Web Application Development

CodeWebber develops complex enterprise applications with best in class usability on state of the art technology platforms. Our wide range of services incorporate PHP Development, Cloud Application Development, Software Testing and more. In short, We code the Web

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Customize Content Blocks in Magento Layouts

P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }CODE.cjk { font-family: "WenQuanYi Micro Hei",monospace; }CODE.ctl { font-family: "Lohit Hindi",monospace; }A:linThe ‘View’ of Magento’s MVC pattern implementation is divided in two parts: Layout and Template. The template represents a HTML block while layout defines the location of the block on a web page. Magento provides ultimate flexibility and re-usability of design by layouts defined in XML.

Layout is the tool with which you can assign content blocks to each structural block you create. Magento’s layout files are in the form of XML text-files and by modifying the layout you are able to move blocks around in a page and assign templates to the content blocks to produce markup for the structural blocks. In fact, with the help of a few layout files alone, you are able to modify the visual layout of every page in your store.

How Layout Works

Layout is comprised of default layout and layout updates that are made up of easy-to-learn XML tags. With these layout commands, you can modify/assign content block-structural block relationships and also control store-front functionalities such as loading and unloading of block-specific Javascripts to a page.

Layout files are separated on a per-module basis, every module bringing with it its own layout file (for instance ‘catalog.xml‘ is a layout file for the catalog module, ‘customer.xml’ is for the customer module…etc).

These layout files are located in app/design/frontend/your_interface/your_theme/layout/ and each file is further separated by handles, each handle (with the exception of <default>) assigning its nested updates to the according specific page in the store.

Some layout files may contain the <default> handle. When parsing the layout files, Magento first grabs the layout updates assigned in the <default> handle of almost all layout files, reading them in the order as assigned in app/etc/modules/Mage_All.xml.

It then parses the page-specific layout update, finalizing the building of a store page. The system is built this way in order to allow seamless addition and removal of modules without effecting other modules in the system.

Layout XML

Layout XML files can be found in app/design/frontend/[package]/[theme]/layout. Each Magento module may define its own layout XML file in the config.xml file.

<frontend> <layout> <updates> <mymodule> <file>mymodule.xml</file> </mymodule> </updates> </layout> </frontend>

Each layout XML file represents its own design update. For example, catalog navigation is part of the Mage_Catalog module and Mage_Catalog module defines a layout update file: catalog.xml. So the block for the catalog navigation and its location on the page is defined in catalog.xml.

Before the page is rendered, Magento loads all configured layout update files and its design updates to determine which block is to be rendered at which location.

Layout Handles

First level child elements of the <layout> node are called layout handles. Each layout handle represents an update to the page layout. It may define new blocks to be included in a page at a specific location or remove a specific block from the page. It may also define the modifications in existing blocks already included in the page by other layout XML files.

After Magento loads all layout XML files, it determines which layout handles need to be processed. Normally, the layout handle is selected based on the controller action being executed. In most cases, Magento loads the layout handle with name: [module_front_name]_[controller_name]_[action_name].

For example, when the contact us page is requested, then index action of index controller of Mage_Contacts is executed. Module front name of Mage_Contacts is contacts. So the layout handle to be processed for the contact us page is contacts_index_index.

For any page, Magento always processes the default layout handle. So the updates defined in default handle are processed for every page regardless of which part of the site we are browsing. 

[codewebber]

An Introduction to PostgreSQL

MySQL is much more commonly provided by web hosts. PostgreSQL is a much more mature product. Apparently, MySQL is fast when concurrent access levels are low, and when there are many more reads than writes. On the other hand, it exhibits low scalability with increasing loads and write/read ratios.

PostgreSQL is relatively slow at low concurrency levels, but scales well with increasing load levels, while providing enough isolation between concurrent accesses to avoid slowdowns at high write/read ratios. It goes on to link to a number of performance comparisons because these things are very sensitive to conditions.

So if your decision factor is, “which is faster?” Then the answer is “it depends on the usage”. If it really matters, test your application against both.”

And if you really, really care, you get in two DBAs (one who specializes in each database) and get them to tune the crap out of the databases, and then choose. It’s astonishing how expensive good DBAs are, and they are worth every cent.

When it matters.

Which it probably doesn’t, so just pick whichever database you like the sound of and go with it; better performance can be bought with more RAM and CPU, and more appropriate database design, and clever stored procedure tricks and so on – and all of that is cheaper and easier for random-website-X than agonizing over which to pick, MySQL or PostgreSQL, and specialist tuning from expensive DBAs.

PostgreSQL database is Open Source product and available without cost. Postgres, developed originally in the UC Berkeley Computer Science Department, pioneered many of the object-relational concepts now becoming available in some commercial databases.

It provides SQL92/SQL99 language support, transactions, referential integrity, stored procedures and type extensibility.

PostgreSQL is an open-source descendant of this original Berkeley code.

Postgres Pros:

Transactions

Foreign keys ( via refint )

Triggers

Subselects

Views ( mostly )

User-defined datatypes

User-defined functions in a variety of languages: sql, c, pl/pgsql, pl/tcl

Sequences

Proper date handling

PostgreSQL feels quite a bit like Oracle. There is no SHOW TABLES, it’s \dt (IIRC). To quit it’s not QUIT or EXIT, it’s \q.

PostgreSQL didn’t have built in replication until recently.

Postgres doesn’t support ‘UPDATE a,b SET’ syntax. This would need to be translated into:

UPDATE a SET a.id=b.id FROM b WHERE a.f2 = b.f2; to work on Postgres.

