6 Goofy Mistakes A Developer Frequently Makes. Oops!

Are you a beginner at coding? Do you make silly mistakes while coding? Its ok if you do as, we all are humans and every human makes mistakes in one or the other way. But, the wise thing is to overcome those mistakes and make yourself an expert professional. So what are those mistakes that every developer makes in initial phase of his career? We have mentioned here 6 goofy mistakes that a developer frequently makes and also how to overcome those mistakes. So, go through them and see which are the ones you too make and follow the steps given to avoid them in future.

1. Syntax Errors - Most of the developers don’t remember the whole syntax. Sometimes they miss to write semi-colons, forget variables to declare, write “==” instead of “=” or sometimes there are typing mistakes. For this always check the syntax online if its correct or not. In case you have written by yourself and not copied from online then, debug the codes and verify that there are no syntax errors and if errors exist then you can always correct them by referring online. One of the best thing is to use a good IDE. It would detect around 60% of the syntax errors lessening your burden to worry about syntax errors.

2. Bugs - Developers usually do the coding but in the end they forget to check for the bugs and deliver the project containing the bugs which is not at all a good sign of quality of work and commitment for them as well as for their company. The quality of work, accuracy, rapid or on time delivery of project by developers is what represents the company’s image. Developers are the ones who meet the commitments made by their companies to their clients and so they need to be particular in every way to avoid any unwanted circumstances that put the company’s image in leverage. In order to avoid such mistake always make a habit of re-checking your codes, compile them and correct the errors so that your project is bug free prior to the deadline of your project.

3. Using Too Many CSS Files - Using too many CSS files can slow down the website or software. It doesn’t matter how much long are the CSS codes still, try to use one single file for it instead of using many small ones.

4. Compatibility - Developers after coding when they run the project in their browser they think the project is working perfectly. But, what about other browsers? The codes you wrote are they compatible with other browsers? This is very much necessary to run and check the codes if they are working in each and every browser or the most commonly used ones. Also, as it is an era of mobile phones Website developers forget to write the codes in such a way that they are compatible with both, laptops or pcs and mobile phones that too with different screen sizes.

5. Not Redirecting - When you are in the phase of developing the website or application many times it occurs that you make pages and then you have to delete their content or you can say there remain blank pages. These blank pages are really not good to appeal the users. They will decrease the traffic on the website or application. You need to do is either delete those pages or else redirect them to the new ones.

6. Ignoring The Web Standards - Web standards are necessary in order to maintain the uniformity and to create the device independent websites and applications. Most of the young Web developers often don’t like to remember these standards and so they ignore them. Many forget or use inappropriate DOCTYPEs. They even use old HTML tags that too inappropriately. Please see you can’t ignore the web standards even if you don’t like them. They have been made for a reason so you need to accept them and follow.

End Of The Line -  

So the coding geeks, hope you have understood these mistakes how to avoid them. Keep a list of your common errors. Whenever your system shows error you can take out your list and check if you have made anyone of those from the list. If it’s a new one then simply add it to your list but when that error is already in your list, put a checkmark so that you remember you made this mistake previously. After few days or weeks while coding, you will remember those mistakes in your mind which you made and you won’t repeat them again. This will gradually diminish your mistakes. Also working continuously may affect your concentration. So, instead of working continuously take short breaks after every couple of hours

How To Create Redirects In WORDPRESS?

Sometimes when you open a link, it shows a 404 error. Don’t you get annoyed by it? I bet you do! You probably might be wondering what this error mean? It simply means the particular page of the link you are attempting to access is either temporarily or permanently deleted or moved. Just think if you own a website or blog and delete a page in it, other users when they try to access that particular page may end with receiving a 404 error. They may get annoyed just like you do. So what should be done to avoid this situation?

Don’t you worry at all we have the solution to your problem.

There are three types of redirects you can use to avoid the 404 error:

1) 301 Redirects which implies “Page has been permanently deleted”

2) 302/307 Redirects which implies “Page is temporarily unavailable”

3) Meta Refresh Redirects

If you are using a wordpress platform for your website or blog, then there are some plug-ins available to resolve this error. We will tell you about these plug-ins later in this article.

First, Let’s begin with the 301 error and how to redirect it.

