The challenge
Setting up a modern web application from nothing is slow and complex. It raises development cost and delays the moment the software is in use. Many companies have tried to solve this, and low-code and no-code platforms became the most common answer. For simpler projects they work well: flexible, fast, and usable without programming knowledge.
For business-critical systems they reach their limits. We saw that while building the parking permit system for P1. The largest drawback in the long run is that these platforms are closed. Once you build on them, you depend on them for good. For many clients that is not acceptable.
So we asked ourselves: can we build our own foundation on the Microsoft stack, with the advantages of low-code and without its drawbacks?
The solution
Entry is an open-source foundation for custom software in .NET and Angular, designed entirely by our own team. Its goal is to offer what low-code platforms offer, without their limits.
Entry was first used on the P1 project, when we rebuilt the parking permit system and moved it from the low-code platform to .NET. Entry’s building blocks and code generation made that far more manageable, so the team could build a high-quality application faster and with less effort. Generated code is consistent and reliable, which lowers the risk of errors and technical debt. The team can spend its time on the features that are unique to the application.
The building blocks also solve the hard parts of a multi-layered architecture. They give the front end, the back end and the API layer a consistent, maintainable structure.
An easier start to every project
Setting up a project structure and its environments used to take a long time, and those hours went on the bill before the first line of real code was written. We looked for a way to automate that repetitive work.
Entry began as the Enigmatry blueprint, a template for starting a project. We wanted every project to look the same, so that our developers could switch between them easily. Then we added components and code generators, which standardised and sped up the start of every new project.
Once the blueprint was mature we gave it a name, Entry, and made the components open source. That was not negotiable for us. We knew the drawbacks of closed platforms and wanted to do it differently. With open source, Entry users keep ownership of their code and can develop their project further without us.
The knowledge of our best people, in every project
Entry was written by Enigmatry’s tech leads. By generating and reusing their code, every application starts from a solid base, in less time. It makes the process easier for developers and clients, lowers development cost and delivers sooner. Teams skip the slow and error-prone work of building blocks from scratch and focus on the features that make their application different.
Entry saves time, reduces the risk of error, gives you full ownership of the code and leaves more room for the unique and complex parts of your system. It is public on GitHub under Apache-2.0, and it is the base under our own products.