Postgres does not provide a way to order columns inside the db.

Altering columns:

ALTER TABLE a ALTER COLUMN b TYPE integer;

ALTER TABLE a ALTER COLUMN b SET NOT NULL;

Postgres has no auto_increment option. Instead, use the type ‘serial’ For example:

CREATE TABLE a (

b INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT

);

would become

CREATE TABLE a (

b SERIAL PRIMARY KEY

);

plain INDEX’s cannot be added during table creation, Instead, you must issue a second query:

CREATE INDEX indexname ON tablename(columnname);

the syntax for defining constraints (such as UNIQUE or FOREIGN KEY) varies between the two databases.

For example, in your table definition if you had:

UNIQUE INDEX a1 (f1, f2) this would be changed to:

CONSTRAINT a1 UNIQUE (f1, f2) to be compatible with Postgres. Note that Postgres creates indices by default for

UNIQUE and FOREIGN KEY constraints.

There are many data types that do not exist in Postgres that you may be used to using in MySQL.

These include: blob, tinyint, integer unsigned

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/

[codewebber]

Store Procedures with CakePHP

I have always wondered how to store procedures with CakePHP, as I knew it will reduce the DBhits and will definitely make the application faster and usable.

I have searched on google if any class was available. Everyone was talking about $this->query(“call yourpeocedure()”); and they are getting results as desired, hence, it is fine and we can get the desired result.

But in case where stored procedure will have multiple select query, $this->query() will give an error. Here is a very small class for CakePHP by which we can integrate our MySQL stored procedure with CakePHP.

For now class is very abstract and if needed then we can modify the class. This class is handling the stored procedure in two forms:

1) If our MySQL stored procedure have any select query just like Select * from our table then it will simply return result after calling the function like $this->Model->procedure(“YourProcuedure” , $input_parameter).

2) If our stored procedure is dealing with output procedure then it will just return by calling another function name

$this->Model->getOutData().

Example:

$this->Model->Procedure(“YourProcedure” , $input_parameter , $outputparameter);

$data = $this->Model->GetOutData();

Class for the CakePHP call MySQL stored procedure

For more detail please go through the step-by-step implementation given below:

 Paste the following code in AppModel.php

<br /> <strong><?php</strong>

class AppModel extends Model

{

var $outputParams = array();

function Procedure($name , $inputParameter = array(), $outputParameter = array() )

{

$this->outputParams = $outputParameter;

if (class_exists(‘DATABASE_CONFIG’)) {

$this->config =& new DATABASE_CONFIG();

}

if($this->config->default[‘driver’] == “mysql”)

{

trigger_error(“OOps error occure, Please go in your database.php of your config folder and set driver name = <b>mysqli</b> to execute stored procuedure. Currently it is set to mysql”);

exit;

}

//Create parameter

$parameter = “”;

foreach($inputParameter as $params)

{

$parameter .= $parameter == “” ? ” ‘$params’ ” : ” , ‘$params’ “;

}

if(count($outputParameter)> 0)

{

foreach($outputParameter as $prm)

{

$parameter .= $parameter == “” ? ” @$prm ” : ” , @$prm “;

}

}

$procuedure = ” call `$name`($parameter) “;

$db =& ConnectionManager::getDataSource($this->useDbConfig);

$db->connection;

mysqli_multi_query($db->connection,$procuedure ) or die(mysqli_error($db->connection));

$final_data = array();

do {

/* store first result set */

$mid_data = array();

if ($result = mysqli_store_result($db->connection)) {

while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {

$mid_data[] =  $row;

}

mysqli_free_result($result);

}

$final_data[] = $mid_data;

/* print divider */

} while (mysqli_next_result($db->connection));

return $final_data;

}

function getOutData()

{

$outputParameter = $this->outputParams;

if(count($outputParameter)> 0)

{

$parameter = “”;

foreach($outputParameter as $prm)

{

$parameter .= $parameter == “” ? ” @$prm  ” : ” , @$prm  “;

}

$SQL = ” SELECT $parameter “;

$data = $this->query($SQL);

return $data;

}

else

{

trigger_error(“OOPS!!! no resource for select query here”);

}

}

function paginateCount($conditions = null, $recursive = 0, $extra = array()) {

$parameters = compact(‘conditions’);

$this->recursive = $recursive;

$count = $this->find(‘count’, array_merge($parameters, $extra));

if (isset($extra[‘group’])) {

$count = $this->getAffectedRows();

}

return $count;

}

}

Now make sure that in every model you have extended(inherited AppModel class, which is very basic if not the inherited then before using these function please do it)

Now in your model or controller you can use use procedure function to execute the execute stored procedure. Following is the way to execute the stored procedure from CakePHP.

If you are using from controller then you can use following way:

<br />

<strong><?php</strong><br />

<strong>

$input_prameter = array(“username” , “search_keyword” , 5 , 3);

//Define input parameter into array in the same order in which your procedure require input

</strong><br />

<strong>

$output  = array(“@search_result” , “@location”);

//output parameter of the stored procedure in the same way as define in your mysql procedure

</strong><br />

<strong>

$sel_data = $this->Model->Procedure(“GetUserDetailProcedure” , $input_parameter  , $output);

</strong><br />

<strong>

print_r($sel_data);

//it will return data if there will be any select query used in stored procedure

</strong><br />

<strong>

$data_of_output_parameter = $this->Model->getOutData();

// to get data of output parameter, if you do not have any output parameter in your mysql stored procedure then no need to call this function.

