My journey into the world of databases began, like many others in my generation, with the humble dBase III+. Back then, it felt like pure magic. I was a wide-eyed programmer, marveling at how this seemingly simple software could store and retrieve information so efficiently. I didn’t understand the intricacies behind the scenes – indexes, file structures, query optimization – it was simply a black box that worked. Storage and quick retrieval were all I needed.

Following dBase, my journey took me through a landscape of evolving database technologies. I navigated the Fox family, from FoxBase to FoxPro and then Visual FoxPro, each iteration bringing new capabilities. Then came the enterprise-grade power of Oracle, followed by forays into Microsoft’s ecosystem with Access and SQL Server. And of course, I spent considerable time with MySQL, the open-source powerhouse that remains a cornerstone of web development even today.

Little did I know that those early days with dBase were just the tip of the iceberg. Databases were poised for an evolution that would reshape the world, much like the personal computer revolution before it. We’ve journeyed far beyond simple storage. Today, we live in the era of Big Data and data analytics, made possible only by groundbreaking advancements in how we store, retrieve, optimize, cleanse, distribute, and share massive datasets. Consider that the global data sphere is projected to grow from 64.2 zettabytes in 2020 to over 180 zettabytes by 2025!

While my personal hands-on database experience might be capped at SQL Server and MySQL, my fascination with the field has only grown. I’m captivated by the sheer power and scale of modern database technologies, from NoSQL databases like MongoDB handling unstructured data to cloud-based solutions like Amazon DynamoDB and Google Cloud Spanner offering unprecedented scalability.

What’s truly remarkable is how deeply intertwined databases are with our everyday lives, often without us even realizing it. Most people carry powerful databases in their pockets – their smartphones. Every time they search the internet, they’re essentially querying vast, distributed databases. Every interaction with AI, from voice assistants to recommendation engines, is fueled by complex database systems. It’s estimated that the average person interacts with databases, directly or indirectly, dozens of times a day!

At one point, fuelled by my passion for performance tuning and writing stored procedures, I dreamt of transitioning from a programmer to a Database Manager. I even poured my knowledge into a detailed article on stored procedures – back in the day, it got quite a bit of traction, read by hundreds! While that specific career shift didn’t materialize, the core of my fascination remains: the sheer elegance and power of well-designed databases. An early example of this, and a testament to the power of optimized databases is, SABRE, developed in the 1960’s by IBM for American Airlines. It was one of the first large-scale database systems and revolutionized the airline industry by automating ticket reservations.

And here’s a thought that often blows my mind: the Library of Congress, with all its physical books, is estimated to hold around 10-15 terabytes of data if digitized. A single, well-optimized database today can easily handle many times that volume!

For those aspiring database enthusiasts out there, here’s my advice:

1. Embrace the Fundamentals: Start with relational database theory (SQL is your friend!). Understand normalization, indexing, and query optimization.
2. Explore Beyond SQL: The world of NoSQL is vast and exciting. Learn about different database models (document, graph, key-value) and when to use them.
3. Cloud is King: Familiarize yourself with cloud-based database services. They are the future (and present) of data management.
4. Data is More Than Storage: Dive into data warehousing, data lakes, and data analytics. Learn how data is transformed into insights.
5. Never Stop Learning: The database field is constantly evolving. Stay curious, read, experiment, and connect with the community.
6. Practical Experience: Build personal projects, contribute to open-source databases, or seek internships to gain hands-on experience. Working with real-world data is invaluable.

The journey of databases is far from over. As we move towards an increasingly data-driven world, the importance of skilled database professionals will only grow. Whether you become a database administrator, a data engineer, or simply a data-savvy individual, understanding databases is a crucial skill in the 21st century. And who knows, you might even write the next chapter in the ever-evolving story of the database!

The post dBase to Modern Databases: A Personal Journey Through Database Evolution first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

In web performance, every millisecond counts. A slow website can lead to frustrated users, increased bounce rates, and lost revenue. One often overlooked technique for dramatically improving your site’s speed is Brotli compression.

What is Brotli Compression?

