Tech Guides - CMS and E-Commerce

Static sites are back and stronger than ever. A large number of businesses have realized the importance of sticking to trendy, beautiful, static websites which have less hassle of server maintenance and security exploits. For example, Nest and MailChimp, prominent design companies, are using static site generators for their primary websites. Vox Media has built an entire publishing system around Middleman static site generator. A static website contains Web pages coded in HTML, with fixed content, so they look same to every user. These websites are made using static site generators, which automate the process of creating websites, with minimal coding required from developers. If you’re looking to implement static sites in your next business project, we have compiled a list of the top 5 static site generators to help you design interactive and fast websites. Before we dive in, first let’s understand when choosing static sites makes sense. Why choose static sites? Static sites typically take the content stored in flat files as opposed to dynamic sites where databases serve as content stores. This content is applied against templates and is used to generate a structure of static HTML files. These static files function as the website for the users. Agreed, they lack real-time content and have limited functionalities. But these static sites come in real handy when you want to avoid the hassle of server maintenance while also keeping your pocket light. Not to mention, they are the best option available when your product doesn’t require timely upgrades. Another important factor which contributes to their popularity is the ability to be indexed easily by Google search engines. Since Google has indicated site speed to be one of the signals used to rank pages, static sites have truly shined through. With pure HTML static websites, you have total control over your SEO, and the HTML and CSS are fully understood by search engines. Unlike dynamic websites, you don’t need a special plugin to manage your SEO or need to optimize page load time. Static sites are fast loading, secure, and most importantly, well prepared for traffic surges. This is why their popularity is only surging with the growth of publishing content online. Now that I have ignited your interest to make your next website static, let’s look at some frameworks for building these sites. Static site generators have exploded in popularity in recent years, with a total of more than 100,000 stars for static website generator repositories. Hence, navigating the wide range of choices can be difficult. Here are my top five picks to get you started. Jekyll: The most mature player Jekyll is perhaps the most mature and popular static site generator (Quite obvious from the Github stars). It is built with Ruby and is typically used for transforming plain texts into static websites and blogs. It takes a directory filled with text files, renders that content with Markdown and Liquid templates, and generates a publish-ready static website. Jekyll comes with a big bonus of being natively supported by GitHub pages. So you can easily deploy your site using GitHub for absolutely free. It also has a huge community and wide array of plugins, making it easier for Wordpress and Drupal developers to import content. Hugo: The fastest player Blazingly fast, Hugo is a static HTML and CSS website generator built around Google’s Go programming language. It is optimized for speed, ease of use, and configurability. As with Jekyll, Hugo takes a directory of text files and templates, albeit written in Go, and generates them into a full HTML website. It is extremely fast with build times less than 1 ms per page It is cross-platform, with easy installation on macOS, Linux, Windows, and more. It renders changes on the fly with LiveReload as you develop. It provides full i18n support for multi-language sites. Hexo: The One-command player Hexo is a powerful framework built with Node.js. It offers super fast rendering even for extremely large sites. Hexo is highly extensible as it offers support for GitHub flavored Markdown and most Octopress plugins. It has a One-command deployment to GitHub Pages, Heroku, and other sites. Hexo also features a powerful plugin system. You can install more plugins for Jade, CoffeeScript plugins and many Jekyll plugins with minor adjustments. Gatsby: The multi-tasker Gatsby is a static site generator for React. It is optimized for speed as it loads only critical parts for fast loading. Once loaded, Gatsby prefetches resources for other pages so that clicking around the site feels incredibly fast. Gatsby.js can also be used to generate static Progressive Web apps. It does automatic routing based on the directory structure. The HTML code is generated server-side and additional code need not be included for configuring the router. Gatsby has a pre-configured Webpack-based build system and allows easy data integration from CMSs, SaaS services, APIs, databases, and file systems. VuePress: The new player VuePress, the new player in town, is a minimalistic static site generator powered by Vue.js. VuePress creates a single-page application with pre-rendered static HTML from a Markdown file. This markdown file is powered by Vue, VueRouter, and Webpack. It is composed of two parts: A theming system A default theme optimized for writing technical documentation. This default theme has a header-based search, customizable navbar and sidebar, optional homepage, auto-generated Github link and Page edit links. VuePress also comes with integrated Google Analytics and multi-language support. Here's a short table summarising all static site generators. Static Site Generator GitHub stars Languages Templates Features Jekyll 34k + Ruby Liquid - Most mature and popular - Supported by GitHub pages - A wide array of Plugins Hugo 25k + Go Go - Extremely fast - Cross-platform - Renders changes on