Sass, which stands for Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets, extends development compatibility with all versions of CSS and its rich features that are available in CSS libraries. Programmers can use Sass for customizing regular ecommerce websites and building cross-platform mobile apps when using the Ionic platform and its open source templates. Stylesheets become increasingly complex and difficult to maintain, but differentiating ecommerce apps and fostering better brand identification requires the kind of customized UX/UIs that using Sass delivers at minimal costs. Developers can simplify their coding for Android and iOS, speed workflow and compile code that's easier to manage and update.

In today's e-commerce Market, two facts are critical for success. Customers increasingly use various devices, mobile technologies and proprietary apps when shopping online, so ecommerce companies need structured mobile targeting strategies. Developing new apps and updating existing apps quickly are also incredibly important to brand ecommerce companies, generate great user experiences and respond to competitors’ efforts.

Benefits of Using SASS with Ionic App Development

The Ionic platform offers developers many benefits for turning out platform-specific native apps with angular JavaScript and optimized CSS. Developers can use Sass to customize user interfaces, which generates many benefits for matching ecommerce shopping carts and device capabilities. These advantages include:

• Matching the look and feel of each native operating system and device
• Accelerating cart customization
• Bolstering custom modularity throughout ecommerce websites and projects
• Enhancing awareness and popularity of customer apps
• Saving time, money and resources on development costs
• Developing user-driven features
• Making code structure more manageable
• Prototyping apps faster
• Ensuring that common variables used throughout ecommerce websites and apps are reusable
• Adding features such as variables, functions, mixins, loops and more
• Breaking up stylesheets into multiple styles for typography, iconography, buttons, forms and layout and linking them to one style for importing when compiling the code for an app
• Assigning strings of text, colors, numbers, boolean and lists of values to variables
• Using "@extend" to allow classes to share sets of properties

Developing Apps with Open Source Tools

There are dozens of mobile app development platforms, and many of them can leverage open source tools like the Ionic platform and its preprocessors. Developers can create custom Cordova or PhoneGap mobile apps by using Ionic's free framework and codes for mobile-optimized HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. Using these open source tools enables ecommerce companies to develop prototypes or to experiment with mobile apps without generating big development costs. The framework integrates with other mobile development platforms including commercial app development companies. For example, IBM's MobileFirst Platform can accelerate mobile marketing strategies by integrating a Cordova project with Ionic's platform. Developers can take these manual steps to create a Cordova project for Ionic:

• Download Ionic templates to a local file system.
• Create iOS and Android platforms.
• Enable Sass for customizations.

Developers enjoy a range of customizations and modifications for overwriting Ionic's somewhat basic designs by creating variables to override specific design specifications like colors, background gradients and nesting properties. Adding "!default" allows developers to change these styles later if desired.

Customizing Ionic Apps with Themes, Templates and Components

Ionic offers some useful shortcuts like templates for maps, tabs, side menus, tests and complex lists. However, CSS language has its own feature set that doesn't always encourage reusing code. Preprocessors like Sass were developed to extend basic functionality without needing to rewrite code repetitively. Using Sass with Ionic can equip front-end engineers with intuitive tools to speed the development process, extend app functionality and customize the look and feel of the UI to each device.

Using Preprocessors

Preprocessors convert one type of data into another. Sass converts code into CSS, and Haml converts it into HTML. Developers aren't limited to Sass when customizing CSS, but Sass and Haml are two of the most popular preprocessors because of their ease of use, flexibility and versatility. One of the problems of using preprocessors is that every developer within the organization must use the same preprocessor. Haml, Less, Slim, CoffeeScript and Stylus are also popular preprocessing languages. Choosing one of these options might be a better choice for certain projects, so decision-makers should research the options to determine the best choice for their teams and projects.

Before composing in Sass, the program must be installed. Sass is built on Ruby, an open source module that's usually installed on Macs. If using Windows, programmers might need to install Ruby. Ionic's precompiled CSS file is easy to customize with Sass by setting up Ionic projects in two ways:

• Automatic Setup
  Programmers can begin writing Sass in their ./scss/ionic.app.scss files
• Manual
  Use the Tabs template to create iOS and Android files

Ionic Development with Sass Customization Requires a Robust ecommerce Solution

Technology advancements have advanced user accessibility to the point that customers can browse, shop and buy products with just a few clicks of a mouse. Customers want mobile experiences that match what they get on desktop websites, so they buy expensive smartphones that have the necessary technology to run advanced Web apps. The Ionic framework and Sass preprocessor enable ecommerce companies to develop custom hybrid apps quickly, but the mobile experience isn't complete unless a given company has robust ecommerce software for integrating app data with inventory, shipping, timely notifications and the overall look and feel of the website's design.

Common challenges of integrating ecommerce operations and mobile apps include generating automatic emails, optimizing search engine rankings, tracking an app's popularity, accepting multiple payment options, providing strong user security and tracking clients through multiple access points.

How Clarity Can Help

Clarity fields a team of engineers who can solve your unique business problems in Web and app development for a complete ecommerce solution. Turnkey solutions offer the advantages of a completely integrated site for mobile and desktop ordering and enterprise-level tools for management, CRM and ERP applications. Clarity's background in custom software simplifies modularity and customization for your apps so that each user receives a great experience whether using an app or directly accessing your website on any device. We always focus on your specific needs regardless of whether you need a mobile app, responsive website design or greater functionality for your ecommerce website. contact Clarity for a consultation or free quote.

Please click below to contact Clarity with any questions about Ionic development or for a free consultation.