Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

September 2022

Minimize Heap Allocations in Node.js

Memory management has always been a source of huge concern in Computer Science. Each piece of software is assigned a small portion of a computer’s finite memory; this memory has to be well-managed (carefully allocated and deallocated). With its efficient automatic garbage collection mechanism, Node.js tries to handle the tedious task of memory management and free up developers to work on other tasks.

What is Open Source and How to Get Started?

Software engineering is an exciting field that offers various roles and responsibilities to individuals. Some prominent roles are developer, quality assurance engineer, project manager, product manager, DevOps, and many more. Each of these roles also has sub-roles. For example, we have front-end, back-end, and full-stack developers in development. In testing, we have manual testing, automation, unit testing, and end-to-end testing.

Options Clearing Corporation: Risk Management Transformation

The Options Clearing Corporation is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing house. It is designated by the US government as a SIFMU - a Systematically Important Financial Market Utility. Hear how the OCC uses Appian across the organization to demonstrate and enforce strict controls to enhance risk management.

User Funnels Are Vital to the Customer Experience

If you’re looking for ways to improve customer satisfaction, experience, and loyalty, you need to focus on how customers are using and adopting your product. For this, you’ll need to focus on your user funnel, sometimes referred to as a conversion funnel. In this article, we’ll show you seven ways that user funnels can improve some key areas of your business to boost all of the above!

How to improve Website Performance with CSS Inlining?

The above stats signify how crucial it is for developers to craft rapid websites for their clients. However, if you’re new and unaware of the development of best practices, achieving performance can be a hassle. Apart from using the right images and clean codebase, factors such as CSS file size, data flow, etc. can also impact the website's performance. If you’re planning to learn ways, you can use the CSS for enhancing your website’s performance, stay tuned!

Docker: Volumes Vs Bind Mounts

The Docker environment provides loose isolation between your applications and your host machine because it containerizes your applications. In other words, this implies that your application operates in a container independently of your host computer in order to achieve its intended results. Docker containers have a writable layer on top that allows you to modify the contents of the container while it is running. However, the container lifecycle dictates how these changes are made.

OpenLogic by Perforce and the Open Source Initiative Announce 2023 State of Open Source Survey

Perforce Software announces the beginning of their 2023 State of Open Source Survey - a collaboration between OpenLogic by Perforce and theOpen Source Initiative(OSI), a non-profit that raises awareness and adoption of open source software (OSS).

WSO2 is Moving From Slack to Discord in October 2022!

WSO2 will be officially moving from Slack to Discord from Saturday, October 1, 2022. Our Slack community has grown to over 7,000 users, and we are excited to have them be a part of our new community on Discord! You can join the WSO2 server by clicking here. We love Slack, but it's not built for large online communities as it lacks certain moderation features. Which makes sense – after all, Slack was built for corporate teams.

When to use API Generation Vs. Manual Development

You will likely see API frequently mentioned in the modern digital world, especially for app building blocks that make application production more seamless and effective than ever. However, in the API world, there is more than one way to create an API. The discussion over API generation vs. manual development is complex and Automated APIs could prove advantageous over manual development procedures during digital transformation.

Top 7 In-Demand Programming Languages

Hundreds of programming languages exist, each with its applications and capabilities. Whether their first language or a skill expansion, programmers must be strategic and discerning when deciding which ones to learn. Today, we plan to guide you in the right direction by sharing the seven most in-demand programming languages to learn.

Appian and KPMG Webinar - Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)

Appian and KPMG discuss the toughest challenges associated with TPRM and how organizations can begin to address them. We discuss how with the right mix of technology, skills, industry experience, and process knowledge, your organization can improve supplier collaboration and institutionalize a TPRM program that supports growth objectives and manages risk.

7 Best Free Icon Libraries

The use of icons on our websites and apps enhances their visual appeal, navigability, and engagement for users. Most users are familiar with icons because they are recognizable patterns. Microphone icons almost always indicate voice commands or recording functionality in web or mobile applications. It is precise because icons are universal symbols that are useful. It is possible to completely replace text with icons in many cases.

Improve Your Website Performance by Removing Unused CSS

Hiring website developers has become quite expensive nowadays. This is why many people opt to build their websites themselves, even if they aren’t experts at it. There are multiple resources available online that can help users with CSS themes and HTML pages. But the problem is that they often end up customizing downloaded websites without any idea about how to get rid of unused CSS files.

