Saturday 31 December 2016

Visual Studio Code 1.8 brings Zen Mode, Hot Exit and several smart features

Visual Studio Code is a powerful code text editor redefined and optimized for building and debugging modern web and cloud applications. Since its release in 2015, Visual Studio Code has been a hit with the dot net development community. It has a rich ecosystem of extensions for other languages (such as C++, C#, Python, PHP, Go) and runtimes (such as .NET and Unity). Perhaps customization is one of the reasons for its massive popularity - users can change the editor's theme, keyboard shortcuts, and preferences. And while it is free and open-source the official download is under a proprietary license.

Visual Studio Code Zen Mode
Visual Studio Code Zen Mode

Microsoft recently announced significant updates to Visual Studio Code in the recent version 1.8 release.  This version introduces many useful features that the software has been missing since its launch. Here is a quick rundown of some of these stellar features.

1. Zen mode

One of the key features of this release is the Zen Mode. You can activate the Zen mode by typing ⌘-K-Z (Ctrl-K-Z in Windows) and disable it by hitting escape twice.  Another option is to turn it on and off using the Toggle Zen Mode option from the View menu. The benefit of this feature is that it lets you go ‘Zen’ by hiding the activity bar, the sidebar, the panel and status bar, allowing you to go full screen and focus on coding. If you prefer not to go full screen, disable it via window.fullScreenZenMode. Using Double Escape lets you exit Zen Mode.

2. Hot exit

One of the hottest features – Hot Exit remembers your unsaved changes when you exit.  Hot Exit will be activated under the following cases:


  1. All windows (instances) are closed.
  2. On Mac, when you finally quit the application.
  3. Window reload

Upon launching VS code post Hot Exit, all workspaces and files that are backed up will be restored. Hot Exit works by default in case of VS code crash, protecting unsaved changes regardless of whether Hot Exit is enabled or disabled (via the files.hotExit setting).

3. Search settings

One of the common user complaint and feedback for VS code was that of having trouble working with their settings. This release worked on improving discoverability and user experience for modifying settings and this resulted in many changes including default search settings. It now has a big search bar for faster and easier search. Not only does it show and highlight settings matching your search criteria, it also filters out the settings that don’t match. This makes finding settings very convenient.

4. Debugging support

VS code support for debugging has been enhanced for version 1.8.  Some of the new features include:

  1. Multitarget debugging, a feature which was experimental is now stable and allows you to start multiple debugging sessions.
  2. Adding many launch configurations to the launch.json file.
  3. Better support for Node.js debugging.


Significant update

Additionally there are several noteworthy features in this release that make it more valuable for developers. Some of them are faster text search, regardless of project size, snippet authoring, keyboard shortcuts, JavaScript IntelliSense support in HTML, TypeScript update for improved language support and so on. This is a significant release and has been received favorably by the developer community. Have you downloaded the latest version? Please share your views and opinions about what you liked and what you didn’t in the comments section below.

Friday 23 December 2016

5 Of The Best To-Do List Apps For Personal & Professional Use

The current generation has to juggle with a lot of roles and tasks in their day-to-day life. There are countless activities we need to perform in a day. Though our minds are well equipped when it comes to storing and recalling the daily tasks, we often tend to forget one or a few important activities amidst the hectic schedule. That’s when a to-do list mobile app can come to our rescue.

There's a multitude of to-do mobile apps available in Google Play and App Store. Whether you are an entrepreneur, employee, or a household manager, you can easily find your kind of to-do application with a simple interface, multiple tasks tracking categories with different color codes and other additional features. You can even leverage help of a Xamarin application development firm to create a customized to-do app of your own.

Meanwhile, take a look at some of the best cross-platform to-do applications we have listed below to help you stay organized on-the-go and never miss out on any important task in the future.

Best To-Do Applications For Millennials:

1. Wunderlist: Wunderlist is a powerful to-do app acquired by Microsoft last year. It boosts your productivity by allowing you to create your task list and share it with your co-workers and friends who will have the capability of altering the lists on their own. The best part of using Wunderlist is that it provides the user experience that doesn’t get messy even when multiple people are working on a list at the same time. It is a user-friendly app with a very sleek design. Adding and checking off your tasks on Wunderlist is not just fun but also easy and intuitive.
Price – Free
Available on: Android / iOS / Windows / WP / OSX / Web


2. Trello: Trello is a popular online project management application. It is built around the concept of “Kanban”, a scheduling platform that lets you shift your tasks from one state to another. It allows you to drag, drop, color-code, and manipulate items in your to-do list. It arranges larger projects into “Task Boards” wherein you can create a list of sub-tasks. In each list, you can add a “Card” where you can list all your items of the task. To each card, you can add a checklist, a due date, color-code labels, attachments, and also drag and drop the cards between boards and lists.
Price – Free
Available on: Android / iOS / Windows / Web


3. Todoist: Todoist is another powerful application that provides lots of great features to organize your professional and personal lives. It is well-designed and user-friendly. It allows you to add projects, sub-projects, and sub-tasks. You can prioritize the tasks by adding due dates, color-code, and assigning various categories. Todoist also integrates with other services such as Google Drive, IFTTT, and Sunrise Calendar.
Price – Free
Available on: Android / iOS / Windows / Web


4. Google Keep: Google Keep has been around for a while and is an amazing tool to quickly create and save lists or notes. The app automatically syncs your notes and lists across Google Drive and on the cloud enabling you to access it on any device anytime. You can easily add and store your text notes, checklists, voice notes, web links, and photos on Google Keep.
Price – Free
Available on: Android / iOS / Chrome / Web


5. Any.do: Any.do is one of the most beautifully designed to-do apps that focuses on achievement whether personally or professionally. It is highly collaborative as it syncs your tasks across multiple devices allowing you to easily share the tasks, reminders, checklists, and more. It includes all the features you would expect from a to-do app including drag-drop, swipe-to-complete, and voice entry. One of the coolest features in Any.do is the ability to shake your device to clear completed tasks.
Price – Free
Available on: Android / iOS / Chrome / Web


Which is your favorite to-do list app? What are best features you find in it? Drop your answers in the comments below.

