He proposed it:
“... make some of Drupal's own administrative UIs more powerful and easier to use, I proposed that we add a modern JavaScript to core.” (Dries Buytaert's keynote presentation, DrupalCon Vienna)
... and stirred waves of enthusiasm, of unveiled skepticism and never-ending debates. What would using React JS for Drupal's administrative UIs mean for you?
You, the site builder. You, the content creator?
And this is precisely what we'll try to answer in this blog post as we'll be:
presenting you the context: why is integrating a JavaScript framework right into Drupal core even needed?
pointing our Drupal's long way to becoming “ JS ready”
highlighting the reasons why React's most likely to win this “popularity contest” over other JS technologies
highlighting the challenges to expect and to plan out for (to overcome) if React is, indeed, the “chosen one”
outlining the clear benefits that YOU will get if a JavaScript framework, more precisely if React does get integrated into Drupal core
3 Inconveniences for Currently Not Having a JavaScript Framework in Drupal Core
While headless Drupal 8 has proven to be a powerful content repository for front-end apps, not having a JS framework integrated into its very core has been the cause of certain … limitations:
it kept putting off addressing well-known editorial and site-building UX issues
it made it almost impossible to help Drupal core contributors realize how they could leverage certain JavaScript approaches and advanced practices; how they could transpose them into new modules and new Drupal features
it has been a break on assimilating more JavaScript experts and JS expertise into the Drupal community
From Improving Its Web Services APIs to Being Ready for Integrating a JS Framework in Core
You're closer than ever, as a site builder/content creator, to using React JS for Drupal's administrative UIs. Yet, this didn't happen overnight:
first Dries Buytaert (Drupal CMS's founder himself) and his team decided to stabilize Drupal's web services APIs
then to step up their efforts even more for improving them
and it's just now that they've decided that Drupal's finally matured and 100% ready for this major integration
Meanwhile, Drupal users have done wonders leveraging Drupal 8's web services APIs:
front-end apps have been built alongside Drupal, which has been backing them up as their content repository
… and modern, JavaScript frameworks have been used for powering these apps' front-ends, with no restriction, whatsoever, on the particular JS technologies that web developers chose to use
Now having passed the “decoupled architecture test” and having managed to adapt itself to all JavaScript frameworks used as front-ends, Drupal's ready to... level up!
To incorporate a JavaScript framework in its core.
And, implicitly, it's time for the Drupal community, as well, to commit to a unique framework that will be used for its administrative front-end.
Why React JS?
We'll start by answering the “Why React JS over Angular or Ember?” question:
“Because of its component-based nature.”
And there's a growing “trend” among web developers to create user interfaces by putting together reusable component libraries. Luckily, React makes it easy to build self-contained components and to simply “assemble” them in big-sized apps.
Therefore, the other 2 JS frameworks (focused on MV* specific workflows instead), are off the table.
And now, let's list other reasons for using React JS for Drupal's administrate UIs:
it's backed up and constantly updated with new libraries, new tutorials etc. by a worldwide, active community of developers
it powers large-scale web projects such as Facebook, Airbnb, WordPress, The New York Times
it's this community itself that bundled up an ecosystem of no less than 16.000 libraries around it
its different approach to virtual DOM (Document Object Model): it “detects” precisely those virtual DOM objects that need to be updated and it's strictly those parts of the real DOM that it updates (instead of updating the entire DOM tree); a major performance boost indeed
it poses no problems working with it thanks to its rather straightforward programming approach
it “plays well” with all the other JS frameworks
licensing issues reported in the past have been resolved
it's widely used by the JavaScript developers
Expected Challenges of Working With React JS
For there are challenges that the Drupal's main contributors are planning out for when it comes to using React JS for Drupal's core. And so should you:
modularity, itself, will turn out to be a major challenge to plan out for
Drupal will need to “keep up with” React's much more alert release cycle
Drupal theming for decoupled UIs will never be the same again: React's approach will prevail
Using React JS for Drupal's Administrative Interfaces: What's in It for You?
For adopting a JS framework for Drupal's own administrative UIs (and React seems to be the winning “competitor), does translate into key benefits for you, as well:
whether you're a Drupal site builder or a content creator, using Drupal will get much easier (talking about addressing its old UX issues right?) in a reversible, incremental way
building modern UIs will get a lot more streamlined when you have a modern, JS toolbox right at hand... in Drupal core!
a JavaScript framework would automatically speed up (“app-like speed”) content modeling, configuration tools, content listing
if you're a Drupal developer, you can stay reassured that your Drupal expertise will stay relevant in a JavaScript technologies-centered web
... that, your future React-focused sills will be future-proofed (thanks to this JS technology's high popularity among web developers)
What do you think? Do you find adding a JavaScript framework to Drupal core a good idea or not?
And what about using React JS for Drupal? Would you have gone for another JS technology instead if you could have chosen the one to power your administrative UIs from now on?
Adrian Ababei / Oct 09'2017
Is your enterprise “ecosystem” of apps, systems, and IT components getting overwhelmingly complex? Is managing it and leveraging it getting increasingly challenging? Then it's a fact: you need to get them organized in a more effective infrastructure. One that should bridge them all together and enable a continuous flow of data across the whole structure. You need to move away from the traditional point-to-point integration system and go for an ESB instead. "But why Mule ESB?"
A more than valid question. Here are 5 top reasons why it stands out from all the other ESB products. Why you should consider using it as your future integration platform:
But First: What Is an ESB More Precisely?
Take it as a set of principles rather than as a software on its own. A set of “rules” for building out your bus-like infrastructure where your disparate systems:
get bridged together
exchange data via the communication bus that this ESB system provides; and it's a two-way communication process that takes place: the systems share data among them and they all communicate with the bus individually, as well
are independent of one another
And it's this very last feature that what makes the ESB architecture such a big “leap” ahead from the traditional point-to-point integration system.
But how does this type of bus-like infrastructure for organizing your apps and systems benefit you precisely:
it speeds up marketing your new initiatives
it enhances productivity, translated into more apps developed within your organization
it allows you to leverage your existing systems during app development thanks to all the pre-built communication and transformation capabilities
Why Move Away From a Traditional Point-to-Point Integration?