Brotli, developed by Google, is a cutting-edge compression algorithm that squeezes your website’s files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) into much smaller sizes. This means faster downloads for your users, resulting in a snappier browsing experience. Brotli often outperforms the older GZIP compression, delivering even greater file size reductions.

Why Brotli Matters

• Speed: The smaller your files, the faster they’ll load. Brotli compression can lead to a noticeable improvement in your site’s load times.
• User Experience: A faster website keeps visitors engaged and encourages them to stay longer.
• Bandwidth Savings: Reduced file sizes mean less data transferred, potentially saving you money on hosting costs.
• SEO Boost: Search engines like Google factor page speed into their rankings, so a faster website may improve your SEO performance.

How to Implement Brotli Compression

1. Server-Side Configuration:
   • Most modern web servers (Apache, Nginx, IIS) have built-in Brotli support. Enable it through your server’s configuration file.
   • Prioritize Brotli over GZIP in your configuration.
2. Content Delivery Network (CDN):
   • If you’re using a CDN, check their documentation, as they often automatically apply Brotli compression to your assets.
3. Manual Implementation (Advanced):
   • Brotli libraries are available for various programming languages. You can use them to compress files manually if your server lacks native support, or you need fine-grained control.

Brotli Compression for WordPress Websites: A Case Study

WordPress powers a massive portion of the web, and optimizing its performance is crucial. Here’s how to implement Brotli on a WordPress site:

1. Plugins:
   • Several WordPress plugins simplify Brotli implementation. Popular choices include:
     • WP Rocket: This premium caching plugin includes Brotli compression as one of its many features.
     • Brotli: A free plugin focused solely on enabling Brotli compression.
   • Install and activate your chosen plugin, and it should handle the rest automatically.
2. Manual Configuration (If Needed):
   • If you prefer a hands-on approach or don’t want to use a plugin, you can manually add Brotli rules to your .htaccess file (for Apache servers) or your server’s configuration file.

Case Study: A WordPress site with a large image gallery saw a 20% decrease in page load time after implementing Brotli compression. This resulted in a lower bounce rate and improved user engagement.

Testing and Monitoring

After enabling Brotli, thoroughly test your website across different browsers and devices. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix can help you analyze your site’s performance and identify areas for further optimization.

Beyond Brotli: Additional Optimization Tips

While Brotli is a powerful tool, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Here are some additional tips to supercharge your website’s speed:

• Optimize Images: Compress and resize images for the web.
• Minify Code: Remove unnecessary characters and whitespace from your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.
• Leverage Browser Caching: Store static files on the user’s device so they don’t need to be re-downloaded on each visit.
• Consider a CDN: Deliver your content from servers closer to your users for faster loading.

By implementing Brotli compression and following these additional optimization tips, you can transform your website into a speed demon, providing a seamless and enjoyable experience for your visitors.

If you do not know how to do it, just write us, and we can help you.

The post Brotli Compression for websites: The Secret Weapon for a Lightning-Fast Website first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

Macronimous is in the web development business and has been, since its inception, in the remote working space. By default, as with most businesses like ours, client-centric communication is our key strength – the ability to communicate well and transform client visions into Internet reality.

A collection of solid social collaboration solutions takes advantage of an organization’s network by bringing together the people, data, and processes needed for improved engagement and informed decision making.

Our clients often introduce us to new tools that we, mostly, adopt to go further up our learning curve as an organization. One example was Zoom which a client introduced to us in 2013 that we had some early reservations about, at the time. The rest is history.

We use an eclectic mix of communication tools for web teams:

• E-mails – Probably seen as the snail mail of today, e-mails continue to serve an important purpose among which are correspondence regarding initial requirements and pre-sales questions. This also helps keep records of client communication at all stages of the project which eliminates confusion and increases transparency. 

• Zoom, Google Meet – are quite similar in operation. Both have collaboration tools, share screen, breakout rooms, and support call-ins. The difference is with the overall price and the maximum number of participants that can join a meeting. These two conferencing tools are what our clients presently prefer, and they are, thus, the tools we work with. Like everyone, we at Macronimous started using them extensively, after the pandemic.

