Why Open Source Web Development Is So Much Preferred by Businesses?

Web designers and developers prefer open source development because it permits them to study and customize site in their own ways. They can learn so many things at absolutely free of cost. Besides developers, open source development has become extremely popular among all those businesses that are looking to thrive in the Internet with the help of extensive websites. Such businesses highly prefer open source software for designing and development of their sites, and they have some strong reasons to do so.

Let’s see what are those reasons that make open source website development so popular among businesses.

Cutting-edge Tools at Free of Cost
PHP communities have served the web world with lots of open source frameworks like WordPress and Joomla. These frameworks feature plenty of savvy development tools that help web developers accomplish their tasks precisely and easily. The best thing is all these tools are available at free of costs, which enables other person to save ample amount of money, which is certainly not possible with a proprietary software.

Freedom from Vendor Lock-in
If you have ever dealt with proprietary software, then probably you are aware of the frustration that vendor lock-in gives you. For every other tool or technology, you have to carry the burden of terms and conditions along with expensive licensing fees. Moreover, there is a lack of portability and the degree of customization is also restricted. Open source development saves a person from all these hassles.

Easy to Scale
As your business grows in size, it becomes important for you to add scalability to your website too. Since, in open source development, you do not have to deal with obstacles of proprietary software; adding scalability to your site becomes easier and faster. Further, there are pre-designed templates and layouts, which make this task hassle-free and less tedious.

All-in-One Variations
WordPress, the open source PHP based software that is chiefly considered as an excellent blogging tool, can be used to build an entire website, and it can also be used as a CMS. This all-in-one provision is one of the outstanding features of open source software. Though, there are software like Magento that are specifically meant for only one type of development, most of the open source software can be used for multiple purposes. Therefore, whether you want a personal blog, an extensive corporate site or a simple static site – one robust platform can cater to all your requirements.

Support
Most of the open source software are supported by great communities, and these communities act as great support for site owners. If your website is built with open source software, then you do not need to worry because the communities and forums tend to answer most of your questions. The owner might be a non-technical person, but the communities at least guide you through the basic problems.

Flexibility and durability of open source software are other reasons that encourage site owners and businesses to hire open source developers for their task. It is because of the diligence of these software that motivate big brands to hire open source frameworks for their sites.

Tips for Business Owners and Ecommerce Web Design Features

The main motive behind doing business for any business enterprise is to earn profit which justifies their investments. And for achieving this, the online presence as well as recognition is essential to stand apart from those competitors. Your online recognition and popularity depends on your official website designs. Especially for the business enterprise who are engaged in selling products and artifacts, the website designs plays important role. The ecommerce is a great way to draw online shoppers to your business website. According to a recent survey almost 76% of the entire time of users is spent on the Internet, surfing and looking for desired product. This is where the business enterprises can make the effective use of eCommerce for enhancing their sales and revenue.

The eCommerce offer various imperative tools that help companies to represent their products and services in an attractive manner to the users. This is a smart business strategy for those who are indulged in retail business. The eCommerce web design aims not only to lure visitors but, it also holds them to your website for long time.  It has great set of impressive designs that reflects your business philosophy and vision. It incorporates following features, which make sure that your online store is always running on a great pace among competitors.

Features:

• Great navigation
• Well-organized layout
• Clear and market friendly content
• User-friendly interface
• Ease of maintenance, No complexity
• Secure payment gateways
• Large array of sophisticated professional designs

Tips for Business owners—What Your Website Should Entail
Your website design plays important role in enhancing your business’s reliability and reputation. Picking up the right web design becomes tricky sometimes. Here are some tips that will assist you in knowing what all are the qualities your website should entail. Following these tips will ensure that you enjoy great returns on investments.

Ease of Swapping
While shopping, one of the most frustrating things about online websites is difficult page swapping. Users surf the desired product and lend on your website with a purpose of buying. And, in this attempt of searching if they get lost on your website, they will immediately close your website and switch on to other. Remember, there are many online stores other than yours. So, you have to make sure that your website provides an ease of navigation that helps users to decide where to go and that too on what page. Also, the swapping option should be available on each page at same position.

Less Complexity
The designing of your website should be with user-friendly color combination. You should avoid using complex and hard to understand eCommerce layout design. This will enhance the chances of visitors to convert into payable customers for your business. For making your website more versatile, it would be better if you hire ecommerce website designer from a reputed company.

Genuine Interface
The only motive behind doing business is earning profit. Let’s face it- if you want users to play with their hard earned cash, it is highly essential for your website to entail genuine interface for users. The users must feel that the products and artifacts are from the trusted source. Moreover, make sure that the payment options are secure to give your customer ease of satisfaction.

