DEV Community: AppTechBlogger

What Makes Xamarin Good for Developing Android Apps

AppTechBlogger — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 12:25:20 +0000

Android has the largest share in the global smartphone market. It has had several far-reaching consequences for the development world. But perhaps the most significant result of Android’s supremacy in the market is that it has given rise to a pressing need for solutions that can effectively enable the development of apps underpinned by this OS. Thankfully, the answer to this quest is already available in the market: Xamarin. Sure, several solutions in the market promise a seamless Android app development process, but there aren’t many tools in the market that are quite as capable as Xamarin. This new-age cross-platform app development software facilitates, well, cross-platform app development in a manner that is as straightforward as it is efficacious.

Among other things, Xamarin helps developers’ lives easier by allowing them to share code for an app between several platforms and that too to quite a large extent. Besides this, it also companies and programmers to put together that successfully deliver an experience tailored to the demands and requirements of the end-users, i.e., apps that are both quick as well as effective. Then there’s also things like an accelerated process, substantially reduced development time, top-notch quality, and so much more. No wonder Xamarin is prevalent in today’s technology ecosystem all over the world. Nonetheless, to help you genuinely understand Xamarin’s potential in this context, we have listed some of its leading benefits as well as what makes it such a terrific choice for developing Android apps.

Native app-like experience: Not many tools are capable of delivering an experience that is most similar to what a native app would be able to provide. Xamarin enables the development of Android apps that can successfully and effortlessly deliver an app experience that is so similar to the look and feel of a native Android app that end users would struggle to tell the two apart.
Integrate high-quality components: One of the most productive benefits of using Xamarin is its components library. It allows the addition of ace components in the app, straight from the integrated development environment (IDE). Further, it includes cloud services, UI controls, web services, charts, themes, and graphs, among various other components. And let’s not forget that since Xamarin is integrated with Visual Studio and Xamarin Studio, adding elements that become much easier.
Native API access: Building an Android app with Xamarin also provides programmers with access to the OS’ native APIs. And as any developer would tell you, this access can help save them a lot of time and effort, consequently accelerating the development process and allowing it to be introduced in the market far more quickly than one would have anticipated.

Thanks to a plethora of distinctive benefits such as the delivery of native performance, access to native APIs, enhanced productivity, cost efficiency, and so much more, there’s no doubt about the fact Xamarin mobile application development for Android is indeed a sage decision.

Laravel: How it Helps Safeguard Web Apps

AppTechBlogger — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 10:57:27 +0000

Laravel is one of the leading front-end development frameworks in the world. Why? Well there are quite a lot of reasons. Custom software development is an inherently challenging concept, so one needs a consummate resource such as Laravel, which enables things like test automation, supports leading cache back-end systems, and more. But what about security? You see, safety is quite appropriately a concern amongst both developers as well as users. IT is because technology is evolving at a breakneck pace, and it is only natural to wonder if the systems we use today have adapted to this change in a robust enough manner to ensure that all the data we share with them is safe.

Let’s say this: In the context of security as well, you will barely find any other similar resources that are as capable as Laravel. It offers a world of features and functionalities that, when used properly, help developers top-notch levels of security for the web app. So, be it an SQL injection attack or cross-site request forgery attack, Laravel’s security features can ensure that the app can prevent all that and so much more. So, now, let’s take a closer look at some of its most popular security features and how they help safeguard web apps.

Authentication system: Laravel’s authentication system has a lot to offer, starting from the rock stable user authentication process, thanks to the relevant boilerplate code that it already provides in the scaffolding. But besides that, you also get several other guards and providers to fortify the authentication process further. While the providers retrieve users’ data from the database, the guards help authenticate users for every single request. The best part is that it doesn’t need much effort either.
Safeguard cookies: Once you generate a new application key, a.k.a. the encryption key, Laravel can also help developers protect the cookies. By the way, if you are working on a brand new project, you will need to use the PHP artisan key. The application/encryption key makes use of two things, encryption and cookie classes, to make encrypted strings and hashes.
PDO binding: Laravel offers different means to prevent SQL injections, including PDO binding, which prevents any variable from being passed on to the database without verifying it first. Then there’s also Fluent Query Builder and Eloquent, which protect against SQL injection attacks by generating statements that can get away from any incoming user input. So, when an attempt to access the database via a bogus SQL query is made, Fluent or Eloquent will buck this command and save the query as text.

