#What is MySQL and what could be done with it?

[yahoo0messenger]

What is MySQL and what could be done with it?

[matthewzkrause]

Tired of Paying for Tools? These 40 Open-Source Alternatives Have You Covered?

Let’s be real for a second.

We’ve all been there—mid-project, mid-semester, or mid-burnout—when a paid tool throws up a paywall and asks for $19.99/month just to export your file. It stings, especially when you’re trying to keep your budget lean.

But here’s the good news: the open-source community has your back. 💪 There are dozens of completely free, insanely powerful tools that can do (almost) everything their paid counterparts can—without locking your best features behind a subscription.

Whether you're a freelancer, student, startup founder, or just someone who loves great software, this list is your new toolbox.

🚀 Why Open-Source Is the Underdog That Wins Before we dive in, let’s clarify something: Open-source ≠ low quality. In fact, some of the world’s biggest companies (Google, NASA, Netflix) use open-source tools every day. These aren’t sketchy knockoffs—they’re community-powered, security-tested, and constantly evolving.

Now, let’s talk about the 40 free tools that could save you hundreds—or even thousands—of dollars a year.

🧠 Smart Swaps for Everyday Tools

LibreOffice → Ditch Microsoft Office Docs, Sheets, Presentations—all offline, all free.

OnlyOffice → Google Docs Vibes, but Yours Looks and feels like MS Office, works online or self-hosted.

Joplin → Evernote for Nerds Markdown-based, syncs securely, and doesn’t sell your notes.

Zettlr → Perfect for Writers & Academics Citation support + distraction-free writing.

🌐 For Browsing, Email & Team Chat

Firefox → More Privacy, Less Google Extensible and fast—and they don’t track you.

Brave → Built-in Ad Blocker? Yes Please Faster browsing + rewards system.

Thunderbird → Outlook Without the Overkill Email, calendar, and to-do list in one clean interface.

Mattermost → Slack Without the Bill Your team chat, your server, your rules.

Jitsi Meet → Free Video Calls—No Sign-Up Needed Start a call with a link. Done.

🎨 Designers & Creators, Rejoice

GIMP → Photoshop for the People Yes, it’s that powerful. Yes, it’s free.

Inkscape → Vector Design Like a Boss Great for logos, icons, and print design.

Krita → Digital Painting Heaven Designed by artists, for artists.

Blender → Hollywood-Grade 3D Modeling Used in actual movies. Free forever.

Darktable → Lightroom Without the Monthly Bill RAW editing + professional workflow.

🎧 Audio & Video Editing

Audacity → Podcasting, Remixing, Editing, Easy Intuitive multi-track editor.

OBS Studio → Streaming & Screencasting Gold What Twitch streamers use. Seriously.

Shotcut → Video Editing That Just Works Cross-platform and powerful.

Olive → Modern Video Editor in the Making Sleek, promising, and growing fast.

👨‍💻 Developers, You’re Going to Love These

VSCodium → VS Code Without Microsoft Tracking Same editor, privacy-respecting build.

Atom → Hackable to the Core Loved by web devs and hobbyists.

Eclipse → Java Devs’ Old-School Favorite Still rock-solid.

NetBeans → Full IDE for Polyglot Coders Good for Java, PHP, and C++.

Hoppscotch → Postman Without the Bloat Runs in your browser, free forever.

MariaDB / MySQL → Free SQL Workhorses The backbone of many web apps.

SQLite → Tiny, Powerful, Portable Database No server required. Zero config.

✅ Organize Your Life (and Work)

Wekan → Trello Clone, But Open Kanban boards made simple.

Focalboard → Self-Hosted ClickUp Alternative Task management that respects your data.

Redmine → Jira's Open Twin Great for bug tracking & agile workflows.

Taskcafe → Asana-Style, Cleaner Interface New kid on the block, with potential.

🔐 Privacy Tools That Feel Like Superpowers

Bitwarden → Best Password Manager, Hands Down Cloud, browser, and mobile support.

KeePassXC → Local, Bulletproof Password Vault For privacy purists.

Tutanota → Private Email That Just Works End-to-end encrypted email, minimal design.

Pi-hole → Block Ads on Your Entire Network Install it on a Raspberry Pi and say goodbye to web ads.

☁️ Sync, Store, and Share Files Securely

Nextcloud → Your Own Google Drive Private cloud, full control.

Syncthing → Dropbox, But Peer-to-Peer No servers. Just your devices talking securely.

rclone → Cloud Storage on the Command Line Sync anything, anywhere.

📊 Data, Dashboards & Decisions

Metabase → BI Dashboards Without the Headache Plug in your data, get answers fast.

Grafana → DevOps’ Favorite Dashboard Tool Real-time, customizable graphs.

Apache Superset → Data Exploration for Pros Used by Airbnb, Netflix, and more.

🤖 Bonus: Automate All the Things

AutoHotKey → Make Your Computer Work For You Automate anything on Windows. Seriously.

🌍 Your Wallet and Your Future Will Thank You Switching to open-source isn’t just about saving money (though that’s nice). It’s about:

💻 Owning your tools

🔐 Protecting your privacy

🌱 Supporting innovation and community

🧰 Having control over your workflow

These tools are built by people like you, for people like you. Try just a few of them, and you’ll wonder why you ever paid in the first place.

[saifawaisi3211]

Website Developer in Bangalore: Hello Errors Delivers More Than Just Code

In today’s digital-first economy, your website is often the first impression your brand makes. Whether you’re a fast-growing startup or a legacy business pivoting online, having a professional, performance-driven website is no longer optional—it's critical. And if you're based in India’s tech capital, the search for the right Website Developer in Bangalore ends at Hello Errors.

Bangalore is not only home to IT giants and unicorn startups but also a vibrant ecosystem of SMEs, creators, and emerging brands. What they all have in common is the need for a modern, engaging, and scalable online presence. That’s where Hello Errors steps in as your digital partner—not just another development agency, but a full-spectrum digital solutions company that crafts websites designed for success.

Why Businesses in Bangalore Need Specialized Website Developers

With consumers relying on digital platforms to discover, evaluate, and engage with businesses, having a strong online foundation is crucial. Here’s why choosing a Website Developer in Bangalore with local and global expertise makes a difference:

Bangalore-based developers understand regional consumer behavior

Faster turnaround and easier communication with local teams

Adaptability to Indian and international tech regulations

On-the-ground collaboration and faster iterations

Hello Errors brings the best of both worlds—deep local insight and cutting-edge global tech capabilities—to help your business thrive online.

Industry-Specific Website Development: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

One key reason Hello Errors is a top-rated Website Developer in Bangalore is its industry-focused approach. The team doesn’t believe in cookie-cutter templates. Instead, they tailor development strategies to suit the unique needs of various industries.

📚 EdTech Portals

Hello Errors creates dynamic learning portals with course management, video hosting, assessments, and secure login systems.

🛍️ E-commerce

Scalable online stores with real-time inventory, multiple payment gateways, and SEO-optimized product pages.

🏥 Healthcare

HIPAA-compliant websites with features like appointment booking, telemedicine integration, and health blogs.

🧑‍💼 Corporate Websites

Clean, functional, and fast-loading websites designed to reflect professionalism and brand authority.

Whether you're a D2C brand or a SaaS platform, Hello Errors ensures your website speaks directly to your target audience.

Technologies That Scale With Your Business

What truly separates Hello Errors from other Website Developers in Bangalore is their use of modern, scalable, and future-proof technologies. They don’t just build for today—they build for what your business will become tomorrow.

🧱 Tech Stack Highlights:

Frontend: React.js, Vue.js, Next.js

Backend: Node.js, Django, PHP, Laravel

CMS: WordPress, Webflow, Shopify (customized)

Databases: MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL

Cloud: AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean

Their developers choose the right combination of tools and frameworks based on your goals, budget, and scalability needs. This forward-thinking approach ensures your site grows as your business does.

The Hidden Power of Post-Launch Support

Many businesses think their job is done once the website is live. That’s a myth. Post-launch support is what keeps your digital investment secure, optimized, and relevant.

As your trusted Website Developer in Bangalore, Hello Errors offers ongoing services such as:

Security monitoring and bug fixes

Performance tuning and page speed optimization

Content and SEO updates

New feature rollouts

Analytics integration and reporting

With Hello Errors, you’re never left stranded. They grow with you, constantly iterating and improving based on user feedback and analytics.

SEO-First Development: Visibility Built-In

Your website could be a visual masterpiece—but if it’s not ranking on search engines, it won’t matter. That’s why Hello Errors builds SEO directly into the development process.

Unlike many agencies that treat SEO as an afterthought, Hello Errors includes:

Clean code structure and semantic HTML

Mobile responsiveness and fast loading times

Keyword optimization across meta tags and content

Schema markup for rich snippets

URL structure and sitemap optimization

This ensures your website isn’t just pretty—it’s found by the right people at the right time.

Real Collaboration, Not Just Client Work

At Hello Errors, collaboration is more than a buzzword—it’s a practice. When you hire them as your Website Developer in Bangalore, you become a partner in the development journey.

Their process includes:

Workshops to understand your business goals

Wireframe design and UX mapping

Agile sprints and frequent check-ins

Transparent communication and delivery milestones

This level of client involvement leads to better alignment, faster feedback loops, and a product that genuinely reflects your brand.

What Makes Hello Errors the Go-To Website Developer in Bangalore?

Let’s recap what makes Hello Errors your ideal web development partner:

🛠️ Full-stack development expertise

🎨 UI/UX-focused design thinking

🚀 SEO-first development methodology

🤖 Integration of AI, ML, and app features

🔄 Continuous post-launch support

🧠 Industry-specific customizations

📍 Bangalore-based team with global quality

Whether you’re looking for a full-fledged business website, a scalable web app, or a platform that integrates seamlessly with mobile, Hello Errors brings precision, performance, and passion to every project.

Ready to Build a High-Performance Website in Bangalore?

Your business deserves more than a basic website. It needs a digital experience that resonates, converts, and scales. As a trusted Website Developer in Bangalore, Hello Errors delivers websites that combine form, function, and future-readiness.

📞 Contact Hello Errors today at https://helloerrors.in Let’s build something exceptional—together.

[sankavin]

How to Connect Power BI to MySQL Without Writing a Single Line of Code

Introduction

Power BI is an excellent tool for visualizing data, but getting that data from MySQL into Power BI can be a headache—especially if you’re not a database expert. Many people run into issues with ODBC drivers, authentication errors, or slow data refreshes.

What if you could skip all that and connect MySQL to Power BI effortlessly? That’s exactly what no-code SaaS integration tools like Konnectify help with.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

Traditional methods vs. no-code alternatives for connecting MySQL to Power BI

How to set up a seamless, automated MySQL-Power BI connection

Real-world examples of businesses that benefit from no-code integration

Let’s dive in. 🚀

Traditional Ways to Connect Power BI to MySQL (And Why They’re a Pain)

Before we talk about the easier, no-code method, let’s go over the traditional ways you might connect Power BI to MySQL:

1️⃣ ODBC Drivers & Power BI Connector

Microsoft provides an ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) driver for MySQL. In theory, this should allow Power BI to pull data from your MySQL database. But here’s what usually happens:

 🔸 You install the MySQL ODBC driver (which can be a hassle). 🔸 You configure DSN (Data Source Name) settings, which requires technical knowledge. 🔸 Power BI might struggle with large datasets, leading to slow performance. 🔸 You have to manually refresh the connection to get updated data.

