Drupal vs. WordPress: A comparison

“Demand and supply are just like two sides of a coin. To fulfil the demand of the user there must be enough resource so as to meet the expectations of the industry. If you are not able to meet the ever changing demands of the industry then you couldn’t sustain in the market. Similarly technology should be always up to date so as to provide optimum service to the developer and hence the end user. Every technology strives to remain in the industry with newer and advanced features and to serve the industry in a meaningful manner. Content management system is one such platform that provides enough scope for the developers in developing enterprise quality web applications. It definitely reduces the effort of the developer due to its in built systematic architecture and hence increases the productivity of the software developer. Drupal and WordPress are two magnificent CMS software available in the industry to serve in an efficient manner. But, nothing is perfect in this materialistic universe and so the case for these CMSs as well. Let us discuss their advantages and disadvantages and usefulness from the developer’s point of view”.

Ease of Use: For CMS software, user interface plays an important role as a deciding factor. User interface is something that makes sense when we think about ease of use and easy to learn character of the software. The popularity of WordPress is around ten times than that of Drupal considering the fact that the population of WordPress user is ten times more than that of Drupal. This is due to simple user interface and easy to learn approach of WordPress CMS. But the case is different with Drupal; though it is efficient enough to handle complicated web applications but it needs more effort and time from the Drupal developers to learn and integrate all the components of the CMS whereas WYSIWYG editor of WordPress is much more user friendly to provide better accesses for the WordPress developer. In fact WordPress releases upgrades every three four months without creating any annoying experience for the developer whereas Drupal upgrades need effort from the developer to handle the code changes of the newer version.

Scalability: Scalability is something that enables the web developer in crafting enhanced web applications from scratch with less effort and with more efficiency. There are many options available in a CMS platform that extends the features of a web application like integration of advanced themes, templates, plug-ins and components etc. Again the ease of integration of these features matters a lot from the developer’s point of view. WordPress provides sufficient room for the developer to integrate better themes, plug-ins and components etc from a repository of millions of contributions of the industry whereas Drupal developers may not find enough open source templates and plug-ins for their application. But if we consider about the quality of customisation then the clear winner will be Drupal because of its highly optimised Architecture that enables the Drupal developer in building high performance web applications; but at the cost of effort and expertise from the developer. In short we can say the customisation features of WordPress are better for moderate standard web applications whereas Drupal is consistent enough for big content web solutions.

Security features: Undoubtedly the security standards of Drupal are par ahead of WordPress due to its highly optimised design pattern. A Drupal application is extremely secure and hence can be used confidently for any big data application. On the contrary WordPress is little loose from its score and hence it can’t be a trusted one for data driven application. Again due to larger community of WordPress, hackers love to show their talent in the bigger canvas. Hence the security threat is more for a WordPress website than that of a Drupal.

Search Engine Optimization: Search Engine Optimization is one of the most important features of every CMS. There are many third party SEO tools or plug-ins available in the industry along with the inbuilt SEO tools. There are more number of advanced SEO tools and plug-ins available in WordPress platform than that of Drupal. On the contrary, Drupal platform has less number of SEO tools available in the industry but due to its default caching features, it forces Google to give priority for a faster Drupal website. Again Drupal can handle larger volume of content without any hassle and hence it makes a lot sense when we think about search engine optimisation. So it is like a tie between both the platforms from two different angles.

Performance: It is needless to say that the performance of an optimised platform is always better than that of a loosely coupled platform and hence Drupal performs outstanding in the industry. Drupal is having a tremendous popularity in the industry as a tough yet powerful CMS and it enables the developer in building enterprise quality high performance web applications.

Futuristic i.e. Responsiveness and mobile platform support: Industry has understood the importance of responsive web design in building a larger audience community for its business. It can be well achieved with the introduction of smart apps and web apps for different platforms like Android, IOS and windows operating system. Fortunately both Drupal and WordPress provides enough scope for the developer in designing responsive web applications through dedicated mobile theme for their application. WPTouch is one such WordPress mobile theme for responsive web design. It is already revealed that building a responsive web application with WordPress is much easier than that of Drupal platform. Again WordPress handles both the desktop web application as well as mobile web application in a better way so that your website can be well visible on the search engine. In fact WordPress provides real time content editing feature on mobile and it is extremely helpful for updating your blog in real time and it can be done from a native mobile app itself.