Because in a point-to-point integration system your apps are tightly dependent on one another. And this “dependency relation” does interfere with the very principle of organizational agility, doesn't it?
What Is Mule ESB? What Sets It Apart from Other ESB Products?
To answer your first question: Mule Soft is a lightweight, highly scalable Java-based service bus (or integration platform, if you prefer) which:
enables developers to connect a whole ecosystem of Saas, on-premises apps and disparate systems quick and easy
… and to enhance communication between them, a continuous data flow alongside the infrastructure
“And what makes Mule as an ESB stand out from the crowd of other ESB products?”
Let's point out those key features that set Mule ESB apart from the its “competitors:
it's, in fact, a component part of a larger structure of API design management capabilities
it comes with a pre-built library of templates
… and with out-of-the-box connectors enhancing the reusability of components (and this is big)
it comes with built-in agile software development methods and multiple toolchains boosting your developers' productivity
Why Mule ESB? Top 5 Reasons to Consider Using It as Your App Integration Technology
1. It Scales Effectively, Both Up and Down
And this key feature translates into unlimited freedom for your teams to bridge together as many apps and systems as needed. Mule ESB will scale to efficiently incorporate them all!
In addition to being effectively scalable, Mule ESB's ideally embeddable, as well:
you can embed it into a single app, directly
or you can plug it into your app server (JBoss, WAS, Tomcat) instead
and even into a JUnit test case (for yes, it does come with built-in JUnit support, as well)
2. It Perfectly Integrates All Components, Irrespective of the Technology Used
And this is a strong argument to consider when you're asking yourself: “Why Mule ESB over another ESB product?”
It's definitely not a restrictive or “picky” ESB: it will incorporate all the existing systems regardless of the technologies that they might be running on: Web Services, JMS, HTTP, JDBC, you name it.
… from a “POJO” to a component coming from a different framework!
Moreover, not only that it integrates them all under its “umbrella”, but it enhances communication across this infrastructure of various apps and multiple systems. It allows data flows between the bridged apps within your organization and across the web.
3. It's Highly Accessible, Supporting a Wide Variety of Code Languages
And this is great news for your Java developers!
Since it:
comes with a set of widely used tools (Maven, Eclipse, Spring, JUnit) that your team's already familiar with
uses an XML transformation language for presenting logic layers
supports multiple code languages: JavaScript, Ruby, Java, Python...
In short: your development team will face no problems writing custom code.
4. It Enables You to Reuse Your Components
Here's another reason that makes a great answer, alone, to your “Why Mule ESB?” question! Unlike other integration platforms out there, this one enables reusability!
Your team's empowered to reuse your infrastructure's components. Therefore, it enables them to run the existing ones since it doesn't call for Mule-specific code.
5. It's Ideally Lightweight
Mule ESB does, indeed, stand out from a “weight” point of view. Moreover, thanks to its modular design you get to make it even lighter by removing all the modules that you won't use.
While thanks to its configuration model you get to easily add, re-order and upgrade functionality sparing the time you'd otherwise invest in implementing changes to your existing integrations instead.
And this is THE list! The one including 5 key reasons why Mule ESB could make a great choice when you consider using an integration platform within your company.
Are there any other ESB products competing with it for your appreciation? Are these 5 reasons not convincing enough or have you already identified possible drawbacks balancing them? Do share your thoughts!
Adrian Ababei / Oct 05'2017
To Shopify or not to Shopify? And why shouldn't you? It's an all-in-one, turn-key shopping cart solution after all: it takes care of all there's needed for your store to run smoothly, while you get to focus on those details that will make it stand out from the crowd. Yet, convenience does come with a cost (or several of them): a customization cost, the cost of having only basic discount and shipping cost models, per order transaction fees and so on. So is Shopify the best option for your own online store or not?
There's only one simple way to answer it: weighing its most tempting pros and its most discouraging cons.
Here are 6 of each that our team at our web design company in Toronto, has selected for you:
6 Reasons for Running Your Online Store on Shopify
1. You Get an Impressive Collection of Great Looking Themes to Choose From
And you should, indeed, feel “spoiled” by such a wide collection of themes at your fingertip! Both free and premium.
If you're a start-up, stay reassured: your e-commerce website will still look sharp and professional with a free Shopify theme. This way, you can take off the table the costs of hiring a designer when you plan your initial financing.
As you grow, as a business, you can always jazz up your store with fancy, visually-arresting upgrades.
Note: The time you'd spend looking for a good and “not so expensive” designer you could invest in high-quality photography and other visual assets instead!
And the great thing when you start small and plan to grow your e-commerce business organically is that Shopify makes its theme system ideally accessible for designers. It will get easier for the design team that you'll choose, later on, to fine tune your virtual storefront.
2. It Provides Your Store With Security Features and Top Speed, By Default
“Is Shopify the best option for me?” When asking yourself this question the security and performance factors should weight heavy in your decision-making process:
you expect your online store to be 100% safe for your customers; it should inspire trust so that they get confident enough to enter their card details
you expect it to load fast; online shoppers are remorselessly “stingy” when it comes to the time they'd invest in waiting for a page to load
Well, you hit the nail right on the head with your two-in-one expectation here: Shopify takes off caching, compliance, worrying about hackers etc. off your shoulders.
And it lets you focus on running and growing your business instead!
Note: Money talks and... gets your back covered! It's no news that Shopify's been investing huge sums in software and security engineering.
3. It's an “All-Features-in-One” E-Commerce Platform
Are you quite “greedy” when it comes to the features that you'd want your e-commerce platform to provide you with, right out-of-the-box?
No need to be “reasonably demanding”. And no need to look any further than... Shopify.
It makes the “Swiss knife” type of shopping cart solution that you need for setting up and running your store, fully fledged, in no time:
it has built-in payment gateways support
its themes are easily customizable
it makes implementing Google Analytics effortless
it empowers you to add and to remove your products nice and easy
And there's so much more to this bundle of conveniences that Shopify “spoils” you with as soon as you “unwrap” it!