2️⃣ Direct Query Mode

Power BI has a DirectQuery mode, which allows live connections to MySQL databases. However:

 ⚠️ Query performance is often slow when dealing with large datasets. ⚠️ Permissions & security settings must be correctly configured. ⚠️ Data updates may be limited depending on your MySQL version.

3️⃣ Manual Data Exports & CSV Uploads

Many businesses simply export MySQL data as CSV files and manually upload them to Power BI. But this method is:

 🚫 Time-consuming—you have to re-export data each time. 🚫 Prone to errors—outdated or incomplete data can lead to mistakes. 🚫 Not scalable—imagine doing this daily for multiple reports.

The No-Code Way: Using SaaS Integration to Connect Power BI & MySQL

A much simpler approach is to use a no-code integration platform like Konnectify. Instead of dealing with drivers, SQL queries, and data refresh headaches, you can automate the entire process in just a few clicks.

Here’s why this method is a game-changer:

 ✅ No coding required—anyone can set it up. ✅ Automated data sync—no manual exports or uploads. ✅ Faster performance—optimized connections prevent lag. ✅ Secure & reliable—ensures data integrity and security.

How to Set Up MySQL-Power BI Integration with Konnectify

Follow these simple steps to connect MySQL to Power BI without writing a single line of code:

Step 1: Sign Up on Konnectify

Head over to Konnectify and sign up for an account. It takes just a minute.

Step 2: Connect Your MySQL Database

🔹 Enter your MySQL database credentials. 🔹 Choose the tables and fields you want to sync. 🔹 Konnectify automatically configures the connection.

Step 3: Integrate with Power BI

🔹 Select Power BI as the destination for your data. 🔹 Choose how often you want your data to refresh. 🔹 Done! Your Power BI dashboards will now pull live data from MySQL.

🚀 Real-World Example: A Finance Team’s Data Challenge

A fast-growing SaaS company needed real-time financial data in Power BI. Their finance team was manually exporting MySQL reports every day, leading to delays and errors.

The Problem

Manual work—exporting CSVs, cleaning data, and uploading.

Slow updates—finance reports were always a day behind.

Human errors—misplaced files and incorrect data entries.

The Solution

They used SaaS integration via Konnectify to automate everything:

Connected MySQL to Power BI in minutes.

Set up automatic data refreshes every hour.

Built real-time dashboards to track revenue & expenses.

The Result

 ✅ 90% time saved—no more manual work. ✅ Instant updates—finance reports now refresh automatically. ✅ Better decision-making—leaders have up-to-date insights at all times.

🤔 Why Not Use Zapier or Other Automation Tools?

Zapier is great for basic automation but has limitations for complex data integrations like Power BI & MySQL. Here’s how Konnectify compares:

For real-time business intelligence dashboards, Konnectify is the better choice.

💡 Final Thoughts

If you’re still struggling with slow, manual Power BI-MySQL connections, it’s time to upgrade to a no-code solution. Whether running financial reports, analyzing customer data, or tracking inventory, automating your Power BI & MySQL integration will save you time, effort, and frustration.

🔹 Want to set it up now? Get started with Konnectify. 🔹 Need more guidance? Check out this step-by-step blog.

Let’s make data connectivity easy—no coding required. 🚀

[saylor-workspace]

Top Reasons to Hire a Node.js Developer: Key Skills and Benefits for Your Project

When you hire a Node.js developer, you have chosen to hire expertise at using one of the most robust runtime environments for JavaScript in general. Node.js will surely impress you with all the speed, scalability, and efficiency it offers, whether for building server-side applications, real-time platforms, or data-driven applications. In this report, we will discuss why you need a focused Node.js developer for a project and what to be on the lookout for, and how that new hire can work with your business goals.

Why Hire a Node.js Developer?

Hired in this regard is provision of access to asynchronous programming, full-stack capabilities, and backend server management. Here’s why:

Fast and Scalable Solutions: Node.js is quite famous due to the asynchronous, non-blocking architecture which makes it fast. Very easily used so as to achieve a very fast application which scales nicely.

Cross-Platform Development: Node.js can support developing both mobile and web products, thus an ideal choice for companies which want to launch products across multiple devices.

Real-time applications: If you are searching for a real-time chat application, live streaming, or online gaming portal, choose Node.js as it is a perfect option. Expert developers will use WebSocket and other features of Node.js for real-time functionality.

Essential Skills for Hiring a Node.js Developer

When hiring the best Node.js developer for your project, you should identify which skills and experience you need. Here are some essential skills to consider:

Strong JavaScript: Node.js is JavaScript-based, so knowledge in JavaScript, ES6+, and related frameworks is highly required.

Asynchronous Programming: A good candidate will be comfortable with asynchronous patterns, callback functions, and event-driven programming.

Database Management: The developer of Node.js must have a history of database management experience with MongoDB, MySQL, or PostgreSQL to be used in an application that involves data processing or storage.

Front-End Technologies Familiarity: Full-stack Node.js developers who can communicate better between the server-side and client-side of your application

Version Control (for example, Git): Since it involves several developers, knowing Git ensures that collaborative work and management of codes are streamlined.

How to Find and Hire a Node.js Developer

For finding the ideal Node.js developer, you have to explore as many channels of recruitment as possible. There are a few ways of going about it:

Freelance Platforms: You find freelance Node.js developers here on Upwork, Fiverr, and Toptal, which can be employed for short-term or special projects.

Professional Networks: Sites like LinkedIn, AngelList, and Stack Overflow get you the most experienced Node.js developers. You could also publish your job opening in various tech forums and communities.

Benefits of Hiring a Dedicated Node.js Developer

While commitment is certainly one of the added benefits you receive whenever you hire a dedicated Node.js developer.

More efficiency: A dedicated developer works just on your project, and therefore delivery occurs on time, while the quality control is also good.

Customization: Dedicated Node.js developers bring tailored solutions to your project and hence design applications based on your specific business requirement.

Higher Speed of Delivery: Dedicated individuals are solely focused on Node.js and can attain optimized speeds of development for a faster time to market.

Evaluating Potential Node.js Developers: Essential Interview Questions

Once you have your list of possible candidates, then you will want to shortlist yours. Here are some questions you should include in that list;

What experience have you had working with Node.js to get something asynchronous done?

Describe what an event loop is in Node.js and how it operates?

Tell me which database you are comfortable working with the most, and why?

Describe a project in which you used Node.js to solve a specific problem.

How do you handle error handling and debugging in Node.js applications?

Collaboration Best Practices with Your Node.js Developer

To get the best out of your Node.js developer, pay attention to communication with all facets of clear goal alignment. Here are some best practices:

Define Clear Objectives: Clearly state the goals, due dates, and significant milestones well ahead of the project start date so that the developer will be aware of your vision.

Provide Necessary Resources: The developer needs to be provided with all resources, information, and documents that are necessary to fulfill the assignment in a hurry.

Regular Check-Ins and Feedback: Such frequency check-ins and feedback during and towards the project’s development, so problems can be raised early on and adjustments should then be made.

Support Continuous Learning: Let your developer grow with the latest Node.js developments and best practices.

Avoid Common Mistakes when Hiring a Node.js Developer

Hiring a Node.js developer can be that easy if you avoid common mistakes. Here’s what to watch for:

Cost at the Expense of Quality: Budget is important but avoid the cost of hiring by saving money on the level of skill and experience.

Missing Soft Skills: Communicative, teamwork, and problem-solving skills are just as important as technical know-how. Consider a developer who fits the culture of your team.

Overlooking Testing and Evaluation: Technical evaluation process or coding testing is a proof that a developer does possess skills and the person is equipped with tools that help in the performance of work.

Future of Node.js Development

Indeed, the future of Node.js is brighter since more firms are seeking this technology that yields high performance as well as scalability. Based on the present trend such as serverless architecture, microservices, and cloud computing, developers who major in developing Node.js are going to be highly hired. If one hires a developer specializing in Node.js, they will be able to tackle the current demands for project completions and establish businesses whereby they will easily capitalize on future advantages in the application in the technical world.

Conclusion: Partner with Us to Hire the Best Node.js Developer

A Node.js developer helps you design an efficient, scalable, and quite safe system for modern demands. AIS Technolabs is specialized to connect businesses with skilled developers in providing robust Node.js solutions tailored to meet unique needs. Require real-time applications, e-commerce solutions, or just complex backends? Get high-quality results getting you growing. Contact us today and see how we can help with your next Node.js project and bring the digital infrastructure that your business deserves.

[dylanais]

Hire WordPress Developers: How to Get the Perfect Website Complete?

Why Hire WordPress Developers?

Customization Beyond Templates Although WordPress contains thousands of themes and plugins, many businesses out there need more than what store-bought solutions can offer. Hire dedicated WordPress developers who bring in the expertise to customize themes, develop unique plugins, and build bespoke features to your particular business needs. It is this level of customization that makes your website stand out from competitors and precisely align with your brand identity.

Advanced Functionality As your business evolves, so does the development of your website, facing new demands. WordPress developers can add advanced functionalities to your website, from eCommerce solutions and membership sites down to custom APIs. Whether it is developing an e-store with advanced features, a complex content management system, or a highly engaging website, a talented WordPress developer turns your ideas into life.

Security and Compliance Security has become one of the most important concerns of any website in this rising cyber threat. The WordPress developer is always updated about recent security practices, which range from SSL certificate implementation to safeguarding against common vulnerabilities such as SQL injections, cross-site scripting (XSS), and brute force attacks. In addition, they may ensure your website complies with major industry regulations, such as GDPR, which can keep your business from falling into potential legal pitfalls.

Performance Optimization Website speed and performance are key variables that impinge on user experience and search engine ranking. Slow websites lead to higher bounce rates and lower conversions. The WordPress developers will optimize the performance of the website, from streamlining code and optimizing images to enabling caching and fine-tuning. server settings. This means a quicker, more efficient website that keeps users longer and helps improve SEO.

SEO-Friendly Development Search engine optimization is important for organic traffic on your website. While WordPress is SEO-friendly out of the box, a developer will further optimize your site for best practices in coding and structuring your content for better results and improving site speed. They could integrate SEO plugins and tools to ensure that the sites would rank top in search engines and drive targeted audiences.

Ongoing Support and Maintenance If you hire a WordPress developer, their work is not stopped with the launch of your website. It is worth the continuance of support and maintenance in order to keep your website fresh, secure, and running smoothly. Developers perform routine updates, bug fixes, and technical support that will keep your website at its best. All this proactive approach prevents issues even before they happen and keeps your website at pace with the latest updates of WordPress.

How to Find the Right WordPress Developer

Define Your Project Requirements Before reaching out for a WordPress developer, there is a dire need to have your project requirements clearly defined. What all features and functionalities are required? What is your budget and timeline? Having a project plan in great detail helps in effective communication and ensures finding a developer whose skills match the project's needs.

Relevant Experience Finding a WordPress developer has to do with the level of experience. View their portfolio to see whether they have done projects similar to what you want them to do for you. Search for evidence of custom themes, plugins, or website development they have developed. This would give you an idea of their capability and whether they can deliver to your expectations.