Flask vs. Django: Beyond Comparing Simple & Complex

It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting to learn code or if you’ve been doing it for a few years – sometimes you feel like you have no idea what you’re doing. This feeling can be made even worse by the wealth of information out there, making the right decision can get stressful. Life is full of those tough choices: Coke vs. Pepsi; Yankees vs. Red Sox; Python vs. Flask. You know, regular questions about soda, baseball, and Python frameworks that almost everyone faces.

Docker Tutorial: How to Create and Run Helix QAC as a Container

In this Docker tutorial, you will learn how to create and run Helix QAC as a containerized image. The basic definition of Docker is an open-source and popular operating-system-level virtualization (commonly known as “containerization”) technology that is lightweight, portable, and primarily runs on Linux and Windows. Docker makes it easier to create, deploy, and run applications by using containers.

Pretty Print JSON in Ruby, Python, Java, Node.js, Golang, .NET, and PHP

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a format for storing and exchanging data. It is a text-based, human-readable format for representing simple data structures and associative arrays (called objects). JSON is a language-independent format. That means JSON code can be written in any language, including Ruby, Python, Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, and Golang. JSON code is often more readable than code written in other languages.

Featured Post

How Digital Transformation, and Building APIs, got Faster

Digital transformation initiatives have been a top priority for several years in most companies. However, while such programmes are considered a necessity for the long-term survival of most businesses, they haven't always been prioritised or given the resources they deserve. That all changed with the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, according to analyst Gartner, customers expect companies to accelerate digital initiatives due to COVID-19 and all industries are experiencing widespread digitisation.

How to Build AWS Lambdas with TypeScript

Serverless computing is an exciting alternative to hosting apps on the AWS cloud. In this four-part series, we’ll run through how to build AWS Lambdas with TypeScript, improve the dev experience, optimize it, and finally, use AWS Cognito for security. In this take, I would like to take you on a journey to explore AWS Lambdas using TypeScript. We will build a pizza API, use Claudia to help deploy the app, and use the AWS CLI tool to set up a DynamoDB database.

Debugging in Ruby with AppSignal

An application monitoring tool (APM) is not just useful for seeing how your application performs through graphs and visuals. We can go deeper and use an APM to understand how your application behaves in a certain environment. As developers, we should aim to be less reactive to errors and more predictive, avoiding crashes for end-users. One way to accomplish this is by using monitoring tools to debug our application when an error occurs.

WSO2 Named a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave: API Management Solutions, Q3 2022

WSO2, a leading fully open source API Management solution provider, today announced that Forrester has recognized WSO2 as a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™: API Management Solutions, Q3 2022. WSO2 received the highest possible scores in the commercial model and supporting services criteria. The report can be accessed here.

Tiered pricing strategy - definition, examples and benefits

The right tiered pricing strategy can ensure you effectively monetize your APIs and other digital products, encouraging your customers to spend more whilst ensuring they are happy about doing so. But get it wrong and you can irritate your customers and push them towards your competitors. In this post we’ll explain how to get your tiered pricing right and maximize your API’s revenue.

API Integration Strategy: 4 Ways That DreamFactory Uses APIs

APIs (application programming interfaces) help companies increase functionality without expensive development. By using APIs, businesses can add new features to existing applications quickly and easily. Whether you’re working on expanding your app ecosystem or a complete digital transformation for your business processes, your goal is to have a seamless company connection process.

7 Salesforce Integration Assets to Connect Your CRM

In a world driven by software, technology, and data, businesses must be utilizing data points to streamline their businesses. Data now exists from all aspects of a company and must be properly integrated to make intelligent decisions. From client sales, purchasing behaviors, inventory, and beyond, collecting, understanding, and interpreting these data points can help your business thrive in your respective industry.

Device flow support in WSO2 Identity Server #Identityin15

In today's episode, we will discuss how you can configure OAuth2.0 device flow for your applications. Device flow is an OAuth2.0 extension that expands the range of devices an organization can use within their overall digital customer experience solution to include devices with limited user input capabilities (such as smart TVs which do not have keyboards). With device flow support, users can leverage other devices, such as smartphones, to complete the login on the limited input device.

Fix Process Bottlenecks with Elixir 1.14's Partition Supervisor

Elixir v1.14 shipped earlier this month with a bunch of new goodies. In this post, we'll explore Elixir's new PartitionSupervisor. We'll take a look at some code that suffers from the exact bottleneck issue that partitions supervisors are designed to solve. Then, we'll fix that bottleneck. Along the way, you'll learn how partition supervisors work under the hood to prevent process bottlenecks. Let's get started!

What is Product Retention and How Can You Improve It?