The development world has, of course, an ocean of options to offer when one sets out to look for web app development tools, and yet a substantial majority of businesses turn to Laravel web development services for its ability to deliver high-quality apps that also offer exceptional levels of security. Because Laravel can protect web apps from most attacks, it becomes even easier to see why it is so sought after in the ecosystem.

Laravel: How it Helps Safeguard Web Apps

AppTechBlogger — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 09:48:35 +0000

Authentication system: Laravel’s authentication system has a lot to offer, starting from the rock stable user authentication process, thanks to the relevant boilerplate code that it already provides in the scaffolding. But besides that, you also get several other guards and providers to fortify the authentication process further. While the providers retrieve users’ data from the database, the guards help authenticate users for every single request. The best part is that it doesn’t need much effort either.
Safeguard cookies: Once you generate a new application key, a.k.a. the encryption key, Laravel can also help developers protect the cookies. By the way, if you are working on a brand new project, you will need to use the PHP artisan key. The application/encryption key makes use of two things, encryption and cookie classes, to make encrypted strings and hashes.
PDO binding: Laravel offers different means to prevent SQL injections, including PDO binding, which prevents any variable from being passed on to the database without verifying it first. Then there’s also Fluent Query Builder and Eloquent, which protect against SQL injection attacks by generating statements that can get away from any incoming user input. So, when an attempt to access the database via a bogus SQL query is made, Fluent or Eloquent will buck this command and save the query as text.

Tips to Safeguard Your Magento E-Commerce Store

AppTechBlogger — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 13:17:35 +0000

A recent study by a leading research group found that in the Alexa Top One Million websites, 12,708 e-commerce websites are underpinned by Magento. Considering that there are a total of about 467 technologies in the world that enable the development of e-commerce stores, the aforementioned translates into a market share of 14.31 percent for Magento! So, it is clear to see that this particular framework is a highly appreciated one in the ecosystem, and those who are even vaguely acquainted with Magento would tell you that its popularity is not surprising at all.

And sure enough, it is a terrific resource — empowering businesses across the globe with a world of productive functionalities. But the fact that it is so sought after makes Magento especially susceptible to attacks from hackers. The platform is offered with a lot of security-related features as well; in fact, it is an inherent part of the package. Unfortunately, hackers can often get creative when they target business, and there’s only so much the platform can protect one’s business against hacking attempts. Thus, the best thing to do is to make sure that you follow industry best practices, for this will help make sure that you can protect your e-commerce platform as well as the wealth of data it beholds in the best possible manner. And to make it a little easier for you, we put together a list of some of the essential security-related tips for your Magento e-commerce store.

Two-factor authentication: Instead of depending on only one password to pretty much protect your entire business, it is vital that you make use of two-factor authentication (2FA) to enhance the Magento website’s safety. The platform itself offers 2FA capabilities that can be used to make sure that only assigned people and those with the proper authority can access the backend of your Magento store. And the best part is that there exist several other such Magento extensions that offer 2FA, which means store owners can rest a little relaxed about the store’s security.
Encrypted SSL connections are essential: Any company operating an e-commerce business must make sure that the data sent by the website is secure, which can be achieved employing SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption for the connection. You see, an unencrypted connection means data, including login credentials, bank account data, and more, can be easily stolen.
Use a strong password: This one may seem obvious, but it is so important that it finds mention on this list. And then there’s also the fact that an unbelievable number of people end up ignoring this aspect. The point is that while you are creating a password for the store’s Admin, make sure that it is at least ten characters long, includes both special characters as well as numbers, and uses alphabets in capital and lowercase.

Magento website development, when done following best practices such as the ones mentioned above, can enable a business to grow at an unprecedented rate and that too without a hitch.