Evaluate technical skills. Among those, a good WordPress developer needs to know PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and MySQL at the deepest level. In addition, he is supposed to be informed about the best practices of WordPress, theme and plugin development, and website optimization. During hiring, one may ask technical questions or provide a small test project to verify their expertise.

Check client reviews and testimonials. Client reviews and testimonials can give a great insight into the reliability, communication skills, and quality of work of a developer. Take a look at their feedback on websites like Upwork or Freelancer, or even on their website. Positive reviews from previous clients reassure you that the developer has records of delivering successful projects.

Conduct Interviews Interviews are a great avenue to understand how a developer solves problems, their work habits, and their way of communicating. Inquire into how they manage projects, their problem-solving style, and the way they envision meeting your particular requirements. A comfortable and open dialogue is what works in a collaboration; hence, make sure that a developer is communicative and nice to work with.

Consider the Cost It is again vital to consider the cost of hiring a WordPress developer. This will differ widely due to experience, location, and project difficulty. Freelancers generally charge by the hour, while agencies may have project fixed prices. Here, one needs to balance between cost and quality of work; the cheapest might give lousy results. Consider going for a developer who can balance experience and affordability to a good extent.

Decide Between Freelancers and Agencies In this respect, your project scope and complexity would determine whether you hire a freelance WordPress developer or engage an agency for your assignment. Freelancers would be better options for smaller projects where finances might be a problem, whereas an agency will be better equipped to deal with larger and more complex projects due to their team of developers, designers, and project managers.

Clearly Outline Expectations After you have selected a WordPress developer, it is time to clearly outline your expectations from the outset. These will be on milestones, deadlines, mode of communication, and terms of payment. A well-defined contract will be protective for both parties and will ensure the project is on the right track.

Conclusion

AIS Technolabs is a renowned IT service provider in customized software development, web and mobile app solutions, and digital marketing. They speak about an innovative, scalable, and secure solution; with their team of skilled developers and designers, they guarantee their customers' clients quality and success in the long run. Please contact us  for anything you would like more information on. View source link: https://medium.com/@aistechnolabspvtltd/hire-wordpress-developers-how-to-get-the-perfect-website-complete-8358556df12f

FAQs on Hire WordPress Developers

1. Why would I hire a WordPress developer? A WordPress developer gives you custom design and extended functionality to optimize performance for your website in order to meet certain business needs.

2. Where can I find a good WordPress developer? Use freelance platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, or go directly with specific WordPress agencies like AIS Technolabs to hire experts.

3. What does the WordPress developer need to know? The main skills a WordPress developer should master are: PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MySQL, development of themes, customization of plugins, and SEO optimization.

4. How much does it cost to hire a WordPress developer? The cost of hiring will differ; freelance: from $20 up to $100 dollars per hour, agencies: from $75-200 dollars per hour.

5. How can I ensure quality when hiring? Review portfolios, hold interviews, check references, and do a trial project to check their skills and compatibility.

6. Should I hire an individual freelancer or an agency? Freelancers are more budget-friendly for smaller projects, while agencies can provide full-service support if you're working on a larger, more complex project.

7. What does a typical workflow with a developer look like? The process would generally include consultation, project planning, design, development, testing, and post-launch support.

8. How much time does it take to develop a website? A simple website takes weeks, and for complex projects, development might take several months depending on the requirements.

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

So ends my week of relaxation. In the past I’d start becoming angry about how quickly my time off flew by. Not this week. I made the most of each day with some lazing about thrown in.

I managed to get some time to work on Stream for Mac and do a bunch of things around the house I’d put off for far too long. Today I plan on cleaning up Kim’s car and working on my dumpster bike. But I’m open to change.

Anywho, my coffee is ready. I hope you enjoy the links.

PZ Myers • Free Thoughts Blog

Nikki Haley got asked a straightforward question: “What was the cause of the United States’ Civil War?” She staggers back, stalls for time, and finally coughs up, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run.

This is one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever seen. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knows the Civil War was fought over slavery. So, either Nikki Haley is a racist piece of crap or extremely stupid. I don’t think she’s stupid.

This was the easiest of softball questions you could give a Presidential candidate and she failed miserably, that alone should disqualify her from holding office in any federal, state, or local government.

Of course she’s competing with the biggest asshole of all for the GOP nomination. Good luck with that, Ms. Haley.

Maybe this was part of her audition for the Vice Presidency? Gotta show the Orange Man how racist she really is to get the job. 🤬

Jessica Wildfire • OK Doomer

Meanwhile, a world-class trail runner named Emilia kills herself after a Covid infection leaves her with an unstable heart. Around the world, smart talented young men and women are losing their careers after Covid ravages their organs, their brains, their immune systems.

COVID is still around and still wreaking havoc on folks.

I still need to get my booster, you should too. 💉

Mike Hanley • GitHub

Over 15 years ago, GitHub started as a Ruby on Rails application with a single MySQL database. Since then, GitHub has evolved its MySQL architecture to meet the scaling and resiliency needs of the platform—including building for high availability, implementing testing automation, and partitioning the data.

It’s wild to see how big services can become. GitHub — the company that centralized a decentralized version control system — has over 1,200 MySQL databases. That’s a metric crap ton.

It also seems strange given Microsoft has their own SQL Server offering continues to use MySQL, owned by Oracle. 🥴

Joan Westenberg

Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer and fixer for Donald Trump, used an artificial intelligence program to generate bogus legal citations in his motion for early termination of his supervised release.

The moral of the story is don’t believe everything a LLM gives you. You still need to verify the answer.

Laura Paddison • CNN

Scientists in California shooting nearly 200 lasers at a cylinder holding a fuel capsule the size of a peppercorn have taken another step in the quest for fusion energy, which, if mastered, could provide the world with a near-limitless source of clean power.

Will this pan out? If we’ve ever needed it now is the time. At the rate the climate is changing a team of scientists will emerge from their labs to announce to the world they’ve done it only to find the world on fire.

Raymond Wong • Inverse

Inside Apple’s Massive Push to Transform the Mac Into a Gaming Paradise

But will AAA games come around and make the commitment to the platform? Without developers it’s an instant failure.

Diane Duane

Can you add artificial intelligence to the hydraulics?

This is a link to a comment on a post — at least I think it is? Regardless it’s a funny read. If you only follow one link make it this one. AI is taking over all the things even if it can’t.

Alex Castro • The Verge

Earlier this year, Amazon announced plans to start incorporating ads into movies and TV shows streamed from its Prime Video service, and now the company has revealed a specific date when you’ll start seeing them: it’s January 29th.

I’m kind of surprised they don’t just bake this into Amazon Prime pricing.

Brandon Paul • Flo Racing

With over 1,600 total entries on hand for the Tulsa Shootout this week, there is bound to be some NASCAR connections to the biggest Micro Sprint event in the country.

I’m not sure how many folks not into NASCAR would know that drivers often compete in multiple different types of races throughout the year.

Sprint Cars seem to be a real favorite and winning a Golden Driller is still a highly sought after prize. Even for highly talented NASCAR drivers.

[altadorheadcanons]

#maybe things would be different if the CEO wasn't balls-deep into GenAI shit and the like :^)

Finding this out is getting me to seriously consider cancelling my premium sub. I could choose not to buy the gatcha junk and I don't. I will not support a retail Neopets that adopts GenAI. That would spit in the face of the many creatives who play the game.

I had been something of a defender of WON up until the whole debacle with transphobic moderators admittedly because I do think that they are trying their best... but it seems that a techbro Kougra really can't change his stripes, can he?

#augh. can someone rich who Actually Understands Neopets just buy the site from him I'm so tired

tfw you're part of a rich family that could afford to buy Neopets but they're also pro-genAI fascists and you don't have the money to buy neopets yourself

In all seriousness, I've entertained what I'd do if I did own Neopets for over a decade. Since it is theoretically more possible for me due to the money I'm surrounded by (though said money would not let me implement a lot of these structural changes and would probably make things worse), I could go over the broad strokes list from a programmer/IT person's point of view. I'm having it be under the cut because my version of the post is very long as is.

TL;DR: Neopets would be a cooperative or a social club and players can vote on new features and probably new rules. Also there'd probably be an open source rewrite of Neopets in Rust or something idk

I'd change the business structure. I'd likely make Neopets either a worker-consumer owned cooperative or a worker-owned cooperative that is a 501(c)(7) nonprofit depending on what'd be easier legally. I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant, but in this hypothetical scenario I would have easy access to an accountant who will work with nonprofits. Capsules would be a thing of the past either way since I think lootboxes/gatcha are bad. Premium would likely be how a user would be an owner/member, and would probably be ideally the site's main source of revenue rather than ads/NC Mall.

If Neopets remains a for-profit entity, I'd probably recommend the use Neocash to balance the economy. If a vote on this were to pass (think Old School RuneScape), I'd allow players to buy Neocash with Neopoints from other players. In general I'd probably want more economy balancing features.

If Neopets goes non-profit, I'd also let the community vote on the new way to earn NeoCash. If it were purely my decision, it'd be contests. This also means no more ads for any players.

As hinted at above, either situation would result in a regular voting system for new gameplay features for Premium members (as they'd be the consumer owners/club members that the previous point mentions) as soon as new features are feasible given the massive code updates that need to happen. There would be greater transparency between the TNT cooperative and the playerbase, Premium and non-Premium alike.

I would probably focus efforts to update the site's backend rather than pipe dreams like the mobile games or World of Neopia like as, in this scenario, I would be an employee-owner of Neopets. Neopets uses PHP 5 (an ancient version of PHP) with PHP 3 and 4-era code and presumably an ancient MySQL. Without any access to the Neopets source code, I could see a rewrite (ideally in Go or Rust, but Typescript would be an acceptable compromise given what I can figure out of what modern TNT programmers know given the landing page uses Astro and I saw Neopets hire React devs a few years ago) being no harder than updating the site to modern standards. I'll admit here that I have been the solo developer for all projects I've seriously done, including at my job. This means I don't feel like I could really lead this charge as a developer.

I'd make the aforementioned rewrite open source to encourage fans to be another avenue to earn Neopoints or, in the event Neopets goes non-profit, be a way to earn Neocash. This could also translate to a player joining the TNT cooperative.

Also fuck transphobia. Fuck big tech hype shit like GenAI and NFTs. People should be able to talk openly about being trans, gay, disabled, being a POC, whatever. This includes prescription medication for fuck's sake.

On that note, I'd probably loosen up the filters significantly. Not sure if I'd allow players to quite say "fuck" since Neopets is generally seen as a family-friendly brand. However, most players are adults. We don't need the Scunthorpe Problem banning words like "grape" and "uncle" and "basement".

My vision of Neopets would admittedly be a lot messier in practice. This would be due to a distrust of TNT due to the past two+ decades of absolute nonsense as well as the fact that WON is owned by investors.

Ideally, my vision of Neopia would be more sustainable and more moral than the absolutely shady practices and short-term focused nature of the companies that had previously and currently own Neopets.

Neopets seems to be caught in a vicious cycle of "we aren't making enough money" -> "release some insane new gacha feature to try making more money" -> "oh no people hate it so much that they spend even LESS money" -> "alright let's try this even more insane gacha feature" and like. how do we break out of this lmao

(and on top of that they keep doing shit like 'not addressing the blatantly transphobic moderation and trolls on the boards in a timely manner' which makes people boycott spending money on the site then makes their own situation Worse)

I don't wanna see Neopets die but literally what is the long-term strat here

[passingdaysthings]

8.9.2023 - Training at Work

Today is Wednesday.

