Unheap

Well organised jQuery plugin repository with nice user interface. They allow  search as well as making it clear which plugins are commercial and which are free to use. Some of plugins have video tutorials attached.

Official jQuery Plugin Repository

On the official jQuery framework web site you will find the link to jQuery plugins directory. Driven by community via GitHub.
It has search capabilities, visitor can sort plugins by newest and most recent. From the user interface perspective this site can be somewhat more complicated to view then other jQuery plugin collection sites.

Jquery4u Plugins Directory

This website has lots of information about jQuery and dedicated plugin directory. Well designed and easy to navigate, but number of plugins available doesn’t seam to match other jQuery plugin repositories out there. Nevertheless give it a try and you might find that jQuery plugin you are looking for.

 jQue Handpicked jQuery Plugin Directory

This directory is built by community, and everyone can contribute to the website files on GitHub. There is an approval process which makes sure that plugins published on this site are good quality and useful. Search and user experience could be better but overall this site is great resource for finding very useful jQuery plugins.

jQuer.in a plugin a day

This jQuery plugin repository is publishing new jQuery plugin everyday. Handpicked and submitted by jQuery developer community, there are some good plugins in this directory. There is option to search plugins by category.

 jQuery-Plugins.net

This site is about jQuery, with much visited blog and tutorials section. It also has well maintained directory of jQuery plugins, updated almost daily with new, useful and free plugins from jQuery community out there. Great user experience, as this site uses bits of flat design.

Overall, there are plenty of jQuery plugins out there. Technical community around jQuery is large and developers produce many great extensions. You just have to find them online! Let us know if we have missed any helpful resource sites.

The post Useful jQuery plugin collection sites with 100s of plugins appeared first on ENFEW.

That being said, here’s the list of FREE video production tools for your startup.

Powtoon

If you like animated video explainer, this freemium online tool is one of the best go-to for animated explainers. The platform is very easy to use which you can learn in less than an hour. You can also create an animated video explainer for your company in just 30 minutes. The beauty of Powtoon is that it allows you to be extra creative even without formal training as an animator or as an illustrator. Everything is a template and you just have to drag and drop the elements in your presentation. We can say that Powtoon is an upgraded version of ordinary slide presentations. The platform offers a paid account and a freemium account. You can export all the videos you created on Youtube or even download it to your computer. Premium account offers a better quality of video, longer videos, and does not have any Powtoon logo in the corner of the video. The freemium account does have a Powtoon logo in the corner, maximum of two minutes video, and has low quality resolution but it doesn’t seem awful at all. In fact, it still looks professional. Paying for the premium account would be really worth it since you can save quite a deal compared to the regular outsourced animated video production which should cost you at least $1000K

Magisto

Magisto is an online video editing tool wherein you can mash-up, improve, and style your videos. You can even edit your videos through your tablet or smart phones. They have apps both for android and iOS system. It’s easy to use and has a very user friendly website. If you’re aiming of an indie type of video theme, you can opt to use this tool. You can produce a more “down-to-earth” feel for your video.

iMovie

Most startups use Mac as their power tool for their projects. One thing that has been undervalued is the use of iMovie for video marketing campaign. Believe it or not but, this free software is being used by pro film makers. All you need is a decent HD camera.

Animoto

This toll has been around since 2005 and has been featured by leading media outlets. Like Magisto, you can also mix and match your video clips and your pictures for the presentation. They have free and paid account.

Youtube Editor

Of course, we cannot miss Youtube. Google has a very fascinating way to amaze us. Youtube Editor is a very user intuitive online tool that you can compare to iMovie. For starters, you might find this a little difficult to master but you’ll get used to it.

Vine

Video marketing doesn’t have to be so fancy. Sometimes, all it needs is ingenuity to deliver the message to your target audience. Vine is a very potent tool that can offer so much for your video marketing. Aside from the fact that it’s a social platform, vine videos are very easy to produce.

Lightworks

If you have the focus to use highly sophisticated video editing tools, then Lightworks is for you. This has a lot of usable feature that can improve your video quality. This tool has also been used by the pro of the video editing and film industry. It can be downloaded for free and there is also a paid version.

