DEV Community: Nishtha Singh

It’s Time to Welcome Windows Desktop Apps In .Net Core 3.0

Nishtha Singh — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 11:37:40 +0000

A recent announcement was made by Microsoft on .Net Core 3.0 and it seems to be no less than big break movies. Build developer event in Seattle, Microsoft announced .NET Core 3.0, coming in 2019, with support for Windows desktop applications.

.Net Core is basically an open source, cross-platform version of Microsoft’s .Net technology, allowing several developers to use languages including C#, F# and visual basic on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Being a core part of the Windows-only framework, the tech giant continues to develop both versions since the first release of .Net core back in 2016.

Initially, the version was developed for ASP.Net web applications, as well as being used under the covers by UWP (Universal Windows Platform) applications on Windows 10. In fact, with such inclination of people towards technology desktop applications would continue using the .Net framework. Apart from this, Xamarin has technology based on the older Mono implementation of .NET, targeting iOS, Android, Mac, and Linux.

The tech giant even revealed that ASP.Net will continue to move forward in parallel and will have a release with .NET Core 3.0. And since their commitment to web and cloud applications remain unchanged, adding Windows desktop application as another supported workload won’t be an issue.

Must Read: Check out Avalonia, a Cross-Platform User Interface Toolkit for the .NET Core

Benefits of .NET Core for Desktop

Let’s take a look at certain benefits with .NET Core that are great for desktop apps:

• Performance improvements and other runtime updates that will delight your users
• Super easy in terms of use or test a new version of .Net core for just one app on a machine
• Enables both machine-global and application-local deployment
• Support for the .Net core CLI tools and SDK-style projects in Visual Studio

Now, do you think that .Net is changing? Absolutely not! It isn’t changing with this new version but they have Windows Desktop Packs which are nothing but the support for Windows application on .Net core which will work on the Windows OS only.

Convert existing Desktop applications to .Net Core 3

I have come across many of you asking whether it is possible to convert existing desktop applications to .Net core. Well, it is! It is possible to convert your existing desktop application to .Net Core 3 in the future and this conversion would be straightforward.

All you need to do is:

• Target your existing desktop applications to .Net core 3.0 and simply recompile
• Update all the project files to target .Net core 3
• No need to target the dependencies to .Net Core 3 but there would be additional benefits if you do so.

Sooner or later, it seems that .Net core will become the default for new desktop applications, suggesting that .Net framework is on the way out. In fact, .NET Framework 4.8 is right on its way and Microsoft is willing to integrate both the frameworks with UWP, which means one can access the entire Windows 10 UWP API (also known as the WinRT API), and host UWP XAML controls in both Windows Forms and WPF applications.

For further information and updates, feel free to connect with a reliable .Net development service provider in town.

A Comparison of Two of the Most Popular Programming Languages, C# and Java

Nishtha Singh — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 11:53:36 +0000

Java is one of the most preferred technology and global standard for implementing every kind of app, including web based, client-server, cloud, mobile and enterprise system. Java software development services provide the most reliable technologies that offer a lot of features for building extensive desktop, mobile and web app for valuable clients.

A typical Java web development company has numerous experiences as well as expertise in Java technologies. Java developers possess tech skills for delivering technology and industry-centric services, adhering to CMMi Maturity Level 3 processes that reduce app development time and cost as well as boost software quality.

C# AND JAVA, THE TWO MOST POPULAR PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

Sun was the company that introduced Java. And understandably, when it comes to Java development services, it wanted to control the design and evolution. However, Microsoft also wanted a piece of the action, particularly wanted to change Java in certain ways that suited its requirements. This became a legal nightmare, and eventually Microsoft decided that rather than attempting to influence Java, it simply would design its own language, which is C#. It’s better than Java in certain ways, but also very similar in most ways that once a developer learned how to program in C#, it would be trivial to transfer knowledge to Java.

C# VERSUS JAVA, MAJOR DIFFERENCES

The Java programming language is designed to be run on a Java platform, with the help of the JRE or Java Runtime Environment. On the one hand, the C# language is designed to be run on the CLR or Common Language Runtime.
In Java, built-in data types, which are passed by value are called primitive types. In the C# language, built-in data types passed by value are called simple types.
Java type safety is safe but C# safety is not.
Java does not support conditional compilation. C# on the other hand supports conditional compilation with preprocessor directives.
Arrays in Java are a direct specialization of Object. But Arrays in C# are System specialization.
Java do not support structures and unions, but C# supports unions and structures.
Java does not support go to statement, but C# does.
Java supports both checked and unchecked exception. C# supports the unchecked exception.

