Installation of Material Components in Project

Installation with cocoapods

Add the following to your pod file.
pod ‘MaterialComponents’
Then run the following command
pod install
Importing
Then import the Material components.
For ex. import MaterialComponents.MaterialBottomAppBar

List of Useful Material Components(MDC)

1. Buttons
2. Textfield
3. Chip view
4. Bottom view
5. Snack bar(Bottom toast)
6. Tab bar
7. Slider
8. Spinner(Loader)
9. Highlighted view
10. Page control

1. Buttons

• There are three types of button in Material components.
• Flat, raised and floating button.
• All buttons show ink splashes when user interacts with the button.
• You can set elevation for particular control state of button.
• Floating action button can be animated using collapse and expand method.

//For MDCButton      
        let button = MDCButton()
        button.setElevation(ShadowElevation(rawValue: 6), for: .normal) // For add shadow on button.
        view.addSubview(button)

//For MDCFloatingButton 
        let floatingButton = MDCFloatingButton()
        floatingButton.setImage( UIImage(named: "Favorite"), for: .normal)
        floatingButton.backgroundColor = .white
        floatingButton.setElevation(ShadowElevation(rawValue: 6), for: .normal)
        floatingButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(btnTapped(button:)), for: .touchUpInside)
        view.addSubview(floatingButton).

@objc func btnFloatingButtonTapped(floatingButton: MDCFloatingButton){
        floatingButton.collapse(true) {
            floatingButton.expand(true, completion: nil)
        }
    }

2. TextField

• There are two main types of Text Fields in material components.
• MDCTextfield and MDCMultilineTextField.
• MDCTextfield is used for single line text input and MDCMultilineTextField for multiline text input.
• We have to add textfield in ‘MDCTextInputControllerUnderline(textInput:)’ as text input for floating placeholder and underline.

//For animate placeholder and underline
var textFieldControllerFloating: MDCTextInputControllerUnderline!

//Multiline text Field 
let textFieldFloating = MDCMultilineTextField()
        textFieldFloating.textView?.delegate = self
        textFieldFloating.placeholder = "Enter UserName"
        textFieldFloating.expandsOnOverflow = false
        textFieldControllerFloating = MDCTextInputControllerUnderline(textInput: textFieldFloating)
        textFieldControllerFloating.characterCountMax = 15
        textFieldControllerFloating.floatingPlaceholderActiveColor = UIColor.lightGray
        textFieldControllerFloating.errorColor = .red
        view.addSubview(textFieldFloating)

//Text view delegate for animate placeholder 
func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) {
        let txt = textView.text.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespaces)
        textFieldControllerFloating.isFloatingEnabled = !txt.isEmpty
    }

3. Chip View

• There are two main types of chip view: Action chips and Choice chips.
• Action chip offer action related to primary content. You can change UI according to action.
• Choice chips allow selection from multiple chips.
• Choice chips clearly indicate exact position and display options in a compact area.
• You can use chips as toggle, radio button and single selection menu by customizing chip view.

//Chip view with image
        let chipView = MDCChipView()
        chipView.sizeToFit()
        chipView.titleLabel.text = "Chip With Image"
        chipView.setTitleColor(UIColor.red, for: .selected)
        chipView.addTarget(self, action: #selector(chipViewTapped(_:)), for: .touchUpInside)
        self.view.addSubview(chipView)

//Tap action of chip view
@objc func chipViewTapped(_ sender: MDCChipView){
        sender.imageView.image = UIImage(named: "Favorite")
        sender.imagePadding = UIEdgeInsets(top: 0, left: 10, bottom: 0, right: 0)
    }

4. BottomView

• Bottom View works much like a UITabBar and both are populated with an array of UITabBarItems.
• It is to be suggested that at most three to five bar items are to be used.
• User can add title as well as image in BottomView.

//Setting up Bottom View
   let bottomView = MDCBottomNavigationBar()
   bottomView.items = [
            UITabBarItem(title: "Home", image:UIImage(named: "Home"), tag: 0),
            UITabBarItem(title: "Message", image:UIImage(named: "Email"), tag: 1),
            UITabBarItem(title: "Favorites", image: UIImage(named: "Favorite"), tag: 2),
            UITabBarItem(title: "Calls", image:UIImage(named: "calls"), tag: 3),
            UITabBarItem(title: "More", image:UIImage(named: "more"), tag: 4)
        ]
   bottomView.selectedItem = bottomView.items.first
   bottomView.titleVisibility = .always
   bottomView.alignment = .centered
   view.addSubview(bottomView)

5. SnackBar

• Snackbars provide brief feedback about an operation through a message at the bottom of the screen.
• It shows up normal readable text upto two lines.
• Pop ups only contains text action.

//Setting up Snack Bar
    let message = MDCSnackbarMessage()
        message.text = "This is a SnackBar Toast"
        let action = MDCSnackbarMessageAction()
        let actionHandler = { () in
            let answerMessage = MDCSnackbarMessage()
            answerMessage.text = "Fascinating"
            MDCSnackbarManager.show(answerMessage)
        }
        action.handler = actionHandler
        action.title = "ok"
        message.action = action
        MDCSnackbarManager.show(message)

6. TabBar

• These tabs act like bar buttons, used to navigate between Screens.
• On the selected tab user is redirected to related Subject Content.
• It works on the behaviour of MDCTabBar that communicates via a delegate.

