Overview

Today we will learn how to proceed with the logo design task. Let’s take an example from some of the previous work.

It’s called “ODIGO Map”. An app that provides deep location information for residence or commercial buildings or society from the map.

The main keywords here are location and map which will stay with the product forever. But how do we know that? Right!

Well, that’s the process.

Presentation

It’s important to test the logo for visibility.

From the questionnaire, we know that its an app so test for the smallest resolution device and app icons.

Also, create mockups for presentation with different real-time images.

It’s time to submit the logo concept to the client. It’s hard to understand concepts sometimes from just the logo mark. So don’t just share the logo versions separate but create Guide.

Small Guide:

Check the link below for full Odigo logo design Guide:
https://www.yudiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Odigo_Logo_Concept_1.jpg

The guide is dependent upon the complexity of the logo.

After submitting and finalizing the logo. Create Presentation for clients and submit it with all the vector files ( Ai, EPS, SVG, PDF, etc.)

Thank you!

Conclusion

After establishing a logo design process we knew that the first step of any design is not sketching or research is always about empathy. You know better about your users as such as your design relevant to that.
Trust the process!!!!

Overview

Auto-renewable subscriptions give users access to content or services from within your app. At the end of each subscription duration, the subscription will automatically renew until a user chooses to cancel it.

Overview

After apple relieved the iOS Dark Mode theme, many were happy. It was one of the features we were waiting for since macOS Mojave’s dark mode. The first thing we were checking was our projects that we have worked on. How to support dark mode in it, how it would look etc.

It is very simple and easy to change. As in this blog, we’ll see how to use the system’s color and custom color as well for the dark mode. We’ll also see how to set images & icons for light & dark mode.

Minimum Requirement:

• Xcode 11 (beta or above)
• iOS 13 (beta or above)

Images & icons

For images & icons, steps are similar to a custom color. Select the image, in the Attribute inspector, go to the Appearance and select Any, Dark. You will see the empty box to upload images for the dark mode.

I’m going to change the sun image, if its an icon or a template image you can simply change the tint of the image as well, For example. The images in the segment controller are template image and their tint is handled by the system. here I will add a new image for the dark mode.

Other methods & property

We can use many ways to detect the dark mode and change the property in the app or on the individual screen as well.

1. Notification:

It is one of the ways to detect the change in the dark mode.

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(darkModeEnabled(_:)), name: .darkModeEnabled, object: nil)

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(darkModeDisabled(_:)), name: .darkModeDisabled, object: nil)

2. TraitCollection property:

The dark mode is the party of the Trait Collection, thus the changes in the trait regarding appearance/interface style will be detected in the Trait collection method.

override func traitCollectionDidChange(_ previousTraitCollection: UITraitCollection?) {
    super.traitCollectionDidChange(previousTraitCollection)
    let userInterfaceStyle = traitCollection.userInterfaceStyle
//here you can take the necessary steps that you have to do when the appearance changes
}

However, the trait collection consists of other traits and the method will get called in other like the device orientation change. Thus to detect the appearance change you can use the code below:

let hasUserInterfaceStyleChanged = previousTraitCollection.hasDifferentColorAppearance(comparedTo:traitCollection)

Not ready for Dark mode?

If you are just not yet ready to adopt the dark mode you can simply override the user’s choice by using

overrideUserInterfaceStyle = .dark

or

overrideUserInterfaceStyle = .light

You can do this for one screen or the whole application.

Another way to keep a default interface for your app ignoring whatever user has set you can simply add a key pair in your info.plist

Open your info.plist as Source Code
Add the key-value pair just above

<key>UIUserInterfaceStyle</key>
 <string>Light</string>

Conclusion

Ready or not Dark mode is here and soon people will be addicted to it and will want them in most apps they use. Better to do it now then to go back and do it again!!

Overview

A Mood board is a collection of inspirational ideas, materials. Collection of reference for creating a design, color swatches, fonts, and typography, etc is known as a mood board. A mood board helps a designer to convey a general idea or feel about the project or task he is working on.