Windows Video Maker

We cannot ignore WVM which has been continuously evolving since first release in 2000. We can say that most of the online tools were “patterned” after the WVM. Though the feature of this tool is still quite limited, it can help you with your simple video editing task.

Freemake Movie Maker

This is a popular tool for video conversion and editing. It can help you cut unwanted video parts, merge several clips into one, rotate video, change or add audio track to your movie and much more. Plus, Freemake can combine photos into a slideshow with music. All these features are free, an upgrade will be needed for unbranded videos.

Screecast-o-matic

You can use this tool if you’re just demonstrating instructions to your audience. This is widely used by online marketers in promoting their digital goods. In using this tool, you have to be organized and have “preset” windows for your demonstration. Screencast-o-matic has both free and paid account.  The limit for free account is 15 minutes per recording.

Prezi

This is another fresh breath in presenting ideas online. Prezi allows you to present your idea in a logical, creative, and clear flow of communication. You can customize your presentation, collaborate with your teammates, and export it from their platform (paid feature). The transition is seamless and not to mention, entertaining as well. You have to try it yourself to discover the magic of this tool.As a startup company, you have to be prudent and wise with all your decision. Using free online tools does not devalue your product or service. It only makes you resourceful and more creative. Some of these tools have been used by many startups and have taken fresh and ingenious way to present their product through these free tools.

David Jenyns is a startup founder of
Melbourne Video Production which offer high quality web videos for various brands in Australia. Find out more about David on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 10 FREE (and Cost-Effective) Video Production Tools appeared first on ENFEW.

Worldwide adoption of the Internet, smartphone devices and tablets bring plenty of ways to reinvent commerce as we know it. There are many services and sites online and on the mobile platforms which do allow anyone without specific online technology knowledge to start building and growing eCommerce or mobile commerce businesses. You don’t have to be web designer or developer to start your online shop anymore. And this contributes to even more rapid growth of online and mobile shopping.

Knowing all this, what are the trends to watch for throughout 2014? 3 very interesting ones are pointed out by Get Elastic.

Improved Product Search & Discovery

This is still a bit of a vague idea, and the truth is the average Internet consumer would probably rate current search capabilities pretty highly. However, the Get Elastic article explains the concept by making note of modern “smart” technologies such as the Nest thermostat or Nike Fuelband. These sorts of technologies recognize individual user needs and act accordingly, and the expectation is that e-commerce will ultimately benefit from similar intelligence in improved search systems. A search engine that is able to not just process, but understand and interpret a request, can provide more personalized results, and more accurately direct consumers to appropriate product sites.

Expanded Merchandising Solutions

This is a simpler and more immediately available concept, and essentially involves the expansion of online catalogs and shopping practices into new forums. These new forums might be anything from mobile apps, to social networking ads and applications, to basic online advertising. This sort of expanded merchandising is already fully in practice, but is likely to continue to expand rapidly throughout 2014. Internet casino and betting sites actually offer great examples to consider. The Betfair online casino program, in its annual report, noted that mobile performance had been strong, with roughly 50% of the site’s exchange users having placed a bet on a mobile device in the past year. Furthermore, betting sites make use of add placement and market availability on sites accessible to consumers, and are often active in social networking as well. These may not be traditional online store atmospheres, but the practices are the same.

Product Page Attraction

The previous two trends focus on direct appeal to consumers through enhanced search engines and expanded merchandising. However, the idea of attracting consumers to your product pages through existing images, reviews, etc. can also be effective, and is possible through various technologies. The most basic example would be a site or company contacting anyone who’s posted reviews to input links to product pages. However, this practice requires cooperation. Get Elastic makes note of technologies like Ditto, which are capable of recognizing images, titles etc. across the web, giving you an idea of where your products are appearing and enabling you to use that information to attract consumers.

It’s likely that there are additional changes on the way that are more difficult to see, but these marketing and exposure concepts will help to shape the e-commerce industry in 2014.

The post Trends In E-Commerce. Beginning of 2014 appeared first on ENFEW.