4. You Can Rely on Its Excellent Customer Support Services
“Is Shopify the best option for my online store?” should turn into “Is there always a Shopify expert to get my back whenever I'm facing a problem?”
Luckily, Shopify's customer service is simply... outstanding! And it's the platform's own users' reviews that support our opinion: there's always an easy to reach Shopify expert ready to help you out... fast.
And this aspect gets particularly critical when you're tempted with tons of upgrades which, at some point, risk to guide you towards a dead end. Then you just need to call someone to... save the day!
5. You Get to Leverage Its Pre-Built Marketing Essentials Toolkit
So Shopify “spoils” you with outstanding customer service. On the other hand, its built-in digital marketing tools aren't out of the ordinary! Yet, they do make the utterly effective essential kit to meet all your online store's marketing needs:
it makes putting together landing pages easy
it's perfectly equipped for SEO: it allows meta descriptions, title tags, it's written in a clean, easy to crawl code
it handles issues of critical SEO importance for you by default (sitemap, Search Console, SSL, canonicals etc.)
In a few words: Shopify's marketing “toolbox” is limited to the essentials, the critically important ones, that it handles to perfection!
6. It “Bundles Up” Tones of Add-Ons In Its App Store
Here's another strong pro to help you come up with a quick answer to your “Is Shopify the best option for my business?” dilemma: The Shopify App Store itself!
It's online store owners' “Wonderland”. An impressive collection of fancy apps that they get to plug right into their online stores.
It's also the meeting point between third-party developers and business owners looking to enhance their stores' out-of-the-box functionality. To make them stand out in their respective industries.
Some apps are free and some of them come with a price tag on.
Is there an app perfectly tailored to your online store's needs that you're searching for?
you could search for a developer to build if for you
but not before you've dug through the wide collection of add-ons already available in the Shopify App Store
Note: by far the most intriguing add-on that Shopify “tempts” you with” is its Buy button itself:
the idea of selling your products outside your online store might be... puzzling you at first
and still, it provides you with so much flexibility: you get to sell your products wherever on the web without the need to actually set up an online store
“Is Shopify The Best Option for My Business?” 6 Reasons To Doubt It
1. It Limits Your Customization Options
Out-of-the-box convenience does come with a price when using Shopify as your e-commerce platform! And this price is given by all the restrictions imposed on your site's architecture.
And implicitly by the customization limitations deriving from there!
It's true, though, you can still hire a good developer to tweak things on your store, yet... this comes with a risk, as well: that of messing up the core code.
A major con, indeed, when you expect to get unlimited freedom for fine tuning your e-commerce site's functionality to your liking!
2. Customization Does Come, But At a Cost
And your legitimate question, “Is Shopify the best option for me?” becomes “Is Shopify, in fact, a restrictive, risky and costly e-commerce solution?”
On one hand, you have a huge community of third-party developers ready to get any “tweaking job” done for you.
Yet, on the other hand:
Shopify comes with its proprietary code language, Liquid: so the chosen developer(s) will need to know Liquid to be able to customize anything about your store; they can't “get away” with using PHP when “maneuvering” templates
needless to add that overly specialized developers are more expensive
you can't make just small tweaks: you need to engage in full customization processes
getting your hands (or your developers' hands) dirty in Shopify's base code does interfere with the software's warranty
by tweaking your Shopify's store base code you run the risk to ruin it and to find it challenging plugging in future add-ons (which call for the out-of-the-box Shopify code to work)
Decisions, decisions!
3. Its Built-In Blogging Features Are Simply... Unremarkable
Can you imagine your content strategy without a blog?
Unfortunately, Shopify's out-of-the-box blogging capabilities could be better. If compared with Wordpress's, for instance, they seem... basic.
So, if you have big plans for your blog:
to turn it into a true organic traffic “magnet”
into a “channel” for informing customers about your products and about your brand's values
into a tool for increasing social shares
… and for building customer communities
… then Shopify's blogging software is not built to properly “fuel” your plans.
Just make sure you're prepared for this inconvenience!
4. It Can Handle Basic Discount Scenarios Only
Don't expect Shopify to cope with all your upsell scenarios, with all those complex discount models that you might have in mind.
For it can handle “one discount per order” models only. So, it's pointless to put together all kinds of complex (“buy one get one free”, multiple discount codes per order etc.) types of structures.
Not only that Shopify's not built to handle them, but you might be tempted to “adapt” your discount models to this inconvenience. To create several variants of a product, each one with its own price.
Don't! You will only end up messing your inventory system!
5. It Charges a Per Sale Transaction Fee
These fees add up to your monthly store plan and come on top of the credit card fees.
And from this point of view Shopify can be discouraging both for a start-up business owner and for one already selling in a high volume on his/her online store:
as a start-up, you don't know, from the start, how much you'll end up selling on your e-commerce website
as a business already selling in high volumes the calculation of these transaction fees changes, so fees will start to add up gradually
In short: you can't avoid transaction fees, no matter how much you're actually selling on your Shopify store; still, if you want to save a percentage point you'll need to increase your sales to make those “savings” count.
6. It Can't Handle Complex Shipping Cost Models
Unfortunately, it's true! Since Shopify's built primarily as a shopping cart solution for small to medium-sized business, it's designed to handle basic, single orders only.
In other words, it's not well equipped for all the complexities that wholesalers' orders involve:
calculating real-time shipping cost
orders that include multiple product sizes, multiple boxes
In conclusion: Shopify's out-of-the-box shipping models can handle basic shipping needs only. If you're dealing with more complex ones on your online store, you might consider having a third-party app developed for you!
The END! What do you say? Have we succeeded, through our Shopify pros and cons list here, in helping you find the answer to your valid question: “Is Shopify the best option for my business?”
Adrian Ababei / Oct 05'2017
Remember when websites used to be the only type of content distribution channels? Hardly, right? For it's been “ages” since we got to “deliver” content alongside entire “constellations” of digital channels: digital signage, kiosks, mobile... And so, this proliferation has made managing all these access channels increasingly challenging. But the Acquia team came up with a solution: they've added Node.js support to their Acquia Cloud.