My class has been such a pain in the ass because there are so many little things I feel like I am missing to just get my stuff running smoothly. It's too the point that chatgpt can't even help me fix the problem. I have been able to learn a lot from chatgpt, and it had made school much more bearable since the professors I've had are shit. I also really hate the idea of online school because I can't even go to office hours for my problems. They have online office hours, but they have all been at very inconvenient times for me. Like the one for this class is at 2pm my time.. I am at work. I probably wouldn't go if even if I could though because I don't really like the professor we have right now. He is just way to into letting us discuss things without really explaining anything. At least Crutchfield would have a class discussion and teach at the same time rather than just telling us to discuss it with our classmates. We are legit the blind leading the blind since most of us don't know what we are doing. I also think it's a waste of my time to talk to people who are just as confused as me. Why would that help me? I am paying my professor to teach me not my classmates. This class is about 70% class discussion. That's is crazy to me because how are we suppose to know what we are doing when we get about 30% of lecture time. I am almost done with this class though because this week is week 9, and next week will be the last week. I hope I do well on my final because I need a B in this class. I currently have a 77%. I need to make sure I turn in all my assignment's and get a B on the final. I am having issues with my stuff right now, but hopefully, I will figure it out soon. I know that my code doesn't have an issue right now, but it's the connection between my python code and mysql. Oh well. I will just have to ask for help.

So I have has quite the development in my relationship with Taylor again, and I am kind of detached from it. I do feel some things, but it's not as strong as it use to be. I think it's because I know him much better as a person now than I did then.

Let's start with that one Monday that Taylor got tipsy... we talked like usually, he made some comments, and then he asked to sleep on the phone with me.

Next.. this past weekend, he got drunk (?)... idk. He was drinking, and that really pushed things. First off, he video called me which is something he never does because it makes him feel uncomfortable which I don't care. We have video called before, and I am not pressed to see his face or anything. I do think he is a cutie though. He basically apologized to me for not video calling me more, and I felt kind of bad. I don't know why he felt the need to apologize and explain why he doesn't video call me. I think the next thing was funny. He explained that he was really warming up to me and trusting me. I thought that was funny because of the things we have done and gone through in our whatever the fuck it is we are. I'll say best friends for lack of better terms. That's why is was funny to hear that he was warming up to me. I guess it make sense since he is a whore and all those other things are more comfortable for him, but the emotional part of our friendship is harder for him. At the end of this, he basically said the he still watches the saved videos I sent, and he was sad/mad about me deleting the ones from the past. He said that's why he decided to just stop what we were doing. I don't feel bad about deleting though because it made me uncomfortable, and I think that's because of my feelings. Now.. I do feel things here and there, but nowhere near as strongly as I use to feel. We have gone back to having a sexual relationship, and he said he is gonna go to EDCLV in May. This was kind of weird because he said it in kind of a possessive way because I told him I might be going with my ass and titties out. To that, he said he would have to go with me, and I was gonna spend all my time with him. I told him that the others were going to, but he said nahh, idc. This is a pretty normal thing in our relationship though. These random moments of possessiveness. Damn... writing this.. I am just use to this. Maybe.. that's why I am feeling less. Well, at the end of this, he told me that I was going to be is sleeping buddy, and that I am his co-dependency attachment. I got fired from my sleeping buddy job last night though. Nothing I can do with that fickle man.

Last night, we continued with what we talked about, but he was being weird. I felt like he was being really shy and more conservative than usual. He was also worried about me? Usually he would just go about his desires and say what he wants. It was honestly really awkward LOL. I thought it was kind of funny, but I was really confused on what he wanted. He like.. wanted to do things, but it also felt like he didn't? I don't understand how a dude could be so fickle for so long. He initiate it too. He said he wanted to my button up that didn't fit.

I think the biggest thing about this time around is that I am just not convinced about dating if that ever happens. I have a lot of apprehensiveness with the idea of possibly dating him because of the history we have right now, but at this point, we can't even be normal friends. I would have a lot of doubts about his feelings if he one day started liking me or says that he likes me. That's why I believe that one day.. our friendship will end because we crossed the line of friendship, but being in a relationship would be kind of complicated. It's really sad to know that this is what our friendship has become because I really care about him.

-P

[blubberquark]

Excel, Word, Access, Outlook

Previously on computer literacy: A Test For Computer Literacy

If you’re a computer programmer, you sometimes hear other programmers complain about Excel, because it mixes data and code, or about Word, because it mixes text and formatting, and nobody ever uses Word and Excel properly.

If you’re a computer programmer, you frequently hear UX experts praise the way Excel allows non-programmers to write whole applications without help from the IT department. Excel is a great tool for normal people and power users, I often hear.

I have never seen anybody who wasn’t already versed in a real programming language write a complex application in an Excel spreadsheet. I have never seen anybody who was not a programmer or trained in Excel fill in a spreadsheet and send it back correctly.

Computer programmers complain about the inaccessibility of Excel, the lack of discoverability, the mixing of code and data in documents that makes versioning applications a proper nightmare, the influence of the cell structure on code structure, and the destructive automatic casting of cell data into datatypes.

UX experts praise Excel for giving power to non-programmers, but I never met a non-programmer who used Excel “properly”, never mind developed an application in it. I met non-programmers who used SPSS, Mathematica, or Matlab properly a handful of times, but even these people are getting rarer and rarer in the age of Julia, NumPy, SymPy, Octave, and R. Myself, I have actually had to learn how to use Excel in school, in seventh grade. I suspect that half of the “basic computer usage” curriculum was the result of a lobbying campaign by Microsoft’s German branch, because we had to learn about certain features in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Windows 95, and non-Microsoft applications were conspicuously absent.

Visual Basic and VBS seemed like a natural choice to give power to end users in the 90s. People who had already used a home computer during the 8-bit/16-bit era (or even an IBM-compatible PC) were familiar with BASIC because that was how end-users were originally supposed to interact with their computers. BASIC was for end users, and machine code/compiled languages were for “real programmers” - BASIC was documented in the manual that came with your home computer, machine code was documented in MOS data sheets. From today’s point of view, programming in BASIC is real programming. Calling Visual Basic or .Net scripting in Excel “not programming“ misrepresents what modern programmers do, and what GUI users have come to expect after the year 2000.

Excel is not very intuitive or beginner-friendly. The “basic computer usage” curriculum was scrapped shortly after I took it, so I had many opportunities to observe people who were two years younger than me try to use Excel by experimenting with the GUI alone.

The same goes fro Microsoft Word. A friend of mine insists that nobody ever uses Word properly, because Word can do ligatures and good typesetting now, as well as footnotes, chapters, outline note taking, and so on. You just need to configure it right. If people used Word properly, they wouldn’t need LaTeX or Markdown. That friend is already a programmer. All the people I know who use Word use WYSIWYG text styling, fonts, alignment, tables, that sort of thing. In order to use Word “properly“, you’d have to use footnotes, chapter marks, and style sheets. The most “power user” thing I have ever seen an end user do was when my father bought a CD in 1995 with 300 Word templates for all sorts of occasions - birthday party invitation, employee of the month certificate, marathon completion certificate, time table, cooking recipe, invoice, cover letter - to fill in and print out.

Unlike Excel, nobody even claims that non-programmer end users do great things in Word. Word is almost never the right program when you have email, calendars, wikis, to-do lists/Kanban/note taking, DTP, vector graphics, mind mapping/outline editors, programmer’s plain text editors, dedicated novelist/screenwriting software, and typesetting/document preparation systems like LaTeX. Nobody disputes that plain text, a wiki, or a virtual Kanban board is often preferable to a .doc or .docx file in a shared folder. Word is still ubiquitous, but so are browsers.

Word is not seen as a liberating tool that enables end-user computing, but as a program you need to have but rarely use, except when you write a letter you have to print out, or when you need to collaborate with people who insist on e-mailing documents back and forth.

I never met an end user who actually liked Outlook enough to use it for personal correspondence. It was always mandated by an institution or an employer, maintained by an IT department, and they either provided training or assumed you already had had training. Outlook has all these features, but neither IT departments nor end users seemed to like them. Outlook is top-down mandated legibility and uniformity.

Lastly, there is Microsoft Access. Sometimes people confused Excel and Access because both have tables, so at some point Microsoft caved in and made Excel understand SQL queries, but Excel is still not a database. Access is a database product, designed to compete with products like dBase, Cornerstone, and FileMaker. It has an integrated editor for the database schema and a GUI builder to create forms and reports. It is not a networked database, but it can be used to run SQL queries on a local database, and multiple users can open the same database file if it is on a shared SMB folder. It is not something you can pick up on one afternoon to code your company’s billing and invoicing system. You could probably use it to catalogue your Funko-Pop collection, or to keep track of the inventory, lending and book returns of a municipal library, as long as the database is only kept on one computer. As soon as you want to manage a mobile library or multiple branches, you would have to ditch Access for a real SQL RDBMS.

Microsoft Access was marketed as a tool for end-user computing, but nobody really believed it. To me, Access was SQL with training wheels in computer science class, before we graduated to MySQL and then later to Postgres and DB2. UX experts never tout Access as a big success story in end-user computing - yet they do so for Excel.

The narrative around Excel is quite different from the narrative around Yahoo Pipes, IFTTT, AppleScript, HyperCard, Processing, or LabView. The narrative goes like this: “Excel empowers users in big, bureaucratic organisations, and allows them to write limited applications to solve business problems, and share them with co-workers.”

Excel is not a good tool for finance, simulations, genetics, or psychology research, but it is most likely installed on every PC in your organisation already. You’re not allowed to share .exe files, but you are allowed to share spreadsheets. Excel is an exchange format for applications. Excel files are not centrally controlled, like Outlook servers or ERP systems, and they are not legible to management. Excel is ubiquitous. Excel is a ubiquitous runtime and development environment that allows end-users to create small applications to perform simple calculations for their jobs.

Excel is a tool for office workers to write applications to calculate things, but not without programming, but without involving the IT department. The IT department would like all forms to be running on some central platform, all data to be in the data warehouse/OLAP platform/ERP system - not because they want to make the data legible and accessible, but because they want to minimise the number of business-critical machines and points of failure, because important applications should either run on servers in a server rack, or be distributed to workstations by IT.

Management wants all knowledge to be formalised so the next guy can pick up where you left off when you quit. For this reason, wikis, slack, tickets and kanban boards are preferable to Word documents in shared folders. The IT department calls end-user computing “rogue servers“ or “shadow IT“. They want all IT to have version control, unit tests, backups, monitoring, and a handbook. Accounting/controlling thinks end-user computing is a compliance nightmare. They want all software to be documented, secured, and budgeted for. Upper management wants all IT to be run by the IT department, and all information integrated into their reporting solution that generates these colourful graphs. Middle management wants their people to get some work done.

Somebody somewhere in the C-suite is always viewing IT as a cost centre, trying to fire IT people and to scale down the server room. This looks great on paper, because the savings in servers, admins, and tech support are externalised to other departments in the form of increased paperwork, time wasted on help hotlines, and

Excel is dominating end-user computing because of social reasons and workplace politics. Excel is not dominating end-user computing because it is actually easy to pick up for end-users.

