We were really excited to interview DreamFactory superuser and renaissance woman, Crystal Taggart. Crystal is the author of the upcoming book called Build My App!, which teaches people how to build an app using low cost and open source platforms. We are honored to be featured as one of the main solutions.
“DreamFactory is a full end-to-end solution and is so easy to use. I use the DreamFactory interface to set up security, add new users, and I get to control where it’s hosted, all for free! Most middleware software requires code generation to use it and you have to be a linux guru. DreamFactory also has a 1-click install from Bitnami, so it’s super easy to install. I’m a DreamFactory Super Fan!”
“I’ve been working in the software industry for almost 20 years now and managing development teams for over 10 years in companies from startups to Fortune 500. I look at development teams I’ve worked with and the ways that they code have barely changed since I was a developer. Code your data access layer, code your classes, code your methods, code your business rules, code your UI, etc. I have seen how long it takes to get anything done through the “IT Black Hole” and fierce competition among business units begging for IT time."
She used Bitnami to install DreamFactory on Google Cloud. For Crystal, “it was a piece of cake. Any person with a 1-hour intro could figure out how to use it.”
“I started as a developer and moved to product and project management and different roles within IT. I started coding in 1996 in VB6. I stopped coding in 2006 to work in leadership and management. I started coding again in 2014 when I wanted to learn to launch a mobile app. I found Appery.io, a mobile app platform that does 90% of the coding for you, and then I found DreamFactory to create my database APIs and haven’t looked back since.”
Dreamfactory showed up on her radar in the Appery.io community forum and immediately appealed to her.
“It takes me about 10 minutes to evaluate software to learn the following: Is it easy to set up? Is it cost effective? Do I need to write code to use it? With Dreamfactory, it was all the right answers. Easy to use, easy to set up, reduces coding - all I need to do is set up my connection string to my database and I’ve got tons of REST APIs available to me.”
In Crystal’s app development proces, she uses a combination of Appery.io and DreamFactory. Appery.io is a low-cost development platform that builds and compiles mobile apps through an easy-to-learn drag-and-drop interface. With the power of Dreamfactory and Appery.io together, she was able to craft a viable mobile app fast
“I use Appery.io and DreamFactory to help bootstrapping startups launch at very low cost, and without needing to code! I don’t like coding and try to get out of coding as much as possible. I like to configure software. More configuring, less coding. That’s why I love using the DreamFactory development site to easily set up a project, connect to my SQL database, and then it automatically generates REST API’s that I connect to my Appery.io project.”
Listen to the interview our Product Manager Ben Busse had
with Crystal for her upcoming book, Build My App!
“Speed to market is the main goal for myself, and clients. My goal is to develop all of this within a 2 week timeframe, including all source code libraries, questions, requirements and documentation. I make sure my clients know exactly how everything works.”
“My target market is an entrepreneur with the next ‘killer app’. I run into entrepreneurs all the time at different startup events. They all want to talk to me because they need a ‘technical cofounder’ to build their killer app. I tell them all that they don’t need a cofounder, the tools exist to build it yourself, you just need to roll up your sleeves a little bit and learn a couple things. It’s easier than ever to launch a startup and platforms like Dreamfactory make it so much easier than it was ‘back in the day.’”
Crystal is also a member of our community forum, where she gets technical support from our community when she needs it. Why join? As she puts it - “It’s a no brainer - technical support.”
The power of DreamFactory is that developers can drastically reduce their time to market and increase delivery capabilities in a matter of hours, not days. You don’t have to learn a new framework, you don’t have to learn new APIs. Just connect your database, set up your security and that’s all you need to yield APIs , out of the box and with zero coding.
For Crystal, the value is clear, “if you aren’t using DreamFactory, then you are wasting time and money.”
Let’s do a happy clap!