That's right, now Acqua Cloud, the one providing a cloud-based interface for Drupal developers to use, incorporates Application services for Node.js.
This means that:
your development team can leverage the now fully-decoupled Drupal platform using it as a robust apps repository
… in order to distribute content across an entire “network” of new digital channels (without the need of a replatform, just by simply leveraging Drupal 8's in-built capabilities and API-first architecture)
… by using lightning-fast Node.js for scripting, for building interactive app-like digital user experiences
Headless Drupal and Node.js: Let Their Powers Combine!
… and help you build real-time, network JavaScript apps alongside your robust, scalable Drupal CMS faster than ever.
They're equally popular for building enterprise-specific digital experiences, they're both open source technologies. And now each one of them is a valuable integration of the Acquia Cloud.
Teamed up, they enable you to build and to run your JavaScript apps on top of Drupal.
Drupal
brings in its impressive scalability as a CMS; it turns into that robust shared repository that you'll need for all your future apps
is already “turbocharged” with multiple decoupled apps: headless Lightening, Reservoir, Contenta etc.
if none of the pre-built distributions suits your needs, Drupal 8's content-first architecture empowers you to build your own custom one!
Node.js
a blazing fast JavaScript framework enabling you to build scalable network JS apps supporting a wide range of front-end frameworks (Angular.js, Meteor.js, Ember.js, Backbone.js)
* “Why JavaScript?”, you might wonder. Because it's designed with usability in mind!
With their powers combined, headless Drupal and Node.js:
enable your development team to easily build decoupled apps with lightweight JavaScript front-end design and to extend them across an “ecosystem” of access channels
… all while leveraging Drupal's content management services (which is robust enough to support your “cluster” of real-time, responsive Node.js apps)
It's your users that will benefit from this “data and content marriage” in the end: they'll enjoy some interactive digital experiences.
Content and Data Under the Same roof: What's In It for You?
For this new way of interacting with your Drupal CMS (exposed as a set of content services now), while leaving the scripting part to Node.js, does translate into key benefits for you and your team:
Toronto developers within your team get to leverage the advantage of a “single” database, a shared source of content supporting an entire “network” of apps (content and data under the same roof!)
they gain access to various parts of your CMS (content management, search, security) available to them as a set of APIs now when headless Drupal and Node.js join forces
developers no longer need to build a Drupal site first and then to separately handle a server for the Node.js app's functionality: the two different environments working in parallel, one for data and one for content, merge into one single development track
your development team(s) get to “fully exploit” this new architecture model, by easily mapping the content model to the API, and thus to speed up the whole data-driven apps development process!
Overall: you get to leverage Drupal's robustness as a CMS-repository for all your apps! It's there that all the content management and content authoring happens and it's from there that content gets distributed to your entire maze of real-time apps, to the whole network of distribution channels.
The more complex your data-driven app infrastructure gets, the more powerful your repository has to be!
Luckily, managing content and, moreover, scaling itself to an increasing overload of content are Drupal's “specialties”!
And this is how headless Drupal and Node.js, with their powers combined in Aqua Cloud, will help your development team create decoupled application experiences across multiple digital channels!
How about putting this “happy marriage” of data and content to a test now?
Adrian Ababei / Oct 03'2017
“But am I not there yet? Haven't I already implemented digital transformation within my organization?" The Alfresco Digital Business Platform's release does make you wonder.
Well, now that we've planted “the seed of doubt”, ask yourself these key questions:
Is your current business platform agile enough to quickly pivot when you need it to, to promptly meet all your changing business needs?
Are the programming tools that you're currently using “tying” your business to long development cycles?
How fast is your current proprietary business process/enterprise content management system capable to put together workflow applications?
Are you currently using the power of task automation to the fullest?
How “accessible” is data within your company?
Are you leveraging your current digital technology to make information easily accessible?
Are people within your company enabled to access integrated data (anywhere, anytime), use it, and share it with the utmost ease?
Just be honest with yourself!
Then you'll find out whether you're right there: at the peak of your digital transformation or at the bottom of the hill, still...
And this is precisely what the Alfresco Digital Business Platform helps you with: take big leaps ahead towards digital transformation!
What Is The Alfresco Digital Business Platform Exactly?
Well, you could take it as a business process services and an open-source content management system “combo”, topped with a new App Development framework!
Or, simply put: a digital business platform, as its name says it, enabling you, as an enterprise, to create and to deliver digital content experiences via perfectly automated workflows.
In short: Alfresco, once exclusively an ECM (Enterprise Content Management), provides you with an open and agile platform perfectly equipped for enabling fast app development and reiteration!
But Which Are the Issues That This New Platform Comes to Address?
Or the “customer needs”, if you prefer, that this new Alfresco release is built to meet?
Here are a few challenges that they (business owners) had to cope with:
long development cycles that were no longer feasible
difficulties in connecting multiple departments and in automating tasks
non-agile content/business processes management systems that wouldn't (or hardly) get “tweaked” in order to adapt to their users ever-changing business needs and goals
In short: it's precisely the lack of adaptability and time-efficiency of the “traditional” business process/content management systems that led to the Alfresco Digital Business Platform release.
And it's built to give you a push “push forward” on your path towards complete digital transformation, a path paved with... digital efficiency. Here are a few goals of the “mission” that its development team invested it with:
to help you create content at high speed by leveraging the due technology
to help you “tailor” automated digital business processes, automated workflows fast
to help you develop governance apps at high speed, providing you with a dedicated App Development Framework
Overall, the platform's built to help you:
do things quickly around your organization by automating all the business processes, tasks, and workflows
achieve that ideal “digital flow”
… where data's easily accessible to everyone involved (both workers and customers), multiple teams are interconnected and you're free to change this entire “infrastructure” of processes, people, and content to your liking whenever you need to
Alfresco Digital Business Platform: 5 Tools and Improvements Worth Your Attention
1. Alfresco App Development Framework (ADF)
The new platform's ultimate goal is to help you speed up app development within your organization!