1) 301 Redirect Which Implies “Page Has Been Permanently Deleted”

Suppose you own a website. You have changed its URL structure or you have changed the domain of your website, there is when you need to redirect the users from previous URL to the new one. If you don’t redirect the users to your new URL, they will receive a 404 error in their browsers which will reduce or perhaps nullify the page ranks of your website.

When you redirect your website’s old URL to a new one, the search engines replace the index of your old URL with the new one and pass the page ranks. If you are using an apache server, you can follow the code below for redirection. You just need to mention your old and new location of the page of your website.

• Redirect 301 / youroldpage.html http://www.yourwebsite.com/yournewpage.html

This way you will be able to redirect an old page link to a new one.

• Redirect 301 / http://www.yournewwebsite.com

This way you will be able to redirect your whole website to a new one without losing any page ranks.

These codes were to use when you wish the redirection inside your website. But what if you are using a wordpress platform and wish to do the redirection outside the wordpress installation? Here is a simple PHP code you need to add on the header of your page.

<?php

header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");

header("Location: http://www.yournewwebsite.com");

?>

2) 302/307 Redirect Which Implies “Page Is Currently/Temporarily Unavailable”

When you temporarily delete a page or change its URL, you need to temporarily redirect the old page to a new one otherwise users will be shown “Page not Found” or “Page is currently/temporarily unavailable” error by their browsers. When you use a 307 i.e. temporary redirection, the search engines won’t remove the original URL from their index, owing to the code it knows the redirection is temporary and you will remove it in the future.

A quick way to temporarily redirect is to make use of the $http_response_code parameter in header().

• <?php

307 Temporary Redirect
header("Location: http://www.yournewwebsite.com",TRUE,307);

?>

Both 302 and 307 are used for temporary redirection. If the status code is not specified, header('Location:') it by default takes as 302.

3) Meta Refresh Redirects

Meta refresh is simply refreshing your page. By adding the URL of your new page or website into its syntax you can easily redirect to it. But meta refreshes sometimes may baffle the users as they automatically refresh the pages, user may suspect it as a hacker’s attack. So it’s advisable to not to use much of the meta refresh redirects.

The syntax for Meta refresh is given below:

• <head>
  <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30">
  </head>

Here the content=”30” refreshes the page every 30 seconds. The http-equiv gives the value or information of content attribute to the http header. This syntax works on almost every browser.

This was the refresh functionality of Meta mentioned above but, how will you use it to redirect? You can write the following lines of code in your website page to do this job.

<html>

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="10;url=http://www.yournewwebsite.com">

</head>

<body>

<p>Sorry! We have moved our website to a new address!

The new URL is: <a href="http://www.yournewwebsite.com"> http://www.yournewwebsite.com </a></p>

<p>You will be redirected to the new address in ten seconds. </p>

<p>If you see this message for more than 10 seconds, please click on the link above! </p>

</body>

</html>

So, all these codes for redirection are to be writen manually by you.

Did you find these difficult or time consuming? Don’t worry we have another solution your problem. There are various plug-ins available in wordpress for redirection which are too easy and quick to install and execute.

Some of these plug-ins are mentioned below:

• Redirection
• Simple 301 Redirects Plug-in
• Quick Page/Post Redirect Plug-in
• Safe Redirect Manager Plug-in
• SEO Redirection
• Yoast SEO Plug-in

Among these Redirection is the most used plug-in in wordpress for redirecting the website or its pages. In this article we will tell you the essentials about Redirection plug-in and why it is the best plug-in to use for this purpose.

Redirection

Redirection is absolutely free to use. It automatically adds 301 redirections when any URL of the page or website is changed. For 302 and 307 redirections you need to add it manually. There is no need of apache .htaccess. It allows all the three extensions .php, .html, .htm. It provides you with full statistics when the redirection last occurred and how many times it has been done and a lot more stuff. Redirection is available in 25 languages. It keeps all the logs of your redirected URLs. It also keeps the logs for 404 errors so as to easily let you know about the old pages that need to be redirected. Redirection doesn’t slow down your website.

