Category: Technology

Mastering the Art of Data-Driven Web Designing

Posted on by galaxy-admin
A scenario where a simple tweak in web design, informed by user data, skyrockets a company’s sales by 70%. This isn’t a rare occurrence in the era of data-driven design. Such transformative results are becoming increasingly common, as businesses utilize the power of data to revolutionize their web presence. In a landscape where over 90% of online experiences begin with a search engine, the impact of web design on user experience and business success is monumental. Consider how Spotify, through data-driven design, increased its monthly active users by focusing on personalized experiences. This article will explore how leveraging data in web design is not just a trend but a necessity for modern businesses.

The Pillars of Data-Driven Web Design

Understanding the core aspects of data-driven design is essential for any web professional:

Web Design Analytics:

Understanding user interaction patterns is critical. Web design is no longer just about creating visually appealing layouts. It’s about using analytics to understand how users interact with your site. Tools like Google Analytics provide insights into user behavior, enabling designers to make informed decisions. Implement analytics tools to track user behavior on your site and use these insights to tailor the user experience. Google’s Material Design, for example, was developed using extensive user data, leading to designs that resonate more effectively with users. Even, Amazon uses analytics to personalize user experiences, it has set a benchmark in e-commerce, contributing to its massive success.

Leveraging User Experience Data in Design Decisions:

Data is invaluable in creating user-centric web designs. The heart of data-driven design lies in understanding and implementing user experience data. This includes studying how users interact with your website and what drives their decision. Heatmaps optimize website areas for increased engagement, while regular user surveys and usability tests gather feedback for continuous improvement in web design. Google’s AMP project and Airbnb’s redesign demonstrate data-driven design efficacy, enhancing mobile browsing experience and doubling booking rates, respectively.

Web Development Strategies Grounded in Data:

Web developers may create websites that are both technically solid and easy to use by incorporating data into the creation process. Keep an eye on how quickly your website loads and make necessary optimizations; even a small delay of a few seconds can result in a marked increase in bounce rates.

A Data-Driven Approach for Conversion Rate Optimization: 

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is crucial for online businesses, as it helps understand user actions and improves conversion rates. A/B testing can lead to significant improvements, as seen in an online bookstore’s checkout process. Data-driven strategies, like Amazon’s constant experimentation, can also enhance conversion rates by continuously testing and optimizing website elements.

Responsive Design Analytics for a Seamless User Experience:

For a seamless user experience across all devices, responsive design is essential. Analytics can help understand user interactions, leading to better cross-platform experiences. A news portal’s mobile layout optimization resulted in a 50% increase in engagement. As mobile usage increases, optimizing mobile experiences is essential. Google’s study found 53% of users leave sites taking longer than three seconds to load.

Leveraging Behavioral Analytics for a Deeper Understanding:

Behavioral analytics offers insights into user behavior on websites, enabling more nuanced design strategies. For instance, Spotify’s personalized playlists and Netflix’s recommendation algorithm have significantly increased user engagement. By analyzing user behavior patterns, companies can create more engaging and intuitive web designs, uncovering user motivations and implementing tools to track and analyze user behavior.

The Significance of UI/UX Design Data in E-commerce

The user interface and experience are crucial in e-commerce. Efficient and user-friendly online purchasing can be achieved by analyzing UI/UX design data. Reduce cart abandonment by streamlining the checkout process with the help of customer journey data analysis.

Website Performance Metrics: The Backbone of User Experience

One of the most important aspects of UX is website speed. Making sure your website satisfies user expectations requires tracking metrics like load time and responsiveness. To guarantee a positive user experience, regularly check and improve the functionality of your website.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Web Design

Advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning are elevating data-driven design to unprecedented levels. Massive volumes of data can be analyzed by AI algorithms to forecast user preferences, which results in more efficient and customized online experiences.

Boost Your Web Presence with Galaxy Weblinks

Mastering data-driven web design is about understanding and utilizing the power of data to create websites that not only look good but also perform excellently. Galaxy Weblinks stands at the forefront of this revolution, blending creative design with cutting-edge data analysis to deliver websites that are not just visually stunning but also incredibly user-centric and business-effective. Let us help you transform your digital presence into a dynamic, data-driven platform that propels your business forward.