And the Winner is: Both the CMSs are having some advantages and disadvantages with respect to different prospective. WordPress is better for a medium volume content application where as Drupal is powerful enough to handle any complex application. WordPress doesn’t require much learning and expertise from a developer whereas Drupal needs it from the very beginning. Drupal is highly secure and stable platform but WordPress is extremely simple and flexible. So we can say Drupal is best platform for complex applications whereas WordPress is a simple platform for quick web building that doesn’t require much expertise from the developer.

We, at Mindfire Solutions, are equally competent in WordPress and Drupal. If you have any custom WordPress plugin development requirements, or need the help of our senior WordPress programmers: please feel free to give a shout to us any time and we will be replying back within one business day.

Some of the Difference between jQuery and JavaScript

As a hugely popular client-side scripting language, JavaScript does not need any introduction. In addition to being used as part of web browsers, JavaScript also controls the web browsers, effectuates user interaction, facilitates asynchronous communication, and delivers customized content to users. So most web developers use JavaScript to reduce the time and effort required for building large or complex websites. The web developers also have option to use several JavaScript frameworks to effectuate and speedup web development.

JQuery is a widely used cross-platform JavaScript library. Despite being open source, jQuery is easy to use, fast and concise. The API provide by jQuery works seamlessly on major web browsers. Also, the feature-rich JavaScript library makes it easier for web developers to manipulate HTML documents, handle events, create animations, select DOM elements, and build AJAX application. At the same time, jQuery can also be used for creating a variety of plug-ins by taking advantages of the JavaScript library.

Thus, the modern web developers have option to use JavaScript and jQuery either independently or side by side. However, it is also important for the programmers to understand some of the major differences between JavaScript and jQuery.

4 Important Differences between JavaScript and jQuery

1) Programming Language and Library

As a dynamic programming language, JavaScript supports object-oriented, structured, functional and imperative programming styles. The first-class functions and dynamic typing also make JavaScript categorized as a prototype-based scripting language. On the other hand, jQuery is a JavaScript library. The framework makes it easier for developers to accomplish a number of common web tasks like HTML document manipulation, event handling, animation, DOM element selection and AJAX application development.

2) Scripting Time

When a web developer decides to use straight JavaScript, he has to write additional code to accomplish several tasks. He further has to put extra time and effort for debugging and fixing browser compatibility issues. But jQuery allows developers to take advantage of existing scripting. So they can use the scripting existing in jQuery to accomplish a number of web tasks without writing longer lines of code. Thus, jQuery makes it easier for web programmers to save the time and efforts required for building modern websites and internet applications.

3) Simplification of Client-Side Scripting

As a client-side scripting language, JavaScript makes it easier for developers to effectuate user interaction and deliver customized content to users. But the developers have to write longer lines of code to write a web application in straight JavaScript. So web developers often use JavaScript frameworks to accomplish the scripting functions easily and quickly. As a cross-platform JavaScript library, jQuery comes with features to perform the common scripting functionalities. So developers can use the library to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML. The plug-ins, widgets and UIs provided by the framework help web programmers to drastically reduce development time.

4) Performance

Both JavaScript and jQuery run quite faster on the latest web browsers and computers. But the speed of both JavaScript and jQuery is impacted by use of older web browsers. As JavaScript can access the DOM faster than jQuery, the programmers can easily curtail the overheads associated with the library. However, jQuery makes it easier for developers to build high-performing websites and internet application by availing functionality independent of web browsers.

On the whole, JavaScript is a dynamic and feature-rich programming language, whereas jQuery is a library of JavaScript code. The proficient JavaScript developers can easily use jQuery to accomplish a variety of tasks without writing longer lines of code. However, they can still use jQuery without being proficient in the popular client-side scripting language. That is why; the developers need to choose JavaScript or jQuery according to specific needs of the project.

At Mindfire Solutions, we have been providing JavaScript development services to our esteemed clients for more than 6 years now. Our Web Development Team is 15 years old now and equally adept in various web technologies like Java, ASP.Net, ColdFusion, Ruby on Rails, PHP, Python and Front End technologies like HTML5 and JavaScript to name a few. If you have a rich web application and you need to upgrade/maintain the same or a new web application idea in mind, please feel free to write to us at Sales at MindfireSolutions Dot Com and we will revert back within one business day. As a special limited period offer, you can also avail our Risk-Free Trial offer.

Adding strength to your website development with JS & Jquery

Why JavaScript? Often there is confusion between java and JavaScript made by layman. Mostly JavaScript is treated as a client side programming language that enables the web developer in rendering dynamic contents on the web page. There is a hidden fact behind, that JavaScript can also be used for back end programming!! In fact JavaScript is a fully fledged web domain specific language that has the potential to create both frontend as well as backend application on its back bone. Moreover JavaScript is highly flexible and extremely fast. This makes it the first choice for frontend development where we have to put our all effort in giving awesome user experience to the viewer. Hence there is a tremendous demand for JavaScript developers in the industry considering the future potential of the language.