How Business Intelligence Can Transform the Hotel Industry

AppTechBlogger — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 11:41:18 +0000

Today, the world is brimming with countless technologically advanced tools that can transform a business, for the better of course. But there’s one name that seems to be on everyone’s mind these days — business intelligence. Primarily a collection of tools and infrastructure aimed at enabling a company to gather, store, and analyze the data from across all departments and operations, business intelligence serves to convert complex, fractured data into comprehensible insights and reports as well as detailed analysis that then help the organization’s top brass take informed decisions. Considering just what it can do, it isn’t surprising to see that business intelligence has found its way into the hotel industry as well.

Hospitality business intelligence is on the top of everyone’s list in the industry, at least for hotels that intend to forge a seamless path to a flourishing business. A study also found that as many as 96 percent hoteliers and other executives in the industry concede that business intelligence has proven to be extremely handy in the pursuit of their company’s business goals. Unfortunately, there are still some operators who continue to grapple with the decision to take the plunge. So, here’s a list of the top benefits preferred by hotel business intelligence to help you see why it belongs in your strategy as well.

Gain a broader perspective: Business intelligence helps hotels to compare their historical and present-day data with future projections, which, in turn, provides unfettered access to an all-encompassing view of the business. It not only enables more efficient operations but also allows companies to foretell any issues or challenges they are likely to face with the strategies and then take corrective actions.
Explore data in-depth: Yet another compelling benefit of BI is that it enables hotels to explore all their data far more extensively than previously possible. It includes not only guest data, staff data, and more but also things like reservation data, income expense sheets, and data gathered from POS systems. BI puts all of it together in a manner that helps companies identify limitations and deficiencies, if at all, and also introduce improvements in whatever aspects the company may so deem necessary.
Shift to a sustainable business: Among other things, BI helps hotels do things like identify the ROI of each source of transaction, adjust investments in said resources, and save valuable monetary resources in general. In addition to that, business intelligence helps hotels understand precisely where they stand in the market and the areas that offer scope for improvement, especially when compared to their primary rivals in the industry.

Suffice it to say that business intelligence comes loaded with immense potential in the context of the hotel industry. Just think about it — hotels generate a humongous amount of data daily and genuinely can’t stand to operate without a robust tool that can assist them with monitoring costs and keeping an eye on their inventories, supply chain among so many other things. And BI software development, when done right, can help hotels do so much more than make better decisions and cut their costs.

How to Ensure Top Notch Security While Developing an Angular App

AppTechBlogger — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 05:54:27 +0000

When it comes to anything that exists in the digital realm, one of the top questions that come to everyone’s mind is ‘How secure is it?’ The convenience of technology, as well as its many gifts to mankind, is undeniable, but it is, without fail, accompanied by an abundance of concern about security and rightly so. Allow us to explain — most entities in this regard collect crucial and vital details about users, often including sensitive data about their bank accounts, and more if this data was to fall in the hands of infamous elements; there’s just no telling the kind of damage they’d be able to inflict.

Of course, this stands true for all apps, websites, and more,no matter the platform or programming language used to create them. However, in this article, we’ll restrict the scope of the discussion to Angular apps and how one can ensure the highest levels of security while putting together apps with this platform. It is not to say that Angular isn’t an excellent tool for developing robust apps or that it lacks in any way, especially in the context of security. This article is merely a collection of some compelling tips and best practices that can help developers safeguard their Angular app to ensure that their product can continue to deliver optimal performance without being bogged down by security-related issues.

Fend off cross-site scripting: Cross-site scripting attacks, or simply XSS, is when hackers or other entities with malicious intent can inject client-side scripts or other mischievous code into web pages that are visited by users. In this context, Angular uses two methods, sanitize and bypassSecurityTrustX, to deal with untrusted values. So, in the event you need to deactivate this sanitization, make sure that you have thought the decision through and practice ample caution while doing so, for even one vulnerability could inflict severe damage.
Please make use of content security policy: Yet another handy tool one mustn’t forget to use of the Content Security Policy (CSP), which is a supplementary film of security that assists the endeavor in thwarting attacks that aim to damage the website, steal data, distribute malware, and more. CSP helps with both, identifying as well as preventing specific offenses, including data injection and cross-site scripting attacks among others.
Safeguard against cross-site request forgery (XSRF): Also referred to as session riding and one-click attack, XSRF is the type of attack when a user’s trusted web app is used to send unaccredited commands. Prevent such attacks by using the following method: the app server sends an arbitrary verification token through a cookie. The receiving code then reads the cookie and adds a tailored request header in all following request tokens. Finally, the server compares the received cookie’s value against the requested header value and dismisses the request if something is found to be amiss.