Friday 9 September 2016

Why Xamarin Is the Go-to Cross Development Platform For Enterprises

Xamarin is a popular cross-platform app development tool to deliver applications across multiple mobile operating systems - Android, iOS, and Windows in one go. It is an excellent platform that brings .NET/C# to iOS and Android while letting you make apps complaint to both Google Play and the iOS App Store.

The budget-friendly enterprises count on Xamarin for its ability to develop multiple mobile app versions and give them a native look and feel. Moreover, high-end performance, better UI/UX designs, and high functionality features are some Xamarin benefits that lure app developers towards it.

Xamarin in partnership with Microsoft recently made its integration with Visual Studio deeper. It now enables you to produce portable class libraries fully complaint to .NET. If this still doesn't build your interest in hiring a Xamarin application specialist, here's an infographic that gives six more reasons to use Xamarin as your cross-platform development tool. Take a look:



Friday 20 May 2016

WooCommmerce Vs OpenCart – Which Platform Is Better For Your New eCommerce Store?

Ecommerce is one uber buzzword. More and more businesses can be seen venturing into eCommerce solutions from brick-and-mortar stores. Retailers are making serious efforts to cater to their customers’ sophisticated demands. But creating a successful eCommerce store takes a lot from choosing the right platform to customizing it and delivering a unique customer experience.

If you’re a newly minted business searching for the right eCommerce solution, you may have come across various comparisons like OpenCart vs Shopify or PrestaShop vs OpenCart. But one must have a practical approach and understanding of tools and key skills required to kick-off their online venture. Putting it in a simple way, one needs to identify the best eCommerce platform that not only suits the business requirements but also includes all the features and functionalities that help to monetize the website. 

The eCommerce market offers a galore of platforms to choose from. But if you’re looking for something straight out-of-the-box, then here are two choices you must consider – WooCommerce vs OpenCart. Let us first understand the background of each platform before moving onto their comparison.

WooCommerce:
WooCommerce was launched by WooThemes in 2011. It is a plugin designed for WordPress (WP) websites. With WooCommerce, an existing WordPress website can be converted into a fully-functional online store. It is a highly successful plugin partly because of the reliable company’s support, and its robust set of features that helps to deliver an engaging shopping experience to the customers.

OpenCart:
OpenCart, launched in 2008, is an open-source shopping cart solution designed to manage the requirements of any eCommerce store, regardless of its size. It is free, feature-rich and includes a wide variety of themes and extensions. It is a complete eCommerce system that supports servers like PHP5, Apache, and MySQL5.

Now, let’s compare the two platforms.

Ease of Installation:
OpenCart installation is easy. There are two ways to install it – one is manual and second is with one-click script installer. Manual installation is a little complicated and tiresome but has better customization options. The one-click installation is the fastest way to install OpenCart and can be done by using two installers: Softaculous and SimpleScripts. For WooCommerce installation, WordPress site is a prerequisite as WooCommerce is a WP plugin. Once the site is set up, you can download and install the plugin directly from WP dashboard. So, in terms of ease of installation, WooCommerce is the hands down winner.

Themes, Extensions, and Add-ons:
OpenCart offers over 2000 templates to choose from. It includes both free and paid themes ranging from $60 to $70. Also, add-ons are available at great deals. The Google Analytics, Facebook and Twitter integration is free but services like Amazon, eBay, and some others come at a price. It comes with some awesome shipping options and SEO specific add-ons. While WooCommerce does not include the basic functionalities like OpenCart. So, you need to pay for extensions and payment gateways you want to use. Further, it provides limited community support. There are both free and paid templates in WooCommerce and the price ranges from $39 to $79. Here, OpenCart wins as it has pretty out-of-the-box collections and options for your store.

Customization:
The template structure in OpenCart is a bit difficult to access. The codes are stored in a database instead of HTML which makes customization tricky. Whereas, WooCommerce offers all the essential administrative tools to revamp the functioning and quality of your store. It provides a greater control while making modifications to the store design. Thus, WooCommerce has better and simpler customization capabilities.

Conclusion:
Since both the platforms are professional, the choice of platform naturally depends on the requirements of your business. If you already have a WordPress website then WooCommerce is certainly a good fit. But if you’re looking to manage multiple sites having basic feature requirements, then go with OpenCart development services as it is highly customizable.

Which eCommerce platform seems to be a good fit for your business – WooCommerce or OpenCart? Let us know in the comments below.

Monday 25 April 2016

Here's What You Need to Know About The Future Of Mobile Apps

Ever since the growth of mobile phone industry, mobile applications have become a vital tool for organizational success. A statistical study shows that “In 2015, global mobile app turnover amounted to $41.1 billion and by 2020, consumers are expected to spend more than $101 billion on mobile apps. This growth represents that mobile applications will undergo a lot more changes in the years to come.

Today consumers can access any kind of information through the web and perform various day-to-day activities like online shopping, paying bills, tracking expenses and incomes, prepare daily schedules, etc. Moreover, mobile application development services have already covered all major industries and spheres to expand potential opportunities and extend their services while establishing one-on-one consumer relationships.


With all the given opportunities and functionalities mobile apps are already providing, what more can be expected of in future? Let us take a look at the following changes mobile technology is expected to bring about in coming years.

Future Changes in Mobile Apps


Personalization of Apps: With the evolution of geo-targeted notifications, it is predicted that many marketers will soon entail it into their app marketing strategies. A study by Localytics shows that in comparison of generic push blasts, targeted push messages will double the open rates and triple the conversion rates of a mobile app. In addition, the app marketers will be able to access sophisticated tools for collecting & analyzing in-app data quickly to know their customers’ preferences and utilize the power of tailor messages to increase app usage and conversion rates.

Remarketing To Grow Retention: Last year, majority app installs were based on advertisements coming from Facebook, Twitter, and Google. This means that the app marketers will gain more confidence in these advertising platforms and optimize their budget to gain more quality leads. As some of the advertising platforms play a major role in remarketing, marketers will optimize the ad spend to re-target the inactive customers by exploring video-based ads. So, remarketing campaigns on mobile will gain more traction and marketers will be able to retain users leveraging the power of deep linking.