Redirection is simple to install. Follow the steps mentioned under for installation:

Step 1: Download redirection.zip

Step 2: Unzip

Step 3: Upload redirection directory to your /wp-content/plugins directory

Step 4: Go to the plugin management page and enable the plugin

Step 5: Configure the options from the Manage/Redirection page

 To know how to install redirection in detail, refer this site http://urbangiraffe.com/articles/how-to-install-a-wordpress-plugin/

Ncode, Technologies, Inc. has its highly qualified wordpress plug-in developers who make the success of websites and blogs made by NCode Technologies, Inc. possible. 

Want to increase the Conversion Rate of your Ecommerce website? Read this and you will come to know how!

If you own a website then conversion rates are very essential for showing the progress of your website. How to increase the conversion rate or how to convert the visitors into buyers is the most critical thing to achieve. If the conversion rate of your Ecommerce website is 1% then aim for 2% and gradually for 4% or 5%. Continue to double the conversion rate as it will bring you more and more profits. In this blog we will show you how you can improve the conversion rates of your Ecommerce website.

Following mentioned are the 5 tips if you implement would definitely help you to win your goals.

Tip #1: Keep the User Interface simple and easy to navigate

• Design of the website is the core of the Ecommerce website. It should be appealing to the user at the first sight itself. It should not be too complicated. If a user can not navigate easily then soon he is going to exit from your website.
• Choose the color contrast very carefully. The user should be able to read and view easily on your website.
• Show images of the product on your website. As a product with no image is less likely to be purchased by the users.
• Try displaying videos in your website for describing the product if you can. This will help the user in better understanding of the product.
• Show reviews from the people who have already bought that particular product. Allow people to add images of the product in their reviews as this will help the other intended buyers to get an idea about the product how it would look like after buying.
• Show complete description/specification of the product in order to leave a customer with no doubt in his mind regarding the product.
• Provide a better search for the products. Display suggested words in the automated drop down menu of the search bar.
• Provide better and variety of filter options to the user.

Tip #2: Don’t charge for shipping

• Adding shipping charges to the products may lead you to lose the buyers even if your shipping charges are minimal. People these days search for the same product on multiple e-commerce websites and would purchase from where they get free shipping or the lowest shipping charge. This will lead your ecommerce website to increase in bounce rate which is not at all good for your sales. So in order to boost the conversion rate of your website provide free shipping as far as possible.
• Also for buyer’s convenience show clear and complete shipping process. For example when the order is placed/ received, product shipped, product in warehouse, out for delivery, etc.

Tip #3: Attract the visitors

• Almost every ecommerce website provides similar offers to the users. Such as 30% off, 50% off, buy one get one free, sale ends in 2 days and so on. These are the very common offers these days. You need to think something different, something unique to attract the visitors and convert them into buyers.
• You can also attract the visitor by other means for example when a user searches a product of his interest and is willing to buy, show him some similar options to widen his search. You can club some products like mobile with a mobile cover, pen drive and a data cable and many more. This will lure the visitor and he might buy other products in addition to the purchase he was going to make. This will not only show variety products in your website but also it will increase your sales tremendously.

Tip #4: Keep a hold on visitor

• What happens when a visitor searches for a product and doesn’t find in your website? Or if the visitor likes and is willing to buy a product but it is out of stock. What then? This is when you need to hold on to the visitor. Be in touch with the visitor and notify him as soon as his preferred product comes in stock. This remarketing strategy would build the trust of the user in your website and increase the sales.
• You can be in touch with the visitors or users through mails, sending them newsletters, promotional offers on either or both- their mail ids or mobile numbers whichever provided and suited to your convenience.

Tip #5: Take feedbacks and provide a flawless customer support

• Feedbacks are one of the most essential things to do. This is a marketing strategy you can say. Be continuously in touch with the user for his purchase through mails. Don’t ask user for his feedback before or during his purchase. Ask him after he receives his product. You can ask him one week after his purchase whether he liked the product or not? Was the product delivery on time? Is he satisfied with the product quality and the delivery service? Ask him how his experience has been during the whole process. Ask him for his suggestions if he can provide you as this will help you improve your website positively.
• Also provide complete customer support to the user for both pre and after sales service. Kindly note that in Ecommerce every user is important, so solve their queries and concerns as soon as possible and do not make them wait for long. This service is indeed very troublesome though it might seem easy. Display full customer contact details in your website in order to provide user a hassle-free experience. After reviewing many sites we found a good functionality in few websites that is when the user wants to communicate with the customer support, he just needs to enter his contact number and the customer care will call him back in a couple of minutes. Isn’t this great? This not only saves user’s time and money but also hold the trust of the user in you.