In this respect, this dedicated framework's supercharged with:
reusable Angular 2 components
Google Material design
… to easily “live up” to its goal: enabling your development team to quickly create workflow apps featuring responsive user interfaces adapted to all the devices used across your company!
“But I was already able to build my own apps on top of the Alfresco platform. What's changed now?”
A valid question, indeed!
Apart from a faster app development process, now you get to actually put together your own engaging and nonetheless responsive UI using the web technology of your choice on top of Alfresco!
Remember how you used to be “tied” to Alfresco's own UI? One that, it's true, you could adapt to your own needs, yet... you still depended on it?
Well, not anymore: not only that it empowers you/your team to actually craft your own user experiences on top of the platform, but it also takes most of the heavy work off your developers' shoulders, speeding up things tremendously!
The framework provides you with a set of:
development tools
testing tools
… along with other new Alfresco tools to add to your handy toolbox for speeding your apps' development!
2. New Open RESTful APIs
That's right, you get a whole new set of APIs along with the Alfresco Digital Business Platform!
They're built to handle:
nodes
renditions
versions
… and to perform search queries, as well, and all this DIRECTLY.
Practically people in your organization get to easily access the services they're developing on top of the Alfresco platform.
It's all about them being able to quickly access, to use (even use it to innovate) and to share the data flowing within your company, remember?
The new platform just plugs in, via its open RESTful APIs, all those content and office productivity services into your internal workflows. It enables department collaborations and adapts the workflows to those specific environments that your workers prefer.
And when we talk about API integrations, the list of third-party apps is a.... never-ending one: MicrosoftOutlook, Salesforce, Google Docs, CRM, SAP etc.
Moreover, it gets easier for you, the platform's user, to fully exploit all of the new open RESTful API's capabilities using the API Explorer!
3. Alfresco Search Services
Digging through the “pile” of search improvements brought to the Alfresco digital business platform we can't but mention a few “highlights:
it runs on Solr 6
it comes with a search term highlighting tool
it includes category faceting, document fingerprinting, multi-select facets
it enables users to index multiple versions of a document
it's got significantly improved sharding: you get to shard your index by date, DBID, ACL...
Do your users have multiple search requirements? This new Alfresco platform comes with multiple search tools so that you can comply with your customers' specific sets of requirements!
Note: probably one of the biggest search services-related news is that they're no longer “piled up” in a WAR file. They make a STANDALONE SERVICE now!
4. Admin Improvements
There are 2 handy new features that will streamline your Alfresco deployment's management and troubleshooting workflow:
Trashcan Cleaner, which turns the whole cleaning out of Alfresco deleted items into an automated task
Support tools, ranging from profiling, sampling, gaining easy access to changing log settings and viewing logs, thread dumps, active session monitoring
5. Amazon AWS Optimized Deployment
The Alfresco team has optimized the new platform so that it should run smoothly on Amazon AWS. And their efforts revolve around “valuing” your time even better, as they've included Alfresco Quick Start, turning Alfresco deployment from a matter of days into a matter of... minutes!
So, have we, at least, managed to stir your curiosity? To at least make you... question yourself whether you're currently embracing digital transformation at the right pace? To make you question yourself what you could do better in order to go from digital to digital efficiency? To shift to automated workflows?
Adrian Ababei / Sep 29'2017
All the worldwide-known e-commerce brands that these two e-commerce platforms power are equally impressive. They're both well-built, widely-used, ideally customizable, and scalable. In short: they're equally tempting. And this is what turns any Magento vs Drupal Commerce comparison into such a frustrating “dare”!
In vain you'll let yourself seduced by one's “promise” to help you get your online store up and running in no time if it turns out that it's not built to handle your high-volume store or your entire “ecosystem” of online stores. And in vain you fall for one of the 2 e-commerce platforms' irresistible load of features and customization options if it doesn't empower everyone in your team, even the non-technie staff, to tweak various aspects of your website.
See? It's nothing but a question of “which features, which functionalities” are relevant for your own e-commerce business. And which one of the 2 platforms can deliver most of them.
Now let's indulge in an overview of both Magento and Drupal Commerce's feature sets, shall we?
But First: A few Words About Magento
Magento's an e-commerce software platform built as an open-source solution for eBay (who owned it until 2015), effortlessly “seducing” both developers and business owners with its:
enterprise-level tools and functionalities (e.g. “sophisticated” search capabilities, such as multiple filters that users can apply to their product searches, prompts, etc.)
tones of possibilities for customization
unmatched scalability
capabilities for managing complex product assortments
deep integration with eBay (obviously!)
And Now: A Couple of Things About Drupal Commerce That You Should Know
"What is Drupal Commerce?" A two-in-one CMS and integrated e-commerce platform! Or an e-commerce platform built on Drupal CMS if you prefer, designed to help users set up versatile online stores and apps having Drupal as their foundation!
And this is precisely what tempted and eventually convinced its users to run their online store on it: its incredible versatility! Practically it's a plug and play solution enabling you to set up your e-commerce website anywhere within your environment and it's easy to tweak to fit perfectly your specific way of doing business in the e-commerce arena!
And there's more! The non-technical staff of your team gets to implement changes and to “experiment”, so say “Hello!” to unlimited extensibility and flexibility.
Note: Drupal Commerce does require separate installation and configuration from Drupal core, do take this aspect into account!
Bottom line Drupal:
“plays well” with third-party systems
seamlessly connects content to products and comes packed with tones of modules that you can use for adding on (even) more functionality to your online store and for making it grow along with your business needs and goals
In short: Magento vs Drupal Commerce debate the latter is an A-lister in terms of flexibility and versatility!
A Magento vs Drupal Commerce Comparison: 8 Criteria to Consider
1. Ease of Setup
Drupal Commerce:
if you already have Drupal Core installed, setting up and configuring Drupal Commerce, as well, will be... nothing but a child's game: download, load, install the package
if not, you'll need to go through the slightly more complex Drupal CMS installation process and then enable Drupal Commerce
and there's also a third option, where you go for an installation profile allowing you to install Drupal Commerce on its own
Overall, both Drupal Commerce and Magento empower their users to get them installed from the ground up.