Shopping Cart Visibility
It is highly recommended to have loud and clear shopping cart visibility for the customers. Make sure that the shopping cart is available for users all the time no matter whether they are viewing products or buying it. Moreover, in your web design you may also embrace different section for promotion for enticing appropriate customers to your site. You can place special offers, sale, and discount with compelling eCommerce website designs.

The eCommerce web designing tips all alone cannot promise a great deal of customers as well as revenue. There is difference between knowing things and implementing things. Following these tips and hiring skilled professional from a reputed company is surely going to serve the purpose. Hence, if you are planning to build new website or want to revolutionize the existing one, hire ecommerce website designer and make your online store effective with all advanced and secured features. And, make sure that your developed website follows at least above-mentioned tips and features.

Posted By: PHP Developer – PHP Web Development

OsCommerce vs Zen Cart: The On-going Debate in the Web Development Industry

PHP is a boon to the web designers, developers and to the site owners as well. Because of this server-side language, the web world has been able to keep up its growth. Moreover, PHP has also acted as a catalyst via its various open source software for all those individuals who wanted to make a presence in the web world. But, the evolution of so many PHP web application frameworks resulted into utter confusion. What’s even more baffling was that the features of a particular type of frameworks had very little differences little differences.

For an instance, if you want to use a good CMS written in PHP for your site, then you are surely going to have a tough time to choose between WordPress and Joomla. Both these content management systems are blooming open source software. The same condition prevails between osCommerce and Zen Cart. Both these frameworks are meant for eCommerce site development and both houses plenty of useful features. Hence, they have resulted into an on-going debate in the web development industry, osCommerce vs Zen Cart.

While some developers prefer the ease and simplicity of osCommerce, other developers are inclined towards Zen Cart’s features. We’ll soon look peep into the comparison between these two PHP frameworks, but first, let’s see the similarities that these frameworks hold.

Similarities of Zen Cart and osCommerce
Some of the most obvious similarities between Zen Cart and osCommerce are as follows:
•    Both are online store management software program written in PHP.
•    Both are available as free software under GNU General Public License.
•    Both can be used on web servers that have PHP and My SQL installed.
•    Both of them feature lots of add-ons and have large community for help.
•    Both of them can be used for cross-platform (in terms of desktop operating systems) development.

Besides the above listed points, there is one more similarity between these two platforms and that is, both of them have easy installation. Now let’s have a look at the main debate topic.

osCommerce vs ZenCart
There are different criteria on which these software can be distinguished from each other. The very first criterion is their ease of use in development. While osCommerce is said to be simple, convenient software that requires no prior experience with content management systems, development of ecommerce sites in Zen Cart requires an intermediate level experience so that one can understand and use the core features in a better way.

The next distinguishing basis is the features that these platforms have. In this criterion, the superficial features of both the platforms are almost similar. A main reason for this could be that Zen Cart has its roots in osCommerce as it was in 2003, this software ‘forked’ from osCommerce as a separate project. However, when compared with each other, the major difference between the two platforms comes from the architectural changes of Zen Cart that include a template system along with additional ones in the core. Apart from the architectural changes, there are differences regarding the aesthetic changes too.

Another distinguishable criterion is the frequency of updates of the systems. In this criterion, Zen Cart gains an upper hand. Though both of them have excellent community support and plenty of add-ons, the frequency of updates in Zen Cart is far more than the frequency of osCommerce and for proper survival of an open source, regular updates are must.

In spite of the dissimilarities of the systems, the proper use of the systems depends a lot on the developers. Competent osCommerce developers as well as Zen Cart developers have their benefits of using these systems.

Posted By: PHP Developer

4 Ecommerce Websites Built with Exquisite Designs

Most of the ecommerce sites pay less heed to designs. Perhaps, this is one of the most common mistakes that online merchants make. Having an ecommerce website doesn’t necessarily mean that one needs to stuff it with products and offers. In fact, over stuffing results into more confusion and this confusion can compel your customers to leave your site and go to some other site that has more clarity in their content presentation.

Therefore, it is equally important that you pay importance to the design of your ecommerce site. If you’re looking for some inspiration, then given below are examples of four absolutely spectacular sites that showcase exquisitely designed ecommerce sites and would inspire you to pay heed to the design aspect of your site.

Magnolia Bakery
This bakery was credited for starting ‘cupcake craze’ in 1990’s. With the gradual passage of time, this supposed-to-be little neighborhood bakery has grew large and has made an online presence in a grand way. Its ecommerce site looks like a miniature shop that displays its specialties in a beautiful way. Its home page sends into your sense a pleasant odor of its freshly baked cupcakes. Subtle colors, clear product images and proper placement – the posh ecommerce site of the posh Manhattan bakery stays true to its brand name.