Growth of mCommerce: With the global penetration of smartphones and enhancements in mobile, security, payment and usability, mCommerce is expected to blow up. Marketers who have already embraced mobile are helping customers to research and compare products better by showrooming and creating mobile-ready barcode scanners. But the biggest change will be seen in the mobile payment industry. Some bigger brands like Starbucks, offer their own mobile wallet allowing the customers to add money and scan at the register. Basically, the idea is to link gift or membership cards along with the loyalty programs within the app. A majority of other brands are also expected to adopt the mobile wallet strategy and grow the customer base.

Today’s attention-challenged customers want everything personalized. And as more and more changes evolve in mobile technology, the growth of mobile application is sure to continue. So, whether it is a marketer or a consumer, both have the opportunities to harness the mobile app landscape and make the best out of it.

What do you think is the future of mobile apps? Share your opinions with us in your comments.

Thursday 14 April 2016

Best Practices To Deploy Drupal Web Development

Drupal is a recognized open-source content management system (CMS) majorly used for developing large, high-traffic websites. It is one such platform that focuses on performance improvements, making it easier for developers to build robust and feature-rich websites. It is written in PHP and utilizes MySQL database. It offers an advanced programming interface to developers, without having them to learn basic website and installation programming skills.



Drupal can be utilized to build everything from personal blogs to business applications. Even though it is a streamlined platform for web development, it demands enough time and efforts especially if you’ve just got your hands on with it. There are certain best practices that can aid you in faster application development using Drupal development solutions, as well as improving the performance to tackle multiple websites. Let’s take a look at the best practices of Drupal you must keep in mind while deploying a large site.

4 Best Practices of Drupal Website Development

Understand Basic Requirements: It is necessary to check the requirement specifications thoroughly before jumping on to website development. Don’t assume the functionalities on your own. List out all your doubts and communicate it with your manager or client to have a clear idea. You should understand what you are going to create – the kind of content, layout of the site, the number of fields required, etc.

Use Version Control: The version control under the files you’re working on tracks the changes automatically. You can modify a file, delete a directory, add a new file, and move the files or just do anything. But it might change the state of the file. The version control waits until you submit the changes altogether rather than recording each change individually. This collection of actions in version control is called ‘commit’. Version control also offers additional benefits to manage your code such as multiple people can work together on the functionality and contribute. These changes are performed in an orderly manner. You can roll back to the older version when something is not working as desired. And it always has the history of whatever you do.

Use Identical Development Environment: Everyone has their own choice of operating system and tools they want to use. While you’re developing the website you have to ensure that it works on production, which is a specific version of Linux running specific version of Apache, PHP, and MySQL. While it is possible that the developer uses MAC to develop the site and the tester uses Windows. Fixing such platform specific problems is often painful. Also, you should avoid enforcing similar platform. In such scenarios, using Vagrant proves beneficial. It is a tool to manage virtual machines (VM). It allows developers to work on their preferred machines enabling the same environment for development similar to that of others in the team.

Use Different Database Server: Running large Drupal sites demands a lot of resources on the server. In addition, Drupal stores all the configuration and the content in the database and runs a MySQL server on the same machine. This can be overkilling. So, it is recommended to use a different server for databases keeping the latency issues in mind.

These best practices of Drupal development will certainly help you to plan your next Drupal project effectively.

What are the other Drupal best practices you are following for your web development? Leave your comments below.

Monday 11 April 2016

Top 5 Benefits Of Opening An Online Automotive Store

Today's consumers want to research and buy everything online. With the development of eCommerce, a number of consumers have moved online to source their vehicles and car accessories. But the benefits of eCommerce stores aren’t only reserved for the consumers. The automotive industry has gone on to tie up with popular online sales portals and explore all the available sales opportunities. And there’s no surprise to the fact that with the rise in online shopping, a number of buyers will purchase the vehicle and car parts through the web.

A statistical study on automobile eCommerce sales shows that “In 2014, retail e-commerce sales amounted to 298.26 billion US dollars and are projected to grow to 481.94 billion US dollars in 2018.” As the automobile sales are poised to grow, the car dealers should immediately consult companies developing eCommerce website or tie up with reliable online portals to sell automotive vehicles and accessories online. This presents the right opportunity for car retailers to capture a significant market share of online sales in the coming years. Let’s consider the important benefits of shifting the automotive store online.

Benefits of Moving Automotive Products to Online Stores

Increased Market Sales: The industry analysts at Frost & Sullivan forecasted that the online auto parts sales will be doubled during 2016 to 2020. This bags a good chance for automotive dealers to acquire more customers by selling their products online.

Generates Additional Revenue: Selling auto parts online is a convenient and cost-effective way to generate more revenue. Tying up with a right provider can become an additional channel of income. Also, it will help you meet your profitability goals.

Consumers Change Cars Frequently: Consumer habits and behavior change with the emerging trends and digital lifestyle. It is a business’ responsibility to adapt to their changing demands as quickly as possible. In the US, the average age of a vehicle is 11 years. This indicates the rise in demand for car parts, as older vehicles need more maintenance and part replacements.

Competitors Have Online Stores: More and more dealers are realizing the advantages of selling their stuff online. Many other dealers are closing their deals online by sharing the availability of their products and offering online booking services. This way they are capturing more customers which could be yours.

Simplifies Order Processing and Shipping: As the entire transaction takes place online, the automotive eCommerce solutions integrate with shipping providers so the order information is transferred to the shipping label automatically. You can print the same from the eCommerce back office. Also, the information is tracked and saved along with the order to send out email notifications to customers about an estimated delivery of the product.

It is surprising that how these benefits of an online automotive store bring opportunities for not only dealers but consumers as well. So, this is the most appropriate time for automotive retailers to start selling their products online and experience growth.

Are you a car retailer? Do you sell your automotive products online? If yes, share your details in the comment box below.

Friday 8 April 2016

5 Reasons Why OpenCart Is A Feasible Choice For Your eCommerce Site

Are you planning to develop an eCommerce store for your business? Are you researching online to find the right eCommerce platform? If yes, then we have an answer - OpenCart.

While the eCommerce market is already booming with various open-source eCommerce solutions, determining the right platform for your business becomes arduous. All the platforms offer a wide range of extensive features and functionalities. But selecting a platform that fits well with your business requirements will leave you in awe. In such puzzling situations, OpenCart turns out to be the best solution. But the question is - Why OpenCart? Here’s our answer.