In short, whatever the designer needs to start the project, all those things are collected in the mood board and help them to accomplish a project/task.

Mood boards can set the tone of a project and guide a large team project during the design process, and assist new designers joining or working with an unfamiliar project.

The user creates the mood board with a different type of ideas from realtime pictures, various textures, typography, colors theme, etc. From this, the user can visualize ideas and concepts.

The mood board doesn’t show the wireframe or any other detailed pictures of the projects.

The mood board helps designers to collaborate with the client and team-members and turns conceptual ideas into real ideas. In this way, designers can effectively share their ideas with the other team-members because visual material always works better than fluent phrases.

3. Template board

This mood board is used to show the structure and visual hierarchy of a product. Using the Template board, a designer can create a visual flow for product design using the reference collection for the different screen, page or section. It will help you to show the client how the product will design.

How to Create a Better Mood Board

• Be clear about what you are trying to make.
• Choose a few directions/ versions of the project and store them in one place for future reference.
• Write and collect thoughts, concepts, and inspiration from references.
• Add an existing project/ theme references & elements that are relatable to your project.
• Collect inspiring designs around the web.
• Add related photographs.
• Add colors and fonts which we will use in the project.
• Add references for animations and motion.
• Arrange all parts of references as per their importance using its size and scale.
• Write a note for elements, why some elements are chosen.

Here is an Example Using a Tablet App of a Mining Company

This tablet application is to be used by the employees. Utilizing this application, employees have to fill various types of forms regarding the whole procedure of mining.

I’ve created the mood board of this app in sketch. In the sketch file, I have collected and created some references & components.

• Created various types of input fields
• Radio Button
• Toggles
• Options selection
• Typography
• Colors
• Image References

The elements of this application are filing-forms, entering details, and readability of the text. So we didn’t include High-intensity colors, Graphics and all those things which can rattle the user’s focus from text data.

This app contains lots of forms for formality and procedure of mining which is filled by employees or crew before they start fieldwork.

The client had a hard copy of the forms he wanted. In case you don’t have a hard copy, ask the client necessary questions and create a rough hard copy first. As per the requirement of our client, there are so many required text input fields, radio buttons, toggle buttons, a different state of an input field, input fields for date and time. So we can add a collection of references or samples to the mood board for all those fields.

Only one font family is used to design this application. The main purpose of this application is to make the entire form-filling process easy for users. For the same reason, we haven’t use funky or eye-catchy colors.

Online Tools to Create a Mood Board

• Canva
• Mural
• Milanote
• Evernote

Conclusion

In short, Mood board is a basic step to start a project. Also, it is an important part of the design to have a collection of photos, references, and relevant ideas that help you to know the basic concept of a project.

Overview

WordPress is the most loved overall CMS. Most of the Blog sites or E-Commerce sites ( i.e. WooCommerce ) are created in WordPress. It is easy to use, gives no error and runs successfully, but sometimes the user faces some hurdles. In this article, we will discuss some most common WordPress errors and their solutions that everyone faces while creating a WordPress site.

Caution: Get Backup Of Your Site

• It is important to take a backup of your site before doing any kind of modification. Before you proceed to solve any kind of issues, make sure you have a backup because your site might break down while solving errors.
• It is necessary to have a backup, so you can revert it back. You can take backup as follows:
  • Take Backup Manually: Take a backup of all your files and export your database.
  • Take Help of Plugin: You can install any plugin which helps you to take a backup of files and database.

Below are some errors and their solutions which we face in the development of WordPress site:

Site Not Working and Also Not Displaying Any Error (White Screen of Death)

• If your site displays a blank screen with no information, no errors displaying, it would be the ‘White Screen of Death’. This error is caused because of some PHP errors or database errors. Following are some of the several possible reasons:

1. Plugin Compatibility Issue

• One of the issues might be of plugins in your site.
• Some plugins might conflict because of the bad coding structure of the plugin. It may cause an error in the WordPress site.

