Introduction To OOP (Object Oriented Programming)

Programming has two "methods" through which you're able to create modern applications – object oriented and form centric.

There's no "benefit" to using either (they both have their advantages & disadvantages) – the key thing is to realize that if you're looking at creating certain applications, you may need to use object orientation as the basis of its data structure.

  • Object oriented design essentially means that you create a single "application" and then provide the user with the ability to create, manage and destroy "objects" through a single instance of the system.
  • Form based design does the opposite – providing the user with the ability to edit "data" through a series of "forms" that will appear at different times within the application. These forms will typically not "hold state" and will be independent to each other.

To understand how these works, you need to appreciate the core undering way that "programming" works.

Essentially, ALL programming works on the prediction of having a central "data" set (which can either be stored in a database, or just in memory as an array or something) and then having inputs and outputs to help the user manage this data.

ALL computer programs work this way – by giving the user various ways to "manage" an underlying data-set. The way they do this is determined by the type of "programming" design you employed when creating the application.

To better describe – the "process" of a computer application is always the same … input → process → output. EVERY time you use a computer application, this is what's happening. You're giving the computer a command (input), it will process this command – and then allow you to see the output with the new data.

If you're using an object oriented system, it's typically the case that you'll end up with a single way through which you're able to manage the various data-sets on the screen.

This is known as being "stateful" – whereby the system will initialize with one instance of an application, and then allow users to "invoke" new variables through a number of different methods. These variables are held in memory, allowing for them to be edited alongside each other. The best example of this is games. Whenever you "load" a game, you're just invoking an instance of an application, which then means that various "objects" are able to be loaded into the work area.

If you're using form based system – you're basically using forms to change specific elements of data. These forms are predominately stateless – meaning that they have to recreate the data-set each time they are submitted. The best modern example of form-based design is the "web browser" (and, subsequently, most websites). Each "page" you load is basically a form – with the ability to "submit" other forms to change the data a service may manage for you.

Advantages Of Outsourcing Software Development

Let’s face it: an inexpensive, faster and more productive manner to do things is sought by entrepreneurs. In this day and age new technologies have moved drastically forward allowing professionals to do their job online everywhere and at anytime. The overhead costs related to taxes, health care or compensations are reduced with help of these outsourcing experts who work in the software development outsourcing companies go on board as contractors.

Someone might argue that going outsource is a painstaking and time-consuming process. There can be a tremendous outcome.

However, if you figure out how to build and set up a project with support from outside engineers, it can help to improve outcomes, economies, efficiencies, and sustainability for business. Sure, a cost is one of the key reasons that most companies consider when outsourcing a product. Outside software experts are compensated way less than their in-house counterparts.

Better Flexibility and Lower Operating Costs – you don’t need to purchase equipment or other supplies and things required for the software development. To provide customers with the best possible material handling solution at the reasonable price is one of the main objectives of offshore companies.

Time Management – A proper outsource IT-company should help to meet any strict deadlines and provide the skills and manpower necessary. The outsource companies often provide developers who work nonstop at no additional pay.

True Outsourcing Partner – The aspiration to keep your company functioning at its maximum efficiency is shared by the outsourcing companies, as a business partner.

Enhances Expenses – As compared with in-house development the employment cost savings can reach high percentage for daily regular tasks in the USA, UK, and Europe.

Risk sharing – Outsourcing projects are thought to be an unfamiliar external team involves greater risks to your business. However, common outsourcing teams are aimed on continuous cooperation with the client as it consists of high-level experienced professionals who care about their reputation in the IT world. This means that they not only take certain responsibilities for the final result but also plan your risks better.

Better efficiency – Skilled professionals are hired by outsourcing partners to their teams and usually have a wider understanding of how your goal can be achieved and they know how to handle different business situations. Taking assistance from your outsourcing partner’s knowledge is plain sailing to the successful product you want.

I hope this will give a clear picture of some of the advantages of outsourcing and help you choose more wisely.

