At present the range of IT development services has expanded a lot: from simple web applications to video mobile apps. There are several tools for including video into Android applications: Native App, Web App, and AIR video player compiled in the Flash App. Now, let’s talk a bit about the Web App.
Web App is a special way of developing and deploying Android applications. The main idea of this method is in creating the application cover reflecting specially prepared web content. The Web App is a special browser based on the WebView element, the logic of the browser performance and its layout are defined by mobile application development.
The possibility of introducing HTML5 and Flash video player into the user’s interface is an important peculiarity of Android video application development. If you already have a video player already used on the website, you can easily adapt it according to the screen size of the Android device. Although, one shouldn’t forget about the adaptation of the control tools to the capabilities of various devices – smartphone and tablet user’s apply fingers for managing the device and not the mouse.
Using web applications is a very effective way of supporting all the range of new platforms (smartphones, tablets and even TV). One should mention one difficulty – the necessity of time-consuming optimization of web applications for more convenient usage of the application by users in case of slow Internet connection (dynamic content upload).
Advantages:
• Speed and simplicity of development
• Using existing web development experience
• Application interface flexibility – server HTML makeup
• Continuity of video player design
• Effective usage of the existing video library
• Additional cross-platform character of HTML
Disadvantages:
• Peculiarities of Flash Player performance under Android OS
• A user may not have Flash Player
• Limitation of the supported video formats
PHP bug #53632 in floating point numbers has been dealt with. The bug is deemed to be a fault in the x87 floating point unit, which showed up on PHP 32-bit systems. It was detected by a computer scientist Rick Regan, who described the flaw in his blog.
This flaw issue made PHP security systems vulnerable to potential DOS attack and could have complicated the process of serving PHP-based pages. Though, Andi Gutmans, CEO of Zend Technologies, reassured that this PHP bug was unlikely to cause severe problems on a large scale as major PHP running systems are 64-bit.
The PHP language developers have come up with the solution to this problem, which they bypassed in the new PHP releases (PHP 5.3.5 and 5.2.17), while Zend technologies provided for Zend Server users prompt response to the problem until the bug was fully fixed by the PHP development team.
PHP is frequently used by software companies in web application development projects and new PHP 5.3.5 and 5.2.17 versions allow web application developers to sidestep the problems, connected with the floating point bug in the previous PHP releases.
Microsoft introduces HTML5 Labs where early HTML5 specifications will be showcased and web developers will be able to test them and share their experience of leveraging the new generation of web standards in their web development projects. Software companies and developers will be able to make suggestions on the possible ways to improve HTML5 standard, which will favour further development of web technologies based on HTML5.
Some of the draft specifications like IndexedDB, WebSockets are already on display in HTML5 labs for developers to review them. IndexDB allows storing large amounts of structured data, while WebSockets provides for enhanced bidirectional communications and W3C standardized API.
HTML5 is a web standard that accelerates web sites work, provides more articulate syntax and allows to discard the use of plug-ins and third-party APIs to manage graphics and multimedia. Dean Hachamovitch, the Corporate Vice President for Internet Explorer, pinpoints the necessity to make a clear distinction between HTML5 specifications under development and well-established standards.
Microsoft has also demonstrated its HTML5 prototypes with Christmas themes – Santa Workshop and HTML5 Blizzard. The corporation employs in its demos such technologies as SVG graphics, HTML5 audio, HTML5 canvas, CSS3 and Web Open Font Format fonts. Despite the fact that HTML5 and Silverlight are considered to be competing technologies, Microsoft is determined to develop both of them.
Web development services is inseparably linked with online business. So our next two projects are connected with e-trade. Today no one doubts the effectiveness of online trading. Sales through the Internet shopping minimize costs, allows to enter new markets, and attract customers.
But before to make profit from website you must launch your customized online store. And this process will be related to the right choice of CMS. It is cheaper and safer to use a ready-made software for the most common and typical tasks of online business.
The best solutions among open source e-commerce systems are Magento and X-Cart. These products help to create e-shops and obtain multifunctional, high-tech sites for easy sales. Moreover they can be managed without special knowledge in programming. These are ready web sites for electronic commerce. You can add additional features or modify design according to the peculiarities of any specific business.
With the help of Oxagile software programming our customers obtained new online stores with pleasant look-and-feel:
An X-Cart based online store for a Canadian company that offers furniture, wall decor and home accessories.
As a result, we have gained experience in ecommerce and online business. So now we can easily attract more visitors and raise product sells for our customers.
What determines success in web development? Component of success are professional design, attention to customer’s needs and the correct choice of CMS. We have made certain of it from our own experience.
So we want to share the results of successful web development based on open source CMSes for our clients from USA and the Netherlands.
Let’s start with our favorite CMS Joomla. By the way, why so many webmasters choose this CMS for their projects? The answer consists of one word, and this word means “accessibility”. So accessibility has made CMS Joomla such a popular one. It is absolutely free of charge. But it does not mean poor quality or lack of functionality. In reality Joomla has incredible functionality and it was made as a software product of high quality.
So Oxagile has created two new fully functional websites and expanded its company portfolio:
CMS Joomla is very logical and consistent, developing software projects you can see it at all levels, starting with installation and finishing with text editing. It simplifies your understanding of how to work with site content.