• Skype – This is seen as among the first VOIP systems to break traditional communication barriers. We use this to make quick calls before and during the project start. Skype also helps in the traditional area of phone calls; investing in a VOIP device with call recording is worthwhile. We have set up a Skype phone number in the USA; our local clients reach us while incurring no additional charges for international calls.

• Basecamp.com and Teamwork.com – We use web-based project management software as part of our box of remote team communication tools. They help ensure that everything is organized and our team continues to work seamlessly on multiple projects. They make both simple and complex projects easier to manage.

Basecamp is relatively old compared to Teamwork yet clients like it because of its simplicity. Teamwork is extensive, it has a bit of a learning curve.

• Trello – For our clients who like Kanban boards, Trello works well. Trello is simple and good for smaller web projects. Trello’s boards, lists, and cards enable teams to organize and prioritize projects in a flexible way. It is easier to track – all on its dashboard – with easy-to-move cards-based navigation.

• Adobe XD – is a screen-based design tool that helps our developers effortlessly share interactive prototypes with team members and our clients. Our developers create all the screens in a web app flow letting our clients get a feel of the entire product.

The chances of client frustration are low as this process of visualizing the proposed product would reduce any scope creep or deviation. It saves us hundreds of hours per project by lessening the number of e-mail exchanges.

• Bugzilla – is a robust bug-tracking system that allows our teams of developers to keep track of outstanding bugs, enhancements, and other change requests in their products.

We are open, however, to adopting our client’s preference of any other web-based or locally installed equivalent bug tracking tool.

• Slack – is a collaboration hub that brings people, information, and tools together to get work done. It ranks among the most popular communication tools for remote web teams. We use Slack within our development team. However, not all our clients are ready to get onto Slack, so we adapt to their software of choice, where necessary.
• FreshBooks – is the application we use to invoice, record expenses, and track time. This is a simple but relatively expensive tool. Apart from Freshbooks, we are use Hiveage, which has many payment integrations other than PayPal.

There are many similar applications for payment receivables and payables operations. However, we work with FreshBooks as it is a standard for most of our clients.

Loom – this is a new and easy-to-use video messaging business tool that is gathering traction in this space. You can send a one-way video message the way you would send a text message using Loom. The video can include a recording of the screen for more technical/ visual topics along with voiceovers. It is free! We send our clients explainer videos, project flows, etc. via Loom and they provide feedback, similarly, thus saving hours of inputting text. For instance: to explain how to delete an image in a post in the WordPress block editor, we would create a video and send it to the client and then deal with the client’s feedback. When our communication with our clients has to be asynchronous without their presence for a screen share, Loom videos become visual documents.

When we work remotely on multiple projects that involve different stakeholders who are allocated their separate tasks, staying organized can be a challenge. However, we have created our effective working environment using a wide range of software that we optimize for our operations.

The post Communication tools that we use in Macronimous throughout the web development lifecycle first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

Web development, in general, refers to the tasks associated with developing websites for hosting via intranet or internet.

It encompasses all the operations required to plan design, build, host, and manage a website to ensure its performance, user experience, and speed are optimal. Web development includes the coding or programming that enables website functionality, per the owner’s requirements.

What is a full-stack in web development?

The development of both front end and back end portions of an application is termed as Full-stack development. This involves multiple interrelated yet independent technologies.

This process comprises three layers – the Presentation layer (front end bit which deals with the user interface), the Business Logic layer (back end bit dealing with data validation), and the Database layer. This accounts for all the steps from the concept to the finished product.

The generally used technologies in full-stack web apps

The generally used technologies in full-stack web apps

1. Front end:

It is the part of the website or application that the user interacts with directly which is responsible for the user experience.

a. For the Front End, some of the languages used are:

• HTML – HyperText Markup Language is used to design the front-end portion of web pages using a markup language.
• CSS – Cascading Style Sheets is a language that is intended to simplify the process of making web pages presentable.
• CSS preprocessor – a program that lets you generate CSS from the pre processor’s own unique syntax.
• JavaScript – is a scripting language used to create the aspect of the sites to make them interactive for the user.
• Graphic designing – It is good to have a full-time graphic designer for web development. UI is the entry for making great impression over the web development deliverables.

b. Front End Frameworks/ Libraries:

• AngularJs – a JavaScript open-source front-end framework that is used to develop single-page web applications
• React.js – an indicative and flexible JavaScript library for building user interfaces
• CSS framework – a library that allows for easier, more standards-compliant web design using the Cascading Style Sheets language.