Solution:

• If you can access your Administration screen, then first deactivate all your plugins on the site.
• Activate all your plugins one-by-one to find the issue.
• If you can’t access your Administration screen, then open your website via FTP and locate to wp-content/plugins folder and rename all plugin names.
• Rename all your plugin one-by-one to find the issue.

2. Theme Issue

• If all plugins are working fine and you still get the issue with a blank screen, then it may have a problem with an activated theme in your site.
• Deactivate the theme and WordPress will activate the default theme.
• Try to run your site, and if it runs successfully, the issue would be with your theme.

Solution:

• To solve this check your theme’s function file.
• Check if it contains extra spaces at the beginning or end of the file (remove space before <?php) or have a bad coded function, fix it.
• It may cause problems and your site might not run successfully.

3. Other Issue

• If the above-mentioned points are not the issue with your site, and still getting a blank screen in your site then enable debug mode to find the issue.
• The issue might be of PHP code or database error.

Solution:

• Enable debug mode in the theme’s wp-config.php file.
• Set Debug mode to true.
• It will display the error. The error might be some PHP error or Database error.

500 Internal Server Error

• This error would occur either because of the corrupted .htaccess file, plugin compatibility issue or theme issue in your site.
• To solve the plugin issue follow the above steps of the Plugin Compatibility Issue section.
• If it’s not a plugin issue, it might be of theme issue then follow the steps of the Theme Issue section.
• The issue might also be of PHP error or database error. To solve this issue enable debug mode in wp-config.php file.
• If still getting the error then it might be of corrupted .htaccess file.

Solution:

• .htaccess is a hidden file in your project directory.
• To access this file, you should give permissions to access the hidden file in your client FTP.
• Rename your .htaccess file and check if it works. If it works successfully, go to your Administrative Screen->Settings->Permalinks and click on “Save Changes”. This will generate a new .htaccess file for your site.
• If you can’t see the .htaccess file, it would still not be created in your project. Go to your Administrative Screen->Settings->Permalinks and click on “Save Changes”. This will generate a new .htaccess file for your site.

Cache Clear

• You make changes in your site and nothing happens, it might be the browser’s cache issue.
• Clear your browser’s cache and cookies and re-run your site.
• It will run successfully.

Broken Website (PHP Version Issue)

• Without PHP, WordPress sites might not exist.
• If there would be a PHP version issue, your site might stop running and it may not result as needed.
• Currently, v7.3 or greater version of PHP is recommended for WordPress. Your website will be faster, more efficient, more secure as you have the latest PHP version. But there would be PHP version issue if your site’s PHP version isn’t compatible with the version of PHP in activated plugins or themes on your site.

Solution:

• Before you do any kind of changes, make sure to take a backup of your site. If your site gets stuck anywhere, there will be a solution to get back your site, if you have your backup.
• First update WordPress, Plugin, and Theme.
• Enable debug mode to true in your wp-config.php file to display PHP errors.
• Check version of PHP in which site is developed.

There are 2 ways to check the version:

1)By using PHP function:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Put this function in your theme and check the version of PHP.

2)By using plugins:
There are several plugins that check the version of the PHP of your site.

• PHP is set on the server-side by your hosting company. Interact with your hosting company to update the version or ask them to update the version. The hosting company provides instructions to update PHP on your server.

404 Page Not Found

• This error is the most common error for developers. This error occurs when the requested URL is not found, or when displaying any post or page.
• This error will not display anything and return 404, but it contains the content of the page.

Solution:

• • On one side, it is again the issue of .htaccess file in your site so you can follow the steps mentioned earlier for the same. In most cases, this solution will work.
  • But if it doesn’t work then rewrite the rules in your .htaccess file located in your site where your wp-content folder is located.
  • Replace the default code with the below code in your .htaccess file.

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Resolve a Custom Post Type Name vs. Page Permalink Conflict (Same Slug)

• The issue is very small or weird but might end up badly.
• Accidentally, if custom post type and one of the pages in your site has the same slug then WordPress might not result as per your expectations.
• In this case, WordPress will give your custom post type’s archive page. It will not display your page’s content.
• The reason behind this is WordPress archives have seniority than WordPress page. Yes, it’s true. That’s why if custom post type slug and page slug are the same, the output will be of the archived page, not of the original page.