Is WordPress 5.0 Following the Craft CMS Path with Gutenberg?

Posted on by galaxy-admin
In today’s digital era, where websites have become the lifeline of businesses and bloggers alike, the choice of a Content Management System (CMS) can make or break your online presence. WordPress, known for its user-friendliness and extensive plugin library, has been a go-to choice for many. However, the release of WordPress 5.0 with the Gutenberg Editor raised questions and comparisons with another rising star in the CMS world – Craft CMS.

A Shift in the WordPress Landscape

The WordPress landscape, which has been evolving consistently, took a significant turn with the introduction of WordPress 5.0 and the Gutenberg Editor. WordPress powers over 43% of all websites on the internet. That’s a staggering number, showcasing its dominance in the CMS world However, the Gutenberg Editor brought a new way of content creation to WordPress users. It aimed to simplify the process with a block-based approach, allowing users to build and customize content with ease. While this change was intended to make content creation more intuitive, it raised concerns among the WordPress community.

Craft CMS: A Rising Challenger

On the other side of the spectrum, Craft CMS has been gaining traction for its flexibility and developer-friendly features. Craft CMS offers a blank canvas for developers to create highly customized websites, making it a compelling choice for businesses and developers who require precise control over their websites.

Real-World Example

To illustrate this shift, consider the case of Jane, a small business owner running an online boutique clothing store. She had been using WordPress for years, enjoying its ease of use. However, when Gutenberg Editor was introduced, her routine changed. Initially intrigued by the block-based approach for showcasing her clothing products, Jane faced a learning curve, leading to a temporary decrease in productivity. She had to invest hours in understanding the new system, affecting her ability to focus on her business. Now, let’s look into the case of Mark, a blogger using Craft CMS for his technology blog. Mark appreciated Craft CMS for its developer-friendly approach and precise control over website design and functionality. The transition to Craft CMS was seamless for Mark, allowing him to continue publishing tech articles without interruption. His blogging experience remained smooth and uninterrupted.

The Numbers Speak

Now, let’s explore some numbers to better understand this shift. WordPress 5.0 adoption faced initial challenges, with some users hesitating to upgrade due to concerns about compatibility and workflow disruptions. On the other hand, Craft CMS witnessed a steady rise in popularity, particularly among developers looking for a more robust platform.

Craft CMS and WordPress Adoption Rates

  • WordPress, as mentioned earlier, continues to dominate the CMS market with a staggering 43% market share.
  • Craft CMS, although not as widely adopted as WordPress, has been growing steadily and is becoming increasingly popular among developers and businesses.

Simplifying the Decision-Making Process

So, what should you choose for your website? In the end, everything comes down to your own requirements. Let’s break down the decision-making process further:

WordPress 5.0:

Pros:

  • Vast Community: WordPress boasts a massive community of users and developers, resulting in extensive plugin support and resources.
  • Simplicity: WordPress is known for its user-friendly interface, making it accessible to beginners.
  • Ecosystem: It offers a wide range of themes, plugins, and integrations.

Cons:

  • Learning Curve: The transition to Gutenberg may require some users to adapt to a new way of content creation.
  • Customization Limitations: While WordPress is highly customizable, Craft CMS offers more granular control over design and functionality.

Craft CMS:

Pros:

  • Flexibility: Craft CMS provides a blank canvas for developers, allowing for precise customization and control.
  • Developer-Friendly: Developers appreciate Craft CMS for its coding flexibility and robust features.
  • Performance: Craft CMS is known for its speed and performance, ideal for high-traffic websites.

Cons:

  • Smaller Community: Craft CMS has a smaller community compared to WordPress, resulting in fewer plugins and themes.

Your CMS Partner

In the world of CMS, one size doesn’t fit all. Whether you lean towards WordPress, Craft CMS, or any other platform, what matters most is choosing a solution that aligns with your goals. At Galaxy Weblinks, we understand the nuances of WordPress, Craft CMS, and various other CMS options. We offer comprehensive CMS services, including WordPress Web Development and Craft CMS solutions, tailored to your unique requirements. Partner with us to navigate the CMS landscape effectively and make the right choice for your digital journey.

