Author: MNS Unique Web Creations

Why use pre- processors with CSS for better output

Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) is used for designing a website where it works in integration with HTML. Slide bars, header, footer regions, body- the whole layout is controlled by CSS.

SASS means Systematically Awesome Style Sheets. It acts as a CSS preprocessor that means it has its own oriented and comprehensive syntax used along with CSS for easier and manageable CSS code.

It is widely used in comparison to other css preprocessors.

SASS is mostly used for complex websites. It is based on sassScripts.

CSS have certain drawbacks like-

  • It is a sophisticated language and involves html while coding.
  • Rewrite the code for slightest change
  • It’s syntax works in blocks that make it quite messy
  • redundancy in coding
  • CSS classes and rules are difficult to dealt with
  • Lack of advanced selectors
  • It doesn’t allow reusable variables
  • Doing nesting in CSS is a hectic job

SASS deals better with above mentioned drawbacks of CSS.

  • The architecture of language is oriented and comprehensive.
  • It is compiled with CSS
  • It eliminates block syntax that is quite useful feature
  • It provides reusable variables
  • It has CSS selectors to style specific html elements in CSS
  • It’s newer version is SASS Version 3 also known as SCSS.
  • SASS has its own syntax that is later converted into a separate file to the standard CSS code. SASS syntax resembles ruby.
  • SASS supports numerous templates, functionalities, highlights and capacities as in comparison to CSS.

Sass facilitates features like

  • Sass Variables uses variables to store values and edit whenever needed. Sass variables are imperative so it doesn’t affect the previous usage when editing it later. But in case of css variables,it affects previous usage.
  • Nesting is supported in sass, which solves readability issues in projects. Use the ‘nav’ tag for  structuring the program.
  • Mixins are used for creating side effects. It can be reused to define styles and can take arguments for customization.
  • Sass Imports creates smaller versions of files that help in maintenance. It imports files faster than css.
  • Function defines complex operations on sass scripts. It is used to compute values effectively.

Beginner’s Guide to Web Development

If you are amongst the beginners in the web development field, you just need to understand its basics and start from there. Always start with the basics and then get set go! This beginner’s guide to web development involves all the basic things that a beginner should know.

What is web development?

First off, Web Development alludes to the work that goes into building a website. This could apply to anything from making a single plain-text website page to building up an intricate web application or social network.

All websites are only a lot of documents that are put away on a PC called a server. This server is associated with the web. You would be able to stack that site through a browser on your PC. Thus, every time that you’re on the web, you are getting information from the server, just as submitting information back to the server. This to and fro between the customer and the server is the premise of the web.

Anything that you can access in your program is something that a web developer assembled. A few models are independent company sites and some are complex web applications like Facebook and Twitter.

Basic Front End and Back End

The front end implies that you’re managing the customer side. It’s known as the “front end” since it’s what you can find in the browser. The front end includes three types of files, I.e. HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

Then again, back-end web development resembles the back piece of the café. It’s the place where conveyances and stock are overseen, and the interaction to make the food all occurs. There’s a ton of things in the background that the clients will not see, yet they will experience the final result- a flavorful dinner! The back-end is made up of three main components: the server, a server-side programming language, and the database.

Tools

In addition to basic front-end tools like HTML, CSS, and javascript, some of the tools that you should prefer ‌to learn are Package managers, build tools and version control.

Use CSS Frameworks for building responsive website

CSS framework is a necessary element that is added by web developers during front end development of a website to make it eye-catching and interactive.

Even a newbie with no coding knowledge can use it effectively because of its ready to use and pre-build components.

Some of them are mentioned below-

  • Bootstrap- It is the most popular out of everyone.Twitter had presented it in 2011.It is a popular open source platform with availability of multiple templates meant for every kind of website.
    1. It includes features like ready to use components that do not mess with code.
    2. It will create well-structured pages as navigation bar, grids, alerts, models, and many more are included in it.
    3. It is customisable with the help of SAAS variables.
    4. It is less flexible in case of experimental designs.
    5. JQuery dependency as it doesn’t use CSS only.
    6. Not lightweight
  • Bulma –
    1. It is a modern CSS framework that has the CSS flexbox layout module. It creates a flexible layout of the page that allows more content to be viewed at a particular moment.
    2. It is developer friendly as it allows ready to use components along with naming conventions
    3. It can be customised using SAAS.
    4. It can be used along with JavaScript frameworks effectively.
    5. It is less accessible in comparison to bootstrap.
  • Tailored CSS-
    1. It is lightweight in comparison to bootstrap.
    2. It allows you to implement multiple designs
    3. It offers Utility classes that state the result of coding.
    4. It have reusable components
    5. It is customizable through SAAS variables
    6. But it lacks some pre-build components that makes it less convenient to non experienced users.
    7. Many features are unavailable so you have to use it with other tools like webpack.
  • Ulkit-
    1. It is widely used in WordPress for its theme pages.
    2. It allows complex frontend layout, slide bars and parallax designs.
    3. Real time customisation using SAAS.
    4. It is convenient for experienced web developers.
    5. It is not so popular as compared to other frameworks.

Conclusion

Framework selection is based upon your priorities like for flexibility in designs or lightweight frameworks go for tailored CSS and bulma, for long term work use bootstrap.

