Frappé: An Ultra Lightweight Mobile Application Framework for Rapid API-based Prototyping and Environmental Deployment
Abstract:
Over the last decade, almost everything we interact with has adopted a digital presence in the form of mobile applications. While some modern approaches allow for on-demand, installation-free app delivery, it comes at the expense of heavy reliance on internet connectivity and development overheads, making them unsuitable for ubiquitous use in areas with limited connectivity. In this paper, we introduce Frappé, an ultra lightweight framework that allows easy deployment of mobile applications through QR codes that can be installed instantly without requiring internet connectivity. We achieve this by storing only the UI metadata in the QR code while offloading functions to API calls. Upon scanning the QR code, the entire app gets reconstructed on the user’s device instantly. A technical evaluation demonstrates the lightweight nature of our framework. In our user study, we found that both experienced app developers and users with no prior app designing experience were able to easily build and deploy apps using our framework.
Committee:
- Kevin Sullivan, Committee Chair, (CS/SEAS/UVA)
- Seongkook Heo, Advisor, (CS/SEAS/UVA)
- Brad Campbell (CS, ESE/SEAS/UVA)
- Lu Feng (CS, ESE/SEAS/UVA)