</strong>

[codewebber]

All About PCI Compliance

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a widely accepted set of policies and procedures intended to optimize the security of credit, debit and cash card transactions and protect cardholders against misuse of their personal information. The PCI DSS was created jointly in 2004 by four major credit-card companies: Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.

Credit card issuers are aggressively enforcing the PCI DSS to safeguard cardholder information and prevent losses; non-compliance with the standard can result in significant fines or losing their ability to process credit cards. In addition companies are required to validate their PCI DSS compliance annually.

The core principles of the PCI DSS framework consist of twelve requirements categorized into six Control Objectives or Functional Areas. Organizations must comply with all the requirements to meet the overall objective of PCI DSS.

Organizations that are required to be compliant under the scheme must adhere to 12 PCI compliance requirements within 6 control objectives. These are:

1. Build and Maintain a Secure Network Requirement 1: Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data. Requirement 2: Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters.

2. Protect Cardholder Data Requirement 3: Protect stored cardholder data. Requirement 4: Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks.

3. Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program Requirement 5: Use and regularly update anti-virus software. Requirement 6: Develop and maintain secure systems and applications.

4. Implement Strong Access Control Measures Requirement 7: Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know. Requirement 8: Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access. Requirement 9: Restrict physical access to cardholder data.

5. Regularly Monitor and Test Networks Requirement 10: Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data. Requirement 11: Regularly test security systems and processes.

6. Maintain an Information Security Policy Requirement 12: Maintain a policy that addresses information security.

It is a strict standard that applies to the cloud as well as in-store, providing security no matter where the information is held. In June of 2011 the PCI Security Standard Council stated that “any device that stores or transmits cardholder data is overseen by PCI DSS”. This includes all hardware and software programs in the cloud.

If your business or organization processes debit card or credit card information, and is considering moving to the cloud, make sure that you select a PCI compliant cloud company. This will keep your information and those of your customers in a secure environment.

Source: CodeWebber

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CodeWebber Engagement Models

CodeWebber offers flexible engagement models to suit the needs of its varied customer base. The engagement models are chosen based on project duration, complexity and the management level expected by the customer. This article outlines the quick questions that comes to a customers mind while chosing the right engagenet models. We also look at some example scenarios and give specific advice so that you could derive the best value out of CodeWebber.

Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

Why the Latest PHP 5.5 is Impressive on Ecommerce Stores?

LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) platform is a successful alternative to commercial software for building and operating dynamic and high performance web systems. PHP has become one of the major player on the web development market in the last few years. For all Linux hosting packages, PHP 5.5 has recently become the standard version.

The upgraded PHP version 5.5 comes with lots of changes and value additions. Most of the changes are beneficiary for the e-commerce stores running on php.

Here’s a Brief description of what PHP version 5.5 has to offer your e-commerce store

1. Addition of keywords

In php version 5.5, the provided refinery keyword facility will allow a developer to define block code, cache block for better keyword search. It improves the result of the search based on keywords. Keyword search is very much helpful in the e-commerce online stores.

2. Availability of Generators

Availability of generators provides a way for iteration through the data. Because of which the function keyword will give the more appropriate results. In e-commerce online stores, it is important to get appropriate results for a particular search for keyword. Availability of generators in php version 5.5 provides this facility.

3. Class name resolution update

Updated class name resolution in the php version 5.5 provides easy and fast filtering through the class names. More options for the class name resolution and filtration in the updated php version. For e-commerce online stores more class name filtration gives better results.

4. Empty functions acceptability

Empty functions are used to determine the false or equal value false commands. Sometimes these empty functions won’t work properly and take the search result back to the original place. In php version 5.5, the acceptability of the empty function is improved. It won’t take the search result at initial position. In advanced version, the false value recognition is improved. It helps e-commerce online stores to get uninterrupted process of product selling after the false command entries. It helps the e-commerce online stores to gain more customers.

5. Security

Apart from core technical impact, the main impact of php version 5.5 is on security. This version makes the e-commerce online stores become more secure. For example, as Microsoft have decided to cut-off the support system of windows XP and other older versions, it is easy to crack the systems working with earlier. But it will not be an issue in php based systems as php 5.5 version does not function on the windows XP or older versions. So the firewall provided by the windows and security system of php will keep your e-commerce store intact.

For more information refer php.net

At CodeWebber, we offer comprehensive e-commerce development services to various SMEs and large scale businesses across the globe which help them offer their products and services vividly on the internet and outshine in the digital marketplace.

Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

Poodle – SSL Security Threat Explored

Poodle is a breed of dog with legs that resembles cotton candies. It is intelligent and a regular staple at dog shows. Even the most friendly dogs have the propensity to bite. Now we see all kinds of security alerts and snafus likes heartbleed and shell shock!!! The latest in addition is POODLE.

This is all started when a team in google developed and tested an attack named  POODLE (Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption) which uncovered vulnerability in  Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) version 3 protocol or in short SSLv3.

SSLv3 is an obsolete but still used encryption in both older and new web browsers. (SSLv3 is a 18-year-old protocol which was replaced by the TLS protocol)

POODLE tries to force the connection between your web browser and the server to downgrade  to SSLv3. The POODLE attack takes advantage of the protocol version negotiation feature built into SSL/TLS to force the use of SSL 3.0 and then uses this new vulnerability to decrypt select content within the SSL session. The decryption is done byte by byte and will generate  large number of connections between the client and server.

How do they do it?

An attacker can run a JavaScript agent on a website to get the victim’s browser to send cookie ­with HTTPS requests to https://xyz.com, intercept and modify the SSL records sent by the browser in such a way that there’s a non­ negligible chance that xyz.com will accept the modified record. If the modified record is accepted, the attacker can decrypt one byte of the cookies. Cookies

TLS 1.0 and newer versions perform more robust validation of the decrypted data and as such are not susceptible to the same problem. But for SSLv3 there’s no fix.