Content Delivery Networks and Pricing

Price options vary between different CDNs and it is important that you fully understand what you are paying for. A big price tag does not equal the best performance or the greatest reach. Take the time to evaluate and understand what the CDN has to offer for the price you are presented with.

Also be aware of additional or hidden costs that you may not anticipate. Not all CDNs will not have an all inclusive price plan and may require additional cost for the following:

Better Performance – Some CDN’s may place you on the “standard” network and require a premium for the higher performing network.

Features – Some features (as mentioned above) may or may not be included in your price plan. Always review what you are getting for the price you are paying.

Midgress Traffic – charges for traffic exchanged between PoPs.

Burst Traffic – Some CDNs may charge a higher rate for any traffic that exceeds the contractual limit.

Support – quality and around the clock support may not always be included in your price plan.

Carefully review the pricing structure and know exactly what you may be paying for. Evaluate each and every performance metric, feature and service item to determine if the price point provides you with the best value. The key is not to get the lowest price, but the best price.

Content Delivery Networks and Support

All CDNs provide support, but the quality, availability and cost will vary. Some important things to consider about support include:

• Is support available 24/7/365?
• Are there different support levels associated with additional costs?
• How responsive is the support staff?
• How fast do problems get resolved?
• Dedicated account manager that knows you and your business needs?
• Is the support staff local or outsourced?
• Technical knowledge level of the support staff?

There are many factors to consider when selecting a CDN that best fits your web performance and business needs. Understand what your needs are and focus on providers that satisfy them. Always take the time to evaluate the solutions, features and benefits that makes sense for your business. The point is not to select the best CDN, but to select the CDN that best meets your needs.

Will Vuong is a web enthusiast and is naturally curious about all things technology and design. He is also a digital marketer specializing web communications and search and is currently leading these efforts at CDNetworks. Connect with Will at Google+ or tweet him at @willv

The post Content Delivery Networks and Pricing appeared first on ENFEW.

ImpressPages CMS is an open source content management system created for content managers by the folks that previously ran a web design agency. Founders have worked with many different systems and had delivered websites for hundreds of customers before their own content management system was born. And they took many previous challenges into account while designing new CMS.

Lessons

Running a web design agency teaches a very important lesson: content managers are not developers. They know how stuff on internet works, yet they don’t feel too comfortable under the hood. So ImpressPages CMS was born at one unpretentious web design agency called Apro Media. ImpressPages CMS eventually span off as a stand-alone product, and the company got VC funding in summer 2013 to continue development.

Features for content managers

ImpressPages CMS has been built to help the content managers. For this reason, some unique features were created and are still rarely found in other CMSs.

Inline editing. Simply speaking, this is a possibility to edit the actual page the way one sees it as opposed to working with dialog boxes or content fields somewhere under the hood. Just open any page of your website in the administration mode and voila – it’s the same page as your visitors see, yet you can click anywhere and edit text, colours or pictures on the go.

Drag & drop interface. It supplements inline editing with widgets – pictures, videos, galleries, polls, various forms, etc. Content managers can choose any new item they need and simply drag&drop it to a spot they desire. Editing these items or changing their location is also carried out by dragging and dropping. This makes managing websites intuitive and requires no knowledge of HTML, let alone back-end technologies.

Smart copy&paste. However weird it may seem, copied content being distorted when pasted into a CMS is among the top time and patience wasters for the content managers. ImpressPages CMS solves this issue with copied content styles automatically adapting to the style of the page you are pasting it to.

Never forgetting the developers

While being marketed as a user friendly content management system, ImpressPages CMS is being built by developers who love clean and efficient code. For this reason, ImpressPages CMS code is made as easy to expand with plugins. Any developer can write his own custom plugin after reading the documentation.

The same goes for creating ImpressPages CMS themes, i.e. design templates. And if someone feels confident to share his themes with others – ImpressPages CMS features Theme Marketplace where themes can be sold or given away for free.