OpenCart is a widely used open-source eCommerce solution. It is written in PHP and is based on MVC platform. It contains numerous inbuilt features and lets you get started with your online shop easily after installation. Here we have rounded up a list of some important reasons of leveraging OpenCart eCommerce development for your online store.

Resourceful Features: OpenCart offers out of the box support for manufacturers, categories and sub-categories, individual products, product reviews, payment and shipping configurations, multiple languages, and currencies. The best part about these features is, unlike other open-source eCommerce carts these features can be directly worked upon.

Easy To Use: Setting up OpenCart is extremely easy. Whether you’re a skilled developer or a clueless entrepreneur, with a few products, categories, payment and shipping configurations you can easily get a simple online store up and running within hours. You can perform a major part of the set up in OpenCart’s classic backend. The highly intuitive admin panel also allows you to integrate multiple payment options.

Multiple Templates, Extensions, and Modules: A wide array of free and commercial templates and extensions are available on the OpenCart website for your cart system. The templates can be easily modified into a unique design to make your store look splendid. The free extensions are GLP compliant and can be easily customized as per the requirements. Also, there are 200 modules with wide-ranging functionalities to enable simple calculations, a tag cloud for live chat, run OpenCart blog and more.

Off-the-shelf SEO: OpenCart offers excellent SEO support. The user can define the meta description, meta tags, and keywords for all the products and categories. OpenCart also includes Search Engine Friendly URLs that contributes to SEO. Moreover, services like Google Analytics are easy to integrate. You can expand such services just for $15 which also offers Google Analytics eCommerce integration.

Online Community Support: Above all, whenever or wherever you feel stuck with OpenCart development, the OpenCart Community is always there to assist you. They provide prompt responses to your problems and queries. There are multiple full-time active communities and forums out there, and you can either participate and contribute as a developer or look for complete solutions for your problems.

From the perspective of both technicalities and user experience, OpenCart provides the best of all in the eCommerce industry and that too free. So, what more do you want? Set up your own cool online store today.

Which eCommerce cart are you using for your online business? Share with us in your comments below.

Friday 1 April 2016

Xamarin 4 Features - Everything You Need For Native Mobile App Development


Xamarin 4, a resourceful release by Xamarin, is a complete mobile app development platform to build great apps from start to end. It is a package full of major enhancements to the Xamarin Platform and Xamarin Test Cloud along with the release of its real-time app monitoring service – Xamarin Insights.

Xamarin business features provide an integrated, complete solution to build, test, monitor and accelerate mobile app development at scale. It allows developers to deliver fully native Android and iOS apps by reusing code up to 95% across various mobile operating systems. With Xamarin C#, developers can do everything they did in Java, Objective-C or Swift. Let us take a closer look at the major features of Xamarin 4 highlighted below:

Xamarin Insights:

Xamarin Insights is now generally available. It provides automatic crash reporting and seamlessly tackles all mobile crashes – managed or unmanaged. It also allows you to report errors and warnings to Xamarin Insights and track them via the dashboard. You can rank the issues by impact, spot patterns in app or device usage and diagnose the corresponding ones. It is a vital tool for businesses to determine challenges and track usage metrics proactively which are crucial to measuring the ROI and ensuring high user satisfaction along with app store ratings.

Xamarin.Forms 2.0:

Xamarin.Forms has evolved into a fantastic tool for developing real production apps without compromising the user interface design. It brings a truly native experience with cross-platform advantages to the development world. The latest features of Xamarin.Forms 2.0 include: over 40 controls and layouts, support for pre-compiled screens outlined in XAML, support for iOS 9, preview support for Universal Windows Platform applications, Android Material Design and new gestures like punch and pull-to-refresh.

Xamarin Test Cloud:

Xamarin Test Cloud is an excellent tool to automate the testing process and Xamarin has upgraded the ante by launching Xamarin Test Recorder and Xamarin.UITest 1.0. Both of these tools make the writing and running tests processes smoother.
  1. Test Recorder utilizes a simulator or USB-connected iOS or Android gadget to record interactions— swipes, text input, page navigation and taps. It automatically creates test scripts which can quickly run on over 2,000 devices in Xamarin Test Cloud, or imported into mobile test projects within Visual Studio and Xamarin Studio.
  2. Xamarin.UITest 1.0 is a C# test automation framework. It offers support for advanced testing scenarios such as local testing and captures video of tests execution. Earlier it was restricted to Xamarin Test Cloud users, but now the company has made Xamarin.UITest free for everyone, with no restriction on test time.
Xamarin offers various subscription tiers for businesses with ramping applications which includes Xamarin Insights and Xamarin Test Cloud to match your requirements. It also offers a new paid plan called “Xamarin Ultimate” that gives you full access to all the features of Xamarin Platform, Insights, Test Cloud and University for your entire development team at a reasonable price. So, dive into the immaculate world of Xamarin 4 and take your native mobile app development to another level.

Are you using Xamarin 4 for your cross-platform app development projects? Let us know which other features of Xamarin 4 are more conducive.

Monday 21 March 2016

Tips To Successfully Outsource Your Mobile App Development

The  mobile app ecosystem is already flooded  with distinct ideas to develop mobile apps.  Similarly, there is no shortage of qualified developers and designers to put the deal through. However,  the existence of hustlers and yes men (people who instantly agree to your requirements) among genuine developers makes it difficult for businesses to identify the right ones.

outsource mobile app development


Mainly startups or businesses with non-technical backgrounds or those who have limited technical knowledge end up having unpleasant outsourcing experiences. So, to prevent any such problems,  here are some important tips to keep in mind when outsourcing mobile app development to any service provider:

Define your App Idea and Scope: The first step of your project is to analyse and test the idea you have discovered. Once assured, prepare a document which includes the following:

  • Clear description of the services and customers you want to target through the app
  • List of features you require in the app
  • Examples of similar apps that exist
This will give  developer a clear idea of what you're exactly looking for and avoid  later-stage misconceptions. Also, don't consider this as a final copy as you may come across developer questions or suggestions that can add change your original idea.