There are many more marketing strategies including the Google Adwords where you have to invest in PPC. But if you are not able convert the visitors into buyers then your investment would go in vain. So these few tips mentioned above are the ones you should keep in mind while you are in the league of Ecommerce.

WordPress Website Hacked? Let’s find out what can be done!

The last thing we would want to see on our computer screen is the message blinking and reminding us of our vulnerabilities as we see our WordPress website. Nevertheless website being hacked is a situation that requires quick solution and here are some instant ways to overcome this.

Here, it is important for users to have knowledge of the existing vulnerabilities.

Weak username or password

We may have failed to notice, but the standard “password strength detector” option of the WordPress version 3.8 allows its users to provide extremely strong passwords. In simple terms the way out is to do away with the usual “admin” username and provide a highly complex password with an assortment of numbers, letters, and letter-cases.

On theme or plug-in bugs

It is possible that even extremely popular themes or plug-ins will have some kind of security flaw. A lot of trouble can be avoided by simply reading up about the plug-in before installing. Avoiding themes or plugins that are not from the official WordPress directory is also recommended. It will be a good idea to stick to plugins that have a four or five star rating.

Outdated WordPress core and themes/plugins

It is understandable if the website is highly dependent on the functionality of the few available plugins but it is always wise to run an update because almost all high quality reliable plugins have an updated version within hours or days of the WordPress core release.

Unwanted personal attackers

These include the type of people who like to intervene in other’s lives in the most malicious ways possible. These hackers are just waiting for any casualty from the user so it’s highly recommended to remain cautious and vigilant.

So what can be done when the website gets hacked?

The easiest and the most reliable option is to hire a professional to do the work which will ensure a high standard of security. But the problem lies with the high fees that these experts charge, which can be difficult for individuals to afford. Below listed are some individual methods which can be used.

• One should begin with cleaning up the entire system by running anti-virus and update everything.
• Next step would be to log into the hosting account and check with them to see what is going wrong. One needs to make sure that one has been hacked; it could be possible that they are experiencing a service outage for the site in question.  If the hack is definite one can send them a support message inquiring about the cause of the hack and whether it is traceable or not. One can look out for some of the unusual activities that might be happening like failed login to the WordPress admin panel, redirection of the WordPress site to another website, or the marking of the website by Google as insecure.
• On the account one can change all the backend passwords and the passwords for everyone who has access to the site.
• If the site is already backed up one can simply perform a restoration. If not, it would be safe to back up everything.
• It is also recommended to secure the WordPress configuration file.
• A change of password can enhance security and assurance.
• A premium security solution can be considered such as managed WordPress hosting or Sucuri. ManageWP is another preferred solution for those who would like to retain their mutual hosting but want some added security and support.

Maintenance and wordpress website development require care and caution and after going through the difficulties explained above one might want to secure their website to prevent any such further complications.

• It is always wise to update cores, themes and plugins on a regular basis. We belong to an age of websites for all and we don’t need overqualified service providers for update and other works but not every user is aware of the importance of such act and hence are the high rates of hacking.
• Maintaining a daily backup for the site can be helpful. One might use the host or any of the many back up plugins like VaultPress, BackupBuddy, BlogVault etc.
• Creating a difficult password is very important. Passwords should be a combination of numbers, upper case and lower case letters, more random the better.
• One should secure the wp-config.php file
• Username should be hidden so should be the version of WordPress
• Login attempts should be limited.
• Install WordPress File monitor plus to receive notifications every time files are edited.
• It is commendable to use SFTP while logging in to the website via a FTP client or the host
• We don’t want our websites to add to the problems of our lives. Fighting an invisible enemy is scarier than we know so the advice is to use premium options such as managed hosting or Sucuri or ManageWP.