Be it an AngularJS application development project you are working on or one involving any other resource; security should never be ignored or underestimated. Also, with tips such as the ones listed above, securing your Angular app is pretty simple.

What Can Big Data do for Cab Aggregators?

AppTechBlogger — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 05:31:51 +0000

Do you remember the last time you had to wait outside your house or apartment complex and wait for a cab to appear magically? Alternatively, the last time you had to call up a taxi service provider and book a cab, say, at least an evening in advance? No, right?. That’s because we have an abundance of cab aggregators in the market today, who, with their utterly convenient apps, have made fretting over finding a taxi a thing of the past. No matter where you need to go, you are mere taps away from a cab waiting at your doorstep, waiting to ferry you to your destination.

This market is undeniably lucrative, which is why the number of service providers in this industry seems to go up rather quickly. While this is great for users, it does translate into a highly competitive market for businesses operating in this space. Thankfully, they have a profusion of data at their disposal. Also, yet they seem to struggle. Why? Simply because they haven’t found the right tool to help them leverage this data to glean insights to serve their customers better. Moreover, before you ask, the machine that we so fervently speak of is big data. Here’s a list of the many ways big data stands to help cab aggregators.

Analytics: Big data empowers the company’s analytics solution to process a literal abundance of data rather quickly, track and manage real-time data from several sources, and offer instant insights and metrics so as to enable executives and managers to make intelligent decisions that serve to boost the business’ growth and better tend to customers’ requirements.

Enhanced business model: A cab aggregator’s data team is tasked with several jobs, including using predictive modeling to improve business. In this context, big data lend valuable assistance by facilitating analysis of both historical as well as statistical data to deliver a significantly better customer experience.

Monitor driver performance: One of the most significant pain points users of taxi services experience is poor service delivered by drivers. As a result, cab aggregators are hard-pressed to figure out an effective and productive way to make sure that the drivers on their platform conform to specified standards and maintain a specific acceptance rate. Here big data helps businesses gauge drivers’ responsiveness and dependability by closely tracking and analyzing factors such as their cancellation rate, wait time, and more. It can then be used to address the problem areas — swiftly and efficaciously.

As you can see, not have we long left behind the age where finding a taxi was more of a game of luck, our new-age cab-hailing apps have evolved to a level where novel resources such as big data are playing an increasingly crucial role. Also, rightly so — look at the transformative impact of such tools on a taxi booking solution, and you would see precisely why such a combination is not only preferred but highly sought after by cab aggregators all over the globe.

Why SharePoint is Just the Tool You Need to Boost Your Business' Productivity

AppTechBlogger — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 05:51:30 +0000

SharePoint, a collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office, has long served as a trusted name when it comes to ensuring a secure space for companies to not only store, but also organize, share, and access information from virtually any device they choose. It is meant to facilitate content management and foster team collaboration. The solution enables smooth document storage and retrieval and collaboration and delivers valuable insights and intelligence -- all of this is rounded off by the provision of enterprise-grade compliance and security.

Cutting a long story short, the goal of SharePoint is to empower any company with employees across the globe to work as seamlessly and with similar levels of coordination and flexibility that is at par with the experience when all employees work out from one office. Despite its standing as one of the leading solutions in the world for enhancing workplace productivity, many businesses still find themselves contemplating if SharePoint indeed stands to benefit their organization. To help answer these common questions, we put together a list of a handful of SharePoint's top benefits that help any company optimize its productivity.

