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Earlier this year, HCL Volt MX hosted our very first Hackathon! Eight-weeks, 4300 registrants, and countless great submissions later, we finally announced our winner: Vishal Vats.

After the hackathon, we got a chance to catch up with Vishal and ask him about his app Wishy and his experience learning Volt MX. Last week, we shared part one of our two-part interview. Let’s get into part two!

How did you approach the development process during the hackathon? Can you walk us through the key steps you took to bring your project to life?

Vishal: As this was a completely new domain for me, so I first went to the HCL software academy courses and completed 5 courses revolving around Volt MX. Then I actually started using the Volt MX & Iris platform. The first phase in the development phase was getting the UI done, because there are 6 pages in my application and I wanted to showcase the application in the best manner possible.

After making the same, I spent a couple of days controlling the form/page flow between each of the pages and started setting up the Foundry services to connect my front end to the backend database services. As I can recall, the initial deadline for the event was on May 14, and by that time I remember that I did complete my project but I was not happy with the landing page of the application. As soon as I got to know about the one-week extension, I revamped the UI and tweaked the programming logic a bit. And I can proudly say that the landing page of the application was looking great because of that extension.

What were the key factors that you believe contributed to your project’s success in the hackathon?

Vishal: I think that the constant support from the forum and the hikes were the most useful ones that helped me complete the project. Apart from this, I guess the easily laid out sections in Volt MX ensured that I can access almost everything with ease. So, accessibility of likely things at a place helped me a lot to quickly create the UI elements and manage their properties. Having the option to manage and save the same physical appearances of each element in the form of skins was also crucial in the development.

“The constant support from the forum and the hikes were the most useful ones that helped me complete the project.”

What were your favorite elements of Volt MX?

Vishal: While making a full-stack application, I (as a developer) have to do everything from scratch, i.e. making each UI element and even managing the backend functionalities. That might sound very easy or short, but believe me, it requires a lot of coding, and even little things like HTML/CSS and even JS functionalities have to be paid the greatest of attention to make something to start with. Being a low-code platform is the greatest feature of Volt MX (maybe second-best to the fact that it is a low-code platform that can be a single place to build any sort of application for any type of end device).

On top of that, I loved the fact that it uses JS as a coding language if someone needs to customize some things/processes. Volt MX is providing everything out-of-the-box, right off starting with the simplest of drag & drop features for adding any UI element, presenting repetitive information in the form of segments (tabular or in page forms) to control the data flow from one form to another. At every instance of development, the developer has control of what is being shown to the user and how data will be shared from one page to the other. Filtering the backend response at the Foundry end also ensures that the frontend is always receiving the minimal required things for processing. So, every unnecessary thing is rightly being shredded off and thus providing the developer a way to develop the applications in the quickest time & efficient manner possible.

“Volt MX is providing everything out-of-the-box, starting with the simplest of drag & drop features for adding any UI element, presenting repetitive information in the form of segments to control the data flow from one form to another.”

What advice would you give to aspiring participants in future hackathons, especially those working with HCL Volt MX?

Vishal: I would like to advise the future participants that if you are just starting off with Volt MX, then it will surely be difficult but in order to ease the same, try to first complete at least a single HIKE because that actually makes you familiar with the platform and then you can directly start making a demo page and add as many containers/UI elements possible. Play with each element’s various properties and try to use SKINS to not repeat the same process for the UI elements that need the same sort of UI appearance. Most importantly, do structure your project and rename each thing that you add to the workspace as it is very helpful when your applications expand.

Personally, I love to have a basic idea of how the platform works, and that’s why I first completed all of the 5 Volt MX introductory courses offered by the HCL Software Academy. Adding and managing the action section for an element must be learned afterward and then at last switch to Foundry and integrate an integration service into the backend. The path might be difficult and you will be stuck at almost everything, but don’t lose hope because Volt MX really simplifies things a lot and it’s a matter of time to be accustomed to this unique ecosystem.

Looking ahead, what are your goals and aspirations regarding your proficiency with HCL Volt MX? Are there any specific projects or areas of development you are eager to explore further?

Vishal: For Wishy, I used a lot of utilities and assets offered by Volt MX but those were not all of the things provided by the same. So, I am looking to first explore every aspect of Volt and then I might start working on a watchOS project that will be helping the user take personal productivity to the next level by using AI recommendations and analyzing the user behavior through pattern-recognition machine learning algorithms. Will be using separate TensorFlow containers for the processing and then sending the same to the frontend via Foundry.

“Personally, I love to have a basic idea of how the platform works, and that’s why I first completed all of the 5 Volt MX introductory courses offered by the HCL Software Academy.”

We’d like to thank Vishal for chatting with us and giving us a deep dive into his experience learning Volt MX and participating in the Hackathon. And congratulations on your big win!