A note to the users in this regard is that Google has recently announced a change in the algorithm that impacts hacked sites with spam results.  There is so much at stake when our websites get hacked and we become subject to losing our search engine rankings, exposing our readers to viruses and even we run the risk of tarnishing our reputations.  So we would want to have strong footing when it comes to the security of our websites.

Conclusion:
A strong understanding on the vulnerabilities is crucial, based on which preventive measures such as development of the WordPress, managing its security, using strong passwords, maintaining updates, and incorporating security solutions should be considered.

Magento 1 or Magento 2 – Let’s find out what upgrading to Magento 2 would actually mean

If Magento 1 is working well for you, then you don’t need to hurry. But, for new website owners, Magento 2 is a perfect software solution. Existing sites also should explore its key features and benefits and gradually make the upgradation.

Users of Magento 1 software have surely been waiting for the new version of Magento 2, released last year, which reflects on Magento development for several years and offers key features and benefits for its users.

While you must be wondering as to whether this would be the right time for you to upgrade to the new version or not, let’s first have a look at the developed features that it’s offering.

The most important features of the upgraded version include –

Caching on the full page –

With this feature, the category and pages of products now can be cached. The CMS pages on the sites too can be cached, which would offer their services just like the performances of HTML pages in their static forms.

The new version making queries on databases thus leading to enhanced performances in respect of the load time of pages.

Code bases are optimized –

The new version has been developed using code designs that are of advanced patterns. As a result, the developers are better guided to use these codes and hence develop their own new ones. The resultant code is of a better and higher quality.

Databases are separated –

With Magento development, now you can make use of two different databases separately by the same software. Hence, it is now possible to use one database for holding on the CMS pages and categories of the product while other databases can at the same time deal with the checkout processes on the websites.

This is indeed one of the most effective solutions for e-commerce businesses.

Better options for payments –

The new version has its integrated association with various gateways of payments such as PayPal, Braintree and Authorize.net thus making it very effective for users to make online transactions on their websites more effectively and conveniently. The best part of the advancement is that no extensions are required for these.

Extensions are better and improved –

With Magento 2 version, the reviews on the extensions of the software are now done more strictly, with the responsibilities being undertaken by Magento Connect, which is the official extension marketplace of the software.

A number of test cases are used in this new version for performing complete regression testing on the extensions. Thus, a higher assurance is offered by the version regarding no-breakage of the core functions related with the software’s extensions.

Pre-processing of the CSS –

There is an inbuilt CSS pre-processor (LESS) in the new version of Magento. In general, the management of CSS in complex projects can be a very difficult and challenging task for the developers. With LESS, it is now possible to reduce the burden of challenges to a great extent since the pre-processor offers extensions on the CSS with variables, operations, mixins and nested rules.

Optimization of the database –

In the previous version of Magento, there have been reports of traffic based on issues related with performance, which in turn affect the actions of the software. The new version has brought solutions to these by optimizing on the databases associated with this particular issue and hence the traffic occurrences are also less now.

Customized services –

The magento customization services are of particular interest since they are targeted towards fulfilling specific requirements of clients in respect of the profits that customers want to earn through their website development.

With the magento customizationservices, clients can be said to have more effective solutions to their specific e-commerce requirements.

So, the question arises whether you should upgrade right away or wait? If your current version is working well on your websites, without causing you any trouble, then it may not be essential to hurry. What you can do is to explore the features and benefits of Magento 2 gradually and then upgrade your version.

However; it needs to be mentioned here as well as the process of upgradation may not be as smooth as may be expected or desired by users. A tool of migration has been offered with the new version to help you in this regard, which should make it less painful though.

The idea is to conduct a basic research on the upgradation process so that you can implement it effectively for your site, of course with the help of developers. However; certain features such as the themes and customization of codes may not be possible to be transferred. This means that these features would have to be newly created and developed on Magento 2, which might also result in a certain level of extra investments as well.

Considering the benefits that the new version offers, these efforts however; can be said to be worth the value you would get.

If you are using the new version, it will also be supporting the older versions for long, which is another major benefit associated with the new development. So, if you are really looking for improvements and effectiveness on your sites, Magento 2 has some serious solutions for long term success of your websites and business.

With Magento 2, database will no more be an issue of failure, which has been disturbing users for long, with its built-in features being highly developed and tested.