Check Developer Portfolios & Reviews: Every company or individual providing app development services proudly showcases their portfolios and testimonials on their websites or through other online platforms. Check the previous work they may have done and feedback received from their clients. Do some additional research of developers you found relevant and see if they have their profiles, portfolios or reviews on any other online platforms as well. Study them in detail. Make a list of companies or individuals that possess the skills and qualities required to develop your app. Communicate with them and shortlist the ones that seem to be a good fit for your project.

Opt for a Fixed Budget: Cost is a very significant factor of the mobile app development lifecycle. Once you've prepared a list of developers you'd like to work with, go ahead with cost discussion. Some companies may propose profit-sharing or partnerships, which often seems tempting but has its  own pitfalls. So, the best option here is to consider aspects like technologies that will be used by developers, time required to accomplish the project, etc. and settle  for a fixed budget. You'll thank yourself later for choosing the fixed budget option.

Choose the Right Developer: Even though this is the last step of outsourcing mobile app development project, many businesses still make a mistake in choosing the right developer. Apart from the above-mentioned factors, you should also get the developer's confirmation or responses for things like timeline breakdown, signing NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreements), expecting transparency, punctuality, regular updates and communication. In addition to these, you can also ask your developer to do a demo task for you to ensure you can trust  them.

Finding the ideal developer for your mobile app development project can be a tedious process. However, it's worth putting your time and efforts into these initial tips to ensure your idea is crafted by the right people to help you save time and money in long run.

Do you have any tips in mind to outsource iPhone application development? Please share with us in your comments.

Monday 14 March 2016

5 Best Practices For Cross Platform Mobile App Development

Enterprises are increasingly adopting cross-platform development technologies to build mobile applications. An infographic by Rishabh Software on cross platform mobile apps development exhibits that, "68% of enterprises developed the mobile apps using cross-platform development tools in past two years".


Cross platform development leverages single code base and multiple platform implementations to developers which reduces their code-writing workload across various operating systems. It has a quick turnaround and is cost-effective. This simplifies the development efforts used by developers using cross platform tools. Here are some best practices they must take into account while going with the mobile cross platform app development.

Best Practices For Cross-Platform App Development

1. Use Convenient Native Tools: Every mobile platform has its own programming language and SDK. For instance,  Android has Java with ADK, iOS has  Cocoa & Xcode, and Windows has C#.net with Microsoft Visual Studio. This makes it challenging for developers to use native development tools and technologies. In such cases, developers can opt for C++ and HTML5 as it offers full support functionality and quick access to new features of mobile operating systems along with easier app development and improved performance.

2. Adopt Virtual Machines to Improve App Performance: Virtual machines can run complicated environments without having a major impact on its performance. There are several benefits of using VMs and a couple of them are covered below:

Once you setup the development environment, you can save and share the virtual machine with your team. The maintenance of virtual machine is simple as you can archive and relaunch it with minimum effort and error ratio. Virtual machines allow you to test the codes changes quickly and frequently on all platforms.

3. Keep User Experience Intact: Difference in layout and navigation flow of your application can create a sense of uneasiness among the users. They will require some  time to learn new ways and  get acquainted with your app. The consistency in look and feel of the application creates familiarity across various platforms and encourages  adoption. Therefore, it is important to keep the user interaction and design consistent across all operating systems.

4. Minimize Use of Third Party Libraries: Most of the developers use  many third party libraries that makes the application difficult and heavy to maintain. It is better to focus on  custom libraries and specialized codes that help to minimize the app size and maintenance cost. Also, there are various custom libraries that are compatible with and offer required functionality for basic mobile app development.

5. Ensure App Security on All Platforms: Different mobile device manufacturers offer different levels of security in their devices. Same is the case with  mobile operating systems. Every phone operating system has  a custom environment that does not offer the same level of security features. This makes building cross platform mobile apps imperative by considering the compatibility of all mobile platforms in terms of security.

There are a number of factors that can affect the quality and success of a mobile application. It is however, in the best interests of developers to follow certain guidelines so that the chances of their app becoming a commercial success increase. So, follow the best practices above while developing your cross platform mobile apps and you will surely end up creating a successful mobile app.

Wednesday 2 March 2016

Mobile Commerce Strategies for Online Stores

Mobile has become a new social marketplace with the increase in number of customers accessing online stores on their smartphones. Needless to say, m-commerce (mobile commerce) is a fast growing trend in eCommerce today.

Let us take a look at some eye-catching stats that support the fact as well as highlight  the significance of mobile commerce in the coming years:

“By 2016, the m-commerce market is expected to reach US $800 billion worldwide” – Ericsson

“We expect global mobile [payment] transaction volume and value to average 35 percent annual growth between 2012 and 2017, and we are forecasting a market worth $721 billion with more than 450 million users by 2017” – Gartner

“Over 2 billion mobile phone or tablet users will make some form of mobile commerce transaction by the end of 2017, up from 1.6 billion this year” – Juniper.

The information above suggests that m-commerce will continue to grow in popularity. As mobile wallets, beacons and virtual reality headsets become a retail reality, businesses will need to make sure that existing innovative processes like mobile shopping are successfully used. Those retailers who are new to the industry will benefit from understanding the basic concept of mobile commerce and a few ways it can be implemented as a part of an organization's retail strategy.

With a  mobile commerce shift, it is equally important to consider certain techniques that help you maximize the shopping experience and drive more revenue. Listed below are some ways you can make the most of your mobile commerce strategy:
  • Daily and Seasonal Deals: Discounts, sales, and offers are things that can boost up your m-commerce ROI. Once the users have installed your app on their device, send them direct notifications for latest promotions and encourage them to act upon the discounted products. You can auto-schedule birthday, anniversary and seasonal discount coupons to uplift the customer loyalty and lifetime value in a customized yet automated way.

  • QR Codes: This is another  potential customer engagement tool for mCommerce mobile apps. Shoppers generally find QR codes a fun activity as it lets them scan and unlock the hidden goods.Take advantage of it as part of your mobile commerce strategy and make buyers  engage with your eCommerce store.

  • Geo-Targeting: Again this is another  way to increase your in-store sales using location aware devices. With location-based  targeting, you can inform a  customer about the latest deals and promotions when they pass by your store. This technology has an amazing  power to deliver your message to a customer who is just a few meters away from your product.