2. Back End:

It refers to the server-side development of a web application or website with a primary focus on how the website works. It is responsible for managing the database through queries and APIs by client-side commands. Any one of the following backend programming languages is a must-know for full-stack web development.

a. Back End Frameworks and Libraries:

• PHP – a server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development. (+ a high-performance PHP framework for developing Model-View-Controller (MVC) based web applications like Codeigniter of Laravel)
• .NET – a developer platform with tools and libraries for building apps, including web, mobile, desktop, games, IoT, cloud, and microservices.
• Java – Java is widely used for enterprise-grade web applications.
• Opensource platforms for CMS like WordPress, Magento for ECommerce. Using an open-source platform will make things quick and easy.

3. Database:

It is the collection of inter-related data that helps in efficient retrieval, insertion, and deletion of data from the database and organizes the data in the form of tables, views, reports, etc.

• SQL – Structured Query Language is a standard Database language which is used to create, maintain and retrieve the relational database
• MySQL Database – is a fully-managed database service to deploy cloud-native applications

4. API integrations

APIs are a set of functions and procedures allowing the creation of applications that access the features or data of an operating system or application.

An API integration process, simply put, is the ability to connect all applications in a seamless manner

5. Continuous integration (CI)

CI is a software engineering practice in which frequent, isolated changes are immediately tested and reported on when they are added to a larger codebase.

A good example of CI is Jenkins. It is the most popular open-source project. Jenkins can help teams to automate any task. Some of the common uses include building projects, running tests, bug detection, code analysis, and project deployment.

6. Source code version management

Version control is what keeps track of the changes in the code so that if something goes wrong, you can make comparisons in different versions and revert to a previous version. It is a must-have requirement wherever multiple developers are continuously working on or changing the source code.

Git is a highly regarded version control tool presently available among the developers.

It provides strong support for non-linear development and is compatible with existing systems and protocols like HTTP, FTP, etc. GIT provides cryptographic authentication of history and is capable of efficiently handling small to large-sized projects.

7. XML/JSON

Knowledge of XML and JSON is important in full-stack web development.

JSON and XML are human-readable formats, are language independent and both have support for the creation, reading, and decoding in real-world situations

Both JSON and XML are “self-describing” (human-readable), they are hierarchical (values within values) and both can be parsed and used by lots of programming languages.

8. Containers

A container is a standard unit of software that packages up code and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another.

Docker is an open-source container technology that performs operating-system-level virtualization, commonly called ‘containerization’. Each container is essentially a virtual computer, so it is possible to set up different technology stacks as needed.

Choosing a web development full stack setup is mainly about practical experience. You will be able to make good choices once you have had experience of applying technologies and know-how well they work for you.

If you choose a tech stack based on internet research, it will be like trying to fix your car after reading the manual but without having any practical skills. You may do it right, but the chances are that you will have to bear losses for the damage you will cause.

The post What is a full-stack in web development? first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

The global average broadband internet speed is now over 11Mbps. That means web pages load fast. So, Google should not worry about slow loading webpages. But, Google is not giving up its page speed measurements. In fact, page speed is one of the key factors in SEO.

The reason is, though the Internet Is Faster, however, Websites aren’t. And, Today’s websites aren’t that much faster than they were 10 years ago as we may think. This is what the continuous surveys from Httparchive.org show. Here is a blog from Nielsen Norman group’s article, that explains it.

As a web designer, your SEO team members are counting on you to build a site that not only looks great but also meets all of Google’s Web Vitals requirements.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Want to learn more about Web Vitals and why it’s so important? We’ve gathered together the facts on Google’s new Web Vitals, how it can affect your design, and what to do about it.

Keep reading for more tips on Google Web Vitals for your site. Your SEO team will thank you!

What is Google Web Vitals?

Google’s Chromium Blog has recently introduced Web Vitals. This is a new program that is meant to provide tips on meeting essential metrics for a healthy site.