2. Maintenance Costs
Both shopping cart platforms are open-source projects, therefore, they're both free to use.
And yet, depending exclusively on your specific business needs, there are certain costs adding up.
Drupal Commerce:
is completely free except for the hosting fees
it's Commerce Guys that provides the Drupal Commerce users with various levels of support, each level having its own price points
Magento:
also free to use, apart from the hosting costs
as your e-commerce business grows you get to extend your website's functionality with various Magento extensions; for a fee, of course
3. Adaptability and Customization
Customization is undoubtedly one of the key criteria in any Magento vs Drupal Commerce comparison. No business owner with a long-term vision would want to tie his company's future to a rigid e-commerce platform.
So, the more freedom granted to the end-user, the more “power under the hood”, the more “attractive” a shopping cart solution becomes, right?
Drupal Commerce:
is incredibly customizable by nature (for we're talking about a modular nature)
you get to tailor it to your business needs, implement new enhancements, experiment, add new features (and go beyond the “traditional” e-commerce-specific ones) thanks to Drupal CMS backing it up
enables you to “tweak” its look, as well, going through the whole collection of Drupal themes and doing a little bit of design work
Magento:
is entirely customizable if you do have a Magento specific expertise or you can afford a Magento development team instead
comes packed with a heavy load of “tempting” features to “turbocharge” your online store with ranging from zoomable images, to “narrow down” search”, responsive design, promotional options, reviews, calls to action, etc.
the sky is the limit, along with expertise and creativity, when it comes to customizing both your Magento site's appearance and functionality
4. Third-Party System Ecosystems
Drupal Commerce:
integrates with a whole variety of third-parties, yet it has a “weakness” for social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest)
“bids on” customer communities”, user review sharing, connecting content to products (and thus influencing purchases, reaching out to new potential customers, etc.)
to the list of third-party systems that Drupal integrates with we could add: Xero, SagePay, Windows, Mac, iPhone/iPad, Android, web-based devices
Magento:
it's a simple and straightforward integration, with most major players (Payone, Facebook, eBay, Mandrill, BeeTailer, Windows, Mac, Android), that you get to leverage when running your online store on this e-commerce platform
and the ecosystem of third-parties that you can easily “inject” into your Magento online store will turn out to be some great “allies” for crafting user-tailored experiences (you get to tailor your future sales and special offers according to your shoppers' profiles or “shopping histories”); Magento's built to draw huge influxes traffic, no doubt about it!
5. Target Market
Drupal Commerce:
makes an ideal “plug and play” shopping cart solution for both individuals and e-commerce businesses
enables you to have your versatile online store up and running in no time
also empowers you to boost your product marketing campaigns with great content (since Drupal's been primarily designed for content management)
Magento:
if Drupal's a perfect fit for small businesses, in particular, Magento, on the other hand, is built to power businesses with high-volume of sales, managing “clusters” of online stores
Magento Enterprise, in particular, makes the perfect choice for enterprise-level e-commerce businesses, as it comes “loaded” with tones of enterprise-level tools and features to customize high-volume, high-trafficked online stories with
6. SEO Support
Drupal Commerce:
Drupal has the edge on SEO, undoubtedly, thanks to its entire “ecosystem” of SEO-specialised modules that you get to enable onto your website (and you sure aren't short on choice when it comes to Drupal SEO modules: Google Analytics, URL management, Robots.text generator, Site Map Generator etc.)
Magento:
if in Drupal you have a whole set of modules at hand to enable and to install, in Magento you get your SEO tools right out of the box; they're pre-built into the platform
enables you to tweak your URLs, to double-check search terms, to adjust your category and product information, etc.
Overall: although Drupal does have the edge, in the Magento vs Drupal Commerce “competition” there's no “winner”. They're both remarkably SEO-friendly.
7. Web Hosting
Although they're both open-source projects, none of the 2 e-commerce platforms is self-hosted. So, make sure to “squeeze in” the hosting fees when you plan out your budget!
8. Ease of Use
Drupal Commerce:
if you already have a website/app running on Drupal, so you're familiar with the Drupal codebase, UI and development practices, learning how to use Drupal Commerce is... piece of cake
yet, if you're new to Drupal, you might find it a bit challenging at first
Magento:
it does “spoil” its users with advanced tools and customization features and it does grant them total control, yet they do need to be “Magento experts” in order to handle all of Magento's “powers”, all the coding, design and development processes
in short: consider leaving your Magento site's setup and configuration to some Magento professionals; it's a powerful e-commerce platform, packed with an overwhelming set of robust features, yet it does take Magento expertise to handle them right
And this is our list of the most important criteria to use when making your own Magento vs Drupal Commerce” comparison.
So, which is the clincher? That criterion that makes you decide for one or the other?
We sure hope this post will steer you in the right direction: choosing not THE best e-commerce platform from these 2 rivaling ones in the e-commerce arena, but THE best one for YOUR own e-commerce business' particularities and for YOUR own goals as a business owner!
Adrian Ababei / Sep 28'2017
The harvest season, no doubt about it! Autumn (the month of October to be more precisely) is taking us... “Google Chrome novelties” picking! Starting next month Google Chrome will be displaying new “Not Secure” warnings for HTTP pages.
We're talking, in fact, about two additional situations where these discouraging alerts get triggered in users' address bars:
when the user is asked to enter his/her credit card information or his password on an HTPP page (so when he's presented with an HTTP form having sensitive input fields)
when the user loads an HTTP page in Incognito mode
Note: speaking of the second scenario, the “Not Secure” warning will show up on ALL HTTP pages surfed in Incognito mode.
Take it as Google Chrome's next level in its “campaign” of pushing the web on the HTTPS side. A plan structured into multiple gradual steps aimed at discouraging users from “venturing” on non-encrypted websites. And, implicitly, at “forcing” website owners to do the necessary: move to sitewide HTTPS.
HTTP vs HTTPS: Is A Migration Really Worth It?