  • Express Mobile Checkout: Checkout and payment are the last but most crucial steps in an  online shopping transaction. This is where the customers finalize their purchasing decision. Eliminate the unnecessary steps while framing your web store development plan to make your checkout procedure brief and quick. This will prevent the customers from abandoning the shopping cart at the threshold of a sale and encourage them to continue shopping.

Mobile commerce is expected to gain momentum as it drives almost than 50 percent of the total eCommerce traffic. As smartphone usage gains futher momentum, what other m-commerce strategies do you expect to see in the coming years? 

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Global eCommerce Trends That Retailers Must Leverage in 2016

In today’s hyper-competitive world, success is measured by how customers experience your brand online. The brands who can gauge and address, or even exceed customer expectations are ones who will be stay ahead in the rat race. Being able to actively engage customers online and on their smart devices has become a must have for businesses. Those retailers who stick to the conventional eCommerce model will lost out – both in terms of customers and revenue. 

ecommerce website development services

In such a scenario, what can you do to help your brand remain competitive? Here are three eCommerce trends that you can bank on to improve conversion rates.

1. Personalization to be replaced by contextual shopping:

Personalization involves addressing someone by name and remembering their site preferences (provided they are members or registered users). A number of online retailers use this technique to keep shoppers hooked. While this is a great technique, we can expect to see context replacing personalization during the course of this year.

In a context-focused site experience, a user doesn't need to be logged on or registered with a site in order to receive targeted content or information that can help them in their purchase decision. This is because, due to due to the latest consumer-centric technology, brands are able to virtually map customer journeys and anticipate needs in advance. By doing so, they can provide buyers with the information they require, streamlining the online buying experience further.

2. Brands to actively pursue buyers:
 

Online buying can be a relatively flat and impersonal experience. As opposed to a physical buying experience where you walk into a store and are (at times) greeted by name, the world of online retail can make you feel like a stranger. When you enter a web store, there's no one to welcome you, to guide you when you have a question about a size or color, or come to your assistance when you face a problem (like a discount code) not working. Most buyers only engage with a real person post their sale and that too if something has gone wrong. Consequently, the online conversion rates are lower than their in-store counterparts.

In 2016, we expect brands to proactively engage shoppers instead of waiting for the initial contact. Shoppers will be actively pursued throughout their buying journeys and on their product pages. Retailers and marketers take help of ecommerce development companies to improve online stores. In addition, they can drive up their conversion rates by providing live chat, providing immediate help in case a customer faces any issue and displaying relevant information on specific product pages.

3. Mobile engagement and mobile commerce to continue growing: 

According to Gartner, “By 2017, U.S. customers’ mobile engagement behavior will drive mobile commerce revenue in the US to 50% of North America’s digital commerce revenue.” If a brand doesn't make the necessary effort to interact with or reach its target buyers via phones and tablets, they are not reaching almost 50% of them. Helping customers in getting things done via smartphones is imperative to a retailer's success.

Ultimately, the trends listed above highlight how significant it is to have an omnichannel eCommerce strategy. As the line between physical and online stores continues to blur, the aim of retailers in 2016 should be to ensure that their customers have a hassle free and pleasurable buying journey over multiple channels. 

Tuesday 16 February 2016

MongoDB vs MySQL – Which Database is Right for your Enterprise?

MySQL has been a common, open-source database in use by developers for more than a decade. It has become a standard to store data for web and mobile apps. But with changing times, businesses using internet have raised demands for multiple servers to share the load, ensure data scalability and high performance.

As data management becomes a growing challenge, established databases may not posses all the functionality to handle or process large amounts of data. This is where new databases like MongoDB come into the picture. Not only is it an excellent database, but also happens to be an important part of MEAN stack development. Before we look into a comparison between MySQL and MongoDB, let us first consider the important aspects of each of these databases.

What is MongoDB? 

MongoDB is an open-source document oriented database system developed by MongoDB Inc. It uses JSON (Java Script Object Notation) like documents to store the data which varies in structure. The related information is stored  together for fast query access using MongoDB query language. The dynamic schema in MongoDB allows you to create records without defining the data structure. With the data model, you can represent hierarchical relationships, store arrays, and other more complex structures with ease.
 What is MySQL? 

MySQL is an open-source, relational database management system (RDBMS) that uses  structured query language to develop and deploy application databases. It was acquired by Oracle in 2010 from Sun Microsystems. MySQL uses a tabular format to store the data that can be accessed using structured query language (SQL).

Developers or programmers have to pre-define the database schema depending on the requirements and create rules to relate the fields in the tables. It allows you to relate stored data  within different tables with the use of joins that reduce data duplication.

Each of these databases may have a set of similar sounding features, yet differences do exist in the way they deliver functionality to their users. Let us take a look at the aspects that set them apart from each other.
  • Data Storage & Management: MySQL stores data in a structured tabular form using rows and columns where you have to define rules to relate the fields in your tables. In contrast, MongoDB represents data as collection using JSON documents. Related documents can be linked or embedded as required.
  • Schema Flexibility: MySQL doesn't provide enough flexibility in structuring the data while following normalization standards. While in MongoDB, you can easily embed, link documents or fields instead of using joins and transactions. Basically you can optimize your schema depending on the way your app will use the data. Moreover, MongoDB also offers auto-sharding for MEAN stack application development.
  • Type of Querying Language Used: MySQL uses structured query language (SQL) for querying information to the database. You have to combine string in this language which is parsed by the data system and makes SQL injection attack possible. On the other hand, MongoDB uses object querying which means passing a document to explain what you are querying for.
  • Layout of Data Schema: You are required to pre-define the database to store data in tables, rows and columns before storing your application database in MySQL. With MongoDB, you don't need to define the data schema but add a number of documents within a collection without relating any fields (referred as embedding).
  • Execution of Transactions: MySQL is a good choice to develop apps that require complex, multi-row transactions. It has the ability to perform multiple operations within the same transaction and roll back the whole transaction again. MongoDB, instead of transactions, supports single operations that are atomic in nature.
From the above MongoDB vs MySQL comparison, it is not possible to conclude that either of these databases are a drop-in replacement for each other. While MySQL helps developers to build an app using the relational data models and SQL, MongoDB scales their modern business app building requirements. Pick the one that works best for your enterprise needs!