//Setting up Tab Bar
        let tabBar = MDCTabBar()
        tabBar.items = [
            UITabBarItem(title: "Home", image:  imageLiteral(resourceName: "Home"), tag: 0),
            UITabBarItem(title: "Message", image:  imageLiteral(resourceName: "Email"), tag: 1),
            UITabBarItem(title: "Favorites", image:  imageLiteral(resourceName: "Favorite"), tag: 2),
            UITabBarItem(title: "Calls", image:  imageLiteral(resourceName: "calls"), tag: 3),
            UITabBarItem(title: "More", image:  imageLiteral(resourceName: "more"), tag: 4)
        ]
        tabBar.selectedItem = tabBar.items.first
        tabBar.alignment = .center
        tabBar.itemAppearance = .titledImages
        tabBar.barTintColor = .white
        tabBar.selectedItemTintColor = .black
        tabBar.unselectedItemTintColor = .gray
        tabBar.selectionIndicatorTemplate = IndicatorTemplate()// Custom class for selected Tab indicator
        tabBar.autoresizingMask = [.flexibleWidth, .flexibleBottomMargin]
        tabBar.sizeToFit()
        view.addSubview(tabBar)

7. Slider

• MDCSlider is a third party control used to propagate between range or discrete set of values.
• The current slider height is set to 27pt, to make enough space so that touches don’t affect other elements.
• Discrete sliders shows value indicator by set numberOfDiscreteValues property.

let slider = MDCSlider()
        slider.shouldDisplayDiscreteValueLabel = true
        slider.isEnabled = true
        slider.numberOfDiscreteValues = 5
        slider.minimumValue = 0
        slider.maximumValue = 100
        slider.inkColor = .black
        slider.isThumbHollowAtStart = true
        slider.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didChangeSliderValue), for: .valueChanged)
        view.addSubview(slider)

//Slider value change method
 @objc func didChangeSliderValue(_ sender: MDCSlider){
        sender.isStatefulAPIEnabled = true
        sender.setThumbColor(.red, for: .selected)
    }

8. Spinner(Loader)

• Material Design allows user to display a loading indicator with multi color support.
• User can use two styles of indicator :- linear and circular
• It has a property to set multiple colors, i.e cycleColors which allow to add colors property.

let activityIndicator = MDCActivityIndicator()
        activityIndicator.sizeToFit()
        activityIndicator.progress = 0.4
        activityIndicator.cycleColors = [.blue, .red, .green]
        activityIndicator.center = self.view.center
        view.addSubview(activityIndicator)
        activityIndicator.startAnimating()

9. Highlighted View

• The Highlight view component is a way to visually highlight a part of the screen in order to introduce users to new features and functionality.
• Through this you can highlight a view, and at a time display another view with different animations.
• For example :- Switching the main view with highlighted view.

var highlightController: MDCFeatureHighlightViewController!        
        highlightController = MDCFeatureHighlightViewController(highlightedView: welcomeButton, completion: nil)
        highlightController.bodyColor = .white
        highlightController.titleColor = .white
        highlightController.titleText = "Welcome Sir!"
        highlightController.bodyText = "Text which you want to display when highlight"
        highlightController.outerHighlightColor =
            UIColor.black.withAlphaComponent(kMDCFeatureHighlightOuterHighlightAlpha)
        present(highlightController, animated: true, completion: nil)

10. Page Control

• MDCPageControl is designed in replacement of Native UIPageControl
• MDCPageControl shows current page index, with its positioned indicator.
• As the user scroll the page, the indicator in MDCPageControl navigates it’s indicator towards the next indicator position that is being scrolled towards.

let pageControl = MDCPageControl()
        pageControl.numberOfPages = 3
        let pageControlSize = pageControl.sizeThatFits(view.bounds.size)
        pageControl.addTarget(self, action: #selector(didChangePage), for: .valueChanged)
        pageControl.autoresizingMask = [.flexibleTopMargin, .flexibleWidth]
        view.addSubview(pageControl)

    /// Change page control
    ///
    /// - Parameter sender: MDCPageControl
    @objc func didChangePage(sender: MDCPageControl){
        var offset = scrollView.contentOffset
        offset.x = CGFloat(sender.currentPage) * scrollView.bounds.size.width;
        scrollView.setContentOffset(offset, animated: true)
    }

How to Update?

For updating your existing Angular project to version 7,

ng update @angular/cli @angular/core

Visit update.angular.io for more information and guidance regarding the updates.

CLI prompts

The command-line interface provides more information about common commands such as ng new or ng add @ angular / material. This helps you to find built-in features like routing or support for SCSS.

The documentation of angular.io now includes documentation of Angular CLI.

Angular Material & CDK

Material design received a major update this year. You can see the design guidance, tooling, development component from Material. Some new functionality is added in CDK like virtual scrolling, Drag and Drop by importing ScrollingModule and DragDropModule.

Virtual Scrolling

The CDK now has scrolling capability which means that your loading/ unloading of DOM element is a bit faster & user-friendly. You can use that by importing ScrollingModule.

Here is how you can implement this feature in your application,

<cdk-virtual-scroll-viewport class="main" itemSize="50">
 <ul>
     <div *cdkVirtualFor="let item of items" class="example-item">{{item}}</div>
 </ul>
</cdk-virtual-scroll-viewport>

Drag & Drop

The CDK has now support for drag and drop which includes automatic rendering as user move items from one place to another place. Method used for reordering of lists is moveItemInArray And for transferring items is transferArrayItem.

Here is how you can implement this feature in your application,

In app.component.html file,

<div cdkDropList class="example-list" (cdkDropListDropped)="drop($event)">
 <div class="example-box" *ngFor="let item of items" cdkDrag>{{item}}</div>
</div>

In app.component.ts file,

drop(event: CdkDragDrop<string[]>) {
   moveItemInArray(this.items, event.previousIndex, event.currentIndex);
 }

Performance Improvements

As per tradition with the release of new versions, the Angular team also took a
look at the performance of the framework for version 7. We included the reflect-metadata polyfill in production, which is only needed in development.

In version 7, as a part of update it will automatically remove a polyfills.ts file, when you are building your application in JIT(Just-In-Time) mode, removing this polyfill from production builds and makes your application smaller in size.