Importance of C Programming

‘C’ seems a strange name for a programming language. But this strange sounding language is one of the most popular computer language today because it is structured, high level, machine independent language. It allows software developers to develop programs without worrying about the hardware platforms where they will be implemented. The root of all modern language is ALGOL, introduced in the early 1960s. C was evolved from ALGOL, BCPL and B by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Laboratories in 1972.

C uses many concepts from these languages and added the concepts of data types and other powerful features. Since it was developed along with UNIX operating system, it is strongly associated with UNIX. During 1970’s, C had evolved what is known as ‘traditional C’. To assure that C language remains standard, in 1983, American National Standards Institute(ANSI) appointed a technical committee to define a standard for C. The committee approved a version of C in December 1989 which is now known as ANSI C. It was then approved by International Standards Organization(ISO) in 1990. This version of C is also referred as C89.

The increasing popularity of C is probably due to its many desirable qualities. It is a robust language whose rich set of built-in functions and operators can be used to write any complex program. The C compiler combines the capabilities of an assembly language with features of a high level language and therefore it is well suited for writing both system software and business packages. In many of C compilers available in market are written in C. Programs written in C are efficient and fast. This is due to its variety of data types and powerful operators. C is highly portable. This means that C programs written for one computer can run on another with a little or no modification. Portability is important if we plan to use a new computer with different operating system. C language is well suited for structured programming, thus requiring the user to think of a problem in terms of function modules or blocks.

A proper collection of these modules would make a complete program. This modular structure makes program debugging, testing and maintenance easier. Another important feature of C is its ability to extend itself. A C program is basically collections of function that are supported by the C library. We can continuously add our own function to C library. With the availability of large number of functions, the programming tasks become simple. I know most of you are not getting good tutorials on C programming. I think you can get the best C programming tutorial and largest collection of source code at http://www.thecodehunt.com which is a well organized site, especially for the newbies.

Augmented Reality and Retail Business

Getting in touch with the client at the very moment when he or she wants to make a purchase is more important than showing an advertising banner when a person simply checks mails or plays games. Emergence of new technologies that facilitate the interaction between sellers and buyers has led to significant changes in online and offline shopping. Thanks to the rapidly evolving AR technology, stores can establish contacts with their potential customers at any stage: when a person is at home at a computer, looks for a product on a mobile device, walks past a shop window, or considers products directly in a store.. AR has been already used by such world-known brands as Nike, Lacoste, Topshop, IKEA, Heels.com and others.

Every day a person is faced with a huge amount of information, including hundreds of products, when he needs only one. On the way to buying exactly what we are looking for, we encounter a huge number of similar goods. Because of such similarity, it is often difficult for us to describe in words what we need, especially if an image is not attached to a product. To make it easier for customers to find the right product online, Heels.com used the Augmented Reality technology for visual searching. A special app compares photos, for example, of any shoes you like on the Internet with current offers of the store.

In this example, you can see that the technology analyzes pixels in the image and compares these data with those that are available on the online store. Thanks to this, you will no longer have problems finding the right thing that you once saw somewhere and have just decided to purchase it.

There is a variety of similar apps designed to attract potential customers.

AR-based AR-based applications enable customers to evaluate how different products will look on them (e.g., shoes, clothes, jewelry) or in their apartment (furniture, interior details).

To date, there is already a huge number of similar applications, programs and devices with Augmented Reality technology. In the nearest future, experts predict a real boom of AR technologies in various industries. Thus, until 2020, more than 200 million people will use AR apps on their gadgets to search for various products.But this is the way of individual development, which is required for serious players with large integrated marketing campaigns. However, even now, services are gaining popularity in the market, providing really cheap and relatively easy-to-use facilities for placing objects in AR.

8 Fundamental Stages in the Web App Development Process

To survive the accelerating market competition, web app development is a fundamental tool for every business. Largely, the development process is shaped around a three layered software development model including users, business and data services. This kind of layout is used for separating a web app into services supplier and customer networks.

Here, we will learn about some essential phases to be followed in the web development process.