Want to see Vishal’s app for yourself, check it out in the Volt MX Marketplace.

If you’re interested in learning Volt MX and starting to build some incredible apps on your own, check out the Volt MX Bootcamp and get your Volt MX Certification.

Earlier this year, HCL Volt MX hosted our very first Hackathon! Eight-weeks, 4300 registrants, and countless great submissions later, we finally announced our winner: Vishal Vats.

In fact, Vishal not only came in first place overall, but he also won our award for Most Innovative App. After the hackathon, we got a chance to catch up with Vishal and ask him about his app Wishy and his experience learning Volt MX.

Check out the first part of our interview below:

Congratulations on winning the HCL Volt MX Hackathon! Can you briefly explain the project you worked on and what problem it aimed to solve?

Vishal: Thanks, the project that I worked on and submitted at the event is Wishy. In these busy times, we often forget to wish our loved ones on their special occasions. So, Wishy is an application that lets you add your contacts and then schedule automated email/SMS notifications for special days like birthdays, anniversaries, or even festivals so that you never miss your loved ones and [can] even be the first person to wish them through personalized wishes.

What inspired you to participate in the hackathon and choose this particular project idea?

Vishal: I am actively participating in hackathons/events and I got to know about the Volt MX Hackathon through the HackerEarth platform about 3 weeks before the end. The thing which intrigued me to use Volt MX is the fact that the platform provides a single low-code platform through which one can make complete standalone applications for mobile, web, desktop & even tablets. Isn’t that awesome?

I have been developing web applications for quite some time, so I know that part, but to make an Android/iOS application just by knowing the basics of JS really pushed me to participate in the event. Regarding the project idea, actually, I already had thought before the event that I want to explicitly make an Android (mobile) application that can really elevate the automated wishing part. So, I did have a blueprint in my head that how the backend will look and I was just waiting for an opportunity through which I can effectively portray my idea. Then I started shaping my idea into reality through the services provided by the Volt Iris application.

“I have been developing web applications for quite some time, so I know that part, but to make an Android/iOS application just by knowing the basics of JS really pushed me to participate in the event.”

How did you leverage the features and capabilities of Volt MX to create your solution? Were there any specific aspects or functionalities that were particularly helpful for your project?

Vishal: At the start, the platform seemed to be a bit daunting because of the number of various functionalities & properties panels popping up at almost every pixel of the screen space. But once I started using the software, then everything made sense as all those panels provided me with a thorough control of what I have to use in my project and how. I almost used every functionality provided by the platform.

Speaking of my favorite elements, I assume Segments (their page variants in general) were of great help to me because, firstly, I could define a segment template and then populate it with the data that I was receiving from Foundry. As the page variants of segments allowed me to present the data in a carousel form which added a lot of visual appeal to the application and thus I used it a couple of times in my project. The rich text division was also another cool variant apart from their normal text counterpart because I can use HTML code right in those and thus achieve specific things to an element without touching anything. Action flow dialogs also helped me a lot in putting the event listeners for an element in a single place.

How would you compare HCL Volt MX to other low-code development platforms or frameworks you have used in the past? What are its strengths and weaknesses in your opinion?

Vishal: I have not used any of such low-code platforms before Volt MX because I really love writing code and was always a fan of actually writing things by myself rather than just having everything tailor-made by a framework or template. But I must admit that after using Volt MX that is not the case because now I want to write only those things that are actually crucial to the applications’ working and can just leave out all other things on the software.

“I almost used every functionality provided by the platform.”

Looking back, what were the most valuable lessons or insights you gained from participating in the hackathon as it relates to Volt MX?

Vishal: As mentioned earlier, I had a completely different landing page UI after the first deadline and I was really unhappy with the UI that will be presented to the users. I almost gave up on the idea of refining that due to the time constraints out of nowhere, the extension was announced and I got the glimmer of hope that I can do that and to no surprise, I did that. So, I learned that we should never step back from the things that we want to do and unexpected things happen if the cause is good.

Being a web developer, I was completely unaware of the fact that how the Android/iOS development ecosystem worked, but with the use of Volt MX, I got to have a peek at how things work for the handy mobiles and it was really exciting to actually make my first mobile-native application using the software. That made me feel that as a developer, its good to have knowledge/clarity of what has to be achieved and how that should be done (clear programming logic), if you have so then Volt MX is definitely a place that can provide a place to turn your ideas into reality.

“Volt MX is definitely a place that can provide a place to turn your ideas into reality.”

Thanks for chatting with us and sharing your insight, Vishal! Want to hear more from the HCL Volt MX Hackathon Winner? Next week, we’ll share the rest of our two-part interview.

If you want to see Vishal’s app for yourself, check it out in the Volt MX Marketplace.

Interested in learning Volt MX so you can start building some incredible apps on your own? Check out the Volt MX Bootcamp and get your Volt MX Certification.