Monday 15 February 2016

Why Magento Is the Best Bet for Your Online Store

As the number of online stores continues to rise, the number of eCommerce platforms is also increasing and even the most popular platforms are adding new features and being updated to keep up with emerging technologies and trends. 

As a business owner, you have to make the tough decision of balancing out the pros and cons of every eCommerce platform and choose the one that best meets your requirements. 

That said, Magento, one of the most popular platforms available today, might be your safest bet.

Magento Development

Magento has always been and continues to be a popular and widely used eCommerce platform. It has retained its top position for five consecutive years now, and last year’s eCommerce survey results showed that the number of Magento sites had gone up by 35%. 

This is despite the heavy competition from other platforms such as Shopify, PrestaShop, and BigCommerce. Out of the top 100,000 stores as per Alexa’s site rank survey, about 30% of the sites run on Magento, numbering at about 704. This is just one example of Magento’s popularity. 

Let’s take a look why Magento is so popular.

Cost Effective

Magento comes in both free and premium versions. So, you can choose what works best for your business. 

If you are just a small store trying to test the waters in the eCommerce arena, you can stick to the free version and still have all the necessary features without paying. Most extensions are also available for free and Magento gives you endless opportunities to tweak the code yourself to make customized solutions.

Great Features, Modules, and Plugins

Very few eCommerce platforms have the huge number of features and options that Magento does. If you are planning to run a long-term online store, Magento is really the only choice. It offers unmatched eCommerce functionality and marketing capabilities. 

For example, if you want to add a new coupon code feature to your site, Magento makes it very easy to do so. Magento is written in PHP and if you have some PHP knowledge, you can easily customize the code to suit your needs. It is also relatively easy and inexpensive to hire PHP developers to work on  Magento sites.

SEO Tools

Magento is also popular because its development team understands what good SEO can do for your business. The Magento installation kit has a bundle of default SEO tools and they can help you promote your site effectively. Magento, unlike many other eCommerce platforms provides superb CMS facilities as well.  

Open Source 

Magento is an open source platform and because of that, the community edition is completely free for use. This makes it the most cost effective.

Community Support

Owing to its open source nature, you can find hundreds of support websites and tutorials online. The numerous forums, blogs, and other resources are great, and more experienced Magento users are always glad to help out if needed.

Security 

Security is of utmost importance for any eCommerce platform, and Magento’s developers take it very seriously. They offer secure transactions through PayPal and other extensions that can ensure  better security for credit card payments as well.

Scalability

Magento is a high-performance, scalable solution that can handle almost anything that you throw at it. It has an advanced storage system that makes your site supremely responsive without the need to make large investments in server technologies.

There are several other useful features such as multi-language support, various payment delivery options, integration with third-party plug-ins, and one-step checkouts, at affordable costs.

While you might need some basic PHP knowledge and your own hosting account, Magento is definitely one of the best platforms available. The scalability, performance, and the amazing community support give it its edge.

So, are you deploying Magento for your online store? What platform were you using before? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading!

Friday 12 February 2016

Top 5 Reasons Why CRM Is Important For SMBs

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a technological solution for businesses to bring and streamline various business functions like sales, marketing, accounting on a single platform. Handling numerous activities and operations like finance, employee management, etc. separately and keeping a track of all at the same time becomes a hurdle for any business who wants to quickly achieve its goals. That's when the qualities of a CRM system would sound like music to ears of any entrepreneur.

In the last decade, a major shift in use of a CRM software has been noted among organizations (especially small enterprises). It is expected to surpass the Enterprise Resource Planning as the largest grossing enterprise software sub-segment, and is already the fastest growing 'type' of business software. Capterra also predicted it to be a $36 billion market by 2017.

As CRM systems continue to grow in popularity world over, it is important to understand how it can help small and medium-sized organizations in improving business operations, workplace productivity and lead to better relationship management.

Here are some of the top ways a CRM can benefit SMBs:

  • Acts as a 'One-Stop Shop' to Improve Operational Efficiency: In the absence of a well-defined CRM system, communication and collaboration can be a challenge for employees belonging to different departments. This where a customer relationship management software can help by acting as a single platform where all business functions can work together. One of the biggest benefits of a CRM system is the simplicity and ease of use. A software that is designed well and is user-friendly can  facilitate day to day operational tasks; even  for those employees with limited technical expertise. CRM customization services  that include integration with other accounting or document management solutions can also be opted for. Apart from that, many enterprises are going digital  to utilize cloud-based CRM technology.
  • Provides A Consolidated Database: A CRM can aggregate data and information from various business functions of an enterprise. Having a centralized database helps companies act faster on the information and make informed business decisions quickly. A finance guy can directly view the total number of sales done by the sales team in a  month or a sales team personnel can check the revenue received from the sales made by them. An advanced and adaptive dashboard of the CRM continually displays all the records or activities that have been/to be performed by the employees. Adding to it, CRM also keeps your database secured online as well as on-premise.


  • Simplifies Marketing Operations: SMBs no longer have to deal with customer data that is scattered across Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. A CRM system helps to automate the customer life-cycle process of a business. The sales and marketing team can work collaboratively to acquire new customers, follow-up with their requirements or queries, convert the prospects into sales, maintain customer relationships, resolve the complaints and retain them. Leads, tasks, contacts, reminders and other such  automated features assist the marketing team to keep up with timely customer service and support. However, with the growing social media trends, it is important for every business to create its online presence so the customers can stay updated about them. Many enterprises have also begun to use social media integrated CRM softwares to interact with the customer hub online.
  • Facilitates Team Collaboration: CRM software provides internal chat facility for the employees to communicate internally. In start-ups or those firms with geographically dispersed teams, this functionality is a blessing.As opposed to overusing email for discussion, a quick chat message can resolve basic queries. Some advanced chat features also include the capability to send important information, files or reports and even conduct online meetings to work together on a project. 
  • Ensures Business Growth: CRM software focuses on all the business segments and not just marketing. It automates the work procedures regarding sales, teamwork, customer relationships, payrolls, company accounts and provides operational flexibility to all the employees. With the real-time analytics, the enterprises can focus on right areas to increase profits, customer satisfaction and business growth.
Thus, it is clear that a CRM can help SMBs progress in the right direction and streamline all the business activities and track them in a timely manner. Adopt a CRM software for your organization today to experience increased productivity, profitability and effective use of your organizational resources.