This next feature is warning application creators when they are going over the budget with their bundle size. The default bundle size is a warning at 2 MB and an error at 5 MB. These default bundle size can be easily changed in your angular.json file by changing the bundle size in the angular.json file.

"budgets": [
  {
    "type": "initial",
    "maximumWarning": "2mb",
    "maximumError": "5mb"
  }
]

Angular Element

Angular Elements components now support content projection for custom elements.

Conclusion

With Angular 7, A new major release has come out, which is having many small improvements and designed by maintaining the dependencies and other performance improvements. But Ivy still is in under development so did not become a part of this update. Many partner projects like Angular Console, NativeScript, StackBlitz, @angular/fire are continuously helping Angular to expand environment.

MacBook Air

MacBook Air comes with 13.3-inch Retina display and Touch ID. To make it more secure T2 security chip is added. As last MacBook’s Keyboard had many issues, this time new Air has updated 3rd generation Butterfly keyboard. USB type-C is also added to make it slimmer and as same time faster and long-lasting. Clear screen with 4 million pixels. Audio is up to 25% louder. It supports up to 1.5 TB SSD. This time MacBook will come with the 100% recycled Aluminium body. Size and Weight are decreased than last Air. The color variants are Space Gray, Gold & Silver. The price is starting at $1199

Mac mini

New Mac mini has more power than other Mac mini. It comes with quad/6- core 8 generation Intel Core processor. It is almost 5x faster than the last mini. It supports up to 64GB of 2666 MHz memory. It also includes T2 chip. And 10Gb Ethernet is also given with 3 Thunderbolt ports. It comes with the Silver & black color option. Price is starting from $799.

iPad pro & Apple pencil

It’s a new edge – to – edge screen & design which makes it look better than older iPads. Screen sizes are 11 & 12.9 inch. It has the Liquid retina display as iPhone Xr. The A12 Bionic chip made it one the best PC & tablet in the market. As like iPhone X series it also has Face ID. USB type C is also given to make space compact and can transfer data and works as a power bank through it. The storage capacity is up to 1TB. It has E-sim feature. Price starting from $799.

The new Apple pencil 2 has a double tap. It can be attached with new iPad pro at side with the help of magnetic – wireless charging. Price starting from $129.

iOS 12.1 Update:

Awaiting update has come, everyone was excited. It has e-Sim support. Real-time depth control in new iPhones. Group FaceTime. New emojis were also added.

At last, we can say, the event was satisfying.

Getting Started

Let’s start a New Project named Contact Book. (My current Angular CLI version is 7.0.2, Node version is 10.8.0, NPM version is 6.2.0)

ng new ContactBook --routing
cd ContactBook
ng serve --open

The command will open a new tab in the default browser. The command will serve the project on http://localhost:4200/ with some default content.

Adding Angular Material

For designing purpose, Here we are using an Angular material framework.

npm install --save @angular/material @angular/cdk
npm install --save @angular/animations hammerjs

Also, need to import in styles.css

/* src/styles.css */

@import ‘~@angular/material/prebuilt-themes/indigo-pink.css’

Now we add some material design modules to our application like hammerjs and BrowserAnimationsModule . For the use of any component from the material design we need to import that. Here first we import Toolbar component in app.module.ts file. Don’t forget to add in imports.

import 'hammerjs';
import { BrowserAnimationsModule} from "@angular/platform-browser/animations";
import { MatToolbarModule } from "@angular/material";

Now we can use the toolbar in any component of this application. Here we use the toolbar in app.component.html file.

<mat-toolbar color="warn">
 <h1>My Contact Book</h1>
</mat-toolbar>
<router-outlet></router-outlet>

Create RESTful API

We need to create RESTful API for our project. Here we create simple API with NodeJs. For API, we create a new folder named as server in the current directory and then add a package.json file via npm init. Now the next step is to install dependencies that we are going to use. Install express-nedb-rest (npm install express-nedb-rest –save) that is an open source API using express & nedb that create restful API automatically. Then we install cors ( npm install cors –save) that are a technique which will serve API to sub party domain.

Now we create a new file called index.js for our server. This server we will be able to get an element from the database, to put the element to the database, to update and delete the element from the database.

index.js.

const express = require("express");
const nedb = require("nedb");
const rest = require("express-nedb-rest");
const cors = require("cors");
const app = express();

const datastore = new nedb({
   filename: "mycontactapp.db",
   autoload: true
});

const restAPI = rest();
restAPI.addDatastore('contacts', datastore);

app.use(cors());
app.use('/', restAPI);

app.listen(3000)

Now it’s time to run our server with node index. We can see the result something like below in the browser on http://localhost:3000/. Now our server is ready to use.

[{“name”:”contacts”,”link”:”http://localhost:3000/contacts”}]

Time to Put some logic

Let’s take contact dynamically from the server. For that purpose, we need to add
contact.ts.

export class Contact {
 _id: string
 phoneno: number
 email: string
 relation: string
 notes: string
 constructor(public name: string = "",
                     public address: string = "") { }
}

Now we need to generate service via ng generate service data. Update providers in app.module.ts file. Data service is used to get data from the database, update data into the database. For that first, we need to import httpmodule in the app.module.ts file. Then request to the server with GET request to get data from the database. Save or update data into the database. Here endpoint URL is server URL which will be changed according to the server.