Product retention is an extremely important metric to check the health of your business. Calculating the retention rate of your business will return the percentage of users who continue using your product or service over a given time period. Retention can really be seen as a gauge for customer loyalty and a good reflection of the quality of your customer relationship with a new or existing customer.

A 2-Step Guide to Help CSP's Bridge the Digital Divide

Is it enough? The data we consume in our homes and businesses continues to grow at a blistering pace. Internet of Things (IoT) device connections are also increasing exponentially, with the average number of devices per connected home more than doubling just over the past couple of years. To address all of this growth, service providers are continuously expanding their fiber to the premise (FTTP) and hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) footprint.

National Cybersecurity Update: What's In the Latest US Presidential Executive Order

The U.S. Presidential Executive Order (EO) 14028 on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity was signed on May 12, 2021. The EO charges multiple agencies with enhancing cybersecurity through a variety of initiatives related to the security and integrity of the software supply chain.

Applying CSS: word-wrap, overflow-wrap & word-break

A website's responsiveness is very significant these days in order to display correctly on all devices. Although you may try your best, broken layouts may still occur despite your best efforts. Long words can be broken and wrapped to the next line when you use the CSS word-wrap property. A string being too long can overflow a container in most cases, so this method can be helpful in preventing overflow.

Top 7 Docker Alternatives

A container is a separate unit of software that encapsulates the software and libraries of an application, including its dependencies and its code. As a means of developing and managing stable applications, many organisations are adopting containers. Millions of applications currently use Docker, one of the most useful tools in this space. A Docker container can be used to build, run, inspect, and manage container images for developing applications.

How to perform an end-to-end test of a React app using Cypress

UI is nothing without UX. While user interface development is essential, it means nothing if it doesn’t lead to a good user experience. So whenever us devs add a new feature, or modifies the existing one, we must ensure the UX flows seamlessly. And that means thorough testing. Generally, the development process should involve tests at both the module and unit level to ensure both work as expected through the changes.

Why Process Modeling Is Better with Low-Code

Processes are the heart of every organization and every workflow. But if yours are a bit of a mess, you’re not alone. Businesses everywhere are struggling with inefficiency and just can’t seem to digitize workflows fast enough. And when they do, it’s hard to tell if they've even improved the problems they set out to solve in the first place. . . or just created more chaos.

About the State of Value Stream Management in 2022

Value Stream Management (VSM) is about empowering delivery organizations to measure, mitigate, and monitor complexity. Simply put, it aims at improving the flow of value in your organisation. The VSM Consortium recently released their highly anticipated report on “The State of Value Stream Management 2022” . In this post we recap some of the findings and look at it specifically from a software engineering and platform engineering point of view.

Best Practices of SEO to Rank Higher on Google | Antino Labs

Check out this 1 hour session to dive deep into the best practices of SEO to rank higher on Google. This video will walk you through thrice of the aspects of SEO i.e OFF-Page, ON-Page and Technical SEO along with real examples. We request you keep watching the video till end if you really want to gain worthy insights over SEO.

Yarden Laifenfeld's talk at GopherCon Europe 2022- "From OOP to Go"

Picking up Go after mastering OOP languages often leads to common yet avoidable mistakes. The question is - how can we avoid them? Taking the example of inheritance, we will discuss how our process of thought needs to change when developing programs in Go compared to OOP languages.

Nest.js vs. Express.js: A Contest of Node Frameworks

What a time to be alive! The information age we are currently in has given us more data and choices about, well, everything. But let’s be honest, do any of us actually feel like we’re more informed than we were? Because all this information comes with more choices. Expanded choice is actually an “explosion of choice” – in other words, if the world were a restaurant, the menu is so long you spend more time choosing your order than actually eating it.

A Guide for Choosing the Best API Gateway

If you're looking to build or expand upon a microservices architecture, then you need to seriously consider an API gateway. An API gateway is a critical piece of infrastructure that can help you build a scalable, secure, and efficient microservices architecture. They are an essential part of any API strategy. It acts as a single point of entry for all your API traffic, making it easier to manage and monitor your API traffic.

5 Tips For Recovering Revenue With APIs

Recovering revenue is an important part of running a successful venture in the modern API economy. With an API product it can be easy to undervalue your services and, ultimately, your business. This is why many API providers turn to billing customers for their usage, but which API monetization method is best for your product stack? Moesif enables you to make smart, informed decisions around your customers and maximize the monetization of your business model.

Secure Your Node.js App with JSON Web Tokens

A JSON Web Token (JWT) is an open standard (RFC 7519) that securely sends and receives data between parties (in the form of a JSON object). In this article, we’ll implement JWT authentication to secure a Node.js application. We’ll also find out what JWT is all about and build a demo app. Let's get going!