the fly - Full i18n support for multi-language sites. Hexo 22k + Javascript EJS, Pug - Highly extensible - One-command deployment - Powerful plugin system Gatsby 21k + Javascript React - Optimized for speed - Generates static PWA - A pre-configured Webpack-based build system VuePress 7k + (growing fast) Javascript Vue - Theming system - Default theme - Google analytics support - Multi-Language support   Apart from these, you also have Next, GitBook, Nuxt, Pelican, among others as some of the other static site generators to choose from. Before going with your choice of static site generator, you need to first make an informed decision on whether or not a static site is right for your next project. Consider your website needs and the kind of business you’re running. If your website has too much going on, it may be killing your traffic. In such cases having a fast, secure and beautiful static site is much more beneficial than a massive, unwieldy dynamic website. Firefox 60 arrives with exciting updates for web developers: Quantum CSS engine, new Web APIs and more [news] Get ready for Bootstrap v4.1; Web developers to strap up their boots [news] How to create a generic reusable section for a single page based website [tutorial]

On-demand apps almost came as a movement in the digital world and transformed the way we avail services and ready-to-use business deliverables. -E-commerce stores like Amazon and eBay were the first on-demand apps and over time the business model penetrated across other niches. Now, from booking a taxi ride online to booking food delivery to booking accommodation in a distant city, on-demand apps are making spaces for every different customer interaction. As these on-demand apps are gradually building the foundation for a fully-fledged on-demand economy, the future of e-commerce will depend on how new and cutting-edge features are introduced and how the user experience can be boosted with new UI and UX elements. But before taking a look into the future of on-demand e-commerce, it is essential to understand the evolution of the on-demand apps in recent years.   Let us have a brief look at various facets of this ongoing evolution.   Mobile-push for change: Already mobile search has surpassed desktop search in both volume and frequency. Moreover, mobile has become a lifestyle factor allowing instant access to services and contents. It is a mobile device’s round the clock connectivity and ease of keeping in constant touch that has made it a key to the thriving on-demand economy.   Overwhelming Social Media penetration: The penetration of social media across all spheres of life has helped people staying connected while communicating almost on anything and everything, giving businesses a never-before opportunity to cater to the customer demands. Addressing value as well as a convenience: With the proliferation of on-demand apps, we can see two gross categories of consumers- the value-oriented and the convenience-oriented consumers. Besides giving priority to more value at a lesser cost, the on-demand apps are now facilitating more convenient and timely delivery of products. Frictionless business process: Allowing easy and smooth purchase with least friction in the business process has become the subject of demand for most consumers. Frictionless and smooth customer experience and delivery are the two most important criteria that on-demand apps fulfill.   How to cater to customers with on-demand e-commerce apps? If as a business you want to cater to your customers with on-demand apps, there are several ways you can do that. When providing customers more value is your priority, you can only ensure this with easier, connected and smooth e-shopping experience. 4 specific ways you can cater to your customers with on-demand e-commerce apps. By trying and testing various services, you can easily get a first-hand feel of how these services work. Next, evaluate what the services do best and what they don’t. Now, think about how you can deliver a better service for your customers. To transform your existing business into an on-demand business, you can also partner with a service provider who can ensure same-day delivery of your products to the customers. You can partner with services like Google Express, Instacart, Amazon, PostMates, Google Express, Uber Rush, etc. You can also utilize the BOPUS (by online, pick up in store) model to cater to many customers who find this helpful. Always make sure to minimize the time and trouble for the customers to pick up products from your store. Providing on-site installation of the product can also boost customer experience. You can partner with a service provider to install the product and guide the customers about its usage. How on-Demand apps are transforming the face of business? The on-demand economy is experiencing a never-before boom and there are too many examples of how it has transformed businesses. The emergence of Uber and Airbnb is an excellent example of how on-demand apps deliver popular service for several daily needs. Just as Uber transformed the way we think of transport, Airbnb transformed the way we conceive booking accommodations and hotels in places of travel. Similarly, apps like Swiggy, Just Eat and Uber Eats are continuing to change the way we order foods from restaurants and food chains. The same business model is slowly penetrating across other niches and products. From the daily consumable goods to the groceries, now almost everything is being delivered through on-demand apps to our doorstep. Thanks to customer-centric UI and UX elements in mobile apps and an increasing number of businesses paving the way for unique and innovative shop fronts, personalization has become one of the biggest driving factors for on-demand mobile apps. Consumers also have got the taste of personalized shopping experience, and they are increasingly demanding products, services and shopping experience