But first: which are the HTTP protocol's drawbacks? Those that Google Chrome warns users about through its new “Not Secure” warnings for HTTP pages?
Basically an HTTP connection:
is a non-encrypted one
gives visitors no guarantee that once they access a web page they're literally interacting with the “right” website
provides visitors with no protection, whatsoever, against man-in-the-middle attacks, eavesdropping, data modification
On the other hand an HTTPS protocol page:
is one where the user-website communication is an encrypted one, protecting the former against cyber attacks.
keeps data protected from third parties
And now to answer your legitimate question, whether switching from HTTP to HTTPS is really worth the resources (of time and money), let us just imagine this scenario here:
“A user walks into a/lands on your website and is ready to make a purchase. A payment form is presented to him and he is about to enter his credit card information when... he gets a warning, in his address bar, that your site is not secure...”
2 Updates to Run on Your Site to Avoid The New “Not Secure” Warnings for HTTP Pages
1. Simply Get to The Root of the Problem and... Resolve It
How? Making sure that Google Chrome will label as “of secure origins” all the:
inputs marked as credit card fields
all the fill-in forms on your website incorporating <input type=password> elements
“Of secure origins” meaning that both the top-level page and the iframe (in case the user needs to enter his/her data in an iframe) need to display the HTTPS protocol.
In other words: if your HTTPS login/payment form is presented to your users in an overlay on top of an HTTP page, then you'll need to either:
switch all your web pages to HTTPS
redirect it to an HTTPS web page on your website containing that specific login/payment form
Taking the “shortcut”, placing an HTTPS iframe in an HTTP top-level page, is not a solution!
2. Go HTTPS! Switch to Using It Side-Wide Instead
Since the new “Not Secure” warnings for HTTP pages that Google Chrome will be rolling out this October are nothing but another step in its “macro plan” to label ALL HTTP websites as not secure.
So, why waiting for the inevitable to happen? Why should you “mend” when you can go for a long-term, in-depth solution? When you can make the move now and migrate your Drupal website to HTTPS?
Bottom Line
Take Google Chrome's new “Not Secure” warnings for HTTP pages as a new step in its whole master plan towards an HTTP-free web!
It's a plan they first launched in November 2016 and which they're implementing gradually. So that the users grow more and more aware of the risks they expose themselves to accessing HTTP web pages, as the Google Chrome security team confirms:
“Studies show that users do not perceive the lack of a “secure” icon as a warning, but also that users become blind to warnings that occur too frequently. Our plan to label HTTP sites more clearly and accurately as non-secure will take place in gradual steps, based on increasingly stringent criteria."
There's no way of knowing, for the time being, when precisely Google Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as non-secure. When it will label them all with the red triangle currently indicating broken HTTPS pages.
What we do know is that this is the ultimate goal of their strategic plan. So, instead of waiting for the confirmation of the date in the calendar, why not gradually prepare your website for this move?
Adrian Ababei / Sep 25'2017
There's no such thing as “the best web technology” but “the best technology for particular use cases”! For your web projects' particular needs:
do you want it developed fast or do you want it to work fast?
what's crucial for your specific project: that your web technology should scale great or that it should be flexible and IDE friendly?
do you value a highly expressive language or one that's the same on the server and on the client's side (for back-end and front-end)?
Take some time to answer the above questions. Then see if can find your priority features and the capabilities that you're looking for in a web technology and whether your project fits any of the use cases for Node.js that we'll be pointing out here below. Keep reading...
But First: What Is Node.js?
Just a few words about this web technology competing for the “chance” to power your future web project:
a JavaScript platform or “runtime environment” if you prefer
built to enable you to develop fast and highly scalable server-side apps
comes with a unique I/O model which makes it particularly lightweight and excellent for handling big flows of data (real-time situations handling a ton of requests)
Reasons Why Node.js Is Increasingly Popular
And here we're thinking about companies such as Uber, LinkedIn and... NASA that saw huge potential in Node.js!
But don't take these brands/enterprise names as unique arguments for jumping on the Node.js trend! Better scan through, ponder on and put the following reasons for why you should be choosing this technology against your own project's needs and particularities:
your development team will get to use the same language, both on the client and on the server side (so both on the front-end and the back-end); this can only lead to an efficiency boost and to reduced development costs (since your front-end and back-end developers will then be cross-functional)
the same feature practically speeds up the whole development process (parts of your app can get shared and reused from the back-end to the front end and vice versa)
Node.js is a full-stack technology: you get everything you need for Node.js to work all in one package, from the HTTP server to the templating engine
it's free and open-source technology
it loads fast (and here we're comparing it against Ruby on Rails)
Use Cases Where Node.js Works Best
1. For Developing Real-Time Apps
If it's a real-time app that you're planning to build, then Node.js makes THE excellent choice. It's built to:
make sharing and reusing of library code packages a breeze
handle heavy loads of concurrent client requests depending on instant response time like no other rivaling technology out there
speed up the client-server data sync
process massive loads of data in real time
But let's talk facts!
Meaning specific examples of “apps/sites where:
big flows of data need to get processed in real time
multiple connections are simultaneously active and requiring immediate response time (relying on asynchronous interactions, like Quora.com for instance)
So here it is, our list of real-time app examples, of use cases where Node.js works best:
chat apps (instant-messaging, live-chat apps)
collaboration tools: drawing/editing-type apps
e-commerce transaction apps
video conference apps (depending on VoIP and specific hardware to work)
multiplayer games/online gaming apps
In short: Node.js isn't the unique solution, in terms of web technology, to develop your real-time app with, yet the:
unmatched performance that it will turbocharge your future app with (it can handle big data flows and multiple requests and all this without compromising on page load time)
ease of development that it “lures” you with
… do put it on top of your potential web technologies to power your app with!
2. For Building Single-Page Apps Heavy on Processing on The Client Side
Is it a single-page app site that you're planning to build? One of those modern web apps dealing with a lot of rendering, of processing on the client's side mostly (having a back-end playing a single role: providing a JSON API)?
Then you can't choose a more appropriate web technology!