MAJOR JAVA PROJECTS

Facebook. The most popular social media also is powered by Java. Facebook makes use of HBase, which is a Java-based No-SQL DB as messaging platform, as well as uses Java in other areas.
eBay. It’s a multinational e-commerce corporation that’s based in San Jose, California, which facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales via its website. The architecture of eBay is based on Java.
Google. It uses Java extensively in Google Plus, High Scalability, GTalk and more.
Amazon. Amazon also uses Java, aside from other languages.
LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented services, which operates via mobile apps and websites. It’s primarily written in Java.

MAJOR C# PROJECTS

Banshee. It is a cross-platform open-source media player. It was the default music player for a year in Ubuntu and some time in Linux Mint, but later on was replaced by Rhythmbox in both distributions.
Visual Studio. The Visual Studio of Microsoft is an integrated development environment from Microsoft. Visual Studio includes a code editor that supports IntelliSense and code refactoring as well.
Paint.net. It is a freeware raster graphics editor program for Microsoft Windows. It is developed on the .NET framework.
Colectica. A suite of programs for use in managing statistical surveys and official statistics using open standards, which enable archivists, researchers. Currently, Colectica is in use by various University survey research groups, such as Longitudinal Studies National Statistics Offices, commercial survey research organizations and data archives.

With so much in common, the language to use ultimately would largely depend on the platform chosen for a project. These days, C# is primarily used on the .NET framework, Portable.NET implementations of the CLI and Mono. If the software or web app is being built for Windows, C# would work best with the .NET suite of technologies. This said, if wanting to develop for Linux, Unix or other platforms outside Microsoft, the big open-source ecosystem of Java is the better choice. The community constantly is creating new tools and libraries.

Neither the Java programming language nor the C# programming language would likely disappear anytime soon. Both programming languages have been around for some time that there really is nothing that could not be built in one that could not be done in the other. The bottom line is that the choice all boils down to the language that works best for the platform of choice for a project.

Why .NET will continue to Rise- Here’s The Answer

Nishtha Singh — Mon, 21 May 2018 08:49:01 +0000

Technology, as most of us put in, is a continuous process of evolution and not revolution. IT industry may seem quite disruptive and appears to be changing on the constant basis where tectonic technology shifts have been rare, Microsoft .Net continues to rise.

The .Net framework technology has been around since the 1990s. I am sure you must be wondering how technology that first was created then still can be relevant now. In 2015, according to the world economic forum, it was predicted that would be no longer the Internet of Things, but the Internet of Everything. With so much changing, what remains the same in the world of technology? No matter how things might change, but there are certain elements that will remain the same. And .Net technology is one of those old behemoths that has only continued to gain in relevance over time.

Azure and .NET go hand in hand

Cloud is the ultimate future, isn’t it! And in that case, the future is already here! Azure immediately appears to businesses that are mainly based on Microsoft’s platforms. But it turns out to be an incredible mix of .NET products on Azure that is incredibly attractive for businesses.

A future-focused and competitive CIO can immediately spot the effortless partnership that .NET has with Azure. For example, handling tasks asynchronously has been made simple as .NET has enhanced the VB and C# programming languages.

Interoperability made easier with .NET

Earlier this March, at the Windows Developer Day event, Microsoft announced two editions of Windows 10 IoT, it said that it would help developers build applications for IoT connected devices in an easy and efficient manner.

As a result, interoperability not only becomes simpler to implement but also quite safer with software built on .Net. The Azure IoT suite’s set of open source SDKs, for instance, offers the flexibility of open source while offering incredible development speed along with advanced security features.

Mobile development with .NET solutions

Previously, developers use to struggle a lot when they aimed to develop mobile apps based on .NET but today, the scenario is entirely different. .Net technology has become more and more versatile than ever. And developing a .Net-based mobile app is perfect for businesses wanting to reach a wide user base through a single device or looking to create rich user experiences.

For example, the Telerik UI can be incorporated easily with .NET allowing for must-have features like drag-and-drop facilitating an enhanced user experience.

.NET guarantees safety

Check out India’s Passport Seva website that is built using the .Net technology.
The site speaks about its near airtight security. When data security and cyber attacks are on the top of CIO’s minds everywhere, .NET continues to be a ‘comfort’ framework because of its high-end security features. In addition to this, MVC architecture has a SoC approach, which makes it infinitely easy to make scalable apps and integrate with your business’ existing applications safely.

Diversity and versatility are two enduring aspects of .NET that continues to make it extremely appealing to enterprises. And with high-performing frameworks like ASP.Net, MVC and Web API used in conjunction with database systems like SQL Server and Azure Document DB, .NET is a forceful suite for a wide range of industries from finance (mortgage solutions) to education (e-learning portals) to transportation (real-time transport updates).