How bad is this and how does this affect you?

Secure connections primarily use TLS (the successor to SSL), most users become vulnerable because web browsers and servers will downgrade to SSLv3 if there are problems negotiating a TLS session. Most SSL/TLS implementations remain backwards compatible with SSL 3.0 to interoperate with legacy systems in the interest of a smooth user experience. An attacker performing a man-in-the-middle attack could trigger a protocol downgrade to SSLv3 and exploit this vulnerability to decrypt a subset of the encrypted communication and extract information from it.

The POODLE vulnerability only works if the browser of the client and the server’s connection are both supporting SSLv3.

How to test if my browser is vulnerable ?

Go to poodletest.com website to test this.  If you see a poodle, you are vulnerable. If you see a  Springfield Terrier, you are safe.

http://www.bolet.org/TestSSLServer/

http://code.google.com/p/sslaudit/

What can I do to prevent this? Poodle vaccine?

As a end user, disable SSLv3 support in your web browser. If it’s disabled, POODLE can NOT downgrade your browser to it. To encourage security best practices I would strongly recommend using the highest version of TLS . For most browsers this should be TLS 1.2.

Will this affect my browsing experience?

This will have an impact on some older browsers. Websites that has already ended support for SSLv3 will become incompatible with older browsers and operating systems. Old browsers like Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP or older versions will see an SSL connection error.

SSL v3 will be disabled by default in future releases of many web browsers.

How to disable this at the server?

CloudFlare announced that it was disabling SSLv3 by default from its servers. So did many service providers.

If you are running Apache, just make this change in your configuration among the other SSL directives:

SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3

This disables SSL protocol versions 2 and 3.

How can developers prevent this?

.NET

Use the SecurityProtocol property to enable TLS.

For details on how to use the SecurityProtocol property, visit:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.servicepointmanager.securityprotocol(v=vs.110).as…

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.securityprotocoltype(v=vs.110).aspx

As an example, to force TLS 1.2 in a C# .NET implementation, you’d use:

System.Net.ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = System.Net.SecurityProtocolType.Tls12;

JAVA

NOTE: TLS 1.2 was first supported in JDK 7, and will be default in JDK 8: https://blogs.oracle.com/java-platform-group/entry/java_8_will_use_tls

Use the SSLContext.getInstance method to enable TLS.

For details on how to use the SSLContext.getInstance method, visit:

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/net/ssl/SSLContext.html#getInstance(java.lang.String)

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/net/ssl/SSLContext.html#getInstance(java.lang.String,…

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/security/StandardNames.html#SSLContext

For example, to use the default security layer provider to enable TLS, you’d use:

object = SSLContext.getInstance(“TLS”);

To force TLS 1.2 while using Sun’s Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE), you’d use:

object = SSLConnect.getInstance(“TLSv1.2″, “SunJSEE”);

cURL

Use the CURLOPT_SSLVERSION option to enable TLS.

For details on how to use the CURLOPT_SSLVERSION option, visit:

http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/c/CURLOPT_SSLVERSION.html

As an example, to force cURL to use TLS 1.0 or later, you’d use:

C/C++/C#:

curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, CURL_SSLVERSION_TLSv1);

PHP:

curl_setopt($curl_request, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, CURL_SSLVERSION_TLSv1);

In cURL 7.34.0 or later, to force TLS 1.2, you’d use:

C/C++/C#:

curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, CURL_SSLVERSION_TLSv1_2);

PHP:

curl_setopt($curl_request, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, CURL_SSLVERSION_TLSv1_2);

CodeWebber team geared up in full defence mode to plug all holes that were left open by this vulnerability. We applied the necessary patches to our applications to disable insecure SSL/TLS options.

Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

Learn About MySQL Stored Procedures

MySql 5 introduced the concept of stored procedure functionality. If you have already worked on other DBMS (Database management System) or Mysql,  you might be familiar with the concept of stored procedure. We will learn more about it in detail here.

What is mysql stored procedure?

Stored procedure is a set of SQL codes stored in a database server which can be invoked by a program, trigger or stored procedure itself.

Stored procedure is a way to execute tasks/business logic directly on your database server. Generic tasks can be performed  which are dependent on database table data.

So rather to go multiple time on database to fetch data into your program and perform your business logic stored procedure give some generic way of coding for your business logic and take data return or you can save your processed data into your database.

Let us take an example

A loan officer wants to change the floating interest levied for a customer’s loan account.

What is your normal course of action? (using your program?) From the database you will fetch capital, rate of interest, duration and calculate interest.  You will go back to the database and save data. In this case we enter the database twice. But, if we use a stored procedure we just need to write this operation within our stored procedure and call it through the program one time. You can fetch capital, rate of interest and duration from the database and save data after processing.  We interrupt the database server only one time. Thanks to the stored procedure, conservation of server resources – check!

Advantages of Mysql Stored Procedure:

Multiple applications running in different environments sharing a database.

Business logic which is independent of programming language.

When security is a main concern use of stored procedure is vital. By doing your operation through the database you can log all performed actions.

Stored procedure does not give direct table access which is one more way to secure data and transactions.

Stored procedure increases performance of your application. When a stored procedure is created and compiled, it never goes to parser, directly fetch the record and execute. Whereas normal SQL query fired on database server get parsed every time so using stored procedure you can save parsing time.

