Stewart Rutledge2025-02-20

Rethinking H5 App Development

We wanted to revisit the idea of building our own tooling for H5 apps and explain why we believe this is necessary.

To start, it’s important to clarify what technology H5 apps are built on. In 99% of cases, H5 apps are built using Angular, a popular web framework developed and maintained by Google. Angular is widely used in enterprise applications, similar to React or Vue. Infor’s approach to H5 development builds on Angular but adds custom tooling and integrations specific to M3, providing a structured way to develop enterprise applications.

The Challenge: Keeping H5 Development Agile

Infor has done a great job creating an open and extensible platform with M3, making it possible to customize and extend the system to meet business needs. However, like all technology, frameworks evolve, and development practices change. As M3 continues to grow, we see opportunities to make H5 development even more flexible, maintainable, and accessible to a broader range of developers.

Our Approach: A More Sustainable H5 Framework

To address these challenges, we’re taking a different approach:

Building a library based entirely on standard Angular—This means:

- It can be dropped into existing Angular projects

- Easier maintenance and updates, reducing security risks

- Simplified development, as any front-end developer can work with it

Using widely adopted component libraries with strong public documentation and active communities.

- This makes development faster, especially with AI-assisted coding

- Access to robust documentation, open-source code, and a large community improves troubleshooting and flexibility

What’s the Future of H5 Apps?

We’d love to hear from the Infor/M3 community—both developers and business users/consultants.

Are H5 apps still relevant with Experience Designer?

What problems are you solving with H5 apps today?

Let’s discuss! Drop your thoughts in the comments.