Data.service.ts.

export class DataService {
 constructor(private http: Http) { }
 public endpoint = "http://localhost:3000"
 getList(callback) {
   this.http.get(`${this.endpoint}/contacts`).subscribe(res => {
     callback(res.json())
   })
 }

 get(contactId: string, callback) {
   this.http.get(`${this.endpoint}/contacts/${contactId}`).subscribe(res => {
     callback(res.json());
   })
 }

 save(contact, callback) {
   if (contact._id) {
     this.http.put(`${this.endpoint}/contacts/${contact._id}`, contact).subscribe(res => {
       callback(true);
     })
   } else {
     this.http.post(`${this.endpoint}/contacts`, contact).subscribe(res => {
       callback(true);
     })
   }
 }
}

Conclusion

Now Run Angular Project http://localhost:4200/ and Node server http://localhost:3000/ together in the terminal. This is how you can create & run angular 7 application with node integration. In PART 2, we are going to add PWA features & increase PWA score to our application.

Qualities Required in a game tester

• Game Tester does not always require a technical degree, whereas a Software tester is preferable to have an Engineering degree in Computer field or any other technical field, but a game tester should have a passion for games, good written/communication skills and able to do repetitive work.
• A game tester should be able to keep a continuous record of enormous amounts of dynamic details or Game flow.
• In games, Recreating bugs is extremely difficult. To recreate bugs tester should have an expertise and well attention towards the game flow.
• Games are always developed with respect to the latest Operating systems & hardware; hence, game testers must stay updated with the trends.
• There are some similarities between software testing and game testing but all types of testing require expertise to perform it well and in a proper flow.

Types of Games

• Console
• PC
• Mobile
• AR/VR
• Web-based etc.

Challenges in Game Testing

User interface: Games are developed with respect to different resolutions of devices in the market. Tester’s responsibility is to check that the game works without any interruption across different Layouts & screen resolutions. In other words, Regression testing must be completed frequently to assure that the game’s Graphics does not change even when layout and resolutions change. Tester has to check the game in different Screen orientation. Testers have to keep an eagle eye on whole display during testing.

Gameplay: Gameplay is as important as UI of the game for success in the market. Tester has to play all the levels, all character of the game, in other words, a tester has to test game till whole game and scenarios are not covered. And this is challenging for a tester to cover a whole game and to keep the record of the whole game and if any bug is there in gameplay then tester should be able to recreate the bug. In some games like where star ratings are there then, a tester has to test whole game with 3-star ratings, 2-star ratings and 1-star ratings; because some critical bugs are there which does not reflect in any star ratings.

Multiplayer Feature: Testing a multiplayer game is challenging for Game testers. Multiplayer testing is about recreating a Bug/Scenario of many players, this can be challenging because players can be from anywhere, not from the same room. Sometimes it is impossible to recreate the Bug/Scenarios in a multiplayer game. There are lots of possibilities for testing the games. A multiplayer game goes through the backend server and for this situation, the network will be a crucial thing while testing.

Game Authenticity: Tester has to test authentication of the game because nobody wants to lose their saved game or score not being updated due to a bug in authenticity. So it is the business of a tester to take care of this kind of bug and verify that the game authentication is working properly or not. Apart from this, other authentications are there like, users authentication, device authentication and authentication with the social media app. Tester has to check all the possible and required scenarios in authentication like forgot the password, forgot username etc.

Social Media Integration: Social media synthesis with the game is a crucial part for the game. In most of the games, it is compulsory to sign up with a social application or share the game’s results on the social application. Hence the games should be tested in Android, iOS, Windows etc. devices, with various OS versions and device configuration. It will be a tedious task for a tester to test the same thing in multiple devices, so testers have to be passionate.

Performance Testing: Without performance testing, medium & big games cannot be released. Here the challenge is to check the performance of the game in combination across devices, hardware, and platforms. The other challenge for checking the security of the game, as if the game is played online around the world. Then the tester has to verify that the game can withstand with the heavy rush, external attacks, and vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

Hence we can conclude that Game testing is not as easy as we think and not enjoying at all for game tester because it is a repetitive task and to do the same thing constantly for a long time with full concentration and this is a hard job. And the very challenging task for the game tester is to reproduce the same scenarios again and again during testing the game and during verifying solved bugs. So game testing is also a hard work it is not as easy as people think.

Introduction to Project Tiny

Tiny Unity is the package, which helps to build the small 2D Web Games, Social Applications Games, and Playable Ads easily and rapidly. This package is new runtime, modular design and using Pure ECS (Entity Component System) data-oriented approach as it leverages the C# job System and Burst Compiler, which helps to maximize the rendering of the content at runtime. Tiny Unity Package reduces the build size, so the user can load and play the game instantly on their device.

As of now, Project Tiny is using typescript to write the game logic, but once its support is ready, it will be replaced with C# to write the game logic, which will make the code size even smaller and provides the better and improved performance along with the better debugging experience.

So basically, the Project tiny makes the unity assets and game size compressed & smaller and increases the rendering speed of the games in Playable Ads, Games in messaging Apps. So the user can play the games without downloading and installing the games easily.

Benefits of using Tiny Unity Package

There are many benefits of Tiny Unity package such as:

• We can maximize the download/loading speed of the game.
• To optimize the games build size and loading the unity game in a web browser can be lower down to avoid the delay in rendering and playing the game.

For example, in the devices like iPhone 6s, the loading time of the web games is around 350 m/s to 600 m/s. While using Tiny Unity, the rendering of the web games can be three to four times faster (even when the internet connection is low) than the WebGL games due to its smaller build size like 100kb to 5mb.

• Tiny Unity is used to optimize the ECS approach by making it simpler. It introduces prefabs to ECS. Prefabs are used as the Core Component while making new instances in the project. If the developer wants to do any change in the project, then the developer can only edit in the prefab and it will automatically reflect in all the instances or the developer can make the independent change in all the instances as per the need.
• It supports 2D HTML 5 targets, 2D WebGL and Canvas for rendering targets.
• There is more flexibility in development as its content can be embedded in Web App, Android App, iOS App, Native App.
• Tiny unity supports the existing art assets, but it does not support the existing code. The developer will have to make some modifications in the existing code, as it uses the ECS approach.
• Project Tiny provides the solid performance as it decreases the build size and loading time.
• It provides the better editor experience as it allows the developer to pick which functionalities they want to include.

