Adobe rolls out new toolbox to help developers build custom experiences
When a customer visits a brand's website, they're not necessarily just shopping. They could want to check their billing history, communicate with a customer service rep or customize the product they're purchasing, among other things.
To help developers address that growing complexity and the need to customize applications, Adobe is introducing the Adobe Developer App Builder. It's a toolbox that developers a simple way to build, test and deploy customized apps that work seamlessly with Adobe products. Based on experiences with beta testers so far, the new product can reduce the time it takes to create apps from days to a matter of 30 minutes.
Beginning in December, Adobe Developer App Builder will be available for Adobe Experience Manager -- a product in the Experience Cloud that's focused on content management and digital asset management. Developers will be able to extend Experience Manager to their existing infrastructure and apply unique parameters to give the UI a unique look.
Later, App Builder will be available for Adobe Commerce and Adobe Sign.
Adobe is offering the toolset for Experience Manager first, given the pressure marketers are under to create personalized experiences, Loni Stark, VP of Adobe Experience Manager, told ZDNet.
"When you go onto a website for a brand, or If you go onto a mobile app or a screen on a refrigerator or a car, those are unique experiences that each brand wants to deliver to you," she said. "That's how they differentiate. They also are becoming a lot more complex. The demands of developers to be able to use Experience Manager to connect to backend systems to change the user experience is far greater."
With App Builder, Adobe developers can use the Adobe SDK rather than APIs to integrate applications. There are three main uses cases: user experience extensibility, core services extensibility and middleware extensibility. With core services extensibility, developers can modify Experience Manager workflows with custom features or business logic. Middleware Extensibility lets a company tie Experience Manager into existing backend systems. Developers can connect external enterprise systems with custom connectors or a suite of pre-built integrations. Meanwhile, developers can use the Spectrum UI framework to build experiences within their apps that feel native alongside Adobe products.
Developers can start using App Builder now via Adobe's Trial Program.