If your application is big or your database server is on a remote system,  using stored procedure can decrease traffic between your database server and application server.

Since stored procedure is written in your database server and application calls it separately, the degree of reusability increase because despite going in much detail you can call stored procedure to perform your action.

Disadvantages of using stored procedure :

Following are the situations where in we should avoid using mysql store procedure.

Sometimes use of stored procedure is a bit risky. Stored procedure follow “define one use many time” philosophy. Doing change in stored procedure directly affect your data so it should always be used very carefully. Stored procedure is a set of sql commands that forms a logic. This makes it very hard to debug.

Managing stored procedure is a little difficult because it does not have any object oriented paradigm.

Since stored procedure has its own advantages and disadvantages, before choosing the option of using stored procedure we should be very careful and decide whether we should use stored procedure or not.

Example

As we have discussed earlier mysql stored procedures are simple SQL statements like normal query but  difference is that query never saved and when you will run stored procedure it will be saved in your RDBMS system.

Let us create a simple stored procedure which will select one string.

mysql > create procedure helloworld() Select ‘hello test';

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

To call this procedure you need to run the following mysql query

mysql > CALL helloworld();

Now this query will run select ‘hello test’.

This is simple.

Let us experiment with something more complex.

Mysql stored procedure never return value directly. Either you need to specify output parameter in your stored procedure or you have to put select statement inside the procedure which will fill data in your resource.

Writing a mysql procedure involves 3 steps

Definition of the procedure – Create procedure syntax with the name

Definition of the input parameter – There are three types of parameters you can define. ‘in’ parameter, ‘out’ parameter and ‘inout’ parameter.

Using ‘in’ parameter you can define inputs of the stored procedure,

‘out’ parameter specifies the output parameter.

‘inout’  defines shared parameter, it can also be used either as input parameter or output parameter.

Body of the procedure:- Normally we write within the BEGIN and END tag.

Let us create a simple stored procedure:

DELIMITER $$

CREATE

PROCEDURE `test`(IN capital DOUBLE , IN rate INT , IN duration INT , OUT interest DOUBLE)

BEGIN

SET interest = (capital * rate * duration)/100;

INSERT INTO `administrators`(`interest`) VALUES(interest);

END$$

DELIMITER ;

The procedure called  test  which takes inputs as capital , rate, duration and calculates interest and returns interest in output variable and interest into database.

Let us run this procedure.

mysql > call test(100 , 7 , 3 , @primary_interest);

mysql > select @primary_interest;

Now @primary_interest will give you the interest calculated by the stored procedure.

You can use input parameter input in query written within stored procedure.

For example:

DELIMITER $$

CREATE

PROCEDURE `restaurant`.`another_test`(IN restaurant_name VARCHAR(255))

BEGIN

SELECT * FROM `restaurants` WHERE `restaurants`.`name` = restaurant_name;

END$$

DELIMITER ;

As we discussed earlier, in mysql you can put all your database based business operations. Writing a mysql stored procedure is almost similar to writing any high level program in any language.  All you have to learn is variable declaration, conditional operators and Mysql Cursor to write a mysql stored procedure program.

Variable Declaration and operation on variable in stored procedure:

Like other languages in mysql stored procedure you can declare variables too. You should declare the variable at the beginning of the code/program. Which means right after the BEGIN tag.

You can declare variable in mysql programming like this:

DECLARE i INT(3)

DECLARE j INT(9) DEFAULT 6;

In mysql we use DECLARE tag to declare the variable. You have to specify the datatype of the variable to declare the variable. I recommend to specify size of the variable if it is required like int(4), For some of the variables you can not declare the variable without size like varchar.

Scope of the variable in mysql is limited to END tag. If you have declared the variable in stored procedure then after END tag variable will be lost. You can initialize the variable after declaration like this:-

DECLARE i INT(3);

SET i = 10;

In mysql you can take value in the variable from the query also from the help of INTO keyword. Example:

DECLARE student_name VARCHAR(23);

SELECT student.name INTO student_name FROM student_table.

Condition statement in Mysql programming:

Condition statement will give you power to execute code on the basis of the same value.  Similar to any high level programming language, you can add conditional statements in mysql stored procedure.

Example:

DECLARE count_student INT(5) default 0;

SELECT count(*) INTO count_student FROM student_table;

IF count_student > 5 THEN

SELECT * FROM student_table;

ELSE

SELECT ‘Very less student';

END IF;

For every IF statement in Mysql you have to specify END IF statement. In mysql you can also use ELSEIF for recursive statements. You can also use switch case based conditional statement in mysql, style of writing switch is a little different.

Example:

CASE

WHEN i >2 THEN

SELECT ‘it is two';

WHEN i  < 2 THEN

Select ‘it is less then 2′;

ELSE

SELECT ‘no eyse';

END CASE;

Every CASE will be closed with END CASE, Like a any program we have default tag with name ELSE.

Iteration control(Loop control) in mysql: In mysql you can use loop also as you do in your programming language. Here you can implement loop using WHILE , REPEAT and LOOP Tag.

Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

Estimating for a Requirement

Boon of our existence or is it a Bane? Don’t know which but an integral part of our lives. Software Project Estimation. A few tips.

1. Read the requirement Read the specifications you have been given. Are you done? Read it again. Multiple reads of the input is the simplest and most often overlooked step. Every reading gets you something new and new ideas.

2.Don’t be a yes man The estimate needs to be a comprehensive one.

If the inputs given are insufficient or the timelines are insufficient, put your foot down!!. An incomplete /shoddy job is going to please no one.