Excel is dominating end-user computing neither because it is actually easy to pick up for non-programmers nor easy to use for end-users.

This is rather obvious to all the people who teach human-computer interaction at universities, to the people who write books about usability, and the people who work in IT departments. Maybe it is not quite as obvious to people who use Excel. Excel is not easy to use. It’s not obvious when you read a book on human-computer interaction (HCI), industrial design, or user experience (UX). Excel is always used as the go-to example of end-user computing, an example of a tool that “empowers users”. If you read between the lines, you know that the experts know that Excel is not actually a good role model you should try to emulate.

Excel is often called a “no code“ tool to make “small applications“, but that is also not true. “No Code” tools usually require users to write code, but they use point-and-click, drag-and-drop, natural language programming, or connecting boxes by drawing lines to avoid the syntax of programming languages. Excel avoids complex syntax by breaking everything up into small cells. Excel avoids iteration or recursion by letting users copy-paste formulas into cells and filling formulas in adjacent cells automatically. Excel does not have a debugger, but shows you intermediate results by showing the numbers/values in the cells by default, and the code in the cells only if you click.

All this makes Excel more like GameMaker or ClickTeam Fusion than like Twine. Excel is a tool that doesn’t scare users away with text editors, but that’s not why people use it. It that were the reason, we would be writing business tools and productivity software in GameMaker.

The next time you read or hear about the amazing usability of Excel, take it with a grain of salt! It’s just barely usable enough.

[musogato]

What is going on with your website, Distant Horizon? I see it hasn't been updated in a few years. I found it recently and was really intrigued by it. Do you think you will ever start updating it again? Maybe because of new avatar content from Avatar Studios? If not id still like to know more about it and what happened/ how you made it. :)

Hi there! Yeah, My old beloved fansite Distant Horizon is more-or-less on permanent hiatus. (Although now that I'm looking at it, I realize I didn't announce that anywhere?? Oops.)

But yeah! I had a lot of fun working on the various pages, especially the easter egg/omg dude! page, the annual pumpkin carving contest, all the character sprites, and the seasonal layouts. Especially when the show was originally airing and there was so much fun energy in the fandom. But it eventually became too much work for me and my interest in ATLA and website maintenance in general just declined over the years. (I know I should update it with the Avatar Studios news but... I don't want to 😭)

I do still love atla though and I'm curious to see what Netflix and Avatar Studios will be doing with the series. But I'm also observing from a distance. I'm not sure if I'll ever update my site again, but we'll see. It feels kind of unnecessary with the other fast-updating atla news sites and the very comprehensive fandom wiki. And tbh just the thought of doing website stuff is exhausting to me. I'm out of the game and aren't interested in getting back in.

But when ATLA first aired in 2005, I loved that first two-part episode so much that I made my fansite in one week. Back then it was just the layout and pages with character bios and lists of the creatures and items and whatever official info and art I could find from promo sites and Nick.com. God I used to take screenshots of the show by pausing my vcr and taking a photo of the tv. 😂 But it was a lot of fun seeing the Avatar world expand with every new episode and rushing to add that new info to the site. And DH continued to expand with the forum, the wallpapers and fanart that fans sent in, the tcg scans and calligraphy translations, all the other info pages, and info/official art from the international Nickelodeon sites. Fandom was really collaborative and even though the shipwars were terrible, everything else was really nice.

There were a lot of other atla fansites too, small and big, and that community was probably my favorite aspect of the fandom. So many people set up their own sites and dedicated it to the latest atla news or their favorite characters, or their fanart, layout graphics or sprite adoptables, or snarky takes on badly written fanfics, and etc. A lot of it is completely gone now, which is... really sad to me, and is why I still keep Distant Horizon up even though I'm pretty much done with it. I don't like seeing fandom stuff disappear as if it never existed.

Anyway this got really long, sorry! 😅 But to answer your last question, I was just a nerd who learned how to code html on Neopets, loved it, and wanted to make a website for my own art and stuff. If I didn't know how to do something, like make a mysql database to make my wallpapers & tcg gallery searchable by characters, I looked it up and learned how to code it. (I make that sound easy but know it involved a lot tears.) I made a couple of fansites before DH, so by then I knew what I was doing and what kind of site I wanted to make. Although that still didn't prepare me for just how big it got. At one point my webhost had to contact me because of how much traffic the site was getting, and they couldn't understand why so many people were visiting if there wasn't pirated content or p*rn involved 😂

But experienced or not, if there's something you want to do, then do it. It may be difficult and involve a lot of crying or complaining, but if it's something you want, keep going for it. 👍

[techsforbusiness]

What is the best WordPress hosting site?

At first glance, it may seem easy to choose the best. Although, in reality, it’s a quite frustrating process when you don’t have pointers that could help you decide what is the best choice for you. So, let’s get straight into it. The first thing to check is if the host, which you’re considering to use, meets recommended requirements for WordPress support: · PHP 7.3+. In this case, I would recommend PHP 7.4. WordPress websites present faster execution times and less memory usage when using PHP 7.4, compared with previous versions. Just make sure that your WordPress theme and plugins are updated for the recent release. Also, it’s worth mentioning that PHP 7.4 comes with many other exciting features. · MySQL 5.6+ or MariaDB 10.1+. Make sure that your potential host uses a secure and high-performing relational database management system (RDBMS). An industry-standard like MySQL or MariaDB with its cutting edge features like GIS support should do the trick. · HTTPS support (SSL/TLS). HTTPS is a secure extension of HTTP. Websites that install and configure an SSL/TLS certificate can use the HTTPS protocol to establish a secure connection with the server. The goal of SSL/TLS is to make it safe and secure to transmit sensitive information, including personal data, payment, or login information. SSL/TLS is a must whenever confidential information such as usernames and passwords or payment processing information is being transferred. · LiteSpeed web servers (LSWS). I would definitely recommend this, although it isn’t a requirement. LSWS increases the performance and scalability of web hosting platforms through its event-driven architecture. So, it has the capability of serving thousands of clients simultaneously with minimum usage of server resources such as memory and CPU. To put a cherry on top - WordPress has the LiteSpeed Cache plugin developed by LiteSpeed engineers. It vastly improves the loading speed of your website. Since many of the hosts meet these recommended requirements, it shouldn’t be hard for you to find an attractive web host. After you’ve done that, there are other things to check: · Price. Keep in mind that you don’t need to choose the most expensive hosting or plan to get the best quality. There are hosting providers that are perfect for WordPress hosting, and for a simple website that doesn’t require many resources, you can get a deal from $2.95/month. So, your budget doesn’t have to be huge! · Uptime. One of the most influential aspects when choosing a web host. What you should settle for is a host with an uptime of at least 99.9%.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to create a blog or website with Bluehost.

· Support. From time to time, things get complicated or confusing. In this case, hosting providers have customer support agents who do their best to help you out. What you should look for is if they provide 24/7 live chat support. I believe that this kind of support is the most effective when solving technical problems. Sharing structured, easy-to-read instructions, making it easy for a client to follow, even without much technical knowledge. · Easy WordPress installation. If you’re merely a beginner, using a CMS could be overwhelming. So, it’s a bonus if a hosting provider offers a WordPress auto-installer. Just fill the required fields and click “Install”! · WordPress tutorials. Some web hosts got your back on that part - many WordPress and web hosting-related tutorials. Not a must but a good thing to have within a hand’s reach. The last thing left to do is to choose the right plan for your website. It isn’t too hard of a task when you know what each plan is best used for: · Shared hosting. The most popular type of hosting. It isn’t the best option for websites receiving lots of traffic but a really excellent and cheap choice for blogging and small businesses. · VPS hosting. With Virtual Private Server (VPS) you get dedicated server space, so it’s a more secure and stable solution than shared hosting. However, it’s smaller-scale and cheaper than renting an entire server. Perfect for high-traffic blogs and established websites. · Cloud hosting. This type of hosting uses multiple different servers to balance the load and maximize uptime. This means that if one server fails, another kicks in to keep everything running. The main benefits of cloud hosting include a significant focus on uptime, isolated resources, easy scaling, and a dedicated IP address. If a website is mission-critical, meaning that the company can’t function without it, then cloud hosting is a good idea. It’s also chosen by many e-commerce stores, lead generation sites, corporate websites, and high-traffic projects. In the end, it all comes to many choices when trying to discover the best. As you can see, there are numerous things to consider, but it’s well worth it to dedicate time for some research and make sure that your website is in the care of the most significant web hosting company you could find. Hopefully, this answer will aid you in finding the best fit for your project. Bluehost is recommended by WordPress.

[wordpress-guides]

How Do I Become a Best WordPress Developer?

To start with, we should sort a couple of things out: turning into a top WordPress developer is difficult to work — difficult work. It will require some investment, energy, and assurance. In case you're searching for a simple agenda or some "quick pass" to the top, you will burn through your time. Being extraordinary compared to others is hard, and measurably talking, the situation is anything but favorable for you. 

To begin with, we should sort a couple of things out: turning into a top WordPress developer is difficult to work — exceptionally difficult work. It will require some investment, energy, and assurance. In case you're searching for a simple agenda or some "quick pass" to the top, you will burn through your time. Being a standout amongst others is hard, and genuinely talking, the situation is anything but favorable for you. 

Coincidentally, introducing WordPress, perusing a couple of instructional exercises, and altering a couple of topics doesn't make somebody a top developer. They may consider themselves a "Specialist", and that is fine. They may know more than the normal individual. However, a top developer moves a long way past the nuts and bolts and pushes the actual limits of what is conceivable. They enhance, add to the local area, and show dominance in the work they do. 

So I need you to be more than a "specialist", I need you to be truly outstanding.

Wordpress Development Agency

   WHY BE A TOP WordPress DEVELOPER?

Why not WordPress developer? In the event that you work with WordPress (or plan to begin), why simply settle for being normal? There's something over the top "normal" in life as of now. "Ordinary" is profoundly exaggerated. There are different reasons, however. For example, the top WordPress developers: 

Get the most cash-flow. Interest in WordPress improvement is high and customers will pay more for developers who are awesome in their field. 

Get the best customers. At the point when you are at the top, you have the opportunity to say "No" to the ventures you don't need, and "Yes" to the activities you do. 

Have the most impact. Being at the top methods you have an impact (and duty) and the capacity to shape the fate of WordPress just as the environment that is worked around it. 

WordPress Developer Guides: ONE HOUR OF Perusing A DAY 

Follow WordPress developer guides. In the event that you will make it to the top, at that point you need to go through at any rate one hour every workday zeroed in on perusing and getting familiar with WordPress — outside of any improvement work. There are no alternate ways and no alternate ways around it. Learning and dominating WordPress will require some serious energy. On the off chance that you sit in front of the television, cut it out — over 90% of it isn't useful for you in any case. In case you're a gamer, sell your games or discard them. Arriving at the top takes responsibility and penance and the best spot to begin is with the things in life that aren't benefiting you in any way in any case. 

Start with one committed, an interruption-free hour of perusing for every workday. Close off texts, put your telephone on quiet, and read. Take notes on what you realize en route. You'll make the time passes by quicker than you would have anticipated. Keep at it, for quite a while, after quite a while after week, and a seemingly endless amount of time after a month. What's more, as you begin to see achievement, put in more energy for perusing. 