JavaScript is super fast: As we have discussed above, JavaScript is renowned for its extra ordinary speed and efficiency in the industry. Considering the fact, it is always being used in the frontend programming to give that speed to the web application. Moreover, we can’t deny the importance of JavaScript in modern web development that needs extensive optimisation of the application for better browsing experience under limited resources like through smart phones and tablets. Understanding the potential of JavaScript, industry leaders including Google have come up with new JavaScript framework that enables the web developers in developing fully fledged website consisting of both frontend and backend programming. JavaScript frameworks like knokoutJS, AngularJS etc are the burning example of platforms that enables the JavaScript developer to develop enterprise standard web application that is not only efficient but also attractive and superfast.

JQuery means Efficiency: On the other hand, JQuery is a JavaScript library developed by Google to help the web developers in quick website development. The tag line of JQuery is “write less, do more” this implies the vision of JQuery i.e., all the frequently used functions of JavaScript are already written in the jQuery library so that the JavaScript developer doesn’t need to write more codes to execute those attractive visual effects on the web page. Effects like so or hide, toggle, blink etc are already written within the jQuery library itself. Those functions are optimised to the maximum level so that you needn’t to worry about the performance of those methods for your application.

Responsive & Dynamic web app development: To survive in the competitive and ever changing smart phone industry, you must take the maximum advantage of JavaScript and JQuery while developing your web application. You can develop high quality reliable and optimised web application using JavaScript and JQuery. To deal with a wide range of screen sizes, resolutions and memory constraints you can take the help of JQuery and JavaScript along with HTML5 and CSS3 to build enterprise standard responsive web application. So we can say all types of modern web applications can be developed using JavaScript that will definitely help you in sustaining in the market with quality products.

At Mindfire Solutions, we have a specialized JavaScript Development Team; we have been handling our esteemed customers’ Custom JavaScript Development needs since the last 6 years now. We have a team of HTML5 Developers who are working in sync with our other Web Developers Team and JavaScript Team to create responsive web solutions for our clients. If you need to hire JavaScript Developers or JQuery Developers, Please feel free to write to us at Sales at MindfireSolutions Dot com.

Understanding the requirements for improving the process of creating JAVASCRIPT apps

Smart phone industry is on fire: Recently we have seen an exceptional growth in the smart phone market. The industry has grown to multiple times in just few years. Experts believe that this trend of growth will continue further rather the smart phone industry is at its childhood stage. Understanding the future potential of smart phone industry, many IT giants like Google, Microsoft and Apple etc have come up with their smart phone oriented Operating systems i.e. Android, Wndows 8.1 and iOS respectively. Fortunately they have received an overwhelming response from different sections of users of the industry. This triggered software developers to jump into the pond with iOS developer or Android app developer cap. Anyway, the main objective is to develop quality web apps for different platforms and JavaScript turned out as a centre of attraction for all web developers. JavaScript enabled them to develop industry standard web apps on the go.

Speed and performance matters a lot: No matter what programming language you are using; you can’t get the speed like JavaScript. JavaScript is popular for its unmatched speed in the web industry. Hence it is the first choice for developing front end web pages since it is presented to the end user directly and the look and feel of the user interface can help in providing better user experience. Moreover, if the user does not feel any lag during the browsing process, he will feel happy.

Responsive web design with JavaScript: Responsive web design is the core concept of modern web application development. There are multiple browsing devices available in the market like smart phones, tablets and desktop computers etc. Moreover, their screen size and resolution also vary a lot. It varies from 2 inches to 10 inches screen size in different form factors. Now, when a web developer is said to develop an application that can provide similar user experience irrespective of screen sizes, he will be on trouble. To overcome this issue, the solution is Responsive web design. It will help in creating a common web app that can be fit to any screen size automatically and hence providing better user experience.

Dynamic web application through JavaScript: Dynamic web application is must for modern era web solution. It will prevent unnecessary loads on the server. Through dynamic web page you can control the content of your web page through the actions of your users. Hence it will show only the relevant contents on the web page making it dynamic and user friendly. Moreover, you can allot different controls to your user so that they can fetch their required data from server using buttons, links etc. It will make your user feel privileged.

Now, back end programming can be done in JavaScript! Well, this seems little surprising; but it is true! JavaScript is a fully fledged language that can be used for full functional web application development just like Java or .Net. Moreover, the application developed in JavaScript will be super fast and extremely light weight. You can use all types of APIs to interact with server using JavaScript.