Appian Named Category Leader in Chartis Vendor Analysis Report on Client Lifecycle Management (CLM)

In the Chartis Vendor Analysis: Client Lifecycle Management Solutions, 2022: Corporate and Investment Banking report, Appian is recognized as a Category Leader. The report noted the completeness of Appian’s offering, including our unified low-code platform, data integration capabilities, and ability to meet market-specific requirements.

What you Need to Know When Pricing APIs

Pricing APIs correctly is a key part of your API monetization strategy. That means understanding how you should charge for usage, whether it’s better to set your pricing by month or quarter, whether data tiers or a Pay As You Go API pricing model would work best and a whole host of other elements. In this post we’ll cover all you need to know when pricing APIs.

Elixir 1.14: Better Debugging with dbg/2 and More

The latest Elixir release introduces new features to improve your developer and debugging experience. In this post, we'll take a look at the new dbg() functionality, along with some improvements to Inspect and binary evaluation error messaging. All these changes come together to make you an even more productive Elixirist. Let's get started!

How to use React Hook Form for Crafting Interactive Forms?

Forms are a vital part of any digital solution, be it a gaming app or a simple online store crafting an interactive and easy-to-use form is a must to ensure user engagement. However, while working with core React preparing and managing forms with multiple fields usually becomes a hassle. As in core React, developers have to add lengthy lines of code to implement basic form features. This not only makes the code a hassle to work with but also complicates the overall codebase with unnecessary clutter.

Using Event Tags in Moesif

Sometimes you may have related events that you want to group together or want to give a friendly name to events. This could be especially true if you have a group of API calls you want to combine into a single API product. Fortunately with Moesif you can do exactly that, so that groups of events can be looked at as a single unit, like a SKU. In Moesif, this can be done by using the Event Tag feature.

What is the Difference Between Data Compliance and Data Privacy?

When deploying any application that holds customer or user data, both data compliance and data privacy are important areas to consider. Yet these two areas of data management are sometimes misunderstood. This blog post will shed some light on the differences between data compliance and data privacy.

Is Deno better than Node.js?

The Deno runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript is created on Rust and the V8 JavaScript engine, equivalent to Node.js. Developed by Ryan Dahl, Node.js' original creator, it is designed to correct errors he made when he first envisioned and unleashed Node.js in 2009. To recapitulate, he was dissatisfied with the lack of security, the lack of module resolution through node_modules, and the differing behaviour of the browser, among other things, which provoked him to implement Deno.

Live Debugging vs. Remote Debugging: Key Differences and Limitations

As you could probably guess, we discuss debugging a lot at Rookout. We tackle many methods and strategies throughout all our blogs and resources. However, it only recently occurred to us that we don’t have a direct face-off of the two major methods of modern debugs: live debugging vs. remote debugging. At first glance, this might sound like semantics, but the two terms have come to embody specific methods and protocols. Both are powerful, but there is some fine print to look at also.

Appian as the Agility Layer for your ERP

In government agencies around the world, large enterprise legacy systems are what stand in the way of desperately needed modernization programs. Such legacy systems can be large enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations or custom-built applications using complex codebases. Simply put, they are not supportable, upgradable, and do not provide the rich user experience customers have become accustomed to.

Laravel vs. Symfony: A Side-by-Side Comparison - Part 2

In our last post, we began comparing the PHP frameworks Laravel and Symfony. We went over an overview of each framework, and also what particular advantages each one has. In this post, we’ll continue by discussing the following: Finally, we’ll go over which framework is right for your particular use case.

10 Software Development Tools that Improve Productivity

It’s quite natural to become sidetracked when balancing the many activities involved in software development. You must keep track of deadlines, application goals and your piece of the project, while handling internal and external communications and producing good code. That’s where software development tools come into play. There are a variety of applications available that are designed to make tasks easier for a developer.

APIs in the Fintech Industry: What You Need To Know

Fintech is the perfect example of how emerging, disruptive technologies are rocking a traditional industry: the banking sector. Fintech, a portmanteau of financial technology, is its own industry, changing the banking world and forcing it to evolve. Most financial institutions are now using some kind of fintech, from simple banking apps to entire platforms aimed at promoting open banking.

A Guide to APIs and Data Warehouses

Enterprise data is a valuable asset in today’s digital economy. As a result, companies are always looking to utilize data services to get more out of their valuable data. Two ways that companies can achieve this is through using APIs and data warehouses. Did you know that the global data warehousing market size is projected to reach over $51 billion by 2028 or that the worldwide API management market size is expected to reach over $13 billion by 2027?