  • Brainstorm upon an Agenda: This is the first step, which evolves establishing the objective and purpose of developing the particular web application. Basically, defining a roadmap will be followed to map a suitable direction to the project.
  • Identifying the Target Audience: This phase generally involves defining the intended audience for your web application. This step requires you to prepare a proper analytics report, which includes information like the type of audience, their web access capabilities, their security levels, and the quantitative audience statistics.
  • Building a Document for Detailed Functional Specifications or Featured Summary: Functional specification document is among the most significant documents in an app development project. This is built to eliminate any kind of confusion in the future. This document lists all the technical specifications and functionalities of the developing web app. Although in case of large projects, it is pretty difficult to detail every user behavior. For such projects, a featured summary document can be prepared and used.
  • Identify and Analyze any Third Party Vendors: Developing a web app is typically an economic process, especially when outsourced. So here, third party vendors are identified including: web app development companies, payment gateways and merchant accounts, SSL service providers, fulfillment centers, and service providers for server, firewall, networks and load balancer equipment.
  • Technology Selection and Specifying the Timeframe and App Structure: It is the step where the app development platform, technology, framework and environment are defined. Along with this, the timeline within which the web app development will be achieved is determined.
  • Layout Designing and Wire Framing: Interface and Layout Design is considered as the most critical stages of any development project. It starts with the creation of a simple UI sketch and a visual instructions. Upon the approval of the interface and the interaction models, the project design implementation follows.
  • Application Development: This stage is about creating the app architecture and framework, design of its database structure, development of modules, classes and libraries, and implementation of the functionalities mentioned in the specification document.
  • Testing: It is the final step in the web applications development project. It involves QA testing and bug fixing. Every developing app is required to go through all the suitable testing techniques including load testing, stress testing, performance and usability testing.

An application that is tested well, is ready for its deployment and release, following which proper steps can be followed for its implementation.

6 Core Features of CakePHP That Make It the Superior Platform

The domain of web development covers a number of intrinsic aspects and it is crucial to stay well-informed before choosing a framework. While considering the various platforms, it is the ideal choice to choose an option which, not only meets the business requirements but, also has the potential to cover up the future long-term goals.

Noticeably, CakePHP comes with the potential of evolving the pseudo-functional patterns and then, have bought a lot of utility for the developers, users and consumers. It offers integrated control over functionality of a web development structure and coherence with the advanced business processes, utility factors and market proponents.

Following here are some of the aspects, which signify the fact that; CakePHP has a lot more to offer apart from the awesome logo and the cake on it.

Development

It makes the task of developing web applications faster and simpler. With a set of conventions, stilt MVC architecture, code generation tools and application scaffolding, this platform makes the entire process easier. With extensive support for a series of database vendors like Microsoft SQL and MySQL, users can scale the task in a better way.

Security

The framework hosts a series of security features like protection against the task of form tampering, cross site scripting attacks, cross site request forgery and SQL injection. It also offers a security utility that allows interpreted access to encryption and hashing algorithms.

Compatibility

Maintaining a well-maintained migration path for the developers is always a priority, which helps applications to stay updated. There is a series of clear outlines for the updates and features expected in between the versions and also an array of migration tools.

Documentation

This platform comes with some of the most beneficial documentation which, covers full scope of the structure along with the extended API source. Moreover, there is a series of video and written tutorials available online. You can also log in and take part in the official training session.

License

CakePHP is an Open source platform and available for free under the MIT license that allows commercial usage. Moreover, the Cake Software Foundation, itself backs this project, which is the legal entity that handles legal and payments, copyrights, developer certification, professional training and events across the world.

Longevity

Since the platform's launch, it is performing as a leading contantant in the space of PHP framework. Moreover, it remains as one of the top 5 beneficial PHP projects. With a huge mob of visitors and millions of page views across the powerful websites, this platform is about to hold its popularity and functionality in the coming years to come as well.

Thus, keeping these aspects in mind, we can comprehend the fact that; partnering with a CakePHP developer will help you to carry out the task of web development effectively.

Kotlin: Hot Android App Development Trend in the Market

Since the time of its invention, Java is ruling the Android app development market. Recently, another modern programming language is becoming immensely popular among the Android developers worldwide. The ranking of Kotlin is getting so higher with the time that the experts are expecting soon, this would become one of the top 20 programming languages ​​ever! This article is going to give you a brief idea on Kotlin and why this language is getting so much attention from the developers.