Benefits of Web development

With the advancement of technology, there are a ton of opportunities for businesses, but most people are missing out on these opportunities because of a lack of knowledge. Just like businesses aren’t aware of the immense power of website development and design.

For businesses who want to grow and catch up on web development services, here are major benefits of web development and how you can get the advantage of it:

Increased Sales

Today, businesses are not just limited to a physical store instead they are choosing online platforms (personal website) over any other store. As per Statistics, web-based business exercises are expected to develop by 21.3% continuously in 2019. This shows that deals on sites are drawing in more users. People are drawn towards websites because of secure online transactions, user-friendly interfaces, easy promotions, and much more.

Easy Advertising and Marketing

When it comes to marketing or promotions, businesses spend more than half of their profits. A lot of money goes into traditional advertising and there is no such high return involved too. But, when you work on your website via web development services, you can easily update and keep your customers informed. Whether it is products/services offered, location, pricing, reputation, contacts among others. You can conveniently post attractive offers on the website.

Makes Navigation Easy

When you provide an online platform to your users, they enjoy convenient navigation and importantly, the information provided on the website is easy to access. Whether the user is looking for a particular product or wants to know more about the company, a well-developed website can provide it all. Also, if a website has good navigation capabilities then your website will attract organic traffic. This will eventually help you to bring more leads and sales.

Increase Reach

A physical store can guarantee a limited amount of customers, but when you take your business online through a well-developed website, the doors to your company are always open for every consumer. Every company strives to achieve growth in terms of customer base, and web development has been the best way to do so. Firstly, it helps to put your brand on a global platform, it reduces the distance for customers and brings services to everyone without troubling their current customers.

Business ventures should try to create and plan a custom website. Besides, it is significant to put the best foot forward. So it is expected that the site or blog meets and outperforms the rules. Having said this, it is dependent upon the web developer to take that expansive action and build up a site.

Fully Utilise the Outsourcing Company to Enhance Your Business

Brands know the importance of online presence. A brand website tells a lot about brand quality and services. An interactive and eye-catching web design attracts more traffic and thus more profit.

For that purpose, you need an experienced and professional outsourcing company that will develop websites and apps for your website so that you can focus on the core work of the company.

Now see how an outsourced company can help to enhance your business online presence?

  • SEO and digital marketing services- SEO helps Google to rank your website and digital marketing is the process to market your product online to gain leads. Professionals help to authenticate the website by considering the rules and regulations set by W3C.
  • Several templates to choose from- Custom web designs are available for a specific niche of websites to improve the user experience. A product-based company always has different web design in comparison to the service-based company. But what remains intact is its user-friendliness.
  • Applications for Android and iOS- Apps are designed in order to provide regular updates and engage customers. Apps are easy to use and it also forms a community leading to organic leads.
  • Ongoing Maintenance- Ongoing maintenance is the requirement of any website. With new features upcoming every week, it is important to introduce updates in the website from time to time. Thus our firm supports online assistance and provides maintenance whenever there is a requirement.
  • Affordability- The affordability of our service is reasonable. From developing the website to maintaining it we charge a fixed amount with no hidden charge involved.
  • Discussion- We plan with you and provides free consultation regarding the project.
  • E- Commerce websites- Business owners with e- commerce websites need a proper SEO optimised website so that it appears on the top of the ranking page and is easily accessible. Due to large traffic among these sites, it takes multiple seconds to get accessed. Even this small difference can irritate a user and your target audience will shift to another site. So our professionals always have a quick look on how your site is responding.

A guide to WordPress Plugins

Plugin is a feature that helps to add special functionality in any website. Introduction of plugins in wordpress make it more convenient and responsive.

A wide range of plugins are available at wordpress. There are 55,000 plugins in total and apart from that you can also create your own custom plugin. All these plugins are mentioned in the wordpress dashboard from where you can install it.

A famous wordpress plugin is yoast seo that helps in onsite SEO development. It optimises the site content from title to description. It creates an attractive card representation of the site. It is easy to understand and implement and no prior knowledge of coding is needed. There is a paid and free version available for this plugin.

Woocommerce is also a popular wordpress plugin that creates eye-catching E-commerce websites.

How to set up a plugin?

  • File transfer protocol is abbreviated as FTP. It connects the website to it’s server. It enables the developer to edit and upload files. Ask your host to enable your plugin and you will need to fill certain details like your FTP account details that includes ftp username, address and password. The host will provide you the plugin.Now name the plugin file.
  • You will also need an access to staging site that will provide the preview of changes before it is made on the website.
  • A text editor is needed in this step as it supports various programming languages that are used during coding where there are various editors available meant for amatures as well as professionals.Create a custom plugin file by adding suitable codes to it and save it with . PHP extension. For example- Sublime text editor that helps with the same.
  • Now activate your plugin.
  • Any further functionality can be added through some specific web development tools mentioned below-
    1. Developer is available for free that optimises the wordpress site and suggests best tools for plugins.
    2. Pictura helps to choose the appropriate image for the site by searching images in its database.
    3. WordPress Boilerplate- It is object oriented. It helps to create custom plugins and customise hooks.