Then again, consider a three-hour block, a few times each week. The key is to make a promise to learning and respecting that responsibility by putting aside the vital chance to own it. 

There will never be been a superior chance to learn and dominate WordPress than at this moment. There are such countless magnificent assets accessible to those willing to invest the time and energy into utilizing them. Before you can begin acquiring experience, you need some instruction. Indeed, you could simply hop in and begin breaking things. Be that as it may, I propose you pause, and develop the self-control it takes to learn — there will be a lot of time to break things later. As you start your schooling, it's imperative regardless of the social part of your experience. 

Spend time WITH THE Correct Group 

We become like those we partner with. In the event that you need to be one of the top WordPress developers, begin investing energy with those at the top. Peruse their online journals, follow them on Twitter, give input on their considerations and thoughts, go to WordCamps to meet them, and tune in to their discussions. Peruse the meetings on CodePoet. Follow their models, ask them for counsel, follow their recommendations, and report back. 

Here is a little rundown of WordPress developers to kick you off:

Andrew Nacin (@nacin) Alex King (@alexkingorg) Bill Erickson (@billerickson) Cory Miller (@corymiller303) Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) Nathan Rice (@nathanrice) Peter Westwood (@westi) Joost de Valk (@yoast) Justin Tadlock (@justintadlock) Silviu-Cristian Burcă (@scribu)

The measure of perusing material accessible on WordPress is overpowering. There are a large number of individuals discussing WordPress and it is getting progressively hard to channel through the commotion. There are specialists, notwithstanding, and when you focus on dominating WordPress, at that point you should begin your excursion by finding the greatest assets and focusing your endeavors simply on those. 

Here are a couple of assets to kick you off: 

WordPress Codex. The WordPress codex is a local area altered store for everything WordPress. Start with the very rudiments and spotlight on dominating the WordPress interface itself from an end-client's point of view. Gain proficiency with WordPress semantics. Find out about the topic plan and module advancement. 

Books on WordPress. There are in excess of twelve books accessible on WordPress. Get going with the titles of most noteworthy interest to you and afterward pursue the others. Think "WordPress For Fakers" is excessively essential? Perhaps not. Your customers may understand it and it's critical to have their viewpoints. At the point when you're done, thank the writer and compose an audit. 

Sites on WordPress. Discover and follow the best online journals about WordPress. Buy into their feeds. Peruse them routinely and offer criticism to the creators. A couple of my #1 sites are WordPress on Crushing Magazine, WP Tuts+, and WP Candy. 

Comprehend THE Innovation 

In case you will dominate WordPress as a developer you need to comprehend the innovation. In case you're as of now a developer and PHP/MySQL aren't different to you, amazing. Ensure your abilities are exceptional. In case you're new to programming, begin learning. Here are a few different ways to start: 

Learn PHP and MySQL It's truly significant that you know PHP and MySQL and that you get familiar with the prescribed procedures. A couple of out-dated instructional exercises won't do it. Furthermore, on the off chance that you learned it a couple of years prior, a great deal of the practices you chose up are most likely from date. Not certain where to start? Start with Lynda.com or Learnable.com. Find out about MySQL execution. 

Investigate the Codebase Set aside an effort to investigate the WordPress codebase on Trac and on Xref. Peruse the documentation to see how things work. Look into what doesn't sound good to you and pose inquiries. Acclimate yourself with how WordPress is organized. 

Run The Daily Arrangement a nearby improvement climate and run the daily form as an approach to keep awake-to-date on WordPress as it's being created. 

Peruse "Make WordPress" A decent method to comprehend the innovation is to follow the advancement conversations occurring on make.wordpress.org. You can follow conversations about the Center, Modules, and Subjects first of all. 

DO THE Schoolwork 

Set up the thing you're learning as a regular occurrence. Start with your own WordPress sites. After you read an instructional exercise, follow it all alone. Examination. Separate things. Track what you've realized and record your bits of knowledge and forward leaps for future reference. Invest however much energy that you can take what you've realized and applying it to your own undertakings and examinations. 

Here are a couple of zones to investigate: 

WordPress APIs. Start by acclimating yourself with the rundown of accessible APIs on the Codex. Peruse the data accessible for every Programming interface and investigation with every (some will be simpler than others). Quest for instructional exercises for every one of the APIs to give you some certifiable point of view and experience on how can be managed each. 

Ajax in WordPress. Regardless of whether you're now acquainted with Ajax, find out about the utilization of Ajax in WordPress. At that point, proceed onward to handle utilizing Ajax in module advancement. Quest for instructional exercises to build up your experience further. 

WordPress PHP Classes. Acclimate yourself with the rundown of classes made by WordPress developers. Trial with them on your own ventures and expert them. Specifically, give exceptional consideration to WP_Query, WP_Theme, and wpdb. Quest for instructional exercises on every one of the classes, just as non-center, local area contributed classes like WPAlchemy. 

Acquiring Involvement in WordPress

With your schooling great in progress, it's an ideal opportunity to acquire certifiable experience — and loads of it. Your way to the top is fixed with preliminaries and challenges and acquiring experience outside the protected jungle gyms of your own tasks is a basic positive development. Perhaps the most ideal approach to begin is a managing job for other people. 

TAKE ON Customers

Working for customers, paid or free, is perhaps the most ideal approach to acquire insight. Customers present difficulties you could never need to manage to chip away at your own. In case you're simply beginning, figure out how to get your first customer. While the market center (enormous customers versus little customers) will shift, the core of the issue is to get a ton of involvement. The objective is to not simply get two or three hundred hours chipping away at WordPress, yet a couple thousand. You need to place the time in with genuine experience and taking on customers is probably the most ideal approach to do this. 

Build up A PUBLIC Subject 

Fabricate a subject you'd really use. Delivery it, paid or free. Tune in to the criticism you get from developers and end-clients who utilize your topic. Request a companion survey from topic originators you regard. Update your topic as you get input and as your capacities improve. Endeavor to make a topic that you can be glad for. 

Build up A Module 

As you learn and work with WordPress you'll in the end discover a need that hasn't been met. At the point when you do, meet it yourself. Take what you've found out about module advancement and set up it as a regular occurrence. Compose a module that is secure and that tackles a genuine need, without being another "me as well" commitment to the generally huge module local area. Delivery it, paid or free, and get criticism from individuals who put your module to utilize. 

CONTRIBUTE A Fix 

Peruse the Center Patron handbook and figure out how to present a fix. It tends to be an overwhelming cycle your first time around, yet search for a test that you can handle, and adhere to it. Contributing a fix is a significant encounter and a significant piece of having the option to view yourself as a top WordPress developer. 

Expert Investigating 

Figuring out how to compose sans bug code is a basic advance in turning into an extraordinary developer. Start with the Codex and find out about investigating in WordPress. Peruse Andrew Nacin's post on 5 Different ways To Troubleshoot WordPress. Acquaint yourself with a portion of the developer arranged modules, similar to Center Control, Troubleshoot Bar and Log Expostulated Takes note. 

Joining The WordPress Develper or WordPress community

Became an active member in the WordPress developer or WordPress community.  As you proceed with your schooling and set up what you've realized as a regular occurrence, the following stage is to turn into a functioning individual from the local area. You might be an awesome developer, yet it doesn't mean a lot if nobody realizes you exist. Invest energy putting resources into the local area. Perhaps the most ideal approach to do so is sharing what you know. 

Compose Instructional exercises 

I got my beginning back in 2006 with a straightforward instructional exercise I composed (be cautioned, it is somewhat dated). I took what I had recently sorted out and emptied it into an instructional exercise to help other people and save them the time (and migraine) I had recently experienced. Many individuals read it, a couple composed back and said thank you, and a few people even requested that I accomplish some work for them. So compose instructional exercises that take the most awesome aspect of what you've recently realized and present it to other people so they may receive the rewards of your endeavors. It's justified, despite all the trouble. 

Add TO THE CODEX 

As you invest energy perusing the Codex you will see regions that need improvement. Find out about turning into a volunteer in the Codex. Commit time to improve the nature of the documentation. While documentation in the Codex is ceaselessly improving, there are still capacities and highlights in the WordPress center that go undocumented. On the off chance that a region is past your present capacities, carry it to the consideration of others and embrace the chance to learn more all the while. 

Partake IN Gatherings 

Most WordPress novices begin posing inquiries on the authority uphold gatherings. Start there by responding to questions (even the senseless, essential ones — we as a whole beginning someplace). From that point, become a functioning individual from the WordPress Stack Trade people group. Answer questions and gain from the appropriate responses that different developers are giving. 

PRESENT AT WORDCAMPS 

Go to forthcoming WordCamps and search for freedoms to present and offer an incentive to the WordPress people group. A genuine indication of your skill is your capacity to take what you know and instruct it to another person. Peruse the Journal Of A WordCamp. Need much to a greater degree a test? Become a coordinator and start a WordCamp close to you. 

Prize And Duty 

The award at the top merits the exertion. In case you're assembling a business around WordPress (read 7 reasons why you ought to), an authority of WordPress is a basic advance to your prosperity. In 2011, as per the authority WordPress Overview results, "6,800 independently employed respondents were answerable for more than 170,000 sites, by and by". Of those, the normal middle hourly rate was $50/hour. In view of the Pareto standard, the top 20% of those developers (under 1,400) are liable for 80% of the work done (and they make more than $50/hour). 

Presently, being in that top 20% conveys with it an undeniable degree of obligation. Remaining at the top requires a promise to progressing training and constant experience. Never quit learning and improving. Being at the top likewise puts a degree of obligation on your shoulders for the wellbeing and eventual fate of the WordPress environment. Get included. Say something regarding significant issues. Contribute. Set a level of your prosperity back into developing WordPress and guaranteeing its future. 

End 

Turning into a top WordPress developer requires a mentality of persistent improvement and an ability to accomplish the difficult work. It begins with a purposeful spotlight on instruction and afterward moves to broad certifiable experience. At last, the title of a "top developer" requests devotion to the WordPress people group, just as an acknowledgment of the duties by the individuals who form and shape the fate of WordPress.

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[web-host]

Web hosting is a service that allows individuals and companies to publish a webpage or website on the Internet. A service provider or web host is an organization that offers the services and technologies required for the website to be seen on the Internet. Servers are special computers that host or store websites. A space is allocated on a web server for a website to store its files, they are hosting a website. Web hosting makes the files that comprise a website (code, images, etc.) available for viewing online. Every website you've ever visited is hosted on a server.

When online users want to view a webpage or website, all they have to do is to enter the webpage address into their search browser. The computer will subsequently connect to the server. And the browser will display the webpage. Generally, web hosts expect that the client already have a domain name so as to host with them. However, the web host can assist the client in purchasing a domain name in case they do not have one.

Click here to buy web hosting service.

What benefit an online business get from a web hosting service?

In order to publish the website online, a business website requires a web hosting service. However, a web host gives business owners more than just web hosting services! For example, web hosting firms typically employ in-house technicians to make sure that their client’s websites are up to date and running 24/7. And when client’s website is in need of help or troubleshooting (e.g., script debuting, email not able to send/receive, domain name renewal, and more), the web host's in-house support solves the issues immediately. A professional web hosting service ensures a hassle-free experience for business owners, so they can efficiently focus their time and effort on their businesses.