At Mindfire Solutions, our JavaScript development team has rich experience in core JavaScript programming as well as various JavaScript Frameworks and Libraries e.g. Node.JS, Backbone.JS, KnockOut.JS, Angular.JS, EXT.JS and creation of rapid web application development solutions. If you are thinking about Outsourcing JavaScript Development or hiring JavaScript Developers to augment your existing team, please feel free to write to sales at MindfireSolutions dot com and we would revert back in one business day.

How Has HTML5 Paved Way to Better Web?

Many analysts have predicted that 2015 will be an important year of 2015. The standards-based development technologies provided by HTML5 make it easier for developers to build modern and attractive internet applications. At the same time, HTML5 enables enterprises to curtail project overheads by avoiding commercial plug-in tools like Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight. As HTML5 and JavaScript run on devices ranging from smartphones and tablets to smartwatches, the technologies effectuate the development of programmable web pages. Therefore, the web developers have to adopt HTML5 to keep pace with the frequent technology changes.

How HTML5 Helps Developers to Build Better Internet Applications?

Rich Media: HTML5 enables programmers to embed videos and audio into the application without using any third-party application. They can simply use the <audio> and <video> tags to play the media smoothly be eliminating the errors associated with conventional web-based media playback techniques. The developers can further customize the video clips by defining required attributes like height, width and autoplay. However, they have to add additional code to make the audio or video accessible on older versions of certain web browsers.

Ability to Manipulate Files from Web Browsers: To deliver richer user experience, each modern internet app must communicate with the user’s local system without any hassle. Earlier, programmers have to use a variety of third party plug-ins to facilitate smooth communication between the application and user’s local system. The third party plug-ins are not supported by all web browsers. Also, the programmers have to update the plug-ins at frequent intervals to keep them current. The web developers can avail the ability of HTML5 to access, store and manipulate files from the user’s system. So the application will deliver richer and personalized user experience across web browsers.

New Tags to Organize Content: The HTML5 developers have option to organize the content using a set of new tags like <Header>, <footer>, <article> and <section>. The tags make it easier for developers to organize the web page content in a more systematic and relevant way. The option makes it easier for others to make changes to the website without putting extra time and effort. Further, the search engine crawlers can easily fetch the contextual information about the web page and its assets. Thus, the feature helps in increasing the website’s search engine ranking and visibility.

Elegant Forms: The developers can further use HTML5 to design more fancier and appealing forms. They have option to choose from a variety of text input, fields and search options. So it becomes easier to choose the most appropriate form elements according to specific needs. These features further enhance the user interface and make form validation native, while reducing JavaScript usage. The developers, however, has to use JavaScript code for the web browsers that do not support HTML5.

Offline Application Cache: While browsing a website, visitors want to access the previous page and next page without any internet connectivity. But the caching capabilities of individual web browsers differ. So the users have to reconnect to the internet to access the pages smoothly. But HTML5 enables programmers to specify the files that the web browser needs to catch. So they can allow a user to access the pages visited by him without reconnecting to the internet. The offline cache feature will further make the web page load faster, while reducing the load on server.

Local Storage Option: Often web developers find it challenging to track user data securely by overcoming the limitation of cookies. As the cookie data is added to individual HTTP request headers, it affects the response time negatively. So developers have to explore ways to reduce the cookie size. HTML5 enables developers to replace cookies with two distinct local storage options, i.e., sessionStorage and localStorage. Unlike cookies, the local storage feature enables programmers to store the user data in multiple windows. As the structured data is stored in a temporary database, the users can access the information without any hassle.

Geolocation APIs: Nowadays, internet applications use geolocation to provide the most relevant and localized information to a user based on his current geographical location. To figure out the user’s current location, the developers have to use a number of techniques including IP address, cell phone tower, wireless internet connection, and dedicated GPS tracking hardware. They can now use the HTML5 geolocation APIs to identify the current location of a user, and make the information available to the web application. Thus, the application can deliver the most appropriate and relevant information to each user based on his current geographical location.

HTML5 becomes more important in 2015 as the large corporations keep deprecating support for proprietary plug-in tools. In 2014, Google deprecated support for Microsoft Silverlight in its Chrome web browser. Likewise, in January 2015, YouTube replaced Flash with HTML5 for its default video player. That is why; the developers have to use HTML5 to optimize the application’s compatibility across devices and web browsers.

If you would like to hire HTML5 developers from top HTML5 development company for your development needs, please contact us Mindfire Solutions. We provide HTML5 development services.