With WordPress conditional statements your blog will stand out against thousands of others
Conditional statements can transform themes in something unrecognizable. Be sure, your readers will be amazed by such features in Wordpress blog design. There is nothing difficult in directory conditioned elements, they based on PHP code. So with the help of php programmers you will be able to realize your ideas. For instance, welcome block at the home page can be done with the following code: if (is_home()) {
echo ‘YOUR WELCOME BOX CODES HERE’;
} else { }
Theme framework is a timesaver for WordPress template customization
There are a lot of theme frameworks (Guerrilla Theme, Thesis, Thematic, WP Framework, etc.) that will help you to build custom templates in the shortest possible time. Use them with no hesitation!
WordPress widgets for better usability
With widgets you can easily customize the look of your theme, rearrange different blog areas (ad blocks, posts, headers, footers, etc.).
Say “no” to plugins and “yes” to PHP code
Using WordPress plugins you force end-users of your blog to download and install additional software. It’s not a good idea for quick and easy accesses to blog features and published information. PHP solves this problem and it also gives more know-hows for WordPress developers. Continuous learning is an indispensable condition of qualitative WordPress development
WordPress has a great blogging community, it’s even more then web community. So WordPress-as-a-CMS development can be just fun and easy work with some simple plugins, php code and official teaching material from tutorial sites. You can try a simple hack code that helps to reduce spam. It blocks all comments on your blog written by users who have come with “No referrer” result (for example, spam bots).
function check_referrer() {
if (!isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']) || $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] == “”) {
wp_die( __(‘Please enable referrers in your browser, or, if you\’re a spammer, bugger off!’) );
}}
add_action(‘check_comment_flood’, ‘check_referrer’);add_action ( ‘check_comment_flood’, ‘check_referrer’);
Oxagile developers love WordPress. By the way our own blog is based on this open source application. And today we are going to share our secrets of successful web development and Wordpress blog customization. Some pieces of advice will take only some minutes to realize them; others will require some more time and more development skills. But you may be sure that all these tips will allow you to provide more qualitative blog customization services for WordPress: Create your personal theme options panel
You definitely have noticed that WordPress blog themes and template development is one of the most popular services. People all over the world readily seek, buy and download paid, free and custom themes / templates. Moreover some of them want to change their blog design on regular basis. So your ability to provide such a possibility will be appreciated.
A theme options panel will allow you (your clients) to make changes in the current WordPress theme without code correction. This nice tool for quick and easy customization can be used by every theme developer.
Shortcode as a short way to users’ hearts
No one likes long and tricky code. All living creatures aspire to simplicity and harmony. So WordPress website developers can give them what they want – clear short codes for user themes.
You can write short code using theme’s file functions.php. The following function should be added and saved into it:
function wdl() {
return 'Web Design Ledger rules!';
}
add_shortcode('wdlrules', 'wdl');
After that shortcode is your little reliable friend, that definitely will help you to find a short way to your blog users’ hearts.
Application testing is a process involved in all life cycles of software development. It implies review and planning of the product requirements, preparation and performance of changes. As a result testers reveal inadequacies and errors. And trying to get a systematic view, every person in software development company actually plays the role of tester. If you look at IT-project as at a person, then roles of different specialists can be described in the following way:
• Project Manager is a backbone and the autonomic nervous system
• Programmers are a skeleton and motor nerves
• Analysts are organs of sense
• Testers is conscience
Software Quality Assurance is often considered as a synonym of testing, but this method actually was called upon to prevent errors beforehand, rather than finding and fixing them. Quality in this sense should be considered as a characteristic of finished product (software or web-application).
So, testers have to verify even requirements specifications, project plans and analysis, not just program code and interface. Software testing is particularly important in critical systems. For example, the Therac Radiotherapy apparatus (1985) irradiated 6 people with lethal dose of radiation due to the lack of code verification and validation. Or Mars exploration rover (1999) brought the loss of 125 million dollars because of crude common measurement system between developers. And even during the electronic elections in Estonia there were some problems because of poor high-load testing. These examples and practice of software and web development companies shows that all testers should follow basic principles from ISTQB test documentation and other sources.
My expectations were justified – it was the most interesting part of conference “Microsoft DevDays“: the presentation of the first demo of Visual Studio Team System 2010.
Approximately in a year we’ll be able to see all new features ourselves, but now only announcements and demos. According to the company official information it will be the largest release in the history. All graphic interfaces will be rewritten using WPF. That will allow to accelerate work of visual editors and to reduce the size of required free space. By the way, rumors that the installation will require 75 Gb of disk space, are just rumors.
Usually the term Web 3.0 is used to describe the derivative step of web development that follows Web 2.0. Web 2.0 software is associated with social networks and services based on the content generated by users. According to popular search engines, keywords, which are connected with the term web 3.0, are semantic web, commerce-on-demand systems, SOA architectures and 3D spaces.
Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt considers that Web 3.0 is a marketing term the same way as Web 2.0. And also, Web 3.0 is a new approach to web development, when different it services will be pieced together. The applications will be small, very fast, customizable, multiplatform and will be distributed by wire. The data will be in a cloud (According to IEEE Computer Society: “It is a paradigm in which information is permanently stored in servers on the Internet and cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, notebooks, handhelds, etc”). The model of development of such applications greatly differs from the existed development models. It requires new development tools which are being developed now.
The term Web 3.0 has a marketing nature, but involves innovations and new approaches to web development.
veral tools for including video into Android applications: Native App, Web App, and AIR video player compiled in the Flash App. Now, let’s talk a bit about the Web App.
PHP bug #53632 in floating point numbers has been dealt with. The bug is deemed to be a fault in the x87 floating point unit, which showed up on PHP 32-bit systems. It was detected by a computer scientist Rick Regan, who described the flaw in his blog.
Microsoft introduces HTML5 Labs where early HTML5 specifications will be showcased and 
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