Down below I would like to sum up the post by offering three primary reasons why businesses will continue to rely on a .NET development companies well into the future:

Scalability and speed- It’s pretty hard to argue against the cost and time benefits of a website built on MVC architecture
Security- E-commerce shopping cart solutions simply can’t survive if there are loopholes. Dot NET is critical in identifying and plugging those loopholes
Consistency- NET technologies are optimized for multiple platforms. With .NET, businesses can access a consistent programming model that still manages to keep up with today’s advances.

Everything You Need To Know About Salesforce Certification

Nishtha Singh — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 07:23:25 +0000

Being a huge platform, SalesForce is recognized by all developers, admins, consultants, customers across the globe. And this is the reason why it requires to provide different kind of certifications to recognize the skills and expertise. But what many of us don’t know is how Salesforce certification is done appropriately. I am sure you are curious about questions like:

In case, if you are a marketing expert or specialist then who has the vision for marketing their product?
If you have studied architect then who masterminds high-performance technical frameworks?
Are you an administrator? If so, who keeps Salesforce running smoothly with the admin levels?
Are you a Developer, who builds new apps to extend capabilities and customize the default features?

So whatever your role is, each and every goal can be easily achieved by simply getting certified. Or else you can even think of getting in touch with a Salesforce development service provider in UK who has the potential to serve nearly every possible niche solutions out there.

Salesforce Administrator- This certification exam, in particular, is intended for an individual who is not a newbie and has gained an adequate amount of experience in running Salesforce smoothly with all the admin levels as a Salesforce Administrator.
Salesforce Advanced Administrator- Approaching for this certification in particular means you have an advanced-level expertise in admin levels of Salesforce. In addition to this, you also need to opt for prerequisite certification with Salesforce administrator exam.
Salesforce Platform App Builder- This certification is mainly built for those who can build as well as design custom apps using the capabilities of the force.com platform.
Platform Developer I- This kind of certification is built for those who have the basic knowledge in building custom declarative and programmatic apps on the Force.com platform with their skills, and experience in Coding. It’s a mixture of coding skills with some of the custom defined automation.
Platform Developer II- As the name implies itself, this certification is built for those having advanced knowledge and skills in the programmatic capabilities. For this, you have to prerequisite certification with platform developer I exam. The one stated above.
Data Architecture and Management Designer- Do you think you have the ability to design, scalable and high-performing solutions for the architecture environment, of course on the force.com platform? If so you can opt for this certification as it is related to enterprise data management.
Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer- This certification, in particular, is built for those who estimate the requirements and develop the architectural environment and then implement the management solutions to meet the requirements.
Identity and Access Management Designer- Do you love evaluating the architecture environment and designing, scalable, high-performing solutions that meet the Single Sign-on (SSO) requirements? If so, then this certification is fit for you!
Integration Architecture Designer- Built for those who calculate and estimate the environment architecture to design and high-level technical solutions that meet end-to-end integration process.
Mobile Solutions Architecture Designer- This certification, in particular, is built for those who have the quality of the architectural environment, design and implement the mobile solutions to meet the requirements.
Sharing and Visibility Designer- This certification is built for those who evaluate the architectural environment, requirements and design and technical solutions to meet sharing and visibility requirements.
Technical Architect- Having high skills in design secure, knowledge of multiple development platforms and high-performance technical solutions is all that is required to acquire this certification by simply clearing application architect and system architect exam.
Community Cloud Consultant- If you have experience in implementing and consulting on the community’s applications then this certification is apt for you. Don’t forget to give the administrator exam.
Marketing Cloud Consultant- Built for those who can set up and implement Salesforce marketing cloud email app tools that is meant to provide solutions to a variety of email campaigns. And for this, you also need to apply for prerequisite certification with the marketing cloud email specialist exam.
Pardot Consultant- As the name implies, this is built for those who have experience implementing Pardot for customers business requirements.
Sales Cloud Consultant- Are you well experienced in implementing Sales Cloud with their roles, successful designs and implementing solutions? If so, get the Sales Cloud Consultant certification right away.
Marketing Cloud Social Specialist- This certification is built for those who have experience in implementing their knowledge and skills using the components of Social Studio for post creation, management and analysis of conversations and reporting.

Check out Avalonia, a Cross-Platform User Interface Toolkit for the .NET Core

Nishtha Singh — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 07:17:14 +0000

An often-cited hole in the ecosystem of .NET Core is the lack of any true cross-platform user interface or UI toolkit. Although there have been attempts on a multi-platform toolkit before, like Xamarin and Silverlight forms, no one has yet achieved full XAML-style cross-platform option. Avalonia makes the attempt with plans of supporting Windows .NET and .NET Core, MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

While the principle inspiration is the WPF or the Windows Presentation Foundation, this isn’t a direct port of the toolkit. Some major change are made in the design, which include how styles work. With Avalonia, styles work more like CSS, with selectors and style classes being able to cascade and overlap. In contrast, the Windows Presentation Foundation only enables a single style per control. Meaning that Avalonia must be able to minimize the need for duplicative styles. Instead of triggers, Avalonia uses pseudo-classes, like ‘.pointeroer’ for hover effects. Other pseudo classes are :disabled, :focus, :pressed for buttons, :checked for checkboxes and others.