Are you struggling to select the right CRM solution for your business? This article on CRM Systems for Small Businesses can help you decide on one.

Wednesday 10 February 2016

Points To Consider Before Hiring an Android App Development Company

Android is an open-source platform for smartphones that has been developed by the internet giant, Google. It offers competitive tools that help achieve robust functionalities and provides various other benefits to businesses and developers. With its growing popularity it has already overtaken iOS as the most used smartphone OS today.

There are many web solution companies that outsource their services in various pre-designed and customized packages for their clients. They offer you packages where you can hire a mobile developer full-time or you can choose part-time developers. You are open to select these experts as per your requirements. However, it is important to choose the development partner carefully. 




There are a few things and questions that you should keep in mind while hiring such mobile apps development professionals or services. They are listed below:
  •  Does the company have experience in Android App Development? 

    You should always run a check on the company or the professionals you are hiring. It is important to know whether they have experience in developing mobile applications and publishing them on the Android Market. Check their portfolios for development history and screen shots. In case they have listed links to their work on their website, it is a good idea to go through them to get a broader overview of their technical and innovation skills.

  • Can the company conceptualize and develop a User friendly App? 

    It is important that the firm  you are planning to hire has the capability to generate an appealing, user-friendly application. The Android custom app development company should possess the aptitude to visualize the concept for your app, design it in a creative manner and deploy it for your niche / target market. If they are unable to come up with a  fresh concept or are unable to deliver on your given concept, then it’s a waste of time to hire such a company’s service or professionals.

  • Can the company provide support and upgrade services? 

    The most crucial part prior to, while using an app, or releasing it to your niche is the right technical assistance. So, it is essential that you hire a company that can help you fix bugs, offer upgrades, and provide client support services. Organizations that have a large Android  development team including designers, developers, and testers should be preferred over others while hiring, especially if they have eCommerce portal development or software development experience.

  • Is the company capable of porting Apps to other platforms? 

    Expand your scope of earnings by choosing a company or developer that has good experience in porting an Android App to other platforms including iPhone and Windows.  After launching on the Android OS, you might need to reach a broader target market by creating something for the iOS and Windows platform. A firm that has technical know-how across all these platforms will help you achieve better positioning in the market.

Android app development can be a profitable step for your business. With one app, you can interact and reach out to its 100 million plus users. As an SMB, prior to selecting a company for Android development, make sure you have answers to the questions raised above. Careful consideration of credentials is essential when mobile app quality needs to be given utmost importance.


Thursday 4 February 2016

3 Major Digital Trends for Retailers in 2016

The retail industry is undergoing a transformation. If 2015 can be considered the year of the mobile, 2016 will demand optimization of a mobile strategy. Take a look at the top 3 digital marketing trends for the retail industry for 2016:


  • Location: Beacons are increasingly being used in the retail sector. In the start of 2015, BI Intelligence forecasted that beacons would influence $44 million in retail sales by 2016. A must have for retailers, beacons detect a consumer's location and send push alerts with offers or other useful information to their phones. For instance, a clothing store can send a coupon to a customer near their store or when he/she is close to a competitor's business.
  • Micro-Moments: This is not just another marketing buzzword. Micro-Moments happen every time a user picks up the phone to search for information or to kill time. Most of us check our phones multiple times in a day to check emails, look for eating joints or indulge in price comparisons if we're shopping. Retailers need to bank on these micro-moments by sending appropriate push messages to grab a customer's attention.
  • Personalization: As consumers, most of us prefer to shop from retailers who provide a personalized shopping experience. This is also the key to a successful marketing strategy. Some of the major big box retailers use personalization in their email and re-marketing efforts. eCommerce may do this via product recommendations, style guides, customized site navigation etc.

Do you agree with the prediction? What other trends do you forecast for 2016?

Mobile App Design Best Practices for Better User Experience

Mobile user experience refers to a user’s perception and feelings before, during and after using your mobile app. For any developer, user experience (UX) should be the top priority as it can make or break your app.

enterprise mobile app development


Some of the mobile app design best practices to improve user experience are as follows:

Identify the users
As a mobile app design best practice, you should start with identifying the kind of users you want to target. Generally, there are two kinds of users: 
  1. Hunters – looking for specific information or wanting to do a specific task quickly
  2. Gatherers – wanting to browse around or fill in time, not so concerned with a specific outcome.
The design should be decided according to your target audience, in order to enhance mobile user experience.

Result oriented design
Mobile app design should adopt the bottom-up approach, after deciding what action you want your user to perform. You then move upwards, deciding and enhancing your app with the required elements that can provide the right feel to your users. For users, mobile applications are a tool for completing tasks efficiently and in less time. Hence, your app should be such that it enables the user to do just that. You should try to sense their intent and design it in a way that they are swiftly able to complete their task, resulting in a great user experience.

If you are designing a mobile app which already has a web presence, you should keep in mind that 80% of the users will be using just 20% of its functionality. In order to keep the UX consistent, identify how consumers interact with your website and what functionality is used most. Then, for better mobile UX, you can offer these features and make sure that those vital 20% are easy and intuitive to use.

Clutter-free clean UI
To design a rich app, you should avoid crowding your controls and give breathing room to your control buttons. This helps in reducing the ‘tap error rate’ and inconveniences that the user might face. A clean and simple UI will enable the user to interact better with the app. In this day and age of cut-throat competition, it is important to create a good first impression by delivering a great user experience. Customer reviews, word of mouth marketing and social media are great sources to market your apps. 

Factor in interruptions
With mobile devices, interruptions are unavoidable, be it external or internal, which may affect the user experience. Hence it is important that you factor in such interruptions while designing. The design should be simple with a clean interface, which helps reduce the cognitive load on your user, making it less likely for them to disengage from your app.

    These are some of the basic mobile app design best practices to consider while developing a successful mobile app.