Solution:

There are two solutions to these problems:
1. Disable the archive functionality of the custom post type.

• Disable the archive page of the custom post type, that is when registering the custom post type makes ‘has_archive’ to ‘false’.

For ex.

function create_custom_post_type() {
	register_post_type( 'book',
		array(
     		'labels' => array(
		     	'name' => __( 'Books' ),
	     		'singular_name' => __( 'Book' )
      		),
      		'public' => true,
	     	'has_archive' => false,
    		)
  	);
}
add_action( 'init', 'create_custom_post_type' );

2. Rewrite the slug of the custom post type.

• Rewrite the slug of the custom post type, which means changing the slug in the ‘rewrite’ attribute when registering your custom post type.

For ex.

function create_custom_post_type() {
	register_post_type( 'book',
		array(
     		'labels' => array(
		     	'name' => __( 'Books' ),
	     		'singular_name' => __( 'Book' )
      		),
      		'public' => true,
			'rewrite' => array( 'slug' => 'books' ),
    		)
  	);
}
add_action( 'init', 'create_custom_post_type' );

Note: When following any of the above solutions, after updating the code, do not forget to update the permalinks in Settings => Permalinks. Otherwise, you might not get the updated output and see the old one only.

Conclusion

That’s It. WordPress’s most common errors and their solutions. Those are just a few common errors that we face usually. We hope this post will be helpful to you guys for solving these WordPress problems. If you guys get some other problems and their solution or a better way to solve the above errors, share it in the comments section. Nobody wants hurdles in their site, so share your views and help them get rid of it. Besides these things, WordPress will still be the loved CMS for us.

Overview

By reading the title of the blog, we know many of you will say “what’s new” in this. It is already there with CSS preprocessors. But here we are talking about native CSS Variables which can also be referred to as “Custom Properties”.

Conclusion

I hope this blog will help you understand the CSS Variables and be helpful to you in your future projects.

Overview

Nowadays, websites are growing more dynamic and richer in front-end. The use of high dimensional images and videos is increasing for better UI/ UX to attract users and to get more traffic on the website. Not only images and videos are important for marketing or to get heavy traffic, but SEO optimization is also as important. More load time decreases optimization, reduces the efficiency of the site. Users are distracted from websites that take much initial load and it put bad impacts. What if, you want a website fully loaded with heavy CSS, advanced Javascript, fully dynamic content and also need to load websites faster from any side of the world… Think Think… 🤔🤔 Yes, you are thinking about the right concept… It is a CDN… Content Delivery Network.

Conclusion

That’s it. We have overviewed what CDN actually means over then ‘Content Delivery Network’. What is CDN and how it actually works… This is not the end guys. The sky’s the limit… If you want to increase website performance using CDN and to configure CDN wait for the next part… We will see about how to configure CDN, CDN Providers, and, etc… etc.. Share your views in the comments section about CDN and help knowing it better…

Today, we will cover a simple but important topic of TableView. As we are loading a huge amount of data in the tableView, it may take time to load these data. So the best solution that we have to overcome this loading time is to do Pagination. And to give this pagination a good outcome, we can add a bottom loader. You may have seen in many famous apps like – Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Let’s see, what is Pagination?

Pagination is the breakdown of the records into small parts as per requirement and adding the other parts of the record one-by-one. It decreases the loading time and saves internet data as much as possible. Mostly it is used where the data is huge and in the array or dictionary.

Bottom loading helps a user to understand that there is still more data to be loaded and that too without disabling the user interaction.

Without wasting time, let’s start with the project. Create a single view project, give the name -> Create. Take a tableView, complete all its steps, and integrate an API, so that we can add pagination in it.