How to Get Started with Project Tiny?

Steps to Install Project Tiny:

• Open Unity 2018.3 Package Manager
• Simply open the Windows -> Package Manager
• You need to install Tiny Mode Package
• If Tiny Mode package is not available then click advance -> Preview Packages
• Now Install Tiny Mode package from the Package Manager into the project
• Now you can see Tiny Menu in the Menu bar
• Now you can create the tiny project or import the tiny samples and start working

So, this is just an introduction part of project tiny package in unity. Stay Tuned for a more advanced post on a similar topic.

Prerequisite

1. Login as superadmin to your multisite network. ( find more about this role here )
2. You will find a new option named “My sites” on the top left of your admin menu.
3. You can navigate using My Sites > Network Admin > Sites

You will get your screen something like this :

1. Get the ID of your site from listed sites
2. Find ID by selecting the edit option of your site, then the URL should be like http://example.com/wp-admin/network/site-info.php?id=XX

Database Migration

Export the tables of your site from the database

• Go to the Export tab of your multisite database in phpmyadmin.
• Select tables relating to your site ID you are exporting.

For example, If your site ID is 2 then see the following:

• Also, select users’ table and usermeta table as they are common for all sites.
• Export selected tables.
• Create a new database for the site that you want to create new.
• Import the exported sql file and rename tables using the coming prefix to match with wordpress table structure.

or you can simply remove the site ids from the table names. such as change {prefix}_{site_id}_{tablename} to {prefix}_{tablename} . ( ex. wp_3_posts => wp_posts).

WordPress Installation

Download a new WordPress installation from here.

• Extract the downloaded zip to your desired location.
• Open config.php file and change database details. Use details of the database you just created in step- 4.

Make sure the table prefix in your database and table prefix config.php are the same.

Data Modification

Files

Remove plugins and themes folders from wp-content of the new installation.

• Copy these folders from your multisite network.
• Copy your site’s upload data from parent site’s wp‑content/uploads/sites/{ID}/.
• Create uploads folder in our new wp-content and paste copied data here.

Database

Edit links in the database

• Change site’s domain from multisite network domain to a new single site domain. For example, if your site was at example.com/site1 , change it to site1.com
• Check your domains in case your site had a domain mapped to it and it’s not a domain you’re moving it to.

At this point, we have migrated our site physically.

Now login as admin for our newly created site. Users’ data will be the same as the old site. Check permalinks and make sure all URLs are working fine!

Creating an Angular project with Angular CLI

To create a new project write the below command in the terminal/command line.

ng new angular-bootstrap-example

Installing Bootstrap

We have two steps to add bootstrap in angular project

a: Installing Bootstrap from NPM

Next, we need to install Bootstrap. So, Type in your terminal cd for Example- cd angular-bootstrap-example press enters and type below command to install bootstrap :

For Bootstrap 3:
npm install bootstrap@3.3.7 ( install a particular version of bootstrap)
For Bootstrap 4:
npm install bootstrap (directly installed latest version)

b: Alternative – Local Bootstrap CSS

You can also download the Bootstrap CSS and add in your project. I have downloaded Bootstrap from the https://getbootstrap.com/ and added into src/assets/css/bootstrap.min.css

Importing the CSS

We have two variations to import bootstrap in angular project

a: If you have installed Bootstrap from NPM

just open the angular.json file and give your style path like below:

"styles": [
  		 "node_modules/bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.css",
       		 "scss/style.scss"   
   	 ],

b: If you added the Bootstrap CSS file locally

just open angular.json file and give your style path like below:

"styles": [
  		"src/assets/css/bootstrap.min.css",
       		"scss/style.scss"   
   	 ],

How to use Custom CSS in Angular

Make one CSS file in your src/assets/css/custom-style.css

just open the angular.json file and give your style path like below:

Note: Your custom CSS should be last of other CSS

How to install Bootstrap JavaScript Components with ngx-bootstrap (Option 1)

In some case, you want to use models, accordion, dropdown without installing jquery. So, angular provides wrapper library for Bootstrap called ngx-bootstrap and that we can also install from NPM:

npm i ngx-bootstrap

Adding the required Bootstrap modules in app.module.ts

If you want to use any ngx-bootstrap modules so go through ngx-bootstrap and add the module you want and also add that module in your app.module.ts. For example, suppose we want to use the Accordion component:

import { AccordionModule } from 'ngx-bootstrap/accordion';
   	 imports: [
   	        BrowserModule,
   	       AccordionModule.forRoot()
   	   ],

.forRoot() is like a global scope to provide the functionality of all modules be available in all components.

How to install Bootstrap JavaScript Components with ng-bootstrap (Option 2)

If you use Bootstrap 4 in your project and also used models, accordion, dropdown without installing jquery. In case angular provides wrapper library for Bootstrap 4 is: ng-bootstrap and that we can also install from NPM:

npm i @ng-bootstrap/ng-bootstrap

you also need to import NgbModule, in app.module.ts :
Other modules in your application can simply import NgbModule app.module.ts:

import {NgbModule} from '@ng-bootstrap/ng-bootstrap';
    imports: [
   	      BrowserModule,
   	       NgbModule
   	   ],

If you want to use mdbootstrap

install mdb via NPM:
npm i angular-bootstrap-md

a: Add below code in you app.module.ts

import { NgModule, NO_ERRORS_SCHEMA } from '@angular/core';
    import { MDBBootstrapModule } from 'angular-bootstrap-md';
    imports: [
    	    MDBBootstrapModule.forRoot()
	    ],
    schemas: [ NO_ERRORS_SCHEMA ]

b: Rename your style

rename /src/styles.css to styles.scss

c: Install external libs

npm install -–save chart.js@2.5.0 hammerjs

d: Add below lines to angular.json

"styles": [
    	    "node_modules/angular-bootstrap-md/scss/bootstrap/bootstrap.scss",
	    "node_modules/angular-bootstrap-md/scss/mdb-free.scss",
      	   "src/styles.scss"
    ],
    "scripts": [
     	 "node_modules/chart.js/dist/Chart.js",
     	 "node_modules/hammerjs/hammer.min.js"
    ],

e: ng serve

What Are Wireframes?