Google is constantly figuring out new ways to improve the user experience online via desktop and mobile devices. This is why they have created Web Vitals which is an initiative to share how to build a website that will deliver the best user experience possible. 

It’s important to note that Google may use Web Vitals standards as a further SEO ranking metric. That means your website could be penalized if it doesn’t meet all of Google’s Web Vitals expectations.

Good News! You Can Help

How do you make sure your website will meet the Web Vitals’ qualifications? Let’s start with the basic metrics that Google has created.

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)

According to Google, this metric determines the load speed of the largest content element on your page. For example, a large image or video that takes additional time to load.

This also includes an element with a background image loaded via the “url(.).” function as opposed to a CSS gradient.

Google ranks a load speed of 2.5 seconds or faster as “Good” and 4.0 seconds or slower as poor. 

FID (First Input Delay)

The FID metric determines the responsiveness of your website. This determines the experience of the website for users interacting with each page. Simply put, how long does it take a page on your site to load after a user clicks on it?

Pages with a 100ms FID or faster are ranked as “Good” whereas anything higher than 300ms will be rated “Poor.” 

Google has determined using data that tracks user experience, that a “Poor” ranking for FID means your site is not reacting quickly enough to a user’s clicks.

CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)

When you load pages in a website and the layout shifts around, it can make it difficult to use and lead to negative user experience.

The CLS metric measures your site’s visual stability then ranks it from 0.0-0.1 for “Good” and 0.25 or more as “Poor.” A zero score means no shifting is taking place and 1 represents Google’s standards of too much shifting.

If any of the above metrics lie somewhere in-between, they are considered “Needs Improvement.”

How Can You Rate Your Site?

As a graphic designer, the layout you use, imagery, graphics, and navigation, all have an effect on its Web Vitals. You may be wondering how your current website’s design ranks on Google’s scale.

It’s easy to track your website’s Web Vitals by using tools such as Google’s Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, ChromeDevTools, Chrome UX Report and the Web Vitals Extension.

Utilize the Tools

The Core Web Vitals report allows you to see how your pages are performing and fix poor user experiences. This report uses the Chrome User Experience Report metrics which uses real user experience metrics across the public web. 

You are able to view the results of the Chrome UX Report via the PageSpeed Insights and Public Google Big Query project.

The Web Vitals extension will give you a quick and easy way to see how your site ranks for the three key metrics (LCP, FID, and CLS) described above. Simply download the extension onto Google Chrome and you can view live results.

Data Doesn’t Lie

Even if you feel that your website will meet these standards, it’s important that you check to be sure. Google provides these multiple ways to easily figure out exactly how your pages rank.

Google is the leading search engine online. The majority of your website’s leads are most likely finding your company through Google. Meeting Google’s standards is the only way to continue to show up high on search results.

How Can You Improve Your Site?

Once you figure out what pages are being ranked poorly, you may be wondering where to start? Google recommends starting with the lowest-ranked pages and begins by fixing these pages first.

There are many ways to improve your site’s performance including using AMP. This tool is recommended by Google to increase the speed and performance of your site. It will prevent things like ads from blocking the execution of the main page.

For some issues, you may need to work with your web developer along with your SEO team in order to fix it. A good general practice is to reduce your page sizes. Less than 500KB is recommended for a page and all its resources.

You can use the PageSpeed Insights tool to get suggestions for how to make slow pages faster. Google has listed the Tools to measure Core Web Vitals, such as Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights, Chrome DevTools, Search Console, web.dev’s measure tool, the Web Vitals Chrome extension, and  Chrome UX Report API for developers.

Sometimes fixing one page will also improve other pages on your website. It may seem like a big project to tackle but the speed of your site will directly affect your user’s experience. So it’s a necessary part of the web design process.

As you make changes to your pages, use the validation tool in Core Web Vitals to be sure that the error has been completely fixed. 

Ready, Set, Google!

Your work as a web designer is extremely important to upholding Google Web Vitals’ standards. As your website continues to grow, it’s important to be aware of its performance and user experience.

Your SEO team can’t build a stellar site without your help. That’s why understanding Google Web Vitals is imperative to the success of your site. We know the technical side of Google can get complex so we hope this guide will help you to get started!