Angular 7 upgrade | What will you miss if you ignore?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Angular 6, released earlier in May 2018 didn’t offer much improvements on the performance part. It was mainly focused on making Angular migration-friendly. Google dropped Angular 7 just after four months of development and it seems to make up for that part of the framework.

The upgrade was released on October 18 followed by an incremental update 7.1 on November 28.

Angular 7 version upgrade is not a feature-intense update, instead it focuses on the core framework. As a result you get better performing applications with small packages and faster response.

The long-due Ivy compiler is still under works but other things were delivered as promised.

CLI prompts

Angular CLI can prompt users to help them make decisions. ng new prompts users of routes and styles to use, while ng add @angular/material asks users what theme they want and if they want gestures or animations.

Performance

Application performance has been improved by automatically adding or removing the reflect metadata polyfill, making applications smaller in production.

Angular Material and CDK (Component Dev Kit)

Angular 7 features virtual scrolling, for dynamically loading and unloading items from DOM according to the visible parts of the lists. Also, applications can be fitted with a drag-and-drop capability. Angular Elements components now support content projection via slots.

Why Angular 7?

Why not when it offers brilliant perks like these.

  • Comes with better mobile and desktop application support.
  • Application packages are smaller and efficient.
  • CLI prompts help you make decisions and code faster.
  • Angular 7 now features budget bundle. It warns when application exceeds the default size
  • Fast rendering of large lists with virtual scrolling
  • Upgrade takes less than 10 minutes for most of the apps.

Things that were further improved with the latest incremental update Angular 7.1

  • A bug fix to the Ivy compiler so it now can generate inputs and aliases properly. The compiler had been generating an outdated input property format.
  • Also in the compiler, a bug fix generates a relative path only in summary file errors.
  • Previously, errors in the summary file included absolute file names.
  • The compiler now can mark an InvokeFunctionExpr as pure.
  • For the core of the framework, a static dependency to @angular/compiler has been removed from @angular/core.
  • A regression in the router has been fixed in which the navigateByUrl promise did not resolve on CanLoad failure.
  • For service workers, typing has been added to the public API guard and lint errors have been fixed.

Planning an Angular 7 upgrade? Mind these prerequisites.

For apps that are running on Angular 6 & RxJS 6 use this command:

$ ng update @angular/cli @angular/core

And for the apps running Angular Material

$ ng update @angular/material

Upgrading Angular is a hassle-free process but more often than not version upgrades can mess your app’s current state. Upgrade failures are universal for every software so it is highly advised that you perform the upgrade with the help of an Angular expert. Speaking of which, you can get in touch with us.

Developing Custom Softwares, the Agile Way

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Agile blog image 3

The dynamic business environment with rapid technological changes have resulted in subsequent changes in customer requirements. They now look forward to options which have an ability to deliver quick and better solutions. As a result, the web development companies long for such approaches which enables them deliver softwares accordingly. The companies turned to Agile Development approach which consists of Iterative and incremental approach for faster and better software development.

In sharp contrast to traditional software development practices, agile is all about teamwork, flexibility, periodic assessments, feedback integration, quick delivery and better products.

At Galaxy Weblinks, Agile development methodology remains a guiding principle for software development practices to offer unique deliveries and be a frontrunner. There exists some compelling reasons why, we choose to do so.

Let’s capture some advantages of this methodology:

Speed and Flexibility

Fast deliveries, regular iterations and flexibility remains the norm of the software development. With exhaustive project development and management strategies in place, Agile holds the prominence. It permits developers to manage and improve priorities at each phase and stage of project.

Customer Collaboration

One of the prime approaches Galaxy Weblinks believes in, is Customer Collaboration. There exists some good reasons behind it. One, it lets us understand the customer’s point of view at each step and second, it develops a strong understanding as to what the client requirements are and lets us visualise deliveries from their perspective. We seek inputs at each step from them to ensure that their requirements are met.

Customer Collaboration 1(1)

Our designers work in continuous collaboration with team members so that the customers feedback gets integrated at each iterations and the next one gets enhanced than previous.

Iterative and Incremental Development

Agile focuses on incremental and iterative development. Hence, the entire project gets broken down into iterations or sprints, at the end of which feedback is sought from client and reflecting transparency, customer orientation and scope for product improvements.