that suit their specific needs and preferences. This is one area where on-demand apps within the same niche are competitive in a bid to deliver better customer experience and win more business. The Future of On-demand eCommerce Apps The future of the on-demand e-commerce apps will mainly revolve around new concepts and breakthrough ideas of providing customers more ease and convenience. From gesture-based checkout and payment processing to product search through images to video chat, a lot of breakthrough features will shape the future of on-demand e-commerce apps. Conversational Marketing Unlike the conventional marketing channels that follow the one-way directive, in the new era of on-demand e-commerce apps, conversational marketing will play a bigger role. From intelligent Chatbots to real-time video chat communication, we have a lot of avenues to utilise conversational marketing methods. Image-Based Product Search By integrating image search technology with the e-commerce interfaces customers can be provided with an easy and effortless ways of searching for products online. They can take photos of nearby objects and can search for those items across e-commerce stores.   Real-time Shopping Apps What about getting access to products just when and where you need them? Well, such ease of shopping in real-time may not be a distant thing of the future, thanks to real-time shopping apps. Just when you need a particular product, you can shop it then and there and based upon availability, the order can be accepted and delivered from the nearest store in time. Gesture-Based Login Biometrics is already part and parcel of smart user experience. Gestures are also used in the latest mobile handsets for login and authentication. So, those days are not far when the gestures will be used for customer login and authentication in the e-commerce store. This will make the entire shopping experience easier, effortless and least time-consuming. Conclusion The future of on-demand e-commerce apps is bright. In the years to come, the on-demand apps are going to be more mainstream and commonplace to transform the business process and the way customers are served by retailers across the niches. Author Bio Atman Rathod is the Co-founder at CMARIX TechnoLabs Pvt. Ltd. with 13+ years of experience. He loves to write about technology, startups, entrepreneurship and business. His creative abilities, academic track record and leadership skills made him one of the key industry influencers as well. You can find him on Linkedin, Twitter, and Medium. Declarative UI programming faceoff: Apple’s SwiftUI vs Google’s Flutter What Elon Musk can teach us about Futurism & Technology Forecasting 12 Visual Studio Code extensions that Node.js developers will love [Sponsored by Microsoft]

Over the past few years, headless e-commerce has been pretty much in talks often being touted as the ‘future of e-commerce’. Last year, in a joint webinar conducted by Magento on ten B2B eCommerce trends for 2018, BORN and Magento predicted that headless CMS commerce will become a popular type of website architecture in the coming year and beyond, for both B2B and B2C businesses. Magento Headless is one such headless CMS which is gaining rapid popularity. Those who have recently jumped on the Magento bandwagon might find it new and hard to grasp. So, in this the post we will give a brief on what is headless Magento, its benefits, and why should you opt for Headless Magento 2. What is a Headless Browser? Headless browsers are basically software-enabled browsers offering a separate user interface. You can automate various actions of your website and monitor the performance under different circumstances. If you’re working under command line instructions in a headless browser, then there is no GUI. With the help of a headless browser, one can actually view several things such as the dimensions of a web layout, font family and other design elements used in a particular website. Headless browsers are mainly used to test web pages. Earlier, e-commerce websites like Magento, Shopify used to have their back-end and front-end tightly integrated. After the introduction of the headless architecture, front-end separated from the back-end. As a result, both parts work independently. There are various e-Commerce platforms that support a headless approach such as Magento, BigCommerce, Shopify, and many more. With Shopify, if you already have a website you can take the headless approach and use Shopify for your sales with links to it from your main website. Like Shopify, BigCommerce also offers a good range of themes and templates to make sure stores look professional and get up-and-running fast. The platform incorporates a full-featured CMS that allows you to run an entire website, not just your online store. Going headless with browsers means that you are running the output in a non-graphical environment such as Linux terms, without X-Windows or Wayland. For Google search algorithms, headless browsers play quite a crucial role. The search engine strongly recommends using Headless architecture because it helps Google to create Ajax websites on the web. So, websites which integrate the headless browser on the web server get easy access by the search engine. This is because Google can access the Ajax website program on the server before making it available for search engine rendering. What are the benefits of using a Headless browser? Going headless has a variety of benefits. If you are a web designer, the markup in HTML would be simple to understand. This is because PHP code, complex JavaScript, widgets are no longer in use – just a plain HTML with some kind of additional placeholder-syntax is required. This also means that the HTML page could be served statically, bringing the application load time down by a significant amount. From the e-commerce perspective, it acts as a viable channel for sales, where a majority