An Introduction to Kotlin

This is an open source language and based on the JVM (Java Virtual Machine). Kotlin is the brainchild of renamed Russia-based JetBrains programmers. This new language is now a part of the latest Android Studio version 3.0.

Since more than 20 years, Java is ruling the market and obviously, the impossible features and functionalities that it offers are of ace quality. Otherwise, ruling a market peerlessly is not possible for this long time. However, it may sound strange but you can not ignore the "aging" facet of Java. Here comes Kotlin in the picture. A new, modern, advanced Android dedicated language offering a remarkable set of benefits. Read on and go through the list of benefits that you can avail if you opt for Kotlin.

  • Interoperability

Can you think of the situation, where in the same project, two different programming languages ​​are coexisting? Well, with Kotlin, this is possible. While using Kotlin, you do not need to switch to a different project or no need to change the existing code. You can effortlessly use the features offered by it and make the app development process easier.

  • Less Coding

Let's think of a simple thing! Why would you write a hundred lines of codes when you can do the task by writing only a few lines of code? Yes, the number of codes you need to write in Java to do a special task, you can do it by writing almost 20% less amount of codes in Kotlin. Well, no wonder why worldwide Android developers are going crazy over it!

Undoubtedly, this 'less coding' feature not only diminishes the boilerplate coding amount but also makes execution of the code better.

  • Easy Learning Curve

One of the most intriguing facts about Kotlin is its easy learning curve. Unlike Android O version, you can easily master it by going through the list of language references. It has a lean and intuitive syntax that is gentle for the Java experts. If you already have skills in Java, learning Kotlin is nothing to you!

  • Safe and Secure

Working with Kotlin is a bit safer option for the developers. Wondering why? Well, with the help of it, you can avert critical errors such a NullPointExceptions. The compiler of it automatically casts mistakes. Sometimes, a developer might overlook a small mistake but all thanks to the Kotlin compiler that would not allow doing so.

  • Zero Adoption Cost

The term 'free' or 'zero cost' easily grab attention of people! Kotlin would not disappoint the users in this case as well. How? Well, this is an open source language. Here, you would not have to spend a single penny to get it. Simply get a converter tool that can convert all the existing Java files into Kotlin and that's it! You are all set to start with this impressive high-end language.

Even though Kotlin is gaining its popularity in the market in an exponential way, for the beginners in the Android app development field, it is always advisable to start the learning process with Java.

Some Open Source Content Management Systems

With users spending more digital media time on mobile apps, enterprises explore innovative ways to keep their website visitors engaged, convey the desired message, and persuade them to buy. A content management system makes it easier for businesses to keep website visitors engaged by creating, publishing, and managing digital content efficiently. Many enterprises even use content management systems to create a collaborative environment where employees work and communicate seamlessly.

At the same time, the themes, plug-ins, extensions, and modules provided by robust content management systems help developers to build custom websites quickly. Each enterprise has the option to choose from a wide range of content management systems. Some of these CMS are open source and free, whereas others are commercial. An enterprise can always consider using an open source content management system (CMS) to build website and manage digital content without incurring additional expenses.

Overview of 7 Widely Used Content Management Systems

1) WordPress

The usage statistics posted on various websites depict that WordPress currently dominates the worldwide CMS market. In addition to being easy to use, WordPress also simplifies web application development by providing a wide range of themes and plug-ins. The members of the WordPress community further keep uploading new themes and plug-ins regularly according to emerging trends in web development. The developers can take advantage of the themes, plug-ins, and add-ons to create custom websites quickly according to precise business needs. They can even take advantage of an open source WordPress plug-in like WooCommerce to create new ecommerce websites and add ecommerce functionality to existing websites.

2) Joomla

Joomla enables developers to develop, customize, and maintain websites without putting extra time and effort. It is even considered as the best CMS for small businesses and start-ups. While using Joomla, a developer can take advantage of a variety of plug-ins and extensions to create websites according to varying needs of small businesses. They can further use various business extensions and plug-ins for Joomla without increasing project overheads. But Joomla does not allow developers to choose from a large number of website themes. The developers can still use specific add-ons to add email forms, blogs, discussion forums, and image galleries to the website. Likewise, Joomla makes it easier for developers to add shopping carts and integrate point-of-sales (POS) systems, and manage inventory while developing ecommerce websites.