Now, first of all, we’ll create a model to handle the pagination process, we have to create it according to the response we get and request that we have to give to the server. As my response is:

And in the request, I have to pass startIndex and maxResult. So our model will be like this –

// MARK: - Pagingnation
struct Pagingnation {
    var pageNumber: Int
    var limit: Int
    var isAllLoaded: Bool = false
    var start: Int {
        return (pageNumber * limit)
    }

    init(_ pageNumber: Int = 0, limit: Int = 15) {// Max data in the response, from the pageNO.
        self.pageNumber = pageNumber
        self.limit = limit
    }
}

It will help us to handle the pagination process.
Now, we will create an object of the Pagination in the class where we have to use it.

// Variable Declaration(s)
    var objPagination: Pagingnation!

    // Variables for Pull to Refresh
    let refresh = UIRefreshControl()

Now initializing the variable and adding pull-to-refresh.

func prepareData() {
        objPagination = Pagingnation()
        // Setup Pull to refresh
        tableView.refreshControl = refresh
        refresh.addTarget(self, action: #selector(refreshData), for: .valueChanged)
    }

// Reload data while pull to refresh
    @objc func refreshData() {
        objPagination = Pagingnation()
        webCall()
    }

Invoke preparedata() method in the viewDidLoad().

Now, we have to make certain changes to the web-call code.

First of all add this code in the web-call method, before the response code.

if self.objPagination.pageNumber == 0 {
      // empty array that is used to display data in the tableView
            self.arrBooks = [] 
        }

It is for the data to be refreshed when pull-to-refresh or first call is made.

Now adding the pagination data in the URL.

let urlStr = baseURL + "startIndex=\(objPagination.start)&maxResults=\(objPagination.limit)"

Now if the data in the response is less then the max result. Then it will be the last data.

if self.objPagination.limit > allBooks.count {
      self.objPagination.isAllLoaded = true
}

After the response is taken in the local variable, value of pageNo should be increased.

self.objPagination.pageNumber += 1

At last, on the web-Call, stop the refreshControl of tableView and reload it.

self.tableView.refreshControl?.endRefreshing()
self.tableView.reloadData()

Now, one last step for the pagination. We have to call the webCall() method to load other data. We’ll do this when the last cell is to be loaded in the tableView. So in the willDisplayCell method of tableView, we’ll add following code:

func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, willDisplay cell: UITableViewCell, forRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
              if (!objPagination.isAllLoaded && indexPath.row == arrBooks.count - 1) || arrBooks.isEmpty {
            webCall()
        }
    }

All the steps of Pagination are now completed.

Now creating a bottom loader for it. Add cell and add activityIndicator in the controller of storyBoard and add constraints to keep it at the center.

In the numberOfRowsInSection method add 1 for the indicator.
And in the cellForRowAt add a condition for the last cell and return cell that has an indicator in it.

To animate the activityIndicator write code in the willDisplayCell method, keep the condition for the last cell and add this in it.

if let cell = cell as? DemoCell {
          cell.loader?.startAnimating()
 }

Build and Run the project.
That’s it!

Overview

ReactJS is an open-source JavaScript library. It is designed and maintained by Facebook and the community of individual developers & companies for creating rich and engaging web apps fast and efficiently with minimal coding. In this blog, we can see how a designer can start HTML development in the React project.

What is Reactstrap?

Reactstrap is a react library that contains React Bootstrap 4 components that favor composition and control. This library does not depend on jQuery or Bootstrap javascript.

Using this library we can use a carousel, collapse, dropdown, modals, popovers, tab, etc. without using jQuery. These elements are basic elements of website design.

Reactstrap also provides advanced positioning of content like Tooltips, Popovers, and auto-flipping Dropdowns.
So now we will see how to add Reactstrap in our React project.