What’s to be improved

The biggest disadvantage of using ImpressPages CMS is a still-small amount of extensions it offers. While it has a few dozens of plugins readily available, deeper customization would require writing new plugins for specific purposes. However, should someone write one, there is a Plugin Marketplace on ImpressPages CMS roadmap to be launched later this quarter.

The post What makes Impress Pages CMS different appeared first on ENFEW.

Selecting the Right CDN – What You Need to Consider

Companies across all industries turn to CDNs (content delivery networks) to accelerate the delivery of websites and/or web applications across the internet that are critical to their business. Through an interconnected system of PoPs (Points of Presence), CDNs provide a more streamlined and faster delivery method than the standard internet, drastically reducing load time and improving the end user experience.

There are many CDN providers, each offering different solutions, features and performance levels. How do you know which one is best for accelerating your web performance? Here is a list of considerations that will help you select the right CDN.

Network Size and Reach

A CDN’s network size and reach is determined by the number and location of PoPs. A large number of PoPs located in many different regions may be ideal for reaching a globally disbursed audience, but it may not be the right CDN for you if it does not have a presence in your targeted region(s). For instance, if you are trying to reach China with your origin from the UK, you would probably want a CDN with PoPs located inside the Great Firewall and not in nearby locations outside (e.g. Hong Kong or Taiwan).

When evaluating a CDN’s network, find out if it has PoPs in your targeted regions. The closer a PoP is to your end users, the lower the latency (time required to deliver web content to the client). If no CDNs have PoPs located in your targeted regions, go with the one that has the closest PoPs.

Once you have selected the CDN with the reach you require, evaluate the size of the network and the number of PoPs it has in each region. Larger networks with more PoPs are more reliable as it can easily scale and maintain consistent performance during traffic surges and heavy loads.

Caching vs. Dynamic

Understand the difference between caching and dynamic acceleration. Caching is the process of duplicating static web content on PoPs located near end users. Upon request, the duplicated content is served directly from the nearest CDN PoP and not from the origin website, reducing the distance of delivery. A standard blog is an example of a static site, all visitors are served the exact same content and nothing is generated on-demand based on user interaction.

Unlike static content, dynamic content is real-time data and personalized content generated on-demand and served from the origin server. Dynamic content is typically served from interactive websites such as online gaming, applications, online trading etc… Dynamic acceleration provides a more direct and faster delivery path (middle mile) between the origin server and end users. Unlike delivery through the standard internet, data packets are required to travel through less connecting points and larger volumes can be delivered simultaneously.

Most CDNs provide caching services, but very few provide dynamic acceleration. Understand the type of content you are delivering. If it is purely a static site, caching alone may be sufficient. If you intend on accelerating an interactive website or interactive components on your site, a combination of caching and dynamic acceleration may be required.

Short Video – Difference between caching and dynamic acceleration.

Performance

The three primary components of performance are speed, scalability and reliability. Speed refers to how fast the network can return the requested content to the end user. Scalability is the CDN’s ability to maintain consistent performance throughout the network even during surges of traffic. Reliability is how well a CDN can maintain up time and prevent outages.

It is important to consider all three components when evaluating a CDN’s performance. A quick delivery rate is important, but an unreliable network with limited scalability will potentially present you with a lot of heartache.

The level of performance for each component varies between different CDNs and the key is to find the right balance for your needs. Always request a performance assessment/test to properly evaluate a CDN’s performance. Request scenarios specific to your business to be simulated to ensure the CDN is in fact capable of eliminating all current and potential web performance heartaches. It also wouldn’t hurt to do a Google search on the history of network outages on the CDNs you are evaluating.
Integrated Features

Each CDN offers a different set of integrated features that may or may not be essential to your needs. Integrated features may include (not limited to):

• Cloud Storage
• DNS Services
• Cloud Security
• PCI Compliance
• Performance Management Tools
• Load Balancing Tools

Content acceleration services alone may not always be sufficient for your needs and other integrated features and tools may be required. You may also not need all the features offered by the CDN, depending on traffic requirements and the type of content you are accelerating. Some features may be included and others may cost extra.

The point is to be aware of what features are offered by the CDN and which ones are included or cost extra. Review your current site structure and web performance challenges before deciding which features are essential. You may end up paying for features that you may not need or you could end up saving by not having to integrate third party tools that are included in your CDN service.

