Cloud-hosted script library simplifies web development
Developers often find themselves repeatedly going over the same ground when it comes to adding functionality like forms or product pages.
California-based Cloudward is aiming to make life easier for web app developers with the launch of Cloud Snippets. These are cloud-hosted scripts, powered by Google Cloud Services, that allow anyone to instantly add forms, surveys, landing pages, ecommerce product listings, and more using the simplicity of Google Docs, Sheets, and Drive.
Developers can add a Cloud Snippet to any website, including platforms like WordPress, Weebly, Squarespace and Wix, or any HTML page. All they have to do is copy and paste the JavaScript code and publish it. Cloud Snippets also gives developers the code allowing them to make customizations as required.
"Cloud Snippets are important because they allow anybody to easily build an independent, embeddable web app," says Cloudward co-founder and CTO Danny Kolke. "For the first time, a web designer or developer has the power to build sophisticated web functions without having to know PHP, Python, Java, etc. Small agencies and web designers can use Cloud Snippets to gain big-agency capabilities. Small businesses can easily add complex functionality to their websites. And enterprises gain development flexibility".
Cloudward has set up a Snippet Store which has lots of free snippets for developers to get started. It intends to open this up as a marketplace for other web designers and developers to build and sell their own custom snippets.
Current snippets include one to create a content slideshow by taking images and tagline descriptions from a Google Sheet and displaying them in a slider, and one to take addresses from a Google Sheet and display each on a map with a marker and an information window.
You can find out more about Cloud Snippets on the Cloudward website.
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