Improved Communication

Team member interactions and client collaborations are one of the key driving practices in Agile. With a channel of feedback in place and iterative cycles of development, the communication structure remains well defined and let exchange developers, clients and project manager’s view on projects fruitfully to carve out a refined product delivery.

Time to Market

Adopting Agile methodology lets team plan and deliver the iteration in a timely manner. The entire project phases – planning, coding & development, creation of rapid prototypes or delivery, all gets empanelled w.r.t. time frame. The clients doesn’t have to wait for the entire software to be developed. They get a basic framework or a prototype to assess operability and functionalities and suggest improvements if any. These minor alterations get integrated at the very same stage. Thus resulting in delivering a better, novel product in a faster manner.

Predictable Costs

The project under agile is divided in sprints with a duration. The cost of development gets better managed as the work to be performed by team is in a fixed schedule. With these, the client is better able to understand the tentative cost of each functionality/ feature.

Improved products

With high involvement of customers in project development, they get an opportunity to understand, interpret and give inputs at all stages. This opens a window of continuous improvement to make software developed a perfect fit, as per the business requirements. Thus, enabling an improved software/ application being developed

To conclude, Agile processes brings in focussed development, which lets deliver a tangible product, engaging all stakeholders at each step resulting in saving time and money with better business products for clients.

Galaxy Weblinks offers a custom software and web development solutions employing Agile. Contact us to find how we can improve your online business remarkably.

Craft & its Plugins | A transforming workflow

Posted on by galaxy-admin
We like to think of Craft CMS as a Transformer (one with BumbleBee as his friend) and plugins as its Jet Pack. And every time we develop a plugin for Craft, it helps our Craft projects reach client’s expectations. Craft is a powerful CMS and its developers have left a lot of scope for extensibility. Plugins do the things that Craft CMS cannot. In our workflow Craft plugins help us do more than what Craft can do. Often our clients steer clear of plugin development because of the extra work and vulnerabilities it brings. That’s not the case with Craft plugins. You can read about plugin vulnerabilities in our Craft Vs WordPress blog. Before diving into our plugin development workflow you should know about Composer and Pluginfactory. Craft CMS 3 is highly dependent on the Composer for its development. Composer is a PHP package manager that helps Craft with PHP dependencies. Pluginfactory on the other hand is a different tool altogether it creates scaffolding for plugins. We use the scaffolding to configure our code in it. After defining the need we get on to the business of building the plugins. Craft documentation has a pretty straightforward approach to plugin development. Being big fans of Craft’s coding techniques we looked no further for inspiration. Our plugin development process is as simple as Craft’s.

Building “The Jet Pack” for Craft CMS

Image credit: pixabay

Nomenclature for the assembly

Like the parts of a Jet Pack, parts of the plugin should be named in a consistent format so that they can be identified easily. We follow the naming guidelines whether we’re naming packages or handles. It is safe and efficient to follow a particular nomenclature.

According to the Craft’s documentation-

  • Plugin handle must have lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes. All in Kebab case
  • Package name should have Craft- prefixed to it, after the ‘/’

Creating blueprint for “The Jet Pack”

Image credit: matej

Before we found out about pluginfactory, like every other developer we used to make our plugin structure manually. Pluginfactory creates a skeleton for your plugin in just a few clicks. It is created by a Craft developer named Andrew Welch. The scaffolding on pluginfactory are made using the Yeoman generator.

Details needed to create the scaffolding

  • API version
  • Plugin name
  • Description
  • Initial version
  • Plugin vendor
  • Plugin author
  • Author URL
  • Github name
When the structure is ready we feed our code into it and voila! Our plugin is ready.

Installing “The Jet Pack”

Image credit: jaguarmena

Plugins are written as composer packages. For Craft to recognize the plugin we have to install it as a composer dependency of the project. The installation depends on the nature of plugin whether it’s local or public. If it’s local we install it by configuring the composer.json and adding a new path repository record. The path must point toward the plugin’s root. If a plugin is made for a public release then it can also be installed directly via composer. After registering the plugin as a new composer package on Packagist, a require package command in composer fetches the package and installs it.