Big Brown Box
This Sydney based online retailer of audio visual products knows how to entice its visitors and what to provide them with. Just one look at its home page will give you a clear picture of everything. It isn’t just the navigation and the content placement that will impress you, but it is also its way of displaying its offers and popular products. The banners are accompanied with short descriptions on the left hand side.

Etsy
Clean, clear and crafty – Etsy has got everything that is required to make your visitors gawk at it. This ecommerce site deals with vintage items and arts and crafts supplies too. The design of the site speaks everything on behalf of it. One single glance at it is enough to make you realize what the site is all about. What you’ll love most about the site is its no-nonsense design. Neither does it overlook the design factor nor does it suppress the importance of product display factor of ecommerce site.

Threadless
This is one of the most awesome ecommerce sites that a designer can come across. Well, one reason for this can be the fact that this site is made for the designers. This very fact is clearly reflected in the design of the site. Splashed with vivid, vibrant colors, this site not only enables a person to shop for the best designs, but also allows a visitor to turn into a designer by making his or her own design and submit it. There’s lot more to this ecommerce site then shopping. The site literally tells you that you are meant to have fun here.

While these sites will make you realize that ecommerce site design is fun, it will also make your realize that it is not a cakewalk and you need to give ample time to make your site come alive just as the above mentioned sites did. A wise option for this would be to design competent designer who would be visualize your site from your perspective and build ecommerce website accordingly.

Related Post- Magento a Perfect Solution for your eCommerce Website

Top Five WordPress Themes for Business Enterprise

Posted By: PHP Developer

With the growing competition for maximum returns and sales, it is very vital for any business enterprises to have something unique and different that could stand them apart from those competitors. Business website, if developed by WordPress, can lend you with its fantastic features for your website that will make you different from others, and one of them is WordPress themes and WordPress templates. WordPress is an excellent CMS solution for business website development, and its massive choice of themes & templates makes it a best and a must have solution for business enterprise. This open source solution has wide variety of WordPress themes, which are not only affordable but also flexible.

Many developers feel comfortable in building professional websites with WordPress as it allows with hundreds and thousand of themes that are designed especially for business point of view. With responsive layouts, these themes make sure that your website is having a quality display on mobile and desktop platform. The themes are right now the most important key feature of WordPress development solution.

Top five WordPress Themes for Business

Here are some top 5 themes for business enterprise that will help them in building top-notch websites. All these avail your website with maximum flexibility, features and power.

1. DeepFocus

This theme allows you to transform your business website into a whole new online image and poster wall street while, still preserving the parameters of a ordinary blog-website. Apart from gallery layout, Deep Focus provides you with robust blog, specifically with CMS homepage. This is great aid for the business enterprises, who are engaged in providing artistic solutions. This attractive theme also has other elegant collection of amazing looking WordPress themes. This theme is ideal for business enterprises who are artist/photographer by profession.

2. Aqua: Responsive Business WordPress Template

If the responsive design and easy customization is what you are looking for, then this is your theme. Aqua has been developed from responsive templates that make this theme filled with clean and professional design. This theme is successful for mobile platform and utilizes the Skeleton CSS Framework. It also entails the Google Web fonts, FlexSlider, the astonishing Revolution slider, ample options for customization, jCarousel and unlimited color combinations. In addition to attractive icons and plenty of short code, it gives amazing, intuitive and functionally comprehensive experience to the user. This theme is ideal for any IT or other customer oriented business enterprise.

3. Blue Diamond: Responsive Corporate WP Theme

This is purely business WordPress theme that would be ideal for business website. This theme has the Layer Slider, which functions to control the each slider elements. Layer Slider also allows managing slider elements by Drag and dropping module. Blue Diamond is descent in appearance wherein, each page of your website can be managed with the awesome tool known as ‘Page Builder’. In addition, with any WordPress theme there comes an admin control that allows you to control and change the color of any element or entire work page. This is ideal theme for building corporate business websites.

4. Aegaeus: Responsive Business WP Theme

With modern and remarkable slider system, Aegaeus is a great reactive WordPress theme for business enterprises. This will make your website stand apart from your competitors with its fresh and up-to-date user-friendly features. Creating work pages with attractive look was never so easy and feasible. You can make working pages in minimum time and efforts. This has been listed in one of the best WordPress theme for business websites. It is both fun and pleased to work with this theme!

5. U-Design WordPress Theme

This theme is designed for both non-programmers and modern developers. With this theme, a business website can be maintained and developed in minimum time and efforts. It gives you power fill your website’s backgrounds, links, menu links or any such elements with any colors. In seconds, you can change the look and feel of your website. U-Design empowers you with over four hundred fonts, including Cufon fonts. With Google Font Directory, you can have wide collection of fonts for your business website.