JIT Compilers for Ruby and Rails: An Overview

A program is compiled at runtime using a different method from pre-execution compilation. This process is known as just-in-time compilation or dynamic translation. In this post, we'll look at why JIT compilation can be a good choice for your Ruby on Rails app, before looking at some of the options available (YJIT, MJIT, and TenderJIT) and how to install them. But first: how does JIT compilation work?

What is an iFrame? How does it work and what is it used for

If you have been scolded for using iFrames to embed website elements by seniors, you aren’t alone! The HTML tag has been infamous in the industry for quite some time due to possible security breaches. It facilitates when the element goes unmonitored. However, its proper use and strategic implementation can quickly help web developers speed up the frontend creation process.

typeof in JavaScript: An introduction

Checking data types for variables is vital in any programming language to ensure a smooth and error-free development process. However, this becomes even more essential for accuracy when it comes to dynamically typed languages such as Javascript. In Javascript, one variable can hold multiple value types within the same file as shown below: To achieve this, one of the most commonly used operators is typeof.

5 Best CSS Frameworks for Front-end Developers

In the best CSS framework, you can think of it as a design or cover that is supported by HTML, the default structure of your website. CSS has the advantage of being quick and simple to use, which is one of the reasons most web designers and developers use it. The foundation of your website is HTML, but CSS adds elegance, design, and functionality to its front end. There is probably not a single website in the world that does not use some kind of framework.

Benchmark Your Elixir App's Performance with Benchee

At some point, every software engineer will find themselves in a situation where they need to benchmark system performance and test the limits of what a given system can handle. This is a common problem in software engineering, and even more so in the applications that are well suited for Elixir. Finding bottlenecks early on in an application can save a lot of time, money, and effort in the long run, and give developers confidence in the upper limit of a system.

How To Avoid SSR Load Issues in Node.js

In my experience consulting the past few years, one thing has become clear: everyone struggles with scaling their SSR apps, no matter the chosen framework. SSR is expensive — running a lot of code intended for the browser, on the server, to pre-generate markup. Lately, web frameworks have been making strides in improving things, Solid.js being a great example of fast, performant SSR.

Laravel vs. Symfony: A Side-by-Side Comparison - Part 1

The modern world, which is full of mobile devices, requires more responsive web applications that provide real-time interactions. As a result, you require a practical backend framework to synchronize information in real time and develop a robust database link with the user interface. For example, let's consider your smartphone's live soccer game score that provides instant entry into all the player statistics.

5 Reasons to Start Using API Generation

While APIs are not new technology trends by any means, they have become vital to the digital transformation process over the last decade. APIs are increasingly becoming a necessity for business operations, as is overall API management. Business leaders overwhelmingly agree that APIs are the future of business. A recent study shows that 97% of enterprise leaders agree that APIs are essential for business survival because they enhance security and streamline business operations.

Powered Template: Speeding Up Professional Web Design

Today, as businesses continue to migrate to more online-oriented operations to cater to increasingly digital audiences, it’s more important than ever to have a functional and engaging website to win conversions. Whilst some businesses remain fearful of allocating resources towards building an online presence, platforms like Powered Template offer a strong solution for creating a website for less.

Bugfender is ISO 27001 certified! Here's why it's big news for you

Many companies tell you that “the security of our customers’ data is very important to us” in their marketing communications. And you believe them, for a while. But then you discover they were hacked with an open FTP server, using a password like “nameOfTheCompany2022”, and you realise that it’s not that important after all. Why do we mention this, you ask? Well, a few months ago Bugfender got ISO 27001-certified.

Essential Java Skills for Every Developer's Career

First introduced to the world back in 1996, Java today is still very much in demand. Over 35% of programmers worldwide worked in this language in 2021. Moreover, it is firmly among the three most popular programming languages in the TIOBE index. What does it mean for you as a beginner Java developer? It means you’ll have to gain a competitive advantage to advance in your career successfully. Let’s take a look at the essential tech and soft skills you need to perfect.

Secure Your WSO2 Micro Integrator Deployment

This article is about how to secure WSO2 Micro Integrator on microservices integration deployment. It describes how to use keystores, secure vaults, and more. WSO2 Micro Integrator is an integration solution widely used in enterprise integration. You can use WSO2 Micro Integrator to implement mediation policies, message transformation, security, and more. In this article, let’s focus on how you can securely place WSO2 Micro Integrator on your deployment.