3. Don’t reinvent the wheel

Completing an implementation from scratch often takes time and money. Something no you customer has in surplus. Or if they did, i am sure they wouldn’t want to share it with you. Can the specs be met with an off the shelf solution and minimal customization? Present that first. If not would a combination of different solutions work? Check your repository. Are there components you have designed in the past that can satisfy this need?

4. Not my cup of tea Every cup of tea is not made keeping you in mind.

Be honest! If you’re not the right person for this job admit it. There are plenty of other jobs out there wating for you, much better suited to your skill sets and expertise.

5.Break it down into the smallest blocks Every activity has many sub activities associated. Breaking it down has major advantages One, you are able to clearly visualize each of the tasks and identify the time taken for each.The accuracy is much better this way. Two breaking it down presents each of the sub activities to the customer so they can let you know if they have something different in mind.

6. The devil is in the details Document the effort for every conceivable task. Have you covered each deployment cost , associated documents, acceptable performance, operating system,hardware? This way there is no ambiguity on what is covered and what is not.

Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

Why Go Mobile?

Everyone’s talking about how important it is to implement mobile solutions for your business. What types of information can be viewed, edited, updated, etc. on a mobile device?  How does this relate to your business?

Worldwide, 85% of the users go for mobile Internet where around 86 million people are looking for local business information on their mobile devices on the move. It has also been estimated that by 2016, there would be nearly 1 billion Smart Phone & Tablet users.

To lead in the business race, mobile presence became an elemental quality. Thus mobile applications assist you to reach millions of customers across the globe, on the go.

Benefits of Mobile Solutions to leverage your Business

- Mobile Apps helps the companies/ organizations to stay connected with the clients & customers

- It increases your brand visibility across mobile devices

- It augments the presence and accessibility of your products/ services among customers

- Mobile apps are better solution instead of getting stuck in spam folders

- Connect with your on-the-go consumers and scale up the sell-through

Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

Software Testing World

Introduction  

Software testing is a critical element of software quality assurance and represents the ultimate process to ensure the correctness of the product. The quality product always enhances the customer confidence in using the product thereby increases the business economics. In other words, a good quality product means zero defects, which is derived from a better quality process in testing.

Software is an integrated set of Program codes, designed logically to implement a particular function or to automate a particular process. To develop a software product or project, user needs and constraints must be determined and explicitly stated. The development process is broadly classified into two.

1. Product development

2. Project development

Product development is done assuming a wide range of customers and their needs. This type of development involves customers from all domains and collecting requirements from many different environments.

Project Development is done by focusing a particular customer’s need, gathering data from his environment and bringing out a valid set of information that will help as a pillar to development process.

Testing is a necessary stage in the software life cycle: it gives the programmer and user some sense of correctness, though never “proof of correctness. With effective testing techniques, software is more easily debugged, less likely to “break,” more “correct”, and, in summary, better.

Most Software Development processes in the IT industry always seem to follow a tight schedule. Often, these schedules adversely affect the testing process, resulting in step motherly treatment meted out to the testing process. As a result, defects accumulate in the application and are overlooked so as to meet deadlines. The developers convince themselves that the overlooked errors can be rectified in subsequent releases.

The definition of testing is not well understood. People use a totally incorrect definition of the word testing, and that this is the primary cause for poor program testing.  Read More...

Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

10 Things to Know Before Outsourcing Your Dream Project

Outsourcing has become extremely popular with the IT function of larger businesses, due to the high acquisition costs of computer hardware and software, coupled with the high management costs of employing support staff.

IT services outsourcing are reinforced by a long-term service level agreement (SLA), which defines every aspect of service delivery, including call to fix response times, hardware infrastructure provided and supported, asset utilization and responsibilities of the client. 10 ways to choose your best outsourcing partner are-

1. Communication, Everything is in Communication

Cultural differences apart, the strength and effectiveness of communication channels employed by a company speaks for itself while you take stock on the expectations Vs delivered. It would be a good idea to see what kind of systems the company has employed to enable efficient communication with their customers.

Things to look for would be online communication and collaboration systems. Some examples would be basecamp, online conferencing solutions, centralized project commit space and a smooth execution of the same while interaction with you as a customer. Look for openness in communication.

The amount of transparency seen at the communication channels also shows a strong process oriented service delivery as well as it shows the strength of communication abilities of the team members. This results in better understanding of the project and gives more time to do the right things.

Also, when dealing with an outsourcing company, the language of choice must be addressed upfront. It is crucial to effectively and clearly communicate the scope and direction of the task/project to a contractor, and this is especially true if you are working with someone for whom your language is not his or her native tongue.

Communicating using several channels is advised. This way you can determine ability to communicate both verbally and in writing. Additionally, I recommend requesting an email or phone conversation in which they repeat back to you what you conveyed to them about the project/task to make sure nothing was lost in the translation and they grasp the assignment.

2. Exposure to country specific work/business culture

I strongly feel that as business continues to expand globally across communities, cultures and countries and brings different people closer, it is absolutely necessary for people to understand, appreciate and respect the religious and cultural differences existing between the two business communities.

Understanding the business culture of the country and then learning the skills of proper etiquette, manners and inter cultural communication is a must for industries functioning internationally. Years of exposure with international customers and face to face interaction are very important for both the businesses to sustain the work and deliver with utmost satisfaction to both business parties.

Many vendors put employees through tough training schedule. In addition, cultural differences include religions, modes of dress, social activities, and even the way a question is answered. Most offshore companies have cultural education programs, but executives should not assume that cultural alignment will be insignificant or trivial. Because, such kind of training helps to maintain good relationship with clients.