3) Drupal

Drupal makes it easier for developers to create websites that deliver richer user experience while meeting search engine guidelines. The SEO tools provided by Drupal help enterprises to divert more search engine traffic to their websites. Many developers opt for Drupal when a website has a lot of pages or access by a large number of users. Like other content management systems, Drupal also allows developers to choose from several themes, add-ons, extensions, and modules according to their prerequisite needs. These third-party modules and services even help developers to add functionality to the website without writing additional code. However, many developers consider Drupal to be more complex than other content management systems. Some programmers even write additional code to customize the Drupal application according to precise business requirements.

4) Magento

An enterprise has the option to choose from several editions of Magento. The community edition of Magento is open source and free. Despite being a CMS, Magento is hugely popular as an ecommerce platform. The readymade and customizable themes provided by the CMS make it easier for developers to build, set up, and launch robust ecommerce websites quickly. The developers can further accelerate ecommerce website development by availing the robust features provided by Magento including product catalog, option to add multiple attributes to a single product, customer grouping, setting up billing, invoicing and shipping. The developers even have an option to avail a large number of free and paid add-ons provided by members of the Magento community.

5) TYPO3

The open source content management system is compatible with major operating systems and web servers. TYPO3 is also considered to be more flexible and extendible than other open source content management systems. The modular design of TYPO3 makes it easier for programmers to build and set up websites of varying sizes. At the same time, the web developers can easily customize and extend TYPO3 by using specific extensions. TYPO3 further simplifies digital content management by allowing developers to define various types of website content and managing the digital content through multiple editors. The developers even have an option to modify or structure the default structure of a web page without any restriction. However, TYPO3, despite being easy to use, has a complex learning curve. Also, it requires additional server space to accommodate additional modules.

6) Plone

Despite being an open source, Plone promotes itself as the enterprise CMS. An enterprise can use Plone to integrate multiple databases, web servers, business solutions, and content functions. Plone further provides a set of features to manage the entire content lifecycle. A website administrator can use the features to create, publish, store, and manage digital content, along with implementing search, content locking, and version control. At the same time, Plone helps web application developers to keep the website and digital content secure through its Python-based backend. The Diazo-powered theme engine provided by Plone helps developers to design custom websites quickly. At the same time, the add-ons for Plone make t easier for developers to add functionality to the website and manage digital content efficiently.

7) Blogger

Blogger was originally developed as a blog publishing service with support for multi-user blogs. But many enterprises nowdays use Blogger just like other content management systems. Blogger has been evolving consistently to simplify and accelerate development of various websites and blogs. In addition to being a part of the Google ecosystem, Blogger also provides custom styles, customization options, and custom domains. The custom domains provided by Blogger make it easier for small enterprises and freelance professionals to set up and launch their websites quickly. At the same time, a user can simply use his Google account to set up and manage websites with Blogger. However, Blogger lacks some of the robust features and extensions provided by other open source content management systems.

On the whole, a business has the option to choose from a wide range of open source content management systems. But the content management systems differ from each other in the category of features, themes, plug-ins, extensions, and performance. Here, it becomes essential for an enterprise to evaluate the pros and cons of each CMS according to its short-term and long-term needs.

UnBox Business Potential With Magento 2.0

Though it has been over 18 months since the arrival of Magento 2 yet it is still popular on behalf of its e-commerce friendly features that make it a preferred platform overall. It has the capacity of outranking its competitors like Shopify and WooCommerce.

Here are some key features that boost my claim regarding the popularity of Magento 2

Performance Boost

Improved performance in comparison to its previous version as fast as 20%. A fast website encourages users towards more sales and is a determining factor that makes a website search engine friendly. This speed boost is on behalf of Full-page caching built default into the e-commerce version of the platform which also enabling of better handling catalogue pages without any slow down. This has drastically improved page load time to 1-2 seconds max compared to 7-10 seconds in case it is a non-caching page. Hence, Magento 2 is a better option that is highly scalable for an online store of any size.