Final word: Plugins are essential

Image credit: jaguarmena

Plugins are not a crucial part of a CMS but it sure is important to achieve something out of the box based on client’s requirement. We find plugins to be extremely powerful and time-saving. The most important function of a plugin is to eliminate tedious and repetitive tasks by automating it. Some examples might put its importance into perspective.
  • SEO plugins make search engine optimization easier
  • E-commerce plugins improve customer journey.
  • Analytic plugins help with insights on page performance
  • Text and image editor plugins provide rich editing functionalities
If you’re looking to transform your Craft CMS experience — visual or performance — then plugins can help. As for the development of the plugin, talk to us here.

How Zeplin Transforms Agile Workflows?

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With 71% of businesses using Agile approaches, tools like Zeplin are becoming more and more important. They’re not just facilitating smoother workflows; they’re reshaping how teams collaborate on software development. Zeplin, specifically, has made notable strides in this area, revolutionizing the way design and development teams interact.

Design Systems and Zeplin: A Synergy for Success

Zeplin’s role in reinforcing design systems is vital in an Agile environment. By providing a unified platform for design elements, it ensures coherence and uniformity across projects. A notable example is Airbnb’s design system, which utilizes tools like Zeplin to maintain a consistent brand and user experience across their digital platforms. By streamlining their design process, Airbnb has managed to reduce design discrepancies significantly, leading to a more cohesive user interface.

Streamlining UI/UX Feedback with Zeplin

Feedback loops are essential in Agile development, and Zeplin optimizes this by bridging the communication gap between designers and developers. For instance, Dropbox reported enhanced efficiency in their design process after integrating Zeplin. The platform allowed for quicker feedback and iterations, reducing their design revision time by approximately 30%. UI/UX designers can utilize Zeplin’s interactive environment to rapidly prototype and iterate designs, ensuring faster approvals and implementation.

Effective Collaboration through Zeplin Integrations

Zeplin’s ability to integrate with tools like Slack and JIRA enhances its effectiveness in Agile workflows. Shopify’s integration of Zeplin with Slack serves as a great example. This integration has facilitated faster updates and feedback within their teams, leading to improved project management and a more synchronized workflow. Such integrations demonstrate Zeplin’s versatility and its capacity to adapt to various team dynamics and project requirements. Teams should explore Zeplin’s integration capabilities to enhance real-time collaboration and project tracking, ensuring a more aligned and efficient workflow.

Overcoming Communication Challenges in Design with Zeplin

Communication is a pivotal aspect of project management, and Zeplin addresses this by providing clear and organized design specifications. IBM’s design team has utilized Zeplin to effectively manage communication among their globally distributed teams. This has led to a more streamlined and efficient design process, significantly reducing misunderstandings and delays in project timelines.

Quantifying Zeplin’s Impact on Agile Workflows

The measurable impact of Zeplin in Agile workflows is seen in the improvements in team productivity and project timelines. According to recent statistics, companies leveraging Zeplin have reported a 20-25% improvement in project turnaround times. This demonstrates Zeplin’s profound impact on enhancing efficiency and streamlining processes in Agile environments.

Galaxy Weblinks: Pioneering Agile Excellence with Zeplin

Navigating the complexities of UI/UX design, web development, and Agile methodologies requires more than just understanding; it demands the right tools and expertise. Galaxy Weblinks, with its deep-rooted experience in Agile practices and a suite of services including UI/UX and web development, is uniquely positioned to help businesses harness the full potential of tools like Zeplin. We specialize in fine-tuning Agile processes, ensuring our clients not only keep pace but lead in the competitive tech landscape. Reach out to us and transform your Agile journey into a story of success and innovation.

Drupal 8.6 update. What’s new?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Keeping up with the promises made during earlier announcements, Drupal released the 8.6 version on September 5. The update comes with significant additions.

Drupal 8.6 now supports MySQL 8. Also, with this update a monolingual Drupal 6 site can be migrated to Drupal 8 directly from the user interface. Multilingual website migration using the UI is still under development. Apart from these changes, other important changes are listed below.

Easier Drupal installations

Installations on Drupal have been made easier. There are two ways to install Drupal.

  1. A quick start command installs Drupal within 2 minutes using PHP’s built in web server and SQlite database.
  2. Drupal’s installer now recognizes existing configurations and provides an option to install updates for that configuration.