6. Nova: Responsive Business WordPress Theme

This theme is simple and sharply designed for providing interactive user experience. The homepage handling is Nova’s corner stone that allows users to organize the content into two sections. Its Featured Slider has considered being the most flexible slider, as it comes with multiple slider variations. This has added a new life to business website designs.

Along with this, there are many other business-oriented themes with their specific features. However, just a simple installation is not enough for business websites to run successfully. There is an extensive need for maintenance and up-gradations, which a non-programmer can never handle. Therefore, in order to have good WordPress themes and template designs, you can hire website developer from a reputed company that ensures you in delivering quality services.

Posted By: PHP Developer

Fulfill your Business Objectives with Web Portals

Recent market conditions demand effective online presence. Failing to have captivating existence on the World Wide Web, results in downfall of your business. In order to establish your business on the internet, you must work with the latest trends of technology. If you are looking to get your business recognized on the internet, then web portal is the right choice.

A web portal is the extension of the website. You are able to get a wide range of information at a single point. It gives access to information from different sources in a uniform manner. It comprises of a variety of services such as forums, search engines, email, etc and various other functions and resources that can benefit the end user.

Online web portal has enhanced business potential. It is faster, easier and offers user friendly experience to customers while selecting from a wide range of products and services. It has also revolutionized the ways of communication between customers and vendors. Effective use of portals can immensely improve the overall productivity of your business.

There are different types of portals catering the needs of different businesses. It includes personal, corporate, cultural, news, domain specific and many more. You can select development of portals according to your business needs.

There are many benefits of having a web portal for your business.
• It expands your web presence across several domains
• It helps you to market the products effectively
• It helps you to analyze and provides report on how each product is performing on the web
• It helps you to identify the products popular among the customers
• It helps to streamline the operations

In addition to the above mentioned benefits, web portal is also capable of managing the content, document and distribution. It increases your customer base as it provides details of products and reviews which create a sense of trust towards your business. You can also serve your customers better with the help of chats, forums and improved customer service.

It is vital for your growing business to have a strong online presence with improved customer service. A web portal is the solution to meet the ever increasing demands of the customers. It makes it significantly easy for you to handle multiple clients, projects and customers.

There are many professional web portal development companies offering development services. They specialize in providing complete services from information distribution to designing of business processes.

They work closely with clients and understand their needs. They listen to you and provide you with better solutions for your business.

Their services include development of portals such as:
• Community
• eCommerce
• Corporate
• Domain specific
• Personal and many other portals

If you are planning to increase your online presence, then web portal development is the perfect solution for your need. Hire us as we have the expertise and experience to provide you with detailed logic for your business with improved online performance and technical stability.

Power your Websites Using Smarty Web Templates

Smarty is a web template engine for PHP. It is one of the most flexible framework and tool. It is primarily used to separate code and design. It enables the separation of application logic and presentation (HTML/CSS). This helps the designers and developers to work independently in their area of expertise.

It compiles copies of the templates and code scripts. In this manner, you get both the benefits of template tag syntax and speed of PHP. Smarty does what PHP is capable of doing, and we might find it difficult to accept this technology.

No doubt, PHP programming language is perfect for developing the code, but when it comes to mixing with HTML, the syntax of PHP statements gets messed up and becomes difficult to manage. Smarty covers up for these inefficiencies of PHP from the presentation with a simplified tag based syntax. The tag uncovers content of the application, which enforces a clear cut separation from PHP code. The benefit or importance of separation is situational. It is more beneficial to designers rather than developers. Therefore, it is a perfect fit for developers and designers when their roles are separated.

What it offers?
There are many benefits of using Smarty platform, these are:
•    It complements PHP, does not replace it
•    It speeds up the development and deployment process for designers and programmers
•    It is quick and easy to maintain
•    Easy to understand syntax, with no knowledge of PHP required
•    Flexible for custom development
•    It is free and open source

Many businesses have realized the importance of Smarty which is largely driven by goals. It is not a tool for every job. It is essential to identify the needs before going for this framework. If proper needs are specified and addressed using Smarty, then it doesn’t matter if it is a small website or a massive enterprise solution it can accommodate all your needs.

There are many organizations providing Smarty framework development services. They provide expert application developers that develop website using this technology. They have ample knowledge and tons of experience in php website development. The developers give directions to your efforts and provide better and cost effective solutions. While looking to hire look for the following services:
•    User friendly and easily maintainable website
•    High in performance
•    Interactive templates
•    Easily customizable
•    Configuration of files
•    Debugging
•    Add-ons
•    Plug-ins

If you are planning to hire Smarty php developer, then hire us and leverage PHP Smarty development to drive your businesses to success.

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