Thanks to its unique I/O model, Node.js is equipped to process high volumes of I/O driven requests and data sharing tasks (e.g. the validation code shared between the client and the server)
In other words: it's a powerful technology “capable” to handle great piles of instant data, of IO-bound requests, one that should scale easily and process the multitude of requests at high speed that you're building, then Node.js is the one for the job!
Note: do keep in mind, though, that if it's more than shuffling data around that you need your web technology to excel at, if there's a lot of CPU processing (e.g. image processing) involved, then you might want to consider other technology for your web project!
3. For Building Streaming-Data Apps
Node.js does a remarkable job, thanks to its capabilities to process massive loads of data in real-time when it comes to supercharging streaming apps.
Let us give you just a few examples of data streamlining tasks where you could leverage Node.js's capabilities:
encoding files while uploading them
uploading files in real-time
building proxies between layers of data
4. For Building REST/JSON APIs
Facing the challenge of wrapping web services or data sources (so other data sources) and displaying them via a JSON or a REST programming interface? Node.js will “save the day”, once again!
Since it:
runs on Javascript
“boasts” with a one of a kind I/O model
… it makes the handiest tool/web technology for you to go for whenever it's APIs that you need to build!
Does any of these 4 ideal use cases for Node.js match your own? Do this platform's features and functionalities meet your specific web project's needs? If so: entirely or just partially?
Adrian Ababei / Sep 22'2017
First the launching of Shopify Pay, now this! It's more than obvious: Shopify's constantly striving to enrich its merchant customers' toolset with new and new features. And this time it's all about easy-to-scan, easier to track QR codes. In other words: Shopify launches Shopcodes, a free app downloadable right from the e-commerce platform's store, an app playing the role of a QR codes “generator”.
What does this launch mean for you?
Well, it means that you, the Shopify store owner, get to easily create QR codes (just generate them and then download the graphic files) and then link them to any product page or shopping cart page that you want. This way you'll be:
enabling your potential shoppers to get extra info about various products while they're in your physical store (they just scan the QR codes attached to your products and voila: they'll be taken right on the products' dedicated pages in your Shopify online store)
interconnecting your customers' offline and online shopping experiences
streamlining the whole checkout process (the code can also take your customers right to the checkout page, skipping all the other time-consuming steps to take)
delivering your clients their desired products without having to keep an inventory on hand; so even if you own a popup store and you're constrained by the lack of space
… and the list of benefits can go on and on.
Now let's delve even deeper into details on how to create and place these codes on your products/marketing materials, details on various use cases and on the multiple benefits:
How Do You Create These Codes and Place Them on Your Products/Marketing Materials?
Generating these QR codes, then linking them to your product/checkout pages and downloading the graphics files (SVG, PNG) to be placed on your marketing materials /products is nothing but a simple 4-step process:
just get the Shopcodes app from the Shopify App Store and have it installed
use the app to generate your first QR code
link the QR code to the product or the shopping cart page of your choice
print the graphic file to place on your offline marketing materials!
Once your offline customer enters your physical store and uses his/her iPhone to scan the printed code added to a certain product he/she can:
learn more about it, visiting your online shop and heading straight to the product page that he's interested in
get straight to the shopping cart page and complete the checkout process, purchasing that specific product!
OK, Shopify Launches Shopcodes: But How Do They Work Precisely?
First of all, we need pointing out 2 particularities that set these QR codes in Shopify apart from the “traditional” ones (since QR codes have been around since the 90's):
you can generate them exclusively within your Shopify store
they can be used exclusively for shopping purposes
OK, now that we've set these key details straight, here's how they work and also how you, the seller, get to harness their full spectrum of functionalities:
we've already briefly mentioned how they work from the user's perspective: he/she uses his Apple phone to scan the code and gets a screen with additional info about the given product or with a “buy” button instead if you, the seller, will have linked that code to a checkout page
you, the Shopify merchant customer, get to track down and to monitor those codes (they're not just scannable, but also unique and easily trackable), each transaction made by your customers, right from your Shopify Analytics dashboard; so you'll get a crystal clear picture of where traffic/sales on your online store are coming from
you, again, even get to harness a whole set of features aimed at enriching your toolset as a seller: to add discounts to those QR codes (thus encouraging your offline customers to purchase online), to make changes via your Shopcodes app's dashboard (e.g. to add extra information or promotions)
Convenience for your customers (and for you, too, since you have your dashboard as your control panel at hand) and a bundle of benefits for you, the Shopify customer!
Which Are the Use Cases for These QR Codes?
“Practically you get to use Shopify QR codes wherever you advertise offline”:
place them on your product packaging; this way your customers can just scan them through and get more detailed information about your products by visiting your online store or go to the checkout page directly
display them in your brick and mortar shop's storefront window, alongside other products; this way, even with closed doors, after or before your shop's working hours, your customers can still engage in shopping: in online shopping on your Shopify store instead!
use them in your popup store (or at the events that your company participates to), where you face multiple constraints, such as lack of space and a limited inventory on hand; your visitors can still scan these QR codes and have their favorite products delivered to their homes instead
In short: rely on Shopify's QR codes whenever/wherever you're conducting offline marketing campaigns! Use them to stir your offline potential customers' curiosity, turning them into your future online shoppers!
Why Should You, The Shopify Store Owner, Be Excited About This App?
“What's in it for you?” In what way does Shopify deliver you, through the launch of its Shopcodes app, (even more) value?
Let's sum up your benefits and outline the answer to your question:
it enables you to turn first-time customers into loyal customers thanks to a much more streamlined checkout process (they just scan the QR codes... land straight on the checkout pages... hit the “buy” button... and that's it!)
it helps you turn various limitations (of space, of inventory on hand, etc.), that you might need to deal with, into favorable contexts for directing your potential shoppers to your online store instead
from package inserts to storefront windows, to offline ads... practically any offline marketing material can serve as a QR code support, turning itself into a “tool” for your customers to gain quick and easy access to your Shopify online store
What do you think about these QR codes' comeback that Shopify orchestrates? Do you plan to incorporate them into your own future offline marketing campaigns?
Adrian Ababei / Sep 21'2017