of traffic comes from mobile. With the advent of disruptive technologies such as Headless browser for Magento, the path to purchase has expanded. Today it not only includes mobile traffic but even features a complex matrix of buyer touchpoints. Why use a headless browser for Magento? Opting for Magento featuring a headless browser has benefits of its own. Because in Magento, JavaScript coded parts are loosely coupled but the scope of flexibility widens when it comes to choosing any of frameworks such as AngularJs, VueJs, and others. In other words, one does not need to be a Magento developer to build on Magento. All you have to do is focus on a REST API. For instance, if a single page is loading 15 different resources of course from different URLs, the HTML document would become optimal. Magento is a flexible framework that can be used to create your own logic such as pricing, logins, checkout, etc. With a headless browser, Magento gets a clear performance boost. All static parts of the pages are loaded quickly, and the dynamic parts of the pages are loaded lazily through Ajax. In Magento 2, you have the additional support of full page cache. It may even interest you to know that Magento 2 offers Private Content which is equipped to handle lazy loading more efficiently. Isn't Magento 2 headless already? One of the common misconceptions that I have come across is people believing that Magento 2 is already headless. For Magento to be headless, a JavaScript developer requires knowing KnockoutJS ViewModels to make use of the Magento logic. If the ViewModels do not suffice, a Magento developer should add backend logic to this JavaScript layer. However, this also applies to go 100% headless: Whenever a REST resource won’t be available, professionals must make headless for Magento 2 available. To be or not to be headless will always be in talks because an HTML document not only contains the templating part but also static content that shouldn’t be changed. For me, a headless approach is best suited for businesses who have a CMS website for B2C and B2B storefront. It is also popular among those who are looking to put their JavaScript teams back to work. Author Bio Olivia Diaz is working in eTatvaSoft. Being a tech geek, she keeps a close watch over the industry focusing on the latest technology news and gadgets.

Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 has been one of the most commonly discussed topics in the world of eCommerce. Magento 2 was made available in 2015. Subsequently, Magento declared it will end its official support to Magento 1 in 2020. This makes the migration to Magento not only desirable but also necessary. Why you should migrate to Magento 2 As mentioned above, support to Magento 1 ends 2020. Here’s a list of the six most important reasons why migration from Magento 1.x to Magento 2 is important for your Magento store. Security Once the official support to Magento ends, security patches for different versions of Magento 1.x will no longer be offered. That means, if you continue running your Magento website on Magento 1.x, you’ll be exposed to a variety of risks and threats, many of which may have no official solution. Competition When your store is practically the only store that hasn’t migrated to Magento 2, you are at a severe competitive disadvantage. So while your competitors enjoy all the innovations that will continue happening on Magento 2, your Magento 1 website will be left out. Mobile friendly From regular shopping to special holiday purchases, an increasingly bigger proportion of e-commerce businesses come from mobile devices. Magento 2 is better optimized for mobile phones as compared to Magento 1. Performance In the e-commerce industry, better performance leads to better business, increased revenue and higher conversions. Magento 2 enables up to 66% faster add-to-cart server response times than Magento 1. Hence, Magento 2 becomes your best bet for growth. Checkout The number of steps for checkout has been slashed in Magento 2, marking a significant improvement in the buying process. Magento 2 offers the Instant Purchase feature which lets repeat customers purchase faster. Interface Magento 1 had an interface that wasn’t always friendly. Magento 2 has delved deeper to find the exact pain-points and made the new interface extremely user-friendly. Adding new products, editing product features or simply looking for tools has become easier with  Magento 2. FAQs for Magento migration By when should I migrate my store? All forms of official support for Magento 1 will be discontinued on June 2020, you should be migrating your store before that. Your Magento e-commerce store should be ready well before the deadline, so it’s highly recommended you start working towards the migration right away. How long will the migration take? It’s difficult to answer that question without further information about your store. The size of your store, its database and the kind of customization you need are some of the factors that influence the time horizon. Should I hire a Magento developer for the migration or should I let my in-house team deal with it? As with the earlier question, this question too needs further information. If you’re having your own team do it, allow them a good deal of time to learn a number of things and factor in a few false-starts as well. However, doing the migration all by yourself means you’ll have to divert a lot of in-house resources to the migration. That can negatively impact your ongoing business and put undue pressure on your revenue streams. Nearly all Magento stores have found that instead if they hire an experienced Magento 2 developer, they get better outcomes. Pre-migration checklist for moving from Magento 1 to Magento 2 Before you carry out the actual migration, you’ll want to prepare your site for the migration. Here’s your pre-migration checklist for Magento 1 to Magento 2 Filter your data. As