Very Essential Joomla Extensions To Enhance Your Website - You Cannot Miss Out!

Whether it is building a website or purchasing a car, there are always several options available in the market, but the best option is the option which offers us maximum comfort and ease of use. Similarly, when it comes to build a website, there are several platforms, but Joomla offers the best of the backend options and advanced webmasters. Though the CMS platforms were initially developed to create blogs, but within a few years, it has been more popular in creating a variety of professional grade websites. From the visual appearance of the website to the performance, SEO marketing to secured access and data backup of website to adding richer content, each and everything is possible using Joomla. With the right combination of WordPress and Drupal CMS, you can create a stunning professional website using Joomla. 

The important and crucial part in the entire process is choosing the right Joomla extension for each feature you wish to add to the website. Whether it is SEO, security, data backup or enhancing the performance, there are almost 8000 Joomla extensions available in the Joomla Extension Directory. Those who are using the JED frequently for website upgradation or development might have knowledge of the extensions. If you have not used any Joomla extensions and wish to add it to your website or client’s website then either you will have to spend a lot of time in trying and testing few extensions and then choose the ones which are best, or you have the option to follow the below given list of extensions which we have specially sorted based on our experience and research. We are not affiliated with any of the below extension providers, but yes, we have used some of the extensions in developing and customizing our client’s website. We have added only those Joomla extensions which have yielded excellent results.

1. JCE Editor

Even if you are not a technical developer, you can easily edit the pages without drafting the complicated codes. JCE editor is one of the most popular Joomla extension which helps in converting the backend panel into a WYSIWYG editor. If you are new to the world of website management or using Joomla extensions, then the JCE editor is one of the must have extensions.

2. TZ Portfolio

Those who have been developing websites with Joomla would very well know that Com_Content is also a content management system in the world. It is being used by several users, but it does not provide all the required features. With the help of the TZ portfolio you can avail the same level of user comfort and advanced features compared to Com_Content. Beside all TZ Portfolio also offers the interface facility like the Portfolio and Timeline views. There are several other useful functionalities like image gallery, representative images, and video display in each article.

3. Easy Frontend SEO

Marketing of website is one of the important and essential aspects of any website. Using the right extension for optimizing website pages in search engine helps in yielding best result. Easy Frontend SEO helps in editing and importing the meta-tag-description, robots, generator etc., more conveniently. Using this tool, manual processes to import and export the required data in front end and back end operations can be simplified. This tool has impressed several users and gained popularity in a short while. The functionality of Easy Frontend SEO in adding descriptions directly in the frontend as popup or panel makes users more satisfied with it.

4. Admin Tools

In order to manage the website more efficiently, it is necessary to have an administrative extension like admin tools. It is one of the most effective tools in Joomla which helps in notifying, installing updates, fix files, manage database maintenance and much more. It also enables you to add an additional level of security to your website by adding advanced web application firewall. There are two versions available in Admin tools, one is free and another one is paid. The free version is known as Admin Tools Core and the paid version is known as Admin Tools Professional. You can load the free version to the server once and use the tool for multiple domains.

5. RokBooster

Even if your website has an attractive design and maximized marketing, if the performance is not as expected then it is difficult to get the desired results. RokBooster is a powerpacked Joomla extension which helps in accelerating the performance and speed of your website. It comes with advanced features in compressing and combining CSS as well as JavaScript into fewer files. It also helps in converting the background images into URLs for escalated performance. You can also expect enhanced results in the website loading time using RokBooster.

6. Akeeba Backup

Last but not the least, Akeeba is one of the ‘must have’ Joomla extensions for everyone, who have built their website using Joomla. Akeeba creates an archive of your entire website data, including all files, snapshots, and installer. The restoration process of Akeeba is powered by AJAX, which avoids the server timeout. The Akeeba Backup extension is available in paid and free version. Choose the best that suits your requirements.

As an experienced webdesigning and development company from India, NCode Technologies, believes in sharing the experience and knowledge that we have. These are some of the major extensions that we use in our daily client Joomla website customizations and developments. By now, you must have chosen your favourite extension. Add it to your website and let us know if you need any type of assistance. Keep us posted!