The styles of Avalonia could be bound only to a StyledProperty. This is analogous to the DependenyPropety of WPF with the same basic pattern. Attached properties also are supported.

An interesting feature that developers of an Asp.Net development company will find interesting indeed is the data binding syntax. A support for asynchronous operations. For instance, Avalonia could bind to the result of a Task or IObservable operation that is not supported in other XAML-based user interface toolkits.

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM A BIGGER OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY

Although a lot of progress has been made, there are only three developers doing most of the work. Accordingly, they’re calling on the bigger open source community to pitch in where they can. Developers, those working in a .NET software company or even those working freelance could all chip in and contribute.

AVALONIA IN THE ALPHA STAGE

Avalonia is in alpha now. This means that the framework now is a stage where one could have a play and create simple apps hopefully. There’s still a lot missing, one would find bugs and the API would change. However, this represents the first time that it’s made somewhat easy to have a play and experiment with the framework.

HISTORY OF AVALONIA

Many years ago, before WPF was the Windows Presentation Foundation and introduced XAML as the UI markup language for .NET, there was a project, which was codenamed ‘Avalon’. It was the codename of the WPF. Now, XAML is everywhere and the XAML Standard is a vocabulary specification.

Avalonia is an open source project, which clearly takes inspiration from Avalon and has an unapologetic love for XAML. Steven Kirk and a team of almost 50 contributors are asking what a cross-platform .NET UI framework look like. Avalonia, known formerly as Perspet is a multi-platform .NET UI framework. It’s important to note that while Avalonia may smell like WPF, it is not WPF however. It’s not cross-platform WPF, but it’s Avalonia. It does styles in a different manner than WPF and actually has plenty of subtle yet considerable syntax enhancements.

SOME MAJOR FEATURES IN THE RELEASE

1. Deferred Rendering. It renders to a low-level scenegraph on the UI thread, that’s then rendered to the window on a separate render thread. This greatly enhances the rendering performance, especially when animations are involved and also provides proper hit-testing of controls. Nevertheless, the old renderer is available still as the ImmediateRenderer class for those who want to render everything each frame.

2. Monomac-based Backend. A new Monomac-based backend for Mac OSX platforms. The new backed makes use of Cocoa window dialogs that make the application appear more native.

3. Relative Source Syntax Sugar. Introduced shorthand to bind to other controls relative to control being bound. In WPF, this is achieved through using the RelativeSource syntax on a binding.

4. Drawings. A convenient ways of creating vector icons, used by WPF. The Visual Studio Image Library gives a lot of icons as Drawings. Furthermore, there are other tools that could produce them. They’re more lightweight than Shape controls because they’re not part of the visual tree.

5. New Previewer with .NET Core support in Visual Studio extension. A new previewer architecture that should enable making designers for non-windows platforms. The new architecture uses a TCP transport protocol that communicates between the app and the designer in a platform-independent way. Still it has an option to embed the HWND that is used by the Visual Studio extension, but the default one would transfer rendered bit map data through TCP.

6. Added Control.Resources, StaticResource and DynamicResource. The new features are designed to follow WPF.UWP as closely as possible. Each control has its own Resources dictionary.

7. Calendar Control. Ported Silverlight Calendar control to Avalonia for all calendaring needs.

8. WPF integration. Added a seamless WPF integration. One could embed Avalonia controls in the WPF app with no need to crate native windows and with full layout integration that is allowed by the fact that the layout systems of WPF and Avalonia are almost the same.

Some other features

Other interesting features introduced in the release:

Buttons disabled when there’s a null in binding chain for Command
Upgrade ReactiveUI to the V8 alpha
Added FindAncestor binding mode
Tooltip: IsOpen, placement, offset
Switched to .NET Standard 2.0
Screen implementation
Added ShowTask bar icon implementation
Added orientation and IsIndeterminate properties to ProgressBar
Removed Cairo and GTK2 support
Add Vertical orientation option for PageSlide animations
Added AppBuilder methods for logging
Implemented three states on CheckBox, ToggleButton and RadioButton
PortableXAML

A whole range of dot net development services are available to cater to the various Asp.NET development requirements of businesses and other organizations wherever they may be in the world.