• The wireframes are the floor plan of your product, making a vessel for which design and content can flow into. Utilizing wireframes earlier in the design procedure compels you and your customers to look objectively at ease of use, transformation ways, element placement and helps point out flaws early.
• At the Wireframing phase of the project plan, our thoughts are young and unpolished. Wireframes, regardless of whether made on pieces of paper, a whiteboard, or in software, serve to build up connections between elements in a project such as navigation, imagery, and calls to action. The building blocks of the final product are first envisioned in the wireframe.

Why Are Wireframes Important?

• Wireframes are easy to create; meaning could be experimented and developed with new ideas without taking too much time or effort if they fail. Areas like navigation and layout determine how the rest of the project proceeds and if there’s a problem, it’s better to tackle it at the start, rather than later with high-fidelity prototypes, where you might have to spend more time redo some work.

Benefits of Creating Wireframes:

• Display product architecture visually.
• Allow clarification and confirmation of features.
• Help the design process being iterative.
• Designs are more calculated.
• Development team gets to know what they are building.
• Content creation becomes clearer.
• Time-saving process for the entire project.
• Avoid hacks later on in the process.

To Whom The Wireframes Are Useful

• Designers – Giving a basis to begin creating screens.
• Developers – Using as a reference point for functional specifications
• Stakeholders – Communication medium what you are going to build without muddling the waters with visual design elements or colors or branding. It allows the clients to provide feedback earlier in the process.

Few Important Tips for Creating Wireframes

•  Ask questions

As anonymously quoted by someone,” Knowledge is having the right answer. Intelligence is asking the right question”. So, always keep a habit of asking the right questions to the stakeholders/clients.

•  Collaborate

Never wire alone. When you brainstorm together with your team members, the potential for a good outcome is bound to increase significantly. Showing your Wireframes to team members prior in the design process approves and enhances your thoughts.

•  Content is King

Know the importance of content/data and arrange the data into some meaningful order to make it easier to understand analyze or visualize. Try to use real content or believable dummy data.

•  Consistency is the key

As quoted by Brenda Laurel – Renowned UI Designer, “A design isn’t finished until somebody is using it”. Persistence will only get you to your goal but it is the consistency that will keep you focused on your goal. So it is your initial efforts that you devote to make the wireframes that count the most and rest is just a cake walk.

•  Don’t Get Lazy

Most of them would agree to the saying, “The Sign in the process is obvious, let’s not include it in the Wireframe” but only the experience would guide you not to. The ideal practice that should be followed is to Wireframe almost everything as every step holds its individual importance and it cannot be ignored.

•  Focus on Detailing – Typography, and Spacing

Showing the hierarchy of information through font is important. It can be shown through simply changing the size of the font and whether it is “Regular”, “Italic” or “Bold“.

•  Gathering Feedbacks

You should be gathering feedbacks on wireframes from stakeholders, quickly moving things around on your wireframes based on the feedback you receive, gather feedback again and iterate until you reach your intended goal.

The App Store

App store is expected to reach about 5 million apps in the coming two years . Yes, you read it right 5 million. It’s a pretty big market, you got to get your app discovered and noticed in the crowd of all these apps and the metrics provided by the App Store are just the thing you need for this purpose.

So, to start, first of all just log into your App store account then,

• Directly click on the app analytics icon

OR

• Click on my apps and then click on App analytics

On clicking app analytics you’ll see bar graphs as below.

Impressions

When you scroll or browse through the app store you come across many apps, this increases the impression of that app. In short, Impression is the number of times a user came across the icon of your app while browsing or searching for an application. Through impression, Conversion Rate can be calculated. Conversion Rate is how many users come across your app and install it. If your impressions are high but the Conversion Rate is low, you need to work on your marketing strategies or look into the matter that why the user who comes across the app doesn’t choose to install it. As you can see above our Scroll It App has 3602 impressions but only 14 app units, so we got some work to do .

Product Page Views

Product page View is the metrics of users who tapped on your app’s detail page view, the page where screenshots and additional details are displayed. This helps us to know how many users wanted to or were interested in downloading our application.

Sales

App Units

App Units is the number of times a user actually downloaded your application in a day, i.e. how many times user tapped the buy or get button making it a download. Through this, you can further understand the behavior of the user. If your product page view is more an app unit is less that means the user is not satisfied with info provided on the page or something threw the user off.

In-App Purchases

It is the sales done in your app in a day from the in-app offerings. If your app doesn’t offer any in-app purchases, this metrics is supposed to be a flat line for you, but if you have in-app purchases in your app and you see blue spikes then, congratulations, your app is earning through in-app purchases.

Sales

Sales are the real-time cash earned by your app or the revenue generated by your app, this is the total of app purchases and in-app purchases but remember, you won’t get all of the revenue generated. Apple gets to take the 30% and the remaining 70% is your own.

Paying Users

Paying user is the number of users making a purchase in your app. This metric doesn’t provide that much important information. Detailed information can be calculated based on this metrics through, like per user expenditure or In-app Purchase to paying user ratio, as it will only show one paying the user for a user who made 3-4 in-app purchases.

Usage

Installations

Installations are the number of times the user installs your application. Well it sounds just like App-Units, right? Wrong. Installation is counted after user launches your application for the first time. If your user downloads the app but doesn’t open it then installation count won’t increase. If the user doesn’t have an active internet connection, that will also deprive the app store to get the correct installation count.