  The Best Types of Web Hosting

There are various types of web hosting services available to host your website. Before buying any web hosting service, it is important to understand what kind of service your website and what kind of server you or your business required. How much budget you have, require? And what type of services the web host offers.

Web hosting service providers offer the following hosting types:

Shared Hosting

VPS Hosting

WordPress Hosting

Dedicated Hosting

Cloud Hosting

Reseller Hosting

Let's take a closer look at each of these options:

Shared Hosting

Share hosting is one's website placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few sites to hundreds of websites. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. The features available with this type of service can be quite basic and not flexible in terms of software and updates.

 Shared hosting is the most basic type of web hosting. It’s cost-effective and the best choice for small or entry-level websites. Recommend shared web hosting to websites that are on a tight budget. Bloggers and small business owners who have simple websites are great candidates for shared hosting. Any website that doesn’t require too much on-site interaction or lots of resources will be fine with this hosting type. The biggest disadvantage of a shared hosting account is that you're at the mercy of the other sites on your server. 

Click here to order web hosting service. 

VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Server (VPS) divides server resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not directly reflect the underlying hardware. VPS will often be allocated resources based on a one server to many VPSs relationship, however virtualization may be done for a number of reasons, including the ability to move a VPS container between servers.

This hosting type is a step above shared web hosting. When a website outgrows their shared plan, it’s common for owners to upgrade to a VPS.

For those who want to run custom configurations to server, can get optional root access with VPS hosting plan.

WordPress Hosting

WordPress hosting is a particular form of shared hosting, created for WordPress site owners. Your server is configured specifically for WordPress and your site comes with pre-installed plugins for crucial tasks, such as caching and security.

Due to optimized configuration, your site loads much faster. WordPress hosting plans frequently include additional WordPress-related features, such as pre-designed WordPress themes, drag-and-drop page builders, and specific developer tools.

It is low cost and beginner-friendly. Here find customer support trained team to resolve WordPress issues. It is not for those who want to host more than one website on same server.

 Dedicated Hosting

The user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it, user has root-access for Linux/administrator access for Windows. However, the user typically does not own the server. One type of dedicated hosting is self-managed or unmanaged. The user has full administrative access to the server, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated server.

This allows for faster performance, as you have all the server’s resources entirely, without sharing with other website owners. You won’t have to worry about traffic from other websites impacting your performance.

It typically reserved for enterprise-level websites. It means more than 100,000 monthly visits, not to mention plenty of revenue coming in to afford the server.

Don’t even consider this type of hosting if you’re still struggling to pull in a few thousand in traffic each month.

Click here to order web hosting service. 

Cloud Hosting

Web hosting, "cloud" means that a large number of computers are all clustered together and any applications running on them can make use of their combined computing resources. It refers to a network infrastructure that includes multiple physical servers connected via software. 

This is a new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful/ scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing.

Cloud hosting is the best option for medium and large business websites that are growing at a rapid rate. Private Cloud hosting solution is a single organization can take advantage of a cluster of servers in a private cloud environment and use the combined resources to fit their requirements. Public cloud hosting where multiple organizations reside in the same hosting environment, siloed from one another.

Customers can reduce hardware costs for their websites and applications while gaining redundancy and high availability.

If website traffic is unpredictable and it scaling at a steady rate in the coming months or years, then should consider a cloud hosting plan.

Click here to buy web hosting service.

Reseller Hosting 

It allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Reseller hosting is not for everyone. Specially for those who are building a small website from scratch and looking to host a website on our own.

Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a reseller. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a collocated server. Many resellers provide a nearly identical service to their provider's shared hosting plan and provide the technical support themselves.

Reseller hosting is for agencies, web designers, and web developers. These are people who already have clients in this space, so they can just add web hosting to the services that they currently offer.

It sets uncapped prices to clients and improve existing services.  

Here are some features you should be expecting from your hosting provider

 Email Account

As mentioned earlier, most hosting providers require users to have their own domain name. With a domain name (e.g. www.yourwebsite.com) and email account features provided by your hosting company, you can create domain email accounts (e.g. yourname@yourwebsite.com).

 FTP Access

The use of FTP lets you upload files from your local computer to your web server. If you build your website using your own HTML files, you can transfer the files from your computer to the web server through FTP, allowing your website to be accessed through the internet.

 WordPress Support

WordPress is an online website creation tool. It is a powerful blogging and website content management system, which is a convenient way to create and manage website. WordPress powers over 25% of websites on the internet. Most hosting providers will tell you right away if their plans are WordPress-compatible or not. The simple requirements for hosting your WordPress websites include: PHP version 7 or greater; MySQL version 5.6 or greater.

 Click here to order web hosting service. 

[filamentblog]

We are often asked by our existing clients

Ecommerce is slowly changing the way how business is done. Wholesalers have more confidence in venturing into the retail sector through ecommerce. Retailers are equally confident about bulk orders and achieving economies of scale by tapping the online markets. Not only is this slowly bridging the divide between Wholesalers and Retailers, but it is also cutting across geographic boundaries and allowing access to new markets with a huge potential. Earlier, a silk boutique from New York wouldn't even imagine buying silk from an Indian vendor in Kashmir. However, with the evolution of technology and the internet, it is quite common for such trade to happen on a regular basis.

We are often asked by our existing clients, who want to push their business online, whether ecommerce is a profitable or feasible venture. The answer depends on a couple of factors. An important point to note is that most online sellers are not the manufacturers of the products that they are selling. They are only online traders who are focused on the logistics and not on the manufacturing. Good examples include Amazon and eBay. If you are into manufacturing and are trying to supplement your channel of distribution, then the odds are against you. Not many manufacturers of goods have been very successful when selling online through their own websites as their focus will and should be quality of the goods and Research and Development of the industry as a whole, not intricacies like whether or not to accept Cash on Delivery or to allow Credit Card payments.

Whats the aim of your ecommerce portal? The first point that you should be asking is what the aim of the website is. Is it to drive online sales or just to show your existing customers that you are capable of having a shopping cart system on your website. Are you trying to automate orders and phase out your traditional distribution? All these points sound trivial but are most important in making your own thoughts clear. Many a times customers who have rushed themselves into an online selling website cannot find any use for it, except as a brochure or catalogue to show existing customers. One of our clients just wanted to show his existing clients how much discount he was giving them, by showing an inflated price for all products on his website. The actual online selling from the website has taken a back seat. No surprise huh?

What platform are you going to use? There are numerous online shopping cart systems which offer same or similar features. Almost all of them support the popular payment gateways and common modules. If you are looking at something specific, then you can be picky. But if you are clueless, then go with the flow and look up review websites. Names like Magento, OpenCart, Prestashop and OSCommerce all have a good standing in the market and offer Open Source versions of their systems. They all use a combination of PHP with MySQL which is the standard option with most popular systems and is safest if you are a newbie. If you would like to reinvent the wheel or do something different, you can hire a programming team and spend a fortune of money. If you have that kind of money, you might as well employ the programmers or buy out the firm to work for you. A big mistake which many online businesses make is spending time and money on the look and feel of the website rather than the functionality. Both must progress in a parallel way, else you will never launch your website.

Who will manage the online shop? Managing an online store is a full time job if you are serious about making it successful online. Just the way a regular store needs employees and a Manager, even a small online store needs atleast one dedicated staff member to manage the site. Additional data entry operators, customer support staff and technical support maybe required to ensure smooth running. Not only do products need to be added and updated, but continuous monitoring and corrections need to be made to products over time. Most businesses' who start an online business, have an established brick and mortar model, which will fund their online venture. The offline business is usually well grounded and has built a name of trust over time. If you don't have an offline business, then you should study the revenue model accurately for judging the profitability.

How will you "deliver the goods"? In an ecommerce business, "delivering the goods" (no pun intended) is an important aspect. This includes collection of the payment and the entire logistics from picking up the goods from the vendor right upto the delivery at the doorstep of the customer. Payment gateway fees and bank transaction fees can drastically reduce the profit on goods sold. They cannot be avoided and must be feasible for the seller. The payment gateway service should also provide basic fraud checking and automated verification of the transaction. Basically, if you are Nylon Poy Yarn outsourcing the payment processing, you should be trouble-free about any aspect of the payment, whether it is related to the actual payer or the money being received in your bank account. Transportation and other logistics must also be factored into the operating costs.

Where do you start from? We always recommend our clients to start small. No matter how big you are as an offline provider, spending millions of dollars and then realizing that you have invested in a failing online business model maybe quite a disappointment. Start with a pilot project: a small test site can be made to start off with. It could be integrated into your existing website or it could be on a separate domain. You could have a backlink to your new venture or advertise it on your website. Some people prefer to isolate it from their existing business to test the market afresh. Either way, start small and slowly scale it up. If it doesnt work out, you can abandon it quickly without hurting your online business or drawing much attention to your website. Don't hesitate to call off the project. Even big companies like Google and Amazon have called off projects which were not cost effective. If it works, then you may have struck a gold mine.

Should I copy the XYZ model? Don't try to look at other businesses to model your own portal. Everyone has different resources and limits. People often want to know the traffic statistics of an Amazon or Facebook or Competitor's website page. This makes no sense, since the hard work and efforts behind the scenes will never be visible on the face of it. Don't bother about having a formal launch or publicizing the website launch. Let the website and products speak for themselves. The online sales will bring more than necessary satisfaction and the money that you spend in launching the website can be used to hire better staff. If you are serious about an ecommerce business, buy the hosting space and setup the ecommerce system at the earliest. Remember, sustainability and not setup is the key to a successful online business.

[louisxvob343]

How to establish taxi reserving application

Practically each and every smartphone person provides a taxi scheduling application downloaded on their own gadget. The market for on-demand companies apps has actually been proliferating and now represents an incredible selection of options and designs.

We chose to compose this post to get rid of some gentle on what it's going to take to construct a clone of Among the most famous As well as in some ways controversial apps of recent occasions. Looking to contend with Uber’s world dominance is a daunting problem, but launching an identical company at the nationwide or regional levels looks really promising.

At Japanese Peak Now we have effectively implemented various identical tasks together with Gett, a world taxi provider, #1 for on-demand from customers corporate transportation driving 50 percent the Fortune five hundred.

To create a taxi scheduling application like Uber we must know how it really works and define its basic building blocks.

Common overview

On-need experience companies (also referred to as journey-hailing or ridesourcing products and services) like Uber are marketplaces where individuals (riders) and service companies (drivers) can link with one another.

Drivers for these providers are usually not necessarily certified professionals but are personal people who use their own autos and need to make some more money. This simplistic approach which captures a standard consumer desire is exactly what tends to make these expert services accessible Just about all over the place – something not achievable by regular taxi corporations.

A person who calls for transportation solutions simply just needs to create a request to the application. Once the ask for has been created, a notification with all the mandatory information, like The placement and level of vacation spot, is distributed to the closest driver. The driving force both accepts or rejects it.

In the case that a rejection is built, the request is allocated to the nearest driver etc. If the driver accepts the request, they travel to The client’s place to choose them up. Later on, the two the passenger and the driver get an option to level each other.

How it works underneath the hood

Launching applications of this sort of complexity entail equally consumer and server-aspect growth. They need a central server to handle interactions involving a number of people (in our circumstance passengers and drivers), to execute advanced computations (matching, cost calculation, ETA, Fee subtraction, and so forth), and organization logic and information storage capabilities. Uber maintains various geographically dispersed servers to enhance response occasions, remove failures and supply continual support availability.