Why Business Organizations should Prioritize Mobile App Development in 2018

Nishtha Singh — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 10:33:02 +0000

Mobilization is a chance to add liquidity to stationary business processes, which is achieved with the advent of mobile technology. Mobile tech facilitates unparalleled and wider reach to the target audience, with the help of a mobile app design company. It could boost the service of any organization through better communication and cooperation among staff as well as support business transformation opportunities within the company.

App development companies London use their expertise in delivering services from individuals to organizations to leverage mobility of the workforce in their daily operations and allow them to reach the maximum crowd via the application.

WHY A BUSINESS SHOULD PRIORITIZE MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT THIS YEAR
The ubiquity of mobile phones means that it will be remiss to not prioritize learning programming languages for mobile application development. Mobile developers constantly are racing to keep up with the trends in the technology world and adapt skills accordingly. It is a type of program-or-perish principle. The cutting-edge nature of technology draws many people towards the industry, but is also means that things are constantly in a state of flux.

Each new innovation would contribute to the changing demand from demographics, be it clients or users. If there is any trend that people should keep an eye on, then it would be mobile app development.

THE BOOMING MOBILE COMMERCE
This year, mobile commerce or m-commerce accounts for over 31 percent of the total sales, in comparison to 10 percent sales back in 2012. This alone should be an indicator of the amazing growth of mobile commerce. Aside from that, the mobile conversion rates have shot up to 30 percent every year. One-page checkouts as well as digital wallets, like Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Stripe Checkout and PayPal One touch, all have been a big boon, bumping the conversion rate to 10 percent ad making decent progress to eradicating oft-cited concern with m-commerce, such as the tendency of consumers to be frustrated with clumsy buying processes and abandon the transaction halfway through. This, and the fact that mobile app interfaces are boosting as coding practices morph to meet the unique needs of the software, means that mobile commerce will only grow in size.

MAKING MONEY WITH MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT
All major app stores, like the Google Android Market, Apple App Store, Nokia Ovi Store, and RIM’s App World and so on, already have made billions in terms of profit in the last few years. Mobile applications now emerged as one of the best and easiest ways of advertising and selling services and products, encourage social sharing of information and in general, inspire mobile users to the development and maintaining brand loyalty.

The mobile application development market is huge and offers big scope for app developers and organizations to succeed beyond expectation, through making very minimal investment.

THE APPLICATION INDUSTRY IS ITS OWN ECONOMY
It’s important to be cognizant of how the commerce trends impact the demands of businesses and clients alike, who probably would be starting to feel pressure in deploying a storefront application for their businesses. Without question, this is a direction that business organizations will be taking into consideration, and one which should be considered by a developer.

In a lot of ways, any modern programmer or develop should already have a lot of skills required to adapt to the growing application industry. Java consistently is ranked as the most popular programming language for a reason, but worth looking into language trends.

In May of last year, Google announce that it’s adding Kotlin, which runs on the Java VM, as the official programming language for Android development. Many touted Kotlin as a response to some of the hardest-to-grasp Java elements. A lot of developers also are excitedly wanting to learn Swift, a language for developing native MacOS or iOS applications. It’s influenced heavily by Python and Ruby, which means that it would be pretty user-friendly and not very far remoe4d from what an average developer would know already.

Although not entirely pertaining to applications, it’s good to develop a robust foundation in some cutting-edge technologies, like augmented reality, deep learning methods and AI. Already, there’s substantial evidence that application consumers enjoy these capabilities. Being able to personalize content is top priority for mobile commerce developers.

TOP THREE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY TRENDS IN 2018
This year, there will be loads of new opportunities to rock the world. The tree greatest mobile technology trends this year are the following.

Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality. AR is a live direct or indirect view of a real, physical world environment, whose elements are ‘augmented’ through computer-generated or extracted real-world sensory input, like video, graphics, sound, haptics or GPS data. VR is a computer technology, which uses virtual reality headsets of multi-projected environments, at times in combination of physical environments to generate realistic images, which simulate the physical presence of a user in an imaginary or virtual environment.

Mobile AR could be the key driver of $108 billion VR/AR market by 2021, with AR taking on the lion’s share of $83 billion, and VR for $25 billion.

Internet of Things. Soon, everything would be connected with small devices, thus bringing information where one is standing. These information also would be tapped right where it’s being generated to empower a data center that uses edge computing technology. Smart objects would be interacting with smart phones and tables, which eventually would function like a TV remote, which displays and analyzes data, interfacing social networks for monitoring ‘things’ that could post or tweet.
Blockchain. It is a decentralized, digitized, public ledger of all crypto-currency transactions. Growing constantly as ‘completed’ blocks are recorded and added to it in chronological order, enabling market participants to track digital currency transactions minus central record keeping. Every node gets a copy of the blockchain, that’s automatically downloaded.