Need help improving your website design or responsiveness? Check out our services to hire professionals!

Update: In a more recent blog, Google announced that it is bringing page experience to Google search too. According to Google, the page experience signals in ranking will roll out in May 2021. The new page experience signals combine Core Web Vitals with our existing search signals including mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS-security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines. We at Macronimous have covered mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, and HTTPS-security in the past. We will cover intrusive interstitial guidelines soon in this blog.

The post What Should Web Designers Learn About the New Google Web Vitals? first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

A recent Forrester research shows that almost 70% of the respondents either use or are planning to implement a content management system (CMS) in one form or the other.  But unfortunately, the pace at which CMS tools are evolving is slower than the rapid strides taken by technology evolution. So it is not uncommon to see new age tech like mobility and IoT finding it difficult to see total integrations with the monolithic CMS architectures.

This is precisely why developers are popularizing the use of headless CMS. Interested to see what it is and how it benefits the development project? Then read on and be informed.

Introducing the concept

Traditional CMS tools consisted of a backend and frontend to work. Decoupling the two would denote a headless CMS. So while the backend tech will still be integrated with the CMS, for front-end integration, it will make use of an API. This approach will help developers to deliver content as a service (CaaS) via an API.

In simpler terms, the backend and frontend will now be managed by two different servers. CMSs like Drupal and WordPress typically have the frontend presentation integrated through the multiple themes available to developers. But now the preference is for a headless CMS, where developers can focus on content management, administrative, and editorial activities while requesting front-end access via an API.

Characteristics of a headless CMS

We see the following differentiating characteristics with a headless CMS architecture-

1 .Front end decoupling

With the flexibility to disassociate front end, developers can handle presentation in a number of ways including interactive Angular JS, to static generators, or even mobile apps.

2 . Content as a Service

In this framework, content is available through a RESTful web-service API

3 . Backend Similarities

Just like traditional CMS, a database-driven CMS is maintained by developers to have an administrative interface behind the scenes.

Why headless CMS needs to be a part of smart development?

A number of advantages prompt developers to go for headless CMS:

1 . A Better scope of the functionality

The same content can be delivered to a website, an app, or any actuator/ connector that is a part of IoT architecture.

2 . Better development focus

Every project needs a different frontend framework based on its distinct technical specification and use case. With a headless CMS, developers can focus more on the creation of content rather than its management.

3 . Better security

Vulnerabilities like DDoS attacks can be effectively countered with the headless CMS policy. This is driven by the fact that the content publishing front-end is not directly available from a CMS database and both are hosted on different servers.

4 .Better flexibility

Headless CMS allows for only creation, retrieving, updating, or deletion (CRUD) of the content. As an outcome, you can use any front-end tool to present the content correctly – from smartwatches and wearables to IOT and mobile apps.

Enterprise headless CMS to watch out for

Do you know? Even WordPress CMS can be converted headlessly (Yes, and we do it as a service at Macronimous!) Also if you have a Drupal CMS, we can make it headless. Apart from them, there are some emerging headless CMSs and Here are the top 5 headless CMS solutions worth exploring for the developers:

1.hygraph

hygraph, formerly known as GraphCMS  has become popular because of the short learning curve it presents. It allows the quick and easy building of content APIs for use across multiple types of front end platforms. It uses GraphQL instead of REST.

2.ButterCMS

The company delivers full headless CMS to allow for simplified CMS development with features like custom content types and WYSIWYG editing capabilities. The CMS seeks to make DevOps easy by handling the infrastructure side of development.

3.Directus

In case your development project needs deeply customized databases, then Directus can be a good choice. It provides RESTful APIs and comprises of power-packed features like internal extension points, asset management, versioning, and commenting.

4.Contentful

Contentful offers a range of features at a cost-effective price point. This makes it a popular option for startups and SMEs. For those who are used to working with the traditional architecture, getting used to the decoupled system may take time as developers would need to familiarize themselves with terms like content modeling.

5.DNN Evoq 9

This CMS too offers a ‘liquid’ state of front-end integration via API. As a result, the content can flow into any channel. It also offers features like email marketing integration and drag-and-drop content modeling.