Sessions

People from development background are familiar with the word “session”. Here session is when your app has been run for minimum two seconds. If your app runs in the foreground even for two seconds then it’s a session if you send your app to background the session ends, that means if you bring it to foreground the session count will increase. It will help you to understand and analyze the number of users engaging with your application.

Active Devices

Active devices are the total number of devices that at least have one session in a day. It often happens that a user doesn’t use an app daily. Or downloads an app but never use it, then it’s obvious that the active device chart will not have enough spikes.

Active last 30 days

It is the metrics of the number of devices that at least have one session in the last 30 days . Through these metrics, you can observe whether the app is doing well or it is in need of improvements.

Crashes

Crashes!!!! This metrics will show you how many times your app crashed on a user’s device 🤦 . However, this metrics can’t tell you where your app happened to crash in your code. That will be your job to do.

Conversion Rate

As mentioned earlier, the conversion rate is how many users downloaded your app after coming across your icon. It is the most powerful and useful metrics in-app analytics. It helps you understand that your app is able to attract users or not.

New User Per View by territory

Here the data is sorted according to territories. It shows us the users from different territories who came across our product page and downloaded the application. It helps you understand your geographical area of the target and make you understand if you have to make changes to attract a specific audience.

Blog in brief

• Impression:- No. of times a user sees your app icon.
• Product Page View:- User open your app description page.
• App Unit:- User downloads your app.
• In-app Purchase:- No. of in-app purchase made.
• Sales :- App purchases + in-app purchases. Total revenue.
• Paying users:- No. of users making a purchase
• Installations:- User launches your app first time.
• Sessions:- Every Time your app comes in the foreground for 2 or more than 2 seconds.
• Active Devices:- Devices that have at least 1 session in a day.
• Active last 30 days:- Device had at least 1 session in last 30 days.
• Crashes:- Crashes faced by the user.
• Conversion rate:- Ratio of app units to impressions.

SUMMING UP

So, the next step for you after developing and distributing your app on Appstore is to keep analyzing the app analytics provided by Apple itself to make your app popular. Who knows if one day you’ll be the owner of a powerful social media platform. Cheers to you for paying attention !!

See the Suspense first

• See the process of UX/UI with the Rose farming process
• I gave an example of Rose farming because UX design (Features wise) is like the smell of a rose which is so aromatic and a UI design is more like a rose which is a beautiful flower.

“ Rose is a symbol of love make sure you will love the blog “

• For a detailed understanding, you can Start from the end of the page

The journey from IDEA to Mockup UI design

Content Adaptation

Auto layout is a powerful tool when it comes to design. You can design for any particular device and by giving proper constraints you increase the design’s compatibility with other devices. But when it comes to having totally different layouts for device orientations, you got to work a little more to achieve desired results.
For understanding this concept of adaptive auto layout, it’s important for you to understand the size classes as you’ll be working around them to have adaptive layouts for orientations. Below you can see a chart where size classes are explained in brief.

So, you have to play around size classes. For orientation purpose you will be working with height, i.e. You’ll be varying your layout on varying height. If height is Regular(Portrait) we will make Layout1 and when height is Compact(Landscape) we will make Layout2. Keeping that in mind.

Note:- This adaptation won’t work on iPads as it has Regular height in both landscape and portrait mode 🤷‍♀️. You have to work around code for that. I’ll show you how in part 2 of this blog.

But before we move on to working through the storyboard, let me show you what we will be working for. Here’s a Slo-mo for the result we will be getting.

Impressive, eh?

Working On:-

• Step 1:- Create a project. ✔️
• Step 2:- Read on.

I created a project named BlogAdaptiveLayout. And I started working on the storyboard. I wanted to make an app with details about Harry Potter and his profile picture.

Things we are going to do.

• Different layout design for different orientation
• Varying fonts
• Varying background image

Looks like a tone of work, but don’t worry, it’s pretty easy, like magic.

So far, I arranged all my components and gave them constraints. This is how it looks so far.

For those who don’t like the auto layout, this might look scary. Don’t worry, I’ll guide you through.
The constraints I’ve given so far are:

• Background imageView with top Constraint from the safe area and all other from the superview.
• Profile image:- Fixed height, width, and spacing from the top, Horizontally central aligned.
• Name label:- Vertical spacing from profile image view and leading space to the container.
• All other labels:- leading to label above it and vertical spacing of around 40 from the same.

So, we’re done with basic steps, easy, Right? Remember you have done all this for Regular height.

Now you’ll have to switch the orientation to landscape from the bar below. The reason is that we have created portrait design now we want for landscape or we can say we’ll work with compact height. Next step will be to click on Vary for Traits.

Select Height from the given two Options as we are working our way around the height. Everything we do for layout adaptation for orientation is based on height as height is the only size class that switches between regular to compact when going from portrait to landscape in all iPhones. If you try playing around width, it won’t switch to Regular in non-plus devices like SE, 6, 8 and even XS. Hope it’s pretty clear why height.

When you click on height, the bottom bar turns to a pretty shade of blue, like below.

As long as this bar is blue, you can know that every change you make now will reflect in this orientation or the landscape mode. If this bar is not blue, any changes you’ll do will even mess up your layout of portrait mode.

Changing background

Yes, you can have different images for imageView in a different orientation. So I added two images to my Assets Catalog named ”portrait” and “landscape”. While designing the portrait mode I gave it image as the “portrait”. If you simply change image name at this point then the image will change for both orientations. Then, what should you do? I’ll show you.

• Select your imageView, go to the attributes inspector.
• Click on the little plus near the image option.

• • Add variation keeping the height compact and width to any as we don’t care about width right now.