Now is a wonderful time to be a developer, with the rise in the demand for app developers jobs.

Harnessing the Power of Big Data with Custom Software Application Development

Nishtha Singh — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 06:23:16 +0000

A custom software application development UK works with clients to understand their requirements and needs and perform custom app development on a timely manner in order to meet client demands. Custom software, known also as bespoke or tailor-made software is software that is developed specially for some particular organization or other user. As such, it could be contrasted with using software packages that are developed for the mass market, like as commercial off-the-shelf software.

A custom or tailored software in general produce the most efficient system, since it could provide support for the particular needs of a business, which may not be available in an off-the-shelf solution and provide bigger efficiency or better service to customers. Businesses could tailor the software to what customers want, rather than having to select a package, which caters for a generic market.

HARNESSING THE POWER OF BIG DATA WITH CUSTOM SOFTWARE
The power of Big Data could be harnessed with custom software application. Big data is now a strategic asset for a lot of organizations in various industries. Efficient operations more and more rely on the effective use of the huge amounts of both structured and unstructured data. Data that come from sources beyond internal databases could add considerable value as well as competitive advantages. Nevertheless, with the exponential data growth, it becomes hard to process it with the use of database management tools, together with traditional data processing apps.

The processing of big data, storage and analysis turned out be very complicated for big-scale enterprises. Companies that plan to exploit the Big Data benefits often face the challenge of developing efficient, stand-alone solution for operating humongous unstructured data volumes that is secure, cost-efficient and addresses particular business requirement. Even before Big Data came about, software consultancy services in London have been developing corporate-wide analytics and business critical solutions for companies that are trying to use big amounts of structured and unstructured data effectively, from different sources. They combine comprehensive, multi-industry experience with innovative approach to storing Big Data, data analysis and processing techniques development.

A software development company London works in harmony with the clientele to understand business and processes and suggests the right software solutions. Software development centers have a team of skilled and experienced resources who could develop and deliver tailored quality solutions as per the budget of the client. With software development consulting services, a lot of customers experienced minimized cost and risk, together with a faster return on investment. The software development team of experienced developers help enterprises with the best services and deliver them all over the world, tailoring business requirements and budget.

CUSTOM APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT SERVICE PROVIDERS
There are numerous custom software developers today that develop apps for meeting client requirements with integration of big data analytics. Big Data is being overused and abused by marketers. It’s not about having tons of data, but about the combination of both structured and unstructured data to have new insights that in the past were not possible. A data analytics software change the game for small and huge businesses alike Rather than using small focus groups as well as general demographics for extrapolating target market activities, now modern companies are able to access specific information and plenty of it, about employees and customers, which help fine tune sales and marketing and drive increased ROI too.

The digital transformation helps organizations embrace a culture of change and stay competitive in the worldwide market. Data analytics allow companies to make strategic, meaningful adjustments, which maximize results and minimize costs as well. Digital transformation is not complete unless a business will adopt large data.

HE BIG DATA REVOLUTION IN CUSTM SOFTWARE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
Big data has become an important partner in designing custom software solutions. Custom software developers use big data to build systems that are well-designed. It seems that the partnership of large companies with custom application developers holds unlimited potentials for software and big data. Big data and analytics has altered the way the world does business. Furthermore, it has changed how business organizations analyze their customers and the market in general. Custom application development offers the most refined data collection tools. It simultaneously uses big data to improve the customer experience. Most of all, custom applications help an enterprise to stand out among its competition.

It could be said that big data analytics plays a big role in software solutions development. As the requirements continue to evolve and new technologies are built, software systems and solutions and cloud storage would be more relevant. Big data makes sense to developers since it creates value out of a huge perceived waste.

It’s Time to Practice Better Code Handling with PHP 7.2

Nishtha Singh — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 12:39:55 +0000

According to the latest reports, around 89% of websites are based on PHP making it incredibly popular across the globe. Not to mention that it is free and requires no licensing fee, so anyone (with some programming knowledge) can use it. When it comes to speaking about its features and advantages, I can simply go on and on. But that doesn’t mean it does not possess any kind of vulnerability. Hackers and bots will try to exploit these weaknesses and gain access to your website, so it’s important to first know what these are.

Some of the common PHP Vulnerabilities include

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) - This happens when a hacker manages to create a link and get someone with a privileged access (like an administrator) to click on this link. A typical CSRF attack is when this link manages to create a new “admin” user with an already existing password.

SQL Injection (SQLi) - SQL Injection, in general, occurs when the hacker sends his own instructions to your database and it executes them. The blame here usually falls on the PHP developer, who has not checked the input from a visitor for malicious code before passing it on to the database.

