reliability, security, portability, and durability. You need to go through ample testing before releasing your mobile app into the market to save yourself from further mishaps.
There are no given set of rules about how testing should be done on the mobile app. But you can implement popular methods like running the code through the Halstead complexity test or measuring the number of stylistic warnings to understand the actual working status of the code. Additionally, the cyclomatic complexity method can measure the number of test results that came in faulty out of the total number of tests done. This will enable the developers to take the complete ratio of hits and misses and thus decide on the changes that they will need to do.
Code Maintenance
Another aspect of determining the code quality of your mobile app is to look at its maintenance level. If the code is easy to maintain and understand, it is surely indeed is of high quality. Moreover, you can look at the testability aspect and get an idea about the level of code maintenance. Other than this, you also need to assess the complexity, structure, and consistency of the codebase in concern.
Although there is no specific set of instructions to measure the code maintenance, the developers can use several complexity tests to get an overview.
Security
Data breaches can happen to even the best in businesses. The new-age users consider app security the most critical aspect and don't hesitate for a split second to uninstall the app if they find any security breach.
Thus, to minimize the security vulnerabilities, here are a few things you can do:
• Look for the actual loopholes in security and measure them on the severity and how frequently they occur.
• Scan the whole code to find out the total number of shortcomings in the security
• If you have launched the app, implement a security update and then analyze your users' reaction after they use the app after the update.
Repeated Usage
Repeated usage simply means how often the code can be used for similar or different purposes. The code reuse benefits only if the already-written codes have modularity. You can also measure the level of reusability on how interdependent the codes of the mobile app are. You can use a static analyzer to understand the level of interdependencies of the code.
How to improve the quality of the code?
Following the best code practices
To improve the code quality of your mobile app, you should focus on adequately doing the code reviews. Manual code reviews still hold a reliable place when it comes to verifying the aim of the code.
You can do the code reviews in the proper manner by exploring and using the automated tools to a greater extent.
Standard Codes
Employing standard codes is an ideal approach that ensures to give high-quality codes to your mobile app. Standardized coding improves the consistency of the app, readability of the code, and ensures that all developers are using the same coding format.
The best way to implement standard codes is to train your app developers in using them and urge them to comply with stringent guidelines.
Stoic Analysis
Profound code analysis should be on priority as it significantly improves the quality of the code and the mobile app. During app development, you don't need to have the cushion of time on your side. Thus it is better to analyze the codes right at the beginning.
You can automatically analyze the code by using static analyzers and improving the code quality metrics.
Refactoring when necessary
It is always important to improve the code's internal structure while not harming external behavior. Refactoring will ease the complexity of the code and clean up the code base for better understanding.
Final Check
The quality of the code for your mobile app also depends on the app development service provider you are hiring. As an experienced mobile app development company, Prismetric emphasizes maintaining a certain standard of codes so that our clients would have the best end product. From testing the codebase's quality to doing the required changes, our skilled and experienced developers ensure only A-quality work.