Checkout is a User Delight

A smooth checkout process in Magento 2 makes it easy and fast for customers to move from the cart and finish their order. The high degree of customization it offers as well as require minimum steps with less than usual customer data. A positive impact on behalf of limited checkout time helps in limiting abandon carts and result in an instant boost in conversions.

When an existing customer makes a purchase, there is the option of even faster check out due to saved information. There is also this interesting option of single click account creation right from the order Thank You page.

More Mobile Friendly Platform

The key to boosting sales is mobile responsiveness now if not all, at least close to all internet savvy customers find smartphone as the first choice to shop online. This fact is highly respected by Magento development team, hence they ensured it latest Magento version as their priority. It is equipped with latest responsive and SEO-friendly themes, smart video integration and even easier checkout. These technical improvements will improve the look and feel of your Magento stores for mobile devices thereby improving sales.

Easily Upgradable

It is now much easier to install and upgrade either the core Magento application or installation of extensions. Basically, prior to installation, Magento 2 standalone installer will check for prerequisites. This will assist system integrators to smoothly script installations and upgrades for the creation of standard deployments. The option of export/import feature is available to export customer records, product catalogue and inventory data and much more and then import it into Magento 2.

Beautiful Backend

The Grid views of Page Titles or Inventory Levels can be smoothly created in the admin area and information can be further edited directly on the page in the grid just like you would like to simply do it in Excel sheet. This is highly time-saving as you need not launch every product individually and hit the sub-tabs to edit respective information.

The Future of Magento 2 can be summed up as below:

  1. Performance and scalability updates
  2. Enhanced preview functionality
  3. New and Advanced search capability
  4. Usability improvements for the Admin Panel
  5. Multi-warehouse support
  6. Features more suitable for B2B

10 Digital Products That You Can Create For Your Customers To Buy

Digital products are the easiest way to create a new product in order to boost sales. You create it once and can sell it again and again. There is no waiting around for your customer to receive it as they can download it immediately after purchase.

There are a number of popular digital products you can sell online directly from your site, or from a third party such as Amazon. Here are 10 digital product ideas.

1. eBooks

EBooks are simple to produce and sell. You can sell eBooks directly from your WordPress website using a plugin like WooCommerce, or you can also leverage the marketing power of Amazon by uploading your eBook to their Kindle program. It will convert your word processing document into a digital file that can be read on any device with the help of their free apps.

2. PDFs of Useful Content

These days, you can sell a wide range of items as PDFs, including checklists, cheat sheets, "Fill in the blanks" planners, menu plans etc.If you think your audience desires this type of content, you could have the perfect market for your PDFs.

3. Photos and Graphics

If you're good at producing images, sell your content on stock photo sites.

4. Videos

How-to videos are growing in popularity. At least 75% of all YouTube looksups are now connected to people wanting to learn a new skill.

5. Multimedia Course

These can include all of the above elements. The more forms of media you use, the higher the price you can charge. You may have to outsource some of this work to create an impressive package.

6. Membership Website

You can easily set up a membership website using software like WordPress and a membership site software plugin like S2 ​​Membership. Manage your payments using a processor that can deal with continuing payments such as PayPal.

7. Webinars

Webinars are an excellent way to interact with your audience. A webinar is simply a live web-based video or audio seminar that links the host of the webinar to a target audience. Once recorded, you immediately have an informative product that you can sell.

8. Swipe files

These are words and phrases such as sales letters, emails and other business and marketing communications your audience can buy and then adapt to use for their own business.

9. WordPress Assets

WordPress is the most popular website building software online. It offers countless numbers of themes (which manages the appearance of a site) and plugins (small programs that add to the features to the site). If you are good at design or development, these could be great digital product to sell.

10. Data and Apps

Research specific niches, keywords and marketing trends and sell the results to busy business owners. IOS apps are more competitive, but there is more need for Android apps.

Freelance Web Designer | WordPress Developer | Hong Kong