Evolution of LCDP.ai Muyan Low-Code Platform

LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform is a highly user-friendly and customizable low-code development platform with a unique origin.

Experience Accumulation at IBM

This story begins with my software system delivery work at IBM. During my tenure, I had the opportunity to participate in multiple projects for Fortune 500 companies, accumulating extensive experience in enterprise application delivery and confronting numerous challenging issues. Through continuous practice and reflection, I gained a clear and profound understanding of the real difficulties and key aspects of enterprise application delivery.

Throughout this process, I established deep trust relationships with clients. They valued my professional capabilities demonstrated in projects, innovative problem-solving approaches, and deep understanding of their business needs. This trust not only became a crucial foundation for my later entrepreneurship but also provided initial customer resources and business opportunities.

Upon leaving IBM to start my own business, many Fortune 500 clients chose to continue working with me, entrusting system maintenance and custom development to my one-person company. This reflected both my personal reputation and credibility established in the industry, as well as the strong demand from large enterprises for flexible, efficient, and deeply customized development services.

It was against this background that LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform was born.

Early Development

Initially, I primarily focused on custom development based on SpringBoot (opens new window) and Antd (opens new window). During the development process, I encountered numerous specific challenges, such as frequent changes in customer requirements, complicated system deployment and launch processes, and time-consuming manual creation of user interfaces. All of these factors led to increased development costs and reduced efficiency.

Concurrently, I deeply realized that enterprise application development had long involved a significant amount of repetitive work, and many system patterns and business patterns could be abstracted and reused, including:

• CRUD pages
• Quick search functionality
• Action definition
• Field linkage
• Lifecycle management
• Scheduled tasks
• Permission control
• Multi-step forms
• Dynamic fields
• Dashboards, and more

Inspired by these insights, I decided to develop a low-code development platform from scratch that could flexibly customize the above functions. I envisioned a platform with a modern interface, powerful customization capabilities, metadata-driven architecture, and numerous other features to address various pain points in traditional development modes.

Initial Platform Version

After approximately six months of development, the first version of LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform was completed at the end of 2020. The platform significantly improved development efficiency, reducing development time to between 1/5 and 1/10 of the original duration.

When the first project based on this platform was implemented for a large multinational enterprise client, their IT department was impressed by our development speed and customization capabilities, even considering it comparable to Microsoft's Power Apps.

Thanks to the excellent delivery and established trust relationship with this client, we continued to undertake application development projects for many business departments within the group.

Integration of AI

In 2023, with the rapid advancement of GPT technology, we recognized that low-code platforms must incorporate AI large models as infrastructure to maintain a competitive advantage. Consequently, we promptly introduced AI capabilities into the platform, enabling the direct use of large language model capabilities in any custom logic.

Our AI capabilities are not just aimed at improving development efficiency, but more importantly, at empowering end users. Applications developed on the LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform allow end users to directly benefit from AI-driven convenience, with this AI capability being completely transparent to them. Users don't need to understand the intricacies of AI technology or learn complex prompt writing; they can enjoy the efficiency improvements brought by AI simply by operating within the familiar application interface.

We have implemented multiple AI application scenarios, such as automatically generating model and Action definitions based on descriptions, automatically generating CSV description files for form definitions, and automatically translating interface labels. These scenarios not only greatly improve development efficiency but also lay the foundation for end users to directly utilize AI capabilities within applications.

At this juncture, LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform has evolved into a truly AI-native low-code development platform. We will continue to explore innovative applications of AI technology in low-code development and enterprise applications, bringing enhanced value to customers and end users.

Web-based Business Modeling

In 2024, we introduced the ability to conduct business modeling directly on the web interface. Business modeling refers to defining business entities, attributes, and relationships in a visual manner during the development process, serving as an important tool for understanding and describing business operations.

Through web-based business modeling, users can directly create business models and their associated fields on the interface, including entities, attributes, and relationships. This achievement facilitates all web-based operations from business model definition to entire business process development in the backend, significantly lowering the barrier for business personnel to participate in application development and improving overall development efficiency.

Dynamic Plugin Mechanism

In the same year, we also added a dynamic plugin function. Data-driven management refers to defining and storing all elements of an application, including interface, logic, and data model, in the form of data. Hot loading and hot deployment enable the dynamic loading and deployment of new functions without halting the application.

This function allows developers to develop business logic on the LCDP.ai (opens new window) platform using traditional Java development methods. With the platform's data-driven management and hot loading/deployment capabilities, developers can enjoy the flexibility of traditional development methods while also benefiting from the convenience of low-code and no-code development.

More importantly, this function can help enterprises quickly integrate existing business code and business logic into the low-code platform, greatly reducing the cost and risk associated with traditional system migration. Enterprises can smoothly transition to a more agile and efficient low-code development mode while preserving their original investments.

The introduction of this function enables the LCDP.ai (opens new window) platform to meet the needs of both professional developers and business personnel, greatly expanding the platform's scope of application.

Platform Features

LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform boasts the following notable features:

• Ultra-low-cost private deployment, ensuring the security and compliance of sensitive data.
• Highly customisable support, providing numerous hooks to implement almost any business logic.
• A highly abstract, self-bootstrapping architecture where everything is data, including code logic and metadata. The platform itself is self-bootstrapped based on this architecture.
• Native support for AI large models, which can be directly used for logic development.
• Web-based business modeling, facilitating all web-based operations from business model definition to business process development.
• Dynamic plugin mechanism, supporting traditional Java development methods while offering the convenience of low-code and no-code development, and enabling quick integration of existing business code and logic.

With these features, LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform can build feature-rich, highly customized enterprise applications at significantly lower manpower and time costs compared to traditional development models.

Applicable Scenarios

Building Internal Management Systems for Enterprises of All Sizes

LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform is particularly well-suited for developing internal management systems for large enterprises. Such organizations typically have stringent data security and compliance requirements, which our ultra-low-cost private deployment solution can effectively address. Additionally, large enterprises often have more complex customization needs, and our robust customization support capabilities ensure that various unique requirements can be met.

Vertical Industry Solutions

For teams with established business resources, developing vertical industry solutions based on LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform is an extremely attractive proposition. Our platform can significantly reduce development costs and time, allowing teams to rapidly launch solutions for specific industries, such as Beauty Industry ERP, Web3 Privacy Matching, and Production Line Control MES. Simultaneously, our powerful customization capabilities ensure that solutions can be tailored to fit industry-specific needs deeply.

Enterprise Customized Development for Individuals or Small Teams

For individual developers or small teams, LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform serves as a powerful tool for undertaking enterprise customized development projects. With our platform's ultra-high development efficiency and extensive customization capabilities, even small teams can take on complex development needs of large enterprises and win customer trust through high-quality, rapid delivery.

Rapid Development of B2C Application Backends

For consumer-facing applications, rapid iteration and launch are often critical to success. LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform enables developers to build comprehensive application backends in a remarkably short time, encompassing user management, data storage, and business logic. Furthermore, our Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) capabilities allow backend functions to be called as APIs on-demand, greatly simplifying the interaction between frontend and backend. This allows developers to invest more time and energy in optimizing and innovating the product itself.

The above outlines the development journey of LCDP.ai (opens new window) Muyan Low-Code Platform from concept to implementation, along with its key features and applicable scenarios. As a low-code platform that evolves with the times and originates from practical insights, we are committed to driving product evolution based on customer needs and introducing cutting-edge technologies. Our goal is to assist in the digital transformation of various industries by offering solutions with lower costs, higher efficiency, and stronger customization capabilities.