3. Taking Ownership of the projects and past   experience

When I speak about Ownership, I am basically talking about a company’s ability to convert a problem into a solution. To get a trusted partner who you can outsource your IT requirements is a humongous task, and, knowing about the company’s background and the level of ownership that they put into each and every project they handle can be an important criteria of judging their capability.  Read More...

  Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

Ruby on Rails 3.1 and Sprockets – A closer look

Ruby on Rails 3.1 uses a new technology called Sprockets to speed JavaScript execution. Sprockets compiles all the features that a Web application uses into a single file, that simplifies work for the developer and quickens the response time of the application. New features to look out for

Asset Pipeline

Asset Pipeline is the principal feature of the release (Ruby on Rails 3.1) . In simple terms it allows proper organization of CSS and JavaScript files. The asset pipeline helps to make it simple to organize and serve your assets.

Combining the pipeline with a well-tuned web and application server means that web sites being blazing fast! Also, browsers will load pages quicker than ever before, specially when used with the asset pipeline, because it’s just one file used throughout the app. Ideally, while the user is navigating through your website, his browser wouldn’t need to load the assets again since it’s cached; so loading time is only experienced at the first visit.

HTTP Streaming

HTTP streaming (Ruby on Rails 3.1 update) helps the server by sending data to the client in chunks. Rather then sending it only when the page has been fully rendered, it sends rendered content as soon as it’s produced.

jQuery is now default

The default JavaScript library for Ruby on Rails has been switched to jQuery. Users can easily change from the previous default library, Prototype, through a single command. Developers shouldn’t notice any difference, and going forward, Ruby on Rails will be able to harness the work being done on this popular library.

These are just some of the new features available to you with Rails 3.1. There’s a lot of other good stuff you can explore. Tell us which of the features listed here would most suite your needs. Happy coding!

Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

Top Open Source ERP Applications

Here I will be mentioning the top ERP open source applications.

1) OpenBravo

Openbravo, the agile ERP, is a modular, ready to use, 100% web-based open source and free business management system written in Java, that automates all of the core business processes for small and mid-sized companies. This makes an appealing alternative to SMEs. Openbravo is built on proven MVC & MDD framework that facilitate customization & maintenance of code. Openbravo already enjoys a growing customer clientele.

1.1) Features

a) Application Dictionary: Use the Application Dictionary Module to customize, modify, and adapt the application to your needs.

b) General Setup: Use General Setup Module to edit basic settings such as languages, currencies, menus, workflows, alerts, clients, roles, users, organizations, banks, and importing data.

c) Master Data Management: Use Master Data Management Module to define and edit information related to business partners, prices, and products.

d) Procurement Management: Use Procurement Management Module to manage requisitions, purchases, goods receipts, invoices, and analyze related reports.

e) Warehouse Management: Use Warehouse Management Module to create and edit warehouses, and manage inventory.

f) Production Management: Use production Management Module to create and edit your production processes, production control, and analyze related data.

g) Materials Requirement Planning (MRP): Use the Materials Requirement Planning Module to edit your production planning, inventory control, and purchasing activities.

h) Sales Management: Use Sales Management Module to create and edit sales orders, goods shipments, invoices, commissions, and analyze related reports.

i) Project & Service Management: Use Project & Service Management Module to create and edit services, projects, analyze related reports, and add employee expenses.

j) Financial Management: Use Financial Management Module to create and edit accounting, assets, and receivables and payables.

1.2) Pros & Cons.

Pros:

a. It includes necessary functionality for complex retail management process,

b. It allows for integration with Point of Sale equipment (barcode system, touch screens, fiscal printers, card readers etc.), which improves sale process,

c. Dynamic development – your software will always follow the current business trends due to free access to the latest updates,

d. Simple, intuitive and aesthetic graphic interface – you and your employees will not have any difficulties in getting familiar and using the software during your daily tasks,

e. Compatibility with Windows and free operation system Linux,

f. Detailed documentation – it allows for extending the system by any programmer, who is familiar with Java technologies,

j. Scalability – the system does not lose efficiency, even when its complexity grows.

Cons:

a. The support system and documentation are inadequate.

b. Some users complain that the system crashes a lot.

c. Limited customization possible.

2) Dolibarr

When it comes to open source ERP software built on PHP, Dolibarr is a competitive and modern product with an active community of users. Dolibarr is completely free, and it can be used as a standalone program from any computer or server, or it can be used online through a dedicated or virtual private server.

Documentation for the software can be found on a wiki website that is frequently updated by both developers and veteran users. Although the base program is free, many users opt to purchase additional modules and plugins from the Dolibarr store. Some of the most popular plugins are for project management, digital documentation, pricing tables and telephone management.

Read More ... Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

All About Scrum

Scrum is an iterative, incremental process for developing any product or managing any work. Scrum concentrates on how the team members should function in order to produce the system flexibility in a constantly changing environment. At the end of every iteration it produces a potential set of functionality.

The term ‘Scrum’ originated from a strategy in the game of rugby where it denotes “getting an out-of-play ball back into the game” with teamwork. Scrum does not require or provide any specific software development methods/practices to be used. Instead, it requires certain management practices and tools in different phases of Scrum to avoid the chaos by unpredictability and complexity

Key Scrum practices are discussed below

• Product Backlog – This is the prioritized list of all features and changes that have yet to be made to the system desired by multiple actors, such as customers, marketing and sales and project team.

• Sprints – Sprints are 30-days in length, it is the procedure of adapting to the changing environmental variables (requirements, time, resources, knowledge, technology etc) and must result in a potentially shippable increment of software.