Uber’s backend program is prepared making use of these types of systems as Node.js, Python, Go, Redis, MongoDB and MySQL. Moreover, it takes advantage of its possess facts center community even though also relying on third-party PaaS/IaaS vendors for example Amazon Web Solutions for many functions.

Trip-hailing products and services of this kind of magnitude as Uber are unable to do without having its individual massive computing infrastructure. Nonetheless, It will likely be sufficient to guidance your complete backend in the Preliminary levels within your undertaking working with cloud support suppliers like Amazon Website Services, Microsoft Azure, Google App Motor or Parse.

On-demand experience companies also depend seriously on diverse frameworks and APIs for navigation, on the internet payment and conversation. Uber employs Google Maps to point out the surrounding place, Core Place and Google Spot Expert services API to ascertain the user’s spot, MapKit and Google Maps Instructions API for route configuration, Braintree for payments, Twilio for SMS notifications, Apple Force Notifications Services and Firebase Cloud Messaging for drive notifications, and SendGrid for sending transactional e-mails.

The client-side of a taxi booking application like Uber consists of two interactive cellular applications – a single for demand from customers (travellers) and one particular for supply (drivers), Every with its possess list of features. There’s also will need for the online-based mostly admin dashboard which will provide the function of centralized backend-Workplace, to observe all the process and also to complete administrative steps. Shopper aspect cell apps may be developed as native applications making use of platform-unique programming languages (Java for Android or Goal-C/Swift/C++ for iOS) or cross-platform/hybrid apps applying HTML5,CSS & JavaScript. While in the context of taxi reserving application development, utilizing a local strategy is considered much more preferable.

Let’s now discover shopper-facet apps in better element, outline The essential attributes they ought to have and how to implement them.

Needs to have features for the two Driver and Passenger apps:

1. Registration and Authentication

Uber like applications must present social websites and electronic mail/password signup and login performance. Creating a profile, past increasing buyer retention, is required for companies that entail mobile payments. As yet another necessity for drivers, profiles must be verified and accredited via the support administration.

2. Profile modifying

Travellers and motorists should be capable of effortlessly edit their own profiles: identify, Image, cell phone number, email, etcetera. The motive force app must also include the driving force’s license and information about the vehicle (manufacturer and calendar year of creation, car or truck class, shade, license plate amount) and its Image. Both of those the driving force and also the passenger need to have the ability to view each other’s profile. With this data, they might understand one another within the pickup site. This will help minimize anxiety and offers a sense of security.

three. Matching

Matching permits a passenger to routinely connect with the closest out there driver. It’s a fancy algorithm which will take into account a number of components: places of your passenger and nearby drivers (Uber displays approximately eight motorists), motorists’ standing and their rating, vehicle versions, and so on. The driver has a couple of seconds to just accept the request (Uber offers fifteen seconds) just before it goes to the following driver.

Some taxi scheduling providers allow for travellers to choose the driver manually. At present Uber doesn’t make it possible for this selection.

You could also include an option to customise the matching algorithm. One example is, a driver could set a spot filter and be matched only with Those people riders who are interested in traveling in precisely the same route.

four. Navigation

At the center of a place-primarily based application like Uber is the technology of GPS tracking, all over which all the things else is built on. It makes it possible for to discover latest spots of passengers and motorists, draw paths between them, established pickup and drop-off destinations, track the motion of autos and in some cases compute the cost of the ride along with the ETA (estimated time of arrival). These details sets are sent to the server for even more processing and broadcasting to other customers in that exact place.

A lot of geolocation, https://androiddevelopers.co/united-states/california/sandiego orientation, and mapping APIs will also be used when constructing apps with navigation options.

5. Notifications

Now most experience-hailing apps use a few options to notify consumers about critical occasions: SMS, press notifications and e-mail. Thrust notifications is often implemented making use of absolutely free utilities furnished by platform suppliers: Apple Push Notification Provider for iOS and Firebase Cloud Messaging for Android, or third-occasion cross-platform utilities like OneSignal.

To put into practice SMS notifications Uber utilizes Twilio but there’re a number of other equivalent services companies: Plivo, Nexmo or Sinch.

For sending advertising and transactional e-mails Uber employs SendGrid.

six. Analyzing and exhibiting the expense of a trip

The two the driver as well as the passenger must know the estimated fare beforehand. As we talked about previously, calculating the actual fare with the trip will likely be performed within the server-facet. It could entail the subsequent parameters and elements: the distance between pickup and fall-off areas, cost of fuel, probable reductions, auto class, traffic and weather conditions, peak several hours and many others.

Uber makes use of the so-named ‘surge pricing’ approach and improves its regular fares when demand from customers for rides exceeds supply, which happens to be currently a really controversial aspect and Lots of people have already been complaining about it due to the fact its introduction. We don’t recommend implementing this feature, no less than originally, mainly because it could repel buyers.

seven. Creating payments

This really is how it works inside of Uber’s application:

Uber has partnered with Braintree to securely acknowledge payments throughout the app. All payments are cashless, so once the ride has done, payment is withdrawn mechanically with the payment gateway. There are plenty of other on-line payment providers like Stripe, Worldpay or Adyen. They provide sturdy APIs, that can certainly be built-in into cellular applications. All of these are optimized for World-wide-web, cellular and in-app purchases. They assist significant bank cards like Visa, MasterCard, American Categorical and digital wallets like Apple Shell out, Walmart Shell out, Android Pay back and plenty of Some others.

Uber makes income by charging drivers a twenty% Fee on all rides booked by means of it. Payments are transferred to the driver’s account every week.

Regular cash payments really should not be fully eradicated. Paying out in income continue to remains the dominant payment technique in a few international locations, in rural spots or for some classes with the inhabitants like senior citizens and teenagers.

8. Ranking and responses

Travellers and drivers ought to have the capacity to price each other after the journey is around. This feature aids keep a large standard of service. Drivers with small scores will at some point not be capable to use the support. If a passenger features a lower ranking, it might be more durable for him to get a journey. Travellers must also have the ability to offer suggestions on their own working experience through the vacation. This suggestions will probably be shown in the motive force’s profile for Other people to view.

Analyzing the ranking of equally the need (passengers) and the provision (motorists) can help you discover strengths and weaknesses in the assistance and make enhancements where by wanted.

nine. Reserving and payments historical past

Both motorists and passengers need to be able to check out comprehensive data about previous visits from their profiles: date, time, Value, driver/passenger name, automobile design, pickup and drop-off locations, score etcetera.

10. Reserving cancellation

Motorists and passengers should have the ability to terminate a experience. In the situation of the cancellation, a rate can be charged.

Ought to-have capabilities for the Passenger App:

Tracking close by motorists

Capacity to set the pickup site around the map without having typing an tackle

Capacity to see pertinent facts about the driver: name, Image, contact facts, rating, car kind, and ETA (approximated time of arrival)

Notification upon taxi arrival

Choosing automobile typeRiders needs to be ready to choose between different classes of motor vehicles (In the situation of Uber you'll find UberX, UberXL, UberSelect and Uber BLACK). Needless to say, the fares will differ depending on the form of motor vehicle

Sharing rides with other passengersA rider must manage to share a reserving with One more rider who’s heading in a similar path and break up the price

Most loved addresses for handy long term bookings

Should-have characteristics for the Driver Application:

Finding passenger on map

Power to see appropriate facts regarding the passenger: title, photo (optional), Get hold of data, rating, number of travellers;

Power to settle for or deny requests

Placing position (Go Online / Go offline)The “Log on” standing permits passengers to find out motorists about the map and have interaction them. The “Go offline” standing will temporarily cover the driving force from remaining tracked.

Admin panel

The admin panel will likely be an internet-based mostly interface that can help take care of your entire assistance: handle back-end settings, handle drivers, passengers, requests, transactions, look at passengers and motorists’ routines, figures, and produce reports.

Website-based buying portal

As an extra choice for passengers you could Establish an on-line Net portal that can duplicate the features of the Passenger cellular app and permit them to create requests ideal in the browser without the require for any mobile app.

MVP

You don’t have to fill the product with all the above mentioned-described Innovative features when releasing it to the market. We suggest getting started with a Least Practical Product (MVP) – the initial Edition with the item that will include things like both equally Passenger and Driver applications along with the Admin Panel Using the most basic and indispensable features simply to ‘check the waters’ of the marketplace.

How long will it take to acquire an MVP for an application like Uber

Below’s an approximate list of features for a taxi booking app MVP and our rough estimate of the amount advancement time it will acquire:

Functional technical specs and layout

Making a in-depth useful specification to the conclusion product and UI/UX style and design – one hundred twenty-150+ several hours

Superior-amount design and style: Database schema, third party integrations, know-how stack, etc. – fifty+ hrs

Acquiring an application for only one platform

Making an application for iOS and Android can take 2 times as while.

Registration (in-app or by means of social networking sites) – 32-40 hours

Consumer profile – 16-24 hours

Driver profile – sixteen-24 hrs

Putting an buy (customer) – 80-ninety six hrs

Booking (driver) – 48-fifty six hours

Pickup area and route – 32-forty hours

Booking heritage (shopper)- sixteen-24 hrs

Reserving background (driver)- sixteen-24 several hours

Payment (include a card, integrating payment API, computerized payment after the purchase is entire) – forty-forty eight hours

Backend development

Database schema – 24 hours

Organization logic – 240 hrs

Admin dashboard – a hundred and sixty several hours

Technique general performance report – a hundred and sixty hours

Top quality Assurance

QA commonly provides about 30% additional to the event time.

You should Notice, that this is really an approximate estimate based upon our preceding undertaking in taxi scheduling app development. The development time of similar task may possibly vary with regards to the UI/UX complexity, challenge specifics and enterprise logic complexity.

Increasing the performance

One example is, there’s no have to have to include rating and opinions functionalities, Price tag splitting or preferred addresses to the MVP or develop the world wide web-primarily based purchasing portal. These capabilities offer added worth, but you can save Preliminary fees and depart it for afterwards date. Working with only thrust notifications to establish a link in between motorists and travellers will likely be adequate. Here’s a list of other attributes which could be extra later:

scheduled rides

discount rates and free rides

power to choose drivers (presently Uber doesn’t provide this selection)

desired destination filter for motorists

paid waiting around time for drivers

dynamic pricing (surge pricing)

in-application chat

voice-pushed Guidance

in-app suggestion element

insurance coverage

multi-language aid

promo codes

gamification

In addition to the most simple and indispensable characteristics we’ve protected in this post, an MVP could also contain Unique advertising functions to aid get initial shoppers (each motorists and riders) and market your application in these techniques

signup bonuses

tipping motorists to stay on the web even if there’s no demand

free of charge rides for new travellers in the expense on the services

no commission For brand spanking new motorists for the first three months

The way to get going?

The products discovery section is the greatest initial step you might take to put a good foundation for the event of the app. It features a functional specification, UX/UI structure, and a visible prototype that provides you with a clear eyesight of the tip merchandise. On typical, this phase can take 4-6 months.

The item discovery phase will help you:

define a full scope of work and acquire a roadmap for the challenge set a realistic spending plan for the MVP and strategy your sources, examination the waters together with your audience applying a visual prototype, craft a convincing expenditure pitch, get to learn your workforce