The rise of HTML5 for mobile development

Future relies on smart devices: Devices like smart phones, tablets are growing like virus in the industry. Isn’t? Everyday there are launch, update of new smart phones or their operating systems happing. The most important part is that users are responding vigorously to these devices because they are getting much more than their expectation. One smart phone does a lot of additional work along with just making a call. It can be used as a torch, camera, fm player, TV, multimedia player, chat machine etc. The most important feature of any smart phone is its power to connect the user to the world of internet through mobile networks that too from anywhere and anytime. All these facilities make a smart phone extremely useful and helpful. If we say our future relies on these devices, it will not be an over statement at all.

Smart device demands for smart apps: With the numbers of smart phones increasing with every passing day, it is becoming a headache for web developers to develop enterprise standard web apps that can run smoothly irrespective of platforms, devices and resources. As a result, they are bound to consider for mobile apps that can exert unmatched quality of user experience. For the same, there is an increasing demand for mobile app developers in the industry. We will discuss it next section.

HTML5 for mobile apps: Well, mobile apps like games, web apps, native apps and hybrid apps are the core for any mobile developer like android developer or iOS developer etc. They must consider user experience at the top of the list. To achieve the same, HTML5 is there in the industry. HTML5 is a new generation web development language to develop quality and attractive web apps. It can also be used for native app development as well. The core concept of using HTML5 over HTML is that, it helps in creating light weight, attractive, interactive and visually prominent web applications on the fly. We can embed video, graphics, canvas elements into our web page without much hassle. This helps the web developers and smart phone app developers to be updated and to be more productive than before.

HTML5 a weapon for responsive web application development: Responsive web development has been the talk of the cyber world recently. It means to develop an application that can impart same user experience irrespective of Platform, device screen size and resolution i.e. the application has the capability to accommodate itself for any types of situation. This is extremely important when we are living with a wide variety of devices like smart phones, tablets and desktop machines to browse a common application. Well, we can develop the same using HTML5 along with CSS3 and jQuery.

Mobile games in HTML5: Yes!! It is true that we can develop mobile games using HTML5. It can be possible through its latest canvas element. Well, the game should be light weight because it is intended for small hardware. There are many canvas libraries available in the internet that is extremely useful in developing good light weight mobile games.

You can hire certified HTML5 developers, who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

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Responsive Web Design in 2015 - Will the demand increase?

Before two decades we used to take help of paper note pad and pen to express our thoughts to others. But with time the pain and paper are transformed into styles and smart phone to convey our thoughts, ideas to the world. In past few years we have seen a explosive growth of smart phone and tablet market throughout the globe crossing all barriers of geographic lines and economic lines in the world. Before a decade these smart phones and tablets were limited to the developed countries but with time due to the decrease in the price of these devices it is now a must have hand held device for everyone in developing countries like India, China and Indonesia etc. Understanding the potential of the market, manufactures are developing different sizes of smart phones and tablets for different economic groups of customers. But this is increasing the difficulty for the software developers to develop their application for such a wide range of products with different hardware specification and form factor.

Born of Responsive web design: “Necessity is the mother of invention”!! To tackle the above issue software developers create a new technology i.e., responsive web design to handle different forms and platforms for the application. With responsive web design the software developer can now develop different mobile apps and web apps for smart phones which run on Android, IOS and Windows platform. The aim of this technology is to provide same user experience for different platforms and different screen sizes of devices.

Why Responsive web design: Previously when a web developer develops an application he used to concentrate on the reliability of the application for windows operating system which usually has a monitor size screen. With the increasing demands of smart phone and tablets, users now like the way they browse internet on these devices. There are millions and billions mobile apps, web apps and hybrid apps available in the Android and IOS market. To compete with these apps in 2015, we have to take the help of responsive web design to develop our future web application that can run on any platform. For the same, there are many futuristic technologies like HTML 5, CSS 3 and Jquery to produce enterprise standard responsive web application for the future. With the responsive web application, the web developers can make their application to fit with any size and resolution of the screen in any platform providing a better user experience.

Future of Responsive web design: The demand of web application development will decrease tremendously in 2015 and the same will be transformed into native apps and hybrid apps in next year. So the web developers are now tighten their belt to develop modern hybrid apps for the smart phone users which is not only interactive but also efficient and responsive for different platforms. Responsive web design will not be limited to just web applications but it will spread across all modern devices through native apps and hybrid apps. Hence we can see a hilarious future for the responsive web developers in upcoming time.

You can hire HTML5 experts from India, who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

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