you move to a better more sophisticated technology, you don’t want to carry outdated data or data that’s no way relevant to your business needs. There’s no point loading the new system with stuff that will only hog resources without ever being useful. So begin by removing data that’s not going to be useful. Critique your site. This is perhaps the best time to have a close look at your site and seriously consider upgrading it. Advanced technology like Magento 2 will produce even better results if your site reflects the current trends in e-commerce store design. Magento 2 offers better opportunities and you don’t want to be left out just because your site isn’t equipped to encash them. Build redundancy. Despite all your planning, there’s always a small risk of some kind of data loss. To safeguard yourself against it, make sure you replicate your Magento 1.x database. When you are actually implementing the migration, use this replicated database as your source for migration, without disturbing the original. Prepare to freeze admin activities. When you begin the dry run or the actual migration, continuing your administrative activities can alter your database. That would result in a patchy migration with some loose ends. To prevent this, go through a drill to prepare your business to stop all admin activities when you practice dry run and actual implementation of migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2. Finalize your blueprints. Unless absolutely critical, don’t waver from your original plans. Sticking to what you had planned will produce the best results. Changes that have not been factored in, can slow down or weaken your migration and even make it more expensive. Steps for migration from Magento 1 to Magento Migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2 doesn’t just depend on 1 activity but it is interdependent on multiple activities. They are: Data Migration Theme Migration Customization Migration, and Extension Migration Let’s look at each of them separately. Data Migration Step 1: Download Magento 2 without taking in the sample data. Follow the steps given for the setup and install the platform. Step 2: You will need a Data Migration Tool to transfer your data. You can download it from the official website. Remember, the Data Migration Tool version should be the same as the Magento 2 codebase version. Step 3: Feed the public keys and private keys for authorization. The keys too are available from the Magento site. Step 4: Configure the Data Migration Tool. How you configure it depends on which Magento 2 edition (Community Edition or Enterprise Edition) you would be using. You may not migrate from Enterprise Edition to Community Edition. Step 5: The next step is a mapping between Magento 1 and Magento 2 databases. Step 6: Get into maintenance mode to prepare for the actual migration. This will stop all administrative activities. Step 7: In the final step, you may migrate the Magento site, along with the system configuration like shipping and payments. Theme Migration Unlike Data Migration, Theme Migration in Magento doesn’t have standard tools that will take care of your theme migration. That’s also because of the fact that the frontend templates and their codes are hugely different in Magento 1.x and Magento 2.x So instead of looking for a tool, the best way out will be to get a new theme. You could either buy a Magento 2 theme that suits your style and requirements and customize it or develop one. This is one of the reasons why we suggested, upgrading your entire Magento store. Customization Migration The name customization itself suggests that what works for one online store won’t fit another. Which is why there’s no single way of migrating any of the customizations you might have done for your Magento 1. So you’ll be required to design all the customizations you need. However, there’s an important point to remember. Because of its efficiency and versatility, your store on Magento 2 may need lesser customization than you believe. So before you hurry into re-designing everything, take time to study what exactly you need and to what degree Magento 2 satisfies those needs. As you migrate from Magento 1.x to Magento 2.x, the number of customizations will possibly turn out to be considerably fewer than what you originally planned. Extension Migration Again, the same rule applies for extensions and plugins. What plugins worked for Magento 1 will likely not work for Magento 2 and you will have to build them again. Instead of interpreting it as something that’s frustrating, you can actually take it as an opportunity to correct minor errors and improve the overall experience. A dedicated Magento developer who specializes in Magento migration services can be of great help here. Final remarks on Magento migration If all this sounds a little overwhelming, relax, you’re not alone. Because Magento 2 is considerably superior to Magento 1, the migration may appear more challenging than what you had originally bargained for. In any case, the migration is compulsory; otherwise, you’ll face security threats and won’t be able to handle the competition. From the year 2020, this migration will not be a choice, so you might as well begin early so that you have more time to plan out things better. If you need help, a competent Magento web development company can make the migration more efficient and easier for you. Author Bio Kaartik Iyer is the Founder & CEO at Infigic Technologies, a web and mobile app development company. Kaartik has contributed to sites like Huffington Post, Yourstory, Tamebay to name a few. He's passionate about fitness, entrepreneurship, startups and all things digital. You can connect with him on LinkedIn for a quick chat on any of these topics. Why should your e-commerce site opt for Headless Magento 2? Adobe is going to acquire Magento for $1.68 Billion 5 things to consider when developing an eCommerce website