Authentication Bypass- There are times when developers mistakenly validate that a visitor has the proper access level. And this usually happens with the function “is_admin(). Where most of the developers think that user is the admin, when in fact, they are just viewing an admin page and are not an actual administrator. The result of this mistake is that non-admin users now have access to features only admins should be able to see.

Remote and Local File Inclusion (RFI and LFI) - Remote File Inclusion (RFI) and Local File Inclusion (LFI) are two more common PHP vulnerabilities. RFI is when a PHP application receives input such as an URL and passes it to a function designed to load a file. And Local File Inclusion (LFI) is when the attacker can get access to the wp-config.php file.

Well, as PHP web developer you will find numerous ways to defend Against Security Vulnerabilities, for example: testing the code as soon as you develop it, be consistent with your code and methods, front-end tests, unit testing, sanitization handlers, Database Handler Classes, Framework Usage and of course upgrading to PHP 7.2.0.

Introducing PHP 7.2.0

As the second feature update to the PHP 7 series, the PHP development team has come up with the release of 7.2.0. As expected, you will come across a wide range of improvement and features. Some of which include the ability to convert numeric keys in object/array casts, object typehint, counting of non-countable objects, and HasContext as Object. However, that’s not all! The latest version even improves TLS constants to sane values. The Mycrypt extension has been removed and new sodium extension has been added.

Released on November 30, the version offers a variety of security features such as:

• The Argon2 algorithm for securely hashing passwords addresses downsides of current algorithms in that it was designed for the highest memory filling rate.
• The available Libsodium cryptography library, for authenticated encryption, is now a core extension. The library also offers high-speed elliptic cryptography. 
• SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security) constants have been improved.
• The Mcrypt cryptography library extension has been removed. PHP’s developers have said Mcrypt has inhibited the growth of the PHP language and serves as “abandonware.”

Other improved programming features included were:

Conversion of numeric keys in object/array casts addresses an issue with the Zend Engine, which powers PHP 7. The engine has had cases where array hash tables can contain numeric strings while object hash tables can have integer keys. In such cases, PHP code can’t find the keys. With the fix in PHP 7.2, keys of arrays or object hash tables are converted as appropriate, so numeric string property names in objects become integer array keys and vice versa, solving the issue of inaccessible properties.

With the help of object type hints, one can easily fix a situation in which a developer can’t declare a function that needs to be passed an object as a parameter or declare that a function should return an object. The fix uses an object as a parameter type and as a return type.

HashContext as Object migrates the hash extension to use an object extension for hash contexts instead of using resources.

A new warning has been added when calling the count () function with a parameter that is a scalar, a parameter that is null, or an object that does not implement the Countable interface.

So that’s all for now! Keep watching the space to know more!

True Significance of Testing For Distributed Software

Nishtha Singh — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 09:32:25 +0000

Distributed systems can be especially difficult to program, for a variety of reasons, i.e. right from designing to managing work and above all difficult to test. Now testing any normal system even under the best of circumstances means you are entitled to find bugs in your way. No matter how tongue-twisting it may sound, take all the standard issues, multiply them by multiple processes written in multiple languages running on multiple boxes, there is potential for a real disaster to occur.

As software testers, we often hear that tests are important. With the help of automated testing one can easily minimize the number of bugs released to production, helps prevent regression, improves code quality, supplements documentation, and makes code reviews easier. In a nutshell, it is the duty of a tester to save the business money by increasing system uptime and keeping developers working on new features instead of fighting fires.

Any software that is not run entirely on one computer is known as Distributed software. Almost all web applications are distributed software these days. Right from remote data stores, internal REST APIs to third-party APIs, content delivery networks etc are servers on which these applications rely on. Moreover, the concept of distributed software is something that presents new challenges and requires a thoughtful approach to software testing.

The following post discusses general strategies for testing distributed systems, i.e. End-to-End Testing

One of the common yet crucial pitfalls in the world of testing is to check input and output from a single system. Many professionals tend to overlook these kinds of issues and end up creating a lot of problems later. A simple distributed system comprises of three parts: one collects data, one collects all of the data into consistent messages and one that receives the data and stores it for later retrieval.

No matter how easily tests can be written for each component, things can go wrong from one end to another. Errors such as the order and timing of data arrival can be a bit tricky causing all sorts of bugs. In order to address the problem in a good way, one can easily think of making all components so that they can be run locally. By doing this, you will have a control over when instances of the system elements are brought up and shut down, which is difficult when the elements are spread across different machines. Apart from this, you can co-locate processes on the same box and run them in virtual machines which provides the same functionality as running them on the same machine.