To sign off

With the rising demand for headless CMS, we can expect to see a lot more exciting launches happening in the near future. Stay tuned as we bring more updates about headless CMS in upcoming posts. 

Do you require help in building a headless based CMS Or a Convert your WordPress CMS to Headless?

We at Macronimous can help you with our headless CMS expertise.

Feel free to inquire us today for a no-obligation Consulting and Contact us now.

The post Why Should Headless CMS Be on Your Radar? first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

Are you a full-time developer/programmer? Do you work on an IDE all time? Well, then this guide is for you! Programmers are always in search of powerful code editors and dynamic web development components. These aids make web development projects easier than ever thus unlocking exceptional opportunities for development. Here’s a list of some of the high-performance text and code editors that are bound to make a difference to your project!

1. WebStorm

Why compromise on a spectacular web development experience when you have WebStorm? This code editor will give you the perfect opportunity to leverage the power. Features like on-the-fly error detection, smart code completion, refactoring for JavaScript, powerful navigation, and TypeScript makes it a complete and comprehensive tool for web development! You can use it for Angular, Vue JS, and React for the web as well as Cordova, React Native, and Ionic for mobiles.

2. Vim

As a and powerful code editor, VIM can ensure numerous benefits for everyday programmers! With a high-configuration interface, VIM helps you configure and change settings (IDE features, GIT, CLI browser) as per your needs. You can integrate this code editor as ‘Vi’ in your Apple OS along with a highly powerful UNIX system. Some of the features of this code editor include:

• Persistent editing
• Extensive plug-in system for enhanced operations
• Supports numerous programming scripts and file formats
• Integrates with multiple tools
• Powerful replace and search options

These features make VIM one of the best choices for code editing and configuration.

3. TextMate

Leverage Apple’s powerful functionality in the world of text configuration and editing with TextMate. The editor for Mac OS X turns code production into a simpler affair.  Programmers won’t have to face code markup issues as the code editor reduces the hard work and improves productivity. Some of the exceptional benefits of TextMate include:

• Replace and search operations in web programming
• Exceptional project management features
• Minimalistic, clean, and error-free GUI

4. Notepad++

As a result of strong, efficient, and powerful editing from Scintilla, Notepad++ can ensure smooth functioning, high execution speed, and small program size. You can use this tool for multiple routines, and their user-friendliness won’t get affected in any way. Since it uses low CPU power, the CPU’s functionalities are maximized and reduce carbon footprints.

Programmers can experience better productivity with these text and code editors. Pick your favorite and let us know your thoughts.

[Photo by Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash]

The post Code Editors For Everyday Programmers first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

4 CSS Preprocessors for Your Web Development

A big advantage of a CSS pre-processor is the value you can add to your client during the web development project. :

1. Sass

As a mature, highly stable, dynamic, and powerful CSS extension, Sass plays a significant role in web development projects. You can work with all the CSS libraries as Sass is compatible with every CSS version.

2. Less

Apart from its powerful interface, Less comes with a stunning feature. The preprocessor is compatible as well as backward-compatible with CSS. Quite naturally, web developers won’t find it difficult to learn ‘Less’ and can always fall back on Vanilla CSS for reference. The fact that differentiates ‘Less’ from the rest of the preprocessors is the presence of unique features. Since it makes CSS more extendable, themeable, and maintainable by integrating features that allow functions, mixins, and variables, ‘Less’ is one of the most popular CSS extensions used by numerous web developers. Installing ‘Less’ is a cakewalk and you can do it quite easily.

3. Stylus

The preprocessor supports both – regular CSS development style along with indented syntax, and that is what makes it special! You just need Node.Js to install Stylus. Yes, it’s that easy! It is clean, minimal syntax makes coding a breeze. Its own coding framework, Nib provides developers access for crossing browser support mixins for Stylus.

4. Crush

Inspired by standards and equipped with a range of powerful features, Crush is a unique aid for web development. The preprocessor comes with auto-prefixing features which help you make the most of the CSS platform. From properties, functions, rules, and vendor prefixes, every component undergoes an auto-generation process. That ensures three crucial benefits for web developers. Firstly, they can achieve clean coding. Secondly, they can achieve cross-browser support, and thirdly, code maintenance becomes easier than ever! So, it’s high time to have a crush on ‘Crush’!