• Sprint Planning meeting – Sprint planning meeting is first attended by the customers, users, management, Product owner and Scrum Team where a set of goals and functionality are decided on.

• Sprint Backlog – It is the list of features that is currently assigned to a particular Sprint. When all the features are completed a new iteration of the system is delivered.

• Daily Scrum – It is a daily meeting for approximately 15 minutes, which are organized to keep track of the progress of the Scrum Team and address any obstacles faced by the team.

Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

CodeWebber Services Primer

CodeWebber offers services that are carefully crafted for the requirements of various customer segments starting from Small Businesses to enterprises, spanning multiple vertical industries. There are services specifically stacked along the development cycle too from Business Analysis all the way to Deployment, all optimized for maximum efficiency. This article offers a glimpse into services offered by CodeWebber so as to ease out the selection process and increase ROI for our customers.

At CodeWebber we take pride in offering an end-to-end enterprise class service delivery model backed by one of the best in class service delivery management application, Visioncarma.

The Team

CodeWebber has more than 100 software developers working in a 24 hours 365 days model.

The Process

The Agile methodology we follow helps us create apps in record time while, allowing us to maintain superior quality and usability.

Quality

The application developed by us are high on quality and are user friendly. The intensive testing methodology makes us capable of delivering the perfect app.

Facility

CodeWebber is housed in a 8000 sq ft office space with air conditioned working spaces and separate training and meeting rooms.

Industry Expertise

We have 10 years experience in delivering quality services around the globe.

Technology

We use the latest technology for developing applications for example RoR, CakePHP, PHP, .NET development.

Projects Handled

Numerous projects handled in a decade long pursuit of excellence.

Engagement Models

Numerous Engagement models ranging from resource based billing to turnkey application development.

Performance Based Contracts

Innumerable options  for clients to test our level of commitment. From demo projects to contracts based on performance. We do it all!

Customer Orientation

Driven by customers. For customers. This is our motto of project handling, as all projects we handle are based on the customer requirements.

Communication Systems

We utilize many communication systems such as video conferencing, voip local access numbers, Basecamp, Pivotal Tracker and other project management tools, Bug trackers, Versioning systems,etc.

Code Version Control

The version control helps our developers to track any change they made and redo it if there were issues in the working of the application.

Copyright

All our projects are carried out with complete client privacy in mind and the application we develop are compliant to HIPPA standards.

Open source Development

We develop opensource software in record time and have engineers specifically for such kind of development requirements.

Location of Operations

We have our offshore development center in Bangalore, India and our sales office is in US.

Events & Training

Constant training and support is provided to all the developers in terms of catching up to the latest technology trends and updates.

Climb.Edu

Our training wing Climb.Edu provides specific training to developers with respect to improving their language knowledge.

Source: CodeWebber

[codewebber]

PHP Vs RoR- A Comparitive Study

PHP was built primarily as a server-side scripting language for web development and dynamic content and, it has been around since 1994. PHP code was originally embedded within the HTML code so that the content could change according to the needs of the coder. This too changed with the arrival of frameworks into the development world.

Ruby was first launched as a scripting language that was more powerful than Perl and more object-oriented than Python. Ruby was born in 1993, and its first public release came up in 1995. Although Ruby was older than PHP, only after having ties to Rails in 2005, did it really start gaining popularity.

PHP is a stand-alone language, whereas, Ruby on Rails is a language combined with a framework, therefore we can only analyze some of the general differences which are

Scaling

They are both equally easy or difficult to scale in different levels. The first level of scaling is just about adding more memory/cpu/server instances. Once this is done, they are both equally hard demanding all of the same methods as scaling any other web application on the internet.

Web hostin

PHP applications do have support from most of the web hosting companies, whereas Ruby on Rails is supported only by unix based server. On hosting front, PHP is an obvious winner. But with introduction of Heroku, ROR applications can be hosted easier.

Application performance:

Add New

There is no hiding the fact that PHP codes run faster than that of Ruby on Rails code. On the other hand, we can achieve tasks in RoR with few lines of code when put next to that of PHP coding. So, achieving tasks faster with few lines of code is the clear winner for me.

Frameworks:

On the framework front, there is no clear winner as both PHP and Ruby have good MVC architectural framework. PHP has more compatible frameworks like CakePHP, codeigniter and Zend. But, in Ruby too, apart from rails there are many good frameworks like Sinatra, vintage etc. So it is a tie when the comparison is about frameworks.

Testing:

Testing code and modules is a difficult affair in PHP. However, in Ruby on Rails with introduction of R-spec testing rails code is an easy cake for developers. Ruby on Rails development will be helpful in creating bug-free application. In CakePHP too you can do those testing, but, with certain code changes.

Code Structure:

RoR has a clear code structure when compared to that of PHP.

Memory:

PHP utilizes less memory space because by default they don’t have the overhead of a web framework. whereas Ruby on Rails would use more space. Hence, application based on Ruby on rails would be slower compared to that of PHP.

Syntax:

Both have syntax that is clear and simple. However, Ruby without ending syntax was not acceptable to many programmers. So the final conclusion is, if a client project already has existing PHP code and we’re developing for that, that is, integrating at the software level, we stay with PHP. Whereas, if a client needs a brand new application then we have a slight inclination towards using RoR. I am not saying that PHP is bad. Come on, you have already gone through the comparative study! Last but not the least, when CodeWebber builds a new app for our own needs, we use either PHP or Ruby on Rails. Happy PHPians?

At CodeWebber, we value your business.  Our team of experts are waiting for your query. CONTACT US!

Source: CodeWebber