News

Appcelerator Ties Mobile App Platform to Box Cloud Storage

• By David Ramel
• April 24, 2015

Appcelerator Inc. is teaming up to integrate Box Inc. data and security functionality with its mobile app development platform. Box provides a cloud-based file-sharing and storage service.

That means mobile developers will be able to use a Box connector for hooking into back-end data services via the new Appcelerator Arrow framework for creating and running mobile-optimized APIs.

Arrow -- announced early this month -- is an opinionated framework consisting of a Builder tool to create APIs and a Cloud tool that provides an elastic, scalable cloud service for running those APIs. Arrow, a key component of the company's Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS), helps developers more quickly connect, model, transform, and optimize data for native or Web app clients, the company said.

Box is the newest Arrow connector, joining a stable that includes MySQL, Azure, SQL Server, Salesforce and MongoDB, company exec Michael King said in a blog post this week. He said many more connectors will be added in the near future.

"The new Box connector enables developers to integrate Box data into and out of any Appcelerator mobile app, streamlining access to the widely used Box service and resulting in a richer, more dynamic user experience," the company said in a news release. "With the Box connector, enterprises using Appcelerator-powered apps gain seamless access to all of their Box data without having to leave the app."