PHP frameworks top ten list for 2015

Clean and structured web development comes by practice, experience and use of the right tools. PHP frameworks are a bunch of such super functional tools that helps in creating clean and structured web development. With these, the conception and maintenance of PHP web applications gets quicker and convenient. Every year developers in the field come up with a list of ten such popular frameworks that should be most used in a particular year. With the second month already rolling in, here is a list of top ten PHP frameworks, which would be on the top choice of developers.

  • Laravel: Touted to be the #1 PHP framework in ongoing era, it’s powerful, elegant but easy to use and learn. It’s a tool worth trying.
  • Yii: Particularly popular when creating Web 2.0 applications, it’s a high on performance tool that’s loaded with out-of-the-box features. DAO/Active Record, MVC, Caching, Scaffolding, Authentication and Role-based Access control are some of its highlights.
  • Flight: An extensible micro framework for PHP, this one is simple, fast and help developers in easily, quickly and conveniently creating RESTful web applications. Its simplicity never takes up its powerfulness.
  • Medoo: With just one file of 109kb, Medoo is the lightest PHP database existing and is used as an ideal micro framework for simple and small applications.
  • CodeIgniter: Aka CI, it’s a top MVC framework, which has been in the industry for long and is used extensively by developers, who never get disappointed while using this tool.
  • Kohana: It’s an object based MVC web framework, that’s open-source and created with PHP5 by a team of volunteers, Kohana works swiftly, securely and easily.
  • PHPixie: Formerly a part of Kohana framework, it’s a new, yet popular name in PHP development. What makes it popular is it being MVC compliant, powerful and easy to use.
  • Symfony: Dating back its inception to 2005, with its powerful MVC framework, it’s a known name in enterprises. It hails its inspiration from other popular frameworks like Django, On Rails, Ruby and Spring. Developers say Symfony is one of the most complete frameworks in PHP.
  • Phalcon: This one’s a full stack, open source tool for PHP 5, written in C-extension and customized to deliver top performance. It does not require knowledge of C language and presents extensive capabilities in building web applications.
  • Pop PHP: Pop is a framework that’s for developers of every level. It helps novices in creating that strong grip and is equally useful for the experienced developers by giving them a lot to explore and learn

So, here are the top 10 PHP frameworks for the year 2015, which experts believe will be most used among PHP developers to create wonderful and exclusive web applications of a plethora kind.

Some tips to make content “visible” in 2015

Content writing is a field that sees a lot of drift, every new SEO update by Google is enough to bring in drastic changes in the way writing is done. So, instead of getting carried away by that ‘change’ word, learn about how to keep pace with this changing scenario, while staying within that “cream layer”.

  • Remember, it all revolves around ‘quality’ now, the buzz word, which by no means can be overlooked. Here are few tips, which can help you keep that writing angel within you working at its best, while producing content that can satisfy you and your readers alike.
  • Your audiences or your readers are your judge, so always try and work according to their prospects and vision. Stepping in to your audience’s shoes is a simple way of garnering not just readers, but appreciation for your work.
  • It’s no more about keywords; these are indispensable, but only for the web crawlers and not your readers. So, do this smartly and artistically, without making the readers feel that the phrase has been fit forcefully and without any requirement.
  • It’s no more about how many words; it’s about how informative and useful to readers. So, saying that long content is boring or short, crisp content can help in nailing it, are both wrong. It’s you who should decide that how much is actually enough.
  • Try presenting what’s reliable, as readers would like reading about what you are and your business is all about, rather than all the decorative and beautiful words, which you’ve written just to add to your site’s visitors, with no specific reason.
  • Instead of boasting about you being the best in the industry, try being neutral and try writing what readers find natural. No one online has the time to read your tell tales of appreciation, as no one today has the time and energy to put that much effort in. So, say only what’s natural and stop being boastful.
  • A dish is first eaten by eyes before tasting the same. So, try creating content that’s appealing and enough to catch a user’s engagement, as content can get viral if it has in it that “wow” factor.
  • Spelling and grammatical errors are a complete no-no. Also, using words which require consulting dictionary must be kept away. As content which has typos or words which are far from an average reader’s capability is never welcomed by anyone, not even your favorite readers and regular followers!

Writing quality content, whether for SEO or any other purpose, must be done with originality. Copying and rephrasing content written by someone else must never be on your to-do list. Being original and creative can help you bag more readers, than rephrasing a content which is really popular online. Above mentioned few tips can help you in creating some great pieces of content in the coming time. Stick to these and make your content viral and visible!

Android app development: the future is really bright!

Mobile phones are a necessity today and mobile apps are being used by people to do everything from ordering food to playing games, to keeping updated, socializing and much more. Smartphones loaded with mobile apps have truly brought the world to our fingertips.

The demand of newer mobile apps has contributed immensely in bringing up mobile app development industry to this height. Businesses of all sizes and categories today are involved in the creation of newer mobile apps which can help in accomplishing hordes of tasks innovatively and efficiently.

Among all mobile platforms, Android seems to have stolen the screen with about a 70% market share already. The numbers of mobile devices supporting this platform are present in the largest population on earth, when compared to all other platforms. Android app development has in fact turned into an unexplored treasure for mobile app developers and end users, alike. Android app development thus seems to be the present and future of app development. The ease of creating apps has helped in adding to the fame all the more.