Secure development: With SharePoint, it is effortless to build enhancements for the platform that help fulfill the business's needs. While the platform's standard functionalities are also extremely efficient and productive, it is understandable that a business' unique requirements may necessitate custom solutions. Hence, SharePoint proffers myriad opportunities to tailor the platform by the company and its employees' needs.
Content storage: SharePoint also serves as a repository of documents with a streamlined filing system. It means employees can store everything in one location instead of saving documents on a shared drive or local folders. What's more -- the company has absolute control over who gets to access this repository and the documents stored within it.
Save time: The platform can also automate manual processes and put together electronic forms, thus saving precious time as well as money. One can also leverage SharePoint's workflow abilities to do things such as tracking the progress of projects, receiving approval, receiving signatures, and more. Additionally, it also allows managers to set up time limits as well as reminders for employees to make sure they are always aware of their responsibilities and don't lag in fulfilling them.
Enhanced collaboration: SharePoint supports teamwork by enabling departments to stay connected easily. It allows employees to work together from anywhere and use mobile devices to connect to internal company sites or any other internal resource they might need access to.
Valuable insights: The platform facilitates the creation of standardized reports from an abundance of information gathered from sources such as company invoices, press releases, and budgetary spreadsheets among others. It, in turn, makes analysis easier and, consequently, enables more strategic decision-making.

It is easy to see why SharePoint is considered a leading tool for enhancing business productivity, irrelevant of the industry or market. If you wish to look at how you can also leverage this to your business' advantage, get in touch with a renowned SharePoint website development company, today!

ASP.NET vs Node.js: Which One is Better for Advanced Web App Development?

AppTechBlogger — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 05:44:01 +0000

Web development is evolving at a steady pace, which means there's a consistent inflow of new trends, novel web app languages, frameworks, and more. Then there's also evolving user requirements when it comes digital experiences. When you put this all together, you encounter with one truth: to ensure competitiveness in the app development industry. It is imperative for developers to use the best available tools so they can, in turn, deliver perfect products to users. That takes us to one of the most commonly asked questions in this context: which server-side development platforms should one use?

Currently, there exist two leading names in the market, i.e., ASP.NET and Node.js. They present immense potential for growth. It can, unfortunately, make it very difficult to choose between the two. Then there's also the fact that even though ASP.NET has already carved a niche in the industry, Node.js too is quickly climbing up the charts as a potent alternative. Bigwigs like Groupon, LinkedIn, Netflix, eBay, and Uber have all already been using Node.js to build their respective solutions. So, yes, the choice is understandably tricky.

We'll dive into the specific differences between the two and see if we can conclusively decide which one of them is a better option.

1) Language: ASP.NET makes use of C# as the primary language for development work. Whereas, Node.js uses JavaScript. The advantage of C# is that it provides a stringent type system along with compile-time error checks. And let's not forget that C# is renowned for becoming more expressive and efficacious with every new iteration. On the other hand, JavaScript, which depends on Facebook’s Flow static type checker or Microsoft TypeScript, seems to be currently more favored as compared to C#. However, developers who choose Node.js must first master asynchronous programming, which, by the way, is no easy task.

2) The simplicity of development: As compared to ASP.NET, Node.js offers fewer abstractions. It, in turn, empowers developers to write code with several small components instead of setting up numerous parameters. As a result, Node.js is much more agile when it comes to customizing the code by the solution. Another benefit of Node.js is that it provides native as well as third-party libraries.

However, ASP.NET gets various conventions that allow developers to ensure that their code is not only brief but also readable. Unfortunately, deviating from these rules means they have to use manual configuration, which results in an increased workload for the developer.

3) Scalability: When it comes to the microservices architecture strategy, which delivers superior stability and scalability, Node.js is the ideal choice since its elements are compartmentalized. Furthermore, Node.js tools like Rollbar and the PM2 process manager help identify and monitor errors much more easily.

ASP.NET too has much to offer in the context of scalability -- the framework facilitates the efficient analysis of an extensive amount of user data. Another advantage with ASP.NET is that its scaling-up process requires fewer additional machines than one might presume.

While there are admittedly several more differentiating factors between the two, it is quite easy to see that ASP.NET enterprise application development is the better choice. The framework offers a comprehensive collection of elements for creating high-quality applications and that too efficiently.