These preprocessors will prepare the ground for a successful web development project for you.

The post 4 CSS Preprocessors for Your Web Development first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

MySQL has long been the preferred open source database software solution. However, with newer options coming into the market, it is only natural to be intrigued by what the alternatives have to offer for database admins and developers. Today we bring to you 4 capable MySQL alternatives for your zero cost database solutions requirement –

1. PostgresSQL is a database solution has been in active development for the last 15 years and has emerged as a pretty robust database. It offers a high degree of customizability and provides an interface to process custom data types. It is compatible with a lot of programming languages such as C/C++, Ruby, Python, Perl, and Java. Features like the query rewrite system and table inheritance further elevate the reliability of SQL as a viable MySQL alternative.

2  Redis This in-memory data memcached. Just like memcached, Redis’ ability to store entire data in-memory substantially speeds up the querying time. It is a great choice to share data across multiple servers, multiple applications, and multiple processes. Redis’ capability to process much higher number of data types (including lists, hash, unordered sets, and sorted sets) and built-in persistence makes it a much better alternative to memcached.

3  MariaDB – If digital behemoths like Facebook and Google use this database system, then there is little doubt about the popularity of this open source database solution. Since it is built by the same team that is behind MySQL, developers will find that they can reuse a lot of components from MySQL to MariaDB. It also features new additions like server optimization and alternate storage engines. Developers can also upgrade MySQL security patches to work with MariaDB which in turn, improves the efficacy of these MySQL patches.

4  MongoDB – This solution moves away from traditional data storage formats and stores data in JSON-like documents. Instead of tables and rows of a typical SQL structure, it stores data in collections and documents. Its dynamic schema design facility allows developers to create fields without defining their structure. As a result working with complex data structures, hierarchical relationships and data arrays become simpler. Its replication and auto-sharding feature ensure immense help with huge data sets.

Do you know of any other free and open source database alternatives to MySQL? Do write to us and let us know. Or add them as your comments below.

The post Top 4 MySQL alternatives first appeared on Macronimous Blog.

Developers need to factor in a lot of third party dependencies when building a web application.  A Package Manager helps to streamline the latest versions of assets like plugins, libraries, frameworks, and utilities so that the development is quicker and in line with expected outcomes. The top 4 package managers for web app development that add immense value to a developer’s life include –

1 – Grunt – The JavaScript task runner is a great tool to automate routine and repetitive tasks that take up much of the efforts of the developer. Some examples would be minification (shortening the code for improving the responsiveness of the app), linting (checking code for potential issues or errors), or unit testing (checking and validation of smallest testable part of a software). Since these require a lot of efforts and time, the Grunt package manager can improve development time and enhance accuracy.

2 – Webpack – This module bundler converts all modules with dependencies into static assets that denote these modules. It ensures quicker load time with the help of features like code splitting (loading only the necessary code required at a specific time or trigger), extensive plugin library, and smart parsing (can process almost any 3^rd party library). The on-demand loading also reduces calls to serve and loads the page quicker, thus improving the user experience on the web app.

3 – Gulp – This toolkit allows you to streamline your workflow, make the development process faster, and ensure quicker delivery of the product. It removes the need to repeatedly compile stylesheet and JavaScript with every update made to the code. The master gulpfile.js ensures that almost any routine task during development can be automated. By programming a ‘watch’ for specific triggers like changes to style sheets, gulp can automatically re-compile the code.

4 – npm – Touted as the world’s largest software registry with 450,000 packages of reusable and free codes, this package manager for javascript ensures multiple advantages.  You can now easily re-use node.js  libraries to implement specific functionality in your web app with the help of npm (node package manager). You can not only install code, you can also share and distribute code to elevate the cross-team productivity within your organization.

Stay tuned as we bring to your inbox more such popular tools and software development resources that can ease your work and ace your customer service delivery experience.

Are you looking for a web app developer who can join hands with you and work collaboratively? Write us to know about the cost and time benefits.

The post Top 4 Package Managers for Web App development first appeared on Macronimous Blog.