Note:- And if you try to give width then it will work for some device and won’t for some based on size classes.>

• After you’ve added variation, it should look something like this

• A small hC will appear near the text field. It means this variation is for Compact height.
• Simply give the name of your image and Voila!! The image has changed. If you wish you can click on done variation and try switching to landscape and portrait mode and see the changes. But don’t forget to enter the blue thingy mode again by clicking Vary for Traits.

Changing Fonts

• The process is pretty much similar. Just select all your labels. Go to the attributes inspector.
• Click on the little plus besides font.
• Add variation for compact height.

• This is how it looks after selecting and entering fonts.
• A small hC besides Font.

• So for portrait, our fonts will be “Noteworthy” and for landscape, our fonts will be “Marker felt”.
• You can change the color, size, background color.
• You can change anything with a plus mark on its side in attributes inspector.

So after doing this easy but noticeable changes, this is how far we’ve come.

• You can again check if it has worked by clicking done varying on the bottom blue bar.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get the profile picture on the left side and all details on the right side for landscape mode? Hang On.

Changing/ Uninstalling Constraints

• So as per my new design, I’ll be deleting or technically uninstalling constraints.
• I don’t need four constraints anymore, the center alignment of profile picture, leading constraint of the label to superview and vertical spacing between profile and label, the spacing of profile to superview.

• Simply select the constraint and press backspace.
• After uninstalling constraints, they’ll appear light in color

Note:- If you want to re-install constraint. Simply select the constraint and go to attribute inspector and select the variation you want to install constraint for.

• Now simply add new constraints according to required layout.
• Here’s what I’ve done
  • Give the profile image vertically aligned at center.
  • From profile’s trailing give 20 horizontal space to the first label.
  • Give any top constraint to the first name label.
  • To change the value of existing constraints, simply double click and change the value, rest will be handled by Xcode.
  • You can also change the value of existing constraints by selecting constraints and going to attribute inspector and follow the same process we did before.
• Here’s the Result

• Click on “Done Varying”. Switch, switch, switch the orientations, it works. 10 points to Gryffindor!!

PORTRAIT

LANDSCAPE

SUMMING UP

So, now you’ll be capable to do even complex designs, all you need is practice. Just be careful with those constraints. Just keep the above steps in mind and operate them on your designs or you can just flick and swish your wand, say a charm and it’s done. Come back for the next blog to learn how to make content adaptive for iPads. And most of all, thank you for your patience .

If you have any query please feel free to reach out.

iPad Size Classes

For remembering the size classes for iPad, here’s a chart below.

At this point, I’ll assume you’ve read part 1. We want results such as the chart above, that if I change orientation the layout adapts according to it. So for iPhone, we make content adaptive on basis of compact and regular height but the iPad has only Regular type size classes so the variation can’t be applied as the size class never becomes compact and so the variation related to size class aren’t applied. So what will you do? We’ll make it compact. How? Read on.

UITraitCollection

o the trick here is to trick your iPad to follow size classes is to override UITraitCollection. I’m not going to discuss in-depth about UITraitCollection. But
UITraitCollection is a class that consists of traits such as horizontal size classes and vertical size classes. Also, it provides UIUserInterfaceIdiom that is enumeration for the type of interfaces such as iPad, iPhone, tv, etc. If you want to learn more about UITraitCollection that I suggest you do, Here’s the link to Apple Documentation

Override UITraitCollection

I’ll be making changes to the demo I made in part 1 called “Blog AdaptiveLayout”. I have changed a few constraints just to make it look proper in case of alignment.

Note:- It’s not at all necessary to change any constraints. The trick is to override UITraitCollection. You can change constraints as per your need

Code:- Simply Add below class in your project file and inherit in your view Controller or you can just copy the override code and paste it directly to your view controller.

public class CustomTraitCollectionViewControllerForiPad: UIViewController {
    override public var traitCollection: UITraitCollection {
        if UIDevice.current.userInterfaceIdiom == .pad {
            if UIDevice.current.orientation.isPortrait {
               return UITraitCollection(traitsFrom:[UITraitCollection(horizontalSizeClass: .compact), UITraitCollection(verticalSizeClass: .regular)])
            } else if UIDevice.current.orientation.isLandscape {
                 return UITraitCollection(traitsFrom:[UITraitCollection(horizontalSizeClass: .regular), UITraitCollection(verticalSizeClass: .compact)])
            }
        }
        return super.traitCollection
    }
}

After writing this code just switching the orientation on interface builder won’t work. You have to run your app in the simulator or a Device to check if it works, that I’m sure it definitely will.

Explanation:- So we override the traitCollection to make it work like we want to or in other words to customize the trait collection.

• We checked if the interface is iPad.
• If the orientation is .portrait, we
  • give horizontalSizeClass as .compact. (wC)
  • give verticalSizeClass as .regular. (hR)
• If orientation is .landscape, we
  • give horizontalSizeClass as .regular (wR)
  • give verticalSizeClass as .compact. (hC)

You can assume that horizontalSizeClass refer to width and verticalSizeClass refer to height. That way it will be easy to know what to pass in the argument. Here we want our iPad’s size classes to behave like that of iPhone so we passed arguments based on that.

Note:- For your app to adapt layout, you will also have to apply the steps of Part 1 of this Blog. Without it, just the code won’t help. You can apply it before or after writing this code.

Here’s how it looks in our project.

PORTRAIT

LANDSCAPE

SUMMING UP

Now you can have a content adaptation in your iPad as well just by playing around UITraitCollection. Easy, Isn’t it? It’s good to have knowledge of what you’re playing around though. So I’ll recommend you to go through the apple documentation of UITraitCollection. Also, the code above can be modified according to your needs. For that, grab some knowledge related to your requirement as much as you can.

It was great to learn Content adaptation with you through this journey of two blogs. I hope I added something to your knowledge. Thank you for your patience. You can find more of our blogs here. Signing Off.