Test environment to showcase features

Image source: drupal.org

Drupal now provides an easy-to-install test environment in a demo website called umami. The demo profile can be used to showcase Drupal’s data modeling, listing, page composition, and content moderation capabilities to prospects. It will also help in onboarding new users.

Support for remote media types

Image source: drupal.org

This Drupal update adds support for remote media types. You can now easily embed YouTube and Vimeo videos.

Experimental features

Image source: drupal.org

Workspace module and layout builder are some of the experimental features that are introduced with this update.

Workspace module lets you work on different projects simultaneously. You can segregate your projects using workspaces.

Content layout builder is an under-development experimental version. The stable version will be a powerful tool against authoring challenges.

Drupal 8.6 update package brings some much-needed additions to the table, such as:

  • Nightwatch.js and Prettier is added to make it more familiar to Javascript and PHP developers.
  • Tests are converted from SimpleTest to PHPUnit.

Whereas, JSON API was skipped in this update.

Any updates, whether it’s incremental or critical, means a mandatory upgrade for the older versions. Drupal will end support for Drupal 6 but support for Drupal 7 will continue.

Upgrade to Drupal 8.6 now.

Get in touch with our Drupal experts here!

Magento 1 End Of Life: It’s time to migrate to Magento 2

Posted on by galaxy-admin
Magento announced that it is pulling the plug on Magento 1 in April 2017 at the ‘Meet Magento’ conference in Prague. The announcement caused a frenzy amongst developers and business owners. However, Magento later cancelled the End of Life and announced an 18-month notification policy for the EOL date. Even though the End of Life has been delayed, it’s high time you start planning Migration to Magento 2. Magento’s team will provide support for Magento 1.13.x and 1.14.x Enterprise editions, but only till June 2020. The support for Magento 1 community edition is no longer available. End of support on Magento 1 means that there will be no further development. With no security patches, your business and data will be at risk. This would leave your website vulnerable to hackers. Apart from security you might also face the following issues if you decide to delay the upgrade:
  • Increased maintenance costs
  • Lack of support for extensions
  • PCI compliance issues
  • Lack of speed (Magento 2 is faster)
Magento has provided you with the timeframe to understand the database, compatibility, and integration needs for a smooth migration and upgrade. As most of the current Magento websites are running on Magento 1, the users currently have two options:
  • Start planning the migration to Magento 2
  • Stick with Magento 1 for a while till a glitch makes it urgent.
Moving to Magento 2 will change your website’s game. It easily handles huge traffic and aids faster checkouts. As per previews, the stores in Magento 2 load 30–50% faster than Magento 1. Magento 2 solves the problem of slow page loading speeds and checkouts, resulting in lesser transaction failures and more business! As Magento 2 is based on a different architecture, the migration will be a time-taking process. It is highly advised to get a team of Magento experts on board and get on with it. Bottomline, GET IT DONE NOW! DO NOT PUT THE UPGRADE ON PENDING TASK LIST! Migration to Magento 2 is a walk in the park if you have right development partners onboard. Get a Magento expert here!

ACF vs Visual Composer website builder: Which is better?

Posted on by galaxy-admin
Building a WordPress website? The WordPress community provides you with plenty of options. You can either make an easy one using WordPress themes or a custom one using website builders. A website builder is the most convenient way to make a personalised website. WordPress community provides you with a ton of free and paid builders as per your needs and levels of expertise. Once you make up your mind on what you plan to do with your website, then you can chalk-out the structure and the elements that you’re going to need for the website to function. After locking in your requirements, you can choose your website builder. We recommend using two of our recent favorites.
  • ACF
  • Visual Composer

ACF

Image Source: advancedcustomfields.com

The interface of the Advanced Custom Fields is simple. It lets you create dynamic fields for individual elements of your website. Installation and activation of ACF adds Custom Fields to your WordPress dashboard. From the Custom Fields menu you can take full control of your edit screen & custom field data. The minimalistic interface of ACF can be mistaken for an under equipped website builder. You can make some of the most complex and powerful websites with ACF. The best thing about ACF’s interface is that it doesn’t try to overwhelm you. It only shows the functions that you need. ACF gives you the full control of your website right from header to footer. You can build individual elements of your website with custom fields. There are 25+ different field types to choose from, vis-a-vis. text, image, gallery and WYSIWYG editor. These fields are dynamic. You can use them to give your client an easy way to update their website according to their liking.