Furthermore, you may also encounter scenarios in which you have access to only a single component of a distributed system. For example, you could be writing a third-party system that collates data from a variety of different sources to assemble data for a user. In such circumstances, Simulators turns out to be one of the most valuable tools that could help in developing as well as debugging system components. However, I personally would like to advise you to be aware of their limitations and don't rely on them too heavily.

Conclusion

I hope the strategies outlined in this article might provide some help in testing systems more effectively.

Keep Your SharePoint As Secure As Your Bank’s

Nishtha Singh — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 12:30:46 +0000

No matter how much we have an insatiable appetite for evolution and adaptation; fears remain a significant barrier especially when it comes to moving data into the cloud. Several companies are still figuring out how they will migrate their sprawling on-premises SharePoint environments to SharePoint online. Even after successful migration of the content, chances are there that the projects end in disaster especially if companies fail to apply proper security, compliance and governance controls to sensitive data. A recent study found that 90% of decision makers believe that an increase in cloud services will result in a greater probability of a breach occurring.

Cloud has been around for a number of years, still, a lot of IT pros remain skeptical about the compliance standards of their cloud provider, i.e. the smaller cloud-based tools. Now for those who have no idea regarding the cloud security, must know that it depends mainly on two things-

~ Provider
~ How you manage your company’s access and usage of the environment?

Let’s take an example of Office 365 and SharePoint Online

At Microsoft, the corporation has a pretty good track record for cloud security. Moreover, their trust center keeps you updated with all the latest buzz and information about how the company is managing the cloud. Somehow, responsibility also falls you down as different companies have access to its own compliance center where it can manage as well as change the security settings.

What Are the Main Security Issues Related to SharePoint Online?

SharePoint Online being a part of Office 365 is operated as the ‘cloud version’ of the SharePoint technology. One of the biggest advantages of using any cloud-based solutions is that it reduces the need for you to host and maintain a server in-house. Which means your IT staff will be spending less time on maintenance and more time on operations.

Now while storing a data on the cloud, chances are there that you may lose some control over how those servers are managed and maintained. This could make IT managers a bit in trouble. Well, that doesn’t mean SharePoint online is a risky platform. It is a safe bet to say that Microsoft’s data centers have better firewalls and greater general protection than the servers in the basement of your building.

In addition to this, storing data in the cloud means it becomes easier for anyone with a password to access your environment and take your data, i.e. they don’t have to be physically in the same building as your servers.

So how can entrepreneurs survive and thrive with nerve-wracking challenges and rewarding outcomes?

3 Tips to Manage your SharePoint Online Security

Tip #1 Sharing your SharePoint Online Content with external/third-party users

Before the inception of SharePoint 2013, adding external users to the environment would turn out as a pretty complex process. One required to add them on the individual basis in order to an active directory or consult a well-founded SharePoint development company regarding the same.

With Office 365, things started working better. Now SharePoint content can be shared with external users in one of three ways-

~ Sites can be shared using a Microsoft Office 365 ID or Microsoft Account
~ Individual documents can be shared using a Microsoft Office 365 ID or Microsoft Account
~ A direct guest link can be sent to documents in order to grant anonymous access to the specific ones

Earlier, there used to be a limit on the number of external users within an office 365 site, but Microsoft recently announced that the limit on the number of external users has been removed. Great, isn’t it!

Tip #2 Manage Group Permissions in SharePoint Online

For a long time- security settings in SharePoint on-premises applied either to individual users or to SharePoint groups. One of the major differences is that it’s much easier to manage permissions for groups. For instance, when a number of sites have to be shared with the HR department which can be done either by giving permission to each of the users or by sharing the data with a group.

Now when an HR employee leaves, they need to revoke their permission on the individual basis. Whereas managing permissions for a group, the user simply needs to be removed from that group.

In SharePoint Online, the same logic applies – so just make sure you’re doing this consistently and have a process in place for when an employee leaves the company.

Tip #3 The Office 365 Trust Center

The company is very well aware regarding the fact that perception of trust is one of the biggest problems with storing data in the cloud. Data stored in "on-premises" systems can be secured by internal IT personnel, which allows for a better level of confidence, even if such solution still includes some degree of risk. Which is actually a worrying prospect.

In order to help, Microsoft has created a standalone site called the ‘Office 365 Trust Center’, which covers everything regarding security. This includes:

~ Physical security: Can people walk in and out at data centers? How are the buildings physically secured?
~ Logical security: How are servers configured, what network security is applied, what kind of auditing is implemented?
~ Data security: How is the actual data secured? In case, if someone gains access to the database, will they able to read your data?

End Notes

Security is a major concern for companies using cloud-based solutions such as Office 365. It is considered as the most secure and is almost certainly safer than most companies’ standard firewalls. Of course, it’s true that using SharePoint Online opens you up to different kinds of risks, but the tools it provides mean system admins and users should be able to control data effectively.