Android app development, like every field is evolving. The most obvious changes which have come alive have been summarized below

  • The focus on availability of multi-device support for Android is now being emphasized
  • Mobile internet usage is on an all-time rise and developers are trying hard to create apps that deliver maximum functionality and least data usage.
  • Developers are trying to build communities where easy support and updates can be spread out, on which largely lies the success of an app, by extensions and more.
  • Android apps are largely available for free, but its developers who can decide the balanced monetization plan to help both users and developers feel no burden.

All these changes have devoted in making the Android app development industry so attractive, appealing and mysterious, pulling in developers from all spheres to contribute in its upgrading. Creation of strong, efficient apps, which are future-proof yet handy, seems important and thus the future of this industry never seems to see a downfall. The increasing users are another feature which assures that the demand will always remain, and it’s the supply which needs acceleration.

Another interesting point are cross-platform apps, which can erase that platform hurdles and help users use apps on both Android and Apple podiums, easily and the way they prefer.

There is no doubt that the future of mobile app development is very vivid. It is a first-class idea to build up cross platform mobile apps in order to attain a superior audience.

Top Visual Design trends which will rule in 2015

Every New Year brings with it new trends and new stats, which professionals from that particular filed need to follow in order to not just survive, but shine in the crowd. The year 2015 too has its do’s and don’ts, where Graphic designing trends are concerned. When asked by most veterans in the field, the one thing that almost every person stressed on was “Simplicity is the king or the ruler for 2015”. This year the trend would remain revolving around simple techniques, even with all the complex one flooding the screen. Flat designs, short social media videos, parallax scrolling are the simple things or trends which will manage to catch high positions on chart this year.

It’s not always great to blindly follow the trends, but keeping aware and updated is a must, as change is the new in, which we can see in almost every field and sector, associated with our life and work. Working with the latest trends in visual design must not be the sole idea, rather focusing on what can work, should be the POA. The shift today is diverting on focusing on designs that appeal to international viewers rather than just the locales. So, here is a quick run through of the visual design trends for 2015, which can work wonders for your work and clientele.

The top five visual design trends that will manage to top the charts this year are

  • Flat design elements will be popular, which will be led by the changes in software design and apps. Even stats indicated a 200 percent increase in the download count of flat design elements. The shift towards this trend is clearly visible and is going to stay.
  • The use of Instagram-esque images saw a huge momentum last year, the increasing popularity of mobile apps and retro cameras, increased search for filtered images which saw a 661 percent rise in 2013 are trends that are expected to remain this year as well.
  • The most searched image search terms are BYOD and 3D printing, where each one saw a rise of a very high percentage and this will be anticipated in 2014 as well.
  • Video is the new fad that is driving popular sites into visual storytelling concept. Easy access to new image capturing technology, one such as 4K is bound to gain momentum. The most popular video content ideas cover transportation, 3D renderings and cityscapes.
  • Designers are expected to inculcate stronger emotional connections in designs, which can be said seeing the increasing demand of people and other subjects in real life.

So, here are the top 5 visual design trends for 2015, which you must follow, if staying ahead and growing more is your aim for the year. Best of luck!

6 tips which you should be following when doing e-commerce SEO

SEO for shopping cart or ecommerce websites can be really diversified. Seeing the fiercely competitive landscape of e-commerce, every brand wishes to leave its peers behind in the race. Thus maintaining that perfect balance of SEO and usability seems mandatory. So, if you too are involved in a shopping cart SEO project, then here are few golden tips to help your efforts rock in the year 2015.

  • Having a simple site structure is the key to attracting and keeping customers, as users of today lack one thing a lot, which is ‘time’, so, make it simple. Having three primary menu navigation options for the home page, department store and product pages is enough, rather than creating a clutter. In case, you have a site which has thousands of products to select across multiple brands, then its best to use a simpler approach, which is categorizing the right way. Most big fishes use this plan, where whenever a user gets into another sub category level, the previous one vanishes, erasing complications and making it easier.
  • Canonical Tags must be a preferred choice, which has already been popularized by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft since 2009. Any webpage that can be reached with more than one URL must possess a canonical tag, to ensure legitimacy. Modified URLs can cause content duplicity, spider blocks and decreased keyword relevancy, which can affect the SEO strategy of any ecommerce store greatly.
  • Simplified keyword URLs can help in creating a great impact on the SEO efforts of any online store, which can even prevent duplicate content. Use one URL combined with dynamic breadcrumb navigation tailored according to the site visitors’ entry path. Using one version of the URL as canonical can also help in keeping URL’s simple.
  • Focusing on SEO departments, categories, product names, titles and H1 tags is crucial. Try thinking like a user will think and search about a product. This helps in making site navigation easier for users and even contributes in optimizing the website for some important and relevant keywords.
  • Having unique product descriptions is a must and never try to copy what others have used for describing the same product as yours. Having distinct product descriptions when posting on different websites can help, so always follow this approach.
  • Schema.org. which is a machine-readable markup, that search engines make use of to recognize and classify content must be used. Google likes this approach and helps with the Webmaster tools as well, when using Scehma.org on your ecommerce store.

So, above mentioned are six essential tips or advices, which if used wisely can help in turning SEO of your ecommerce site into a success. So, follow these and get ready to get your site ranked high on SERPs that matter.