Visual Composer

Image Source: visualcomposer.io

It has a clean and modern interface which allows you to make basic layouts with ease. The interface lets you work on different elements of the website, right then and there. Visual Composer has a floating window which pops up every time you’re trying to add or edit an element. The window is movable and resizable, you can place it anywhere if it’s obstructing your view. Visual Composer gives you the best of both worlds with its backend and frontend editor. While building, you can easily choose from the ready-made layouts of landing page, call to action page, feature list, description page, service list or a product page. Adding elements in the website is also easy with the element window. The drag and drop visuals come at a cost of short codes. Migrating to another website builder or uninstalling Visual Composer leaves short codes in the content, rendering it unreadable. Fixing these short codes is an another chore on its own.

Which one do we prefer over another, you ask?

Well it’s a tough choice but…ACF! ACF and Visual Composer are serving two different audiences. ACF is focused on developers. Visual Composer on the other hand targets the people with little to no knowledge of website development. In case of both the builders. the audiences don’t need to have an extensive coding knowledge. Visual Composer focuses on making the website building experience as easy as it can be. Visual Composer is not made for complex websites it will only provide you with enough elements to get your website up and running.

Why ACF?

ACF does a commendable job with its active development and incredible support. The developers are constantly working to keep the plugin current. The heavily themed interface of Visual Composer is slow. The floating window takes time to load the elements, and the builder shows glitches when you switch from frontend to backend. Visual Composer is affordable for personal license but expensive for client work. ‘Advanced Custom Fields’ is more affordable and provides value for money. Another thing that doesn’t work in Visual Composer’s favor is that the pre-sales service and overall support for Visual Composer is terrible. It comes as no surprise that ACF has 900,000+ active installations compared to Visual Composer’s 500,000+. You can save your time and money with theme-based websites but you might not get the exact thing you’re looking for. Themes are designed keeping a universal requirement in mind. Your unique requirement might not fit in those templates everytime. But, if you have unique requirements and want the best for your website, then website builder is the right bid. Making custom websites is a hectic process. We can make that process easier. Our expert development team knows website builders like the back of their hands. Hit us up here if you’re looking for WordPress development partners.

WhatsApp Business API: What’s in the limited public preview?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Facebook has finally decided to monetize WhatsApp.

Earlier this month, on August 1, Facebook rolled its long-in-development WhatsApp Business API for medium to large businesses. This is not to be confused with WhatsApp business application, which is only meant for small businesses.

The business API will let you communicate with your customers all over the world, in real time.

The API allows you to make a business profile on WhatsApp. You can include all the necessary information like address, business description, email address, phone numbers, and website.

The motive of the API is to bridge the gap between businesses and their customers. WhatsApp currently has an active user base of 1.2 billion members. The business API might become the goldmine for customer services and marketing. It is the most convenient place to provide services and support to your customers.

You can use the API to send notifications such as shipping confirmations, appointment reminders, event tickets, tracking details etc.

For the initial release though, the API comes with some limitations.

Businesses cannot send messages to WhatsApp users until the users have initiated a contact, for example making an order or booking a ticket.

There is also a limit on outbound message rates. The tested maximum outbound message rate is 15 message/second.

The API not only allows you to connect directly to your customers but it also keeps an insight on the messages and response rates. You can access these message analytics in the dashboard.

The business API comes with some useful features:

  • Instance monitoring- You can export internal metrics in prometheus text format and use the obtained data to analyse the performance.
  • Message templates- You can create different message templates for different instances & situations. You can also set locales for different languages.
  • Verified name- Your business profile gets a verified name with which you can communicate with your customers. The verification badge ensures authenticity and establishes trust amongst the users.
  • Labels- The chat can get clumsy. Labels can help you sort your customers and chats. Create Labels and organize your chats accordingly.

Similar to the basic WhatsApp app, all the information between the business and the clients will remain end-to-end encrypted.

The API is currently in a limited public preview. You can submit your application here for consideration if you want to get the business API.