Servage Magazine

In some opinions the lack of model-based validation is one of the major deficits with Eloquent models in the Laravel PHP framework. One side argues that it pollutes the core model code by implementing lots of rarely used functionality - which the other side counters with the opposite argument: It's needed in the core model, because it is commonly used functionality. However, even if agreeing on making validation model-based, the next discussion would be about the implementation. It would therefore be great for the Laravel community to overcome this discussion, and implement a widely accepted model-based validation principle. In the meantime you can be inspired by the implementation below - of not only validation ...

The software development process is becoming more intricate and laborious. This is due to the gradual increase in the complexity of various technologies, balanced with the qualitative expectations of clients and end users. Today, our web identity is not restricted to the desktop; instead, it is going mobile where time and place are no longer an issue for the computing experience. And so mobile software faces high expectations for accomplishing innovative and unique tasks. All these factors lead programmers to intensive research and planning. Therefore, the analysis and research during the planning stage needs a viable action plan. We usually can achieve this using wireframes and prototypes as a tool during ...

Users want good a experience with your website on any device. If you are not making your website easy to use and quick to load, as well as interactive, your project is likely going to be a failure - even though your design is responsive. The responsive design development is carried further on, and today nearly 20% of the websites on the web are responsive - compared to 11% last year. It's likely to reach the 50% mark in the near future. The motivation behind converting a website to responsiveness is usually a somewhat naive belief that responsiveness solves platform compatibility. However, when we think of responsive web designing, we are ...

The following post is shedding a little light on some good session and authentication principles. Often, it's normal procedure to create a session on every request where the requesting client does not have a session already. However, I  like to assign sessions only after login - or create a new session after login. This is because I will eventually be doing login over HTTPS and would like to prevent hackers from hijacking the sessions from users that have authenticated. Consider the below code script for setting up a new session after successful authentication. <?php //authenticate2.php require_once 'login.php'; $db_server = mysql_connect($db_hostname, $db_username, $db_password); if (!$db_server) die("Unable to connect to MySQL: " . mysql_error()); ...

There are many situations in the life of small e-commerce businesses where you may fear that the e-commerce is moving in a bad direction, or even collapsing. In fact, such problems are usual and there are some ways to come out on top of the situation. Building a great e-commerce platform is only the first step towards a successful store. In reality, things are more complicated, as we have to face a myriad of challenges on the site - and with other business operations. As an e-commerce web developer, I have observed many such challenges in web shops, and will go through some of the most common issues below. Whenever you face an issue on your e-commerce storefront, keep calm ...

Your PHP program can’t tell which variables were set in other programs - or even which values the program itself set the previous time it ran - you’ll sometimes want to track what your users are doing from one web page to another. You can do this by setting hidden fields in a form and checking the value of the fields after the form is submitted. However, PHP provides a much more powerful and simpler solution in the form of sessions. These are groups of variables that are stored on the server - but relate only to the current user. To ensure that the right variables are applied to the right users, ...

The security for the data of web users is very important. Many data transfers include sensitive data, which may cause harm, if publicly known. This includes private and contact information, but especially passwords and payment data. I strongly recommend that you test and make sure, that any such transfers between your site and your users is protected accordingly using a SSL connection. When it comes to data storage, it is strongly recommended that you make sure to use proper encryption for sensitive data, and in this article we are going to have a look at a good solution for storing user passwords securely. MySQL is the natural way to store usernames ...

We are living in a world of smartphones, tablets and now the wearable smart-appliances, and sensor-connected devices in coming days. Therefore, tracing the right design-path is an absolute necessity. This post is throwing light on some critical design related misconceptions we might have developed over time. We have been designing in Photoshop, Illustrator etc. for some decades now. Earlier our canvas was for print media, later for rather large desktop-like devices. Mobiles or hand-held devices came at a later stage - and have taken a central position for all designing done today. With this evolution, we have developed habits of painting using a digital canvas, where shapes, vectors, pixels, colors, various effects, different ...

Visual appeal of a physical or virtual product is the prime deciding factor in conversion. Therefore, managing the visuals of e-commerce websites definitely increases the ROI and conversion. Let's check which visual factors influence our e-commerce website performance. When we view a product, we just ask our mind and heart subconsciously how it looks at first glance. If we get a positive response, we are less reluctant to buy it, whether it is a physical product in a store or a virtual product on a website - or just a signup. Therefore we can say that before applying other sensors, we use our eyes at rapid speed first, to build ...