Add Reactstrap and Bootstrap

We will install a reactstrap and Bootstrap from NPM. First, we will include Bootstrap CSS because Reactstrap also uses it. So we have to install Bootstrap CSS for that use following command:

npm install --save bootstrap

Or

yarn add bootstrap

To include Bootstrap CSS in our project write below code in src/index.js file.
import ‘bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css’;

Now we will install reactstrap from NPM. For this use following command.

npm install --save reactstrap react react-dom

Or

yarn add reactstrap react react-dom

Now we can use any component from https://reactstrap.github.io/components/alerts/

Add Custom style in a project

Create custom CSS file in your project src/assets/css/style.css

Now include this custom CSS “style.css” in src/index.js file after bootstrap CSS.
import ‘../src/assets/css/style.css’

We can also add fonts and images folder wise as per our requirements same as we add “style.css”

Add SCSS in React project

We can also use “style.scss” file. Create and include SCSS file the same as we added simple “style.css”.

But it will throw an error at compile-time, So to import Sass files, you first need to install node-sass. Run the following command inside your workspace.

npm install node-sass

Or

yarn add node-sass

Conclusion

I hope that this blog might be useful to newcomers to react in setup and start the design phase in your project and If you have good hands-on SCSS than you can also use it. We will learn how to design a website component base with SCSS in our next blog.

Overview

What is IBM blockchain platform visual studio code extension?

The IBM Blockchain Platform Visual Studio (VS) Code extension gives an environment within the VS Code for creating, packaging, and testing smart contracts. It was released on 5 May 2018. The latest version 1.0.14 was released on 24 Oct 2019. You can practice the extension to create your smart contract project and start generating your business logic. You can then practice the VS Code to test your smart contract on your local machine by using a preconfigured instance of Hyperledger Fabric before you deploy the smart contract to the IBM Blockchain Platform. Quite interesting!

Let’s discuss how fabric can be responsive through VS Code.

[Smart contract development]

Step 3: Create a Smart Contract

You can use the extension to generate a new smart contract project in VS Code. The extension creates a basic smart contract that maintains an example asset in the language of your choice. You can use the structure of the model as a starting point for developing your business logic. The extension gives all the dependencies that are required to deploy your smart contract to an instance of Hyperledger Fabric.

• Click the IBM Blockchain icon to initiate the IBM Blockchain tab. Click the overflow menu in the smart contracts and click the Create New Project OR run ctrl+shift+p and click the Create New Project.
• Select the language that you want to build a smart contract. The current selections are JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, and Java.

Key: You can use the VS Code extension to create and test Java smart contracts locally. However, you cannot deploy Java smart contracts to IBM Blockchain Platform networks. If you are deploying the smart contracts to a production network, JavaScript and TypeScript smart contracts require more support than contracts written in Go.

• Create a folder with the name of your project and initiate it. (The structure of the project depends on the language that you chose. Here we chose a javascript language.)
• After the successful creation of a smart contract, go through the lib folder and open the my-asset-contract.js file which is auto-generated. You can edit as per your business logic.

Step 4: Package a Smart Contract

You need to package a smart contract in .cds format before you can install it on the IBM Blockchain Platform network.

• Click the IBM Blockchain icon to initiate the IBM Blockchain tab.
• In the Smart Contracts, click the overflow menu and choose the Package Open Project.

Step 5: Deploy a Smart Contract to a Preconfigured Hyperledger Fabric Network

You can accept the VS Code to deploy your smart contract to a preconfigured Hyperledger Fabric network that the extension builds on your local machine. You can install, instantiate, and test your smart contract before you deploy it to a live network.

• Ensure docker is running
• In the Fabric Environments panel, click Install Smart Contract. Select the peer that you require to install the smart contract on. Select the smart contract package that you need to install, and click Install.

• In the Fabric Environments, click Instantiate Smart Contract. Select the installed smart contract to instantiate.
• Enter the name of the instantiate function in a smart contract. If you practiced the default smart contract template, no instantiate function is used. (optional)

If you adjusted your smart contract code and then repackaged it, you can upgrade the instantiated smart contract to deploy a newer version to the network.

After a smart contract is installed and instantiated, you can submit transactions to the functions inside a smart contract by using the Fabric Gateways panel and also using a node environment.

Conclusion

So in this blog, we had just done the key steps in the workflow of local smart contract development! You’ve generated a dummy contract, deployed it locally, and used it to submit transactions. Stay tuned!! Happy coding!!