This is the end of the first part of the post about understanding Content Delivery Networks. Second part of the post will be published later this month. Subscribe for updates!

Will Vuong is a web enthusiast and is naturally curious about all things technology and design. He is also a digital marketer specializing web communications and search and is currently leading these efforts at CDNetworks. Connect with Will at Google+ or tweet him at @willv

The post How to understand Content Delivery Networks appeared first on ENFEW.

WooCommerce

It is a powerful, extendable ecommerce plug-in that keeps record of incoming sales and reviews, stock levels, and general store performance. WooCommerce can be downloaded for free, with extensions and themes (premium and third-party) available for purchase. Its other features include product and inventory management, a customer account area, control over shipping and tax charges, powerful analytics, flat rate shipping, PayPal standard gateway, and simple offline gateways for payments.

Ready! Ecommerce Shopping Cart

This free plug-in is a shopping-cart solution that allows the users to create products from either pages or posts and also includes a basic XML feed. The configurable shipping address feature and order tracker allow you to keep track of all of your transactions and sort your transactions’ list. It helps you customise product options, create product variations, and import and export products in CSV formats. It includes support for multiple gateways like PayPal, Google Wallet, Pay on delivery method, manual payment, and e-Processing network.

eShop

eShop is a free ecommerce plug-in that allows customers to create profiles to sign up on your site to purchase your services or products. It has a simple interface for quick browsing and purchase. It includes features like shipping and tax options, basic inventory control, and multiple product options. Moreover, it allows you to download your sales data for your convenience. Adding products and customising settings is also very easy on eShop.

WP e-Commerce

This easy-to-install, customisable shopping cart has been popular for several years. The plug-in is available as a free download, with a variety of features such as support for multiple currencies, Google and PayPal Checkout integration, inventory control, flexible coupon and quantity discounts, and control over shipping calculations. This WordPress ecommerce plug-in helps simplify the shopping experience for your customers by offering new product widgets and free shipping options.

WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart

It is a simple-to-use, yet highly customisable plug-in that can be integrated to any existing site or Facebook profile. It outsources tax calculations and location-based shipping to PayPal.

Jigoshop

This marvellous WordPress ecommerce plug-in allows you to set up your online shop in minutes with physical and downloadable products. You can create multiple product types and apply detailed attributes so that customers can easily refine your catalogue with just a couple of clicks. Inside the dashboard, sales graphs, stats on stores together with review notifications can give a huge impact to any business.

Cart 66 Lite

If your blog site offers several products and services, then use this wonderful WordPress ecommerce plug-in to manage orders effectively and sell products from any page or post. Cart 66 has a unique feature that I think makes it a better fit depending on the needs of your ecommerce project. It offers affiliate platform integration and Amazon S3 integration for all of your digital products. Furthermore, it also includes built-in recurring billing and memberships with all top payment gateways. Another great feature of Cart 66 Lite is that it makes shipping of both physical and digital products easy.

MarketPress

It is a powerful shopping cart plug-in that includes multiple payment gateways, Google Analytics Ecommerce tracking, shipping, sale pricing, customisable email reports, and more. Download this easy-to-use plug-in to set up your stylish online EBay-style network of stores.

WP Online Store

This WordPress ecommerce plug-in gives you the ability to easily integrate an online shopping cart into any WordPress theme. It includes features like order editor, product sort order, Discount Coupon Codes Manager, Information Page creator, built-in HTML newsletter system with mass email software, auto sales tax calculation, inventory tracking system, credit card validation, global bestsellers list,  and advanced administration tools.

Quick Shop Plug-in

It is a popular lightweight cart plug-in that only works with PayPal. It adds a sidebar which displays the visitor’s shopping cart along the page. It allows the merchant to set the currency, supports built-in email functionality, provides the option to add products to pages with a TinyMCE button and even provides free shipping for orders exceeding a certain amount. Merchants can remove any item from their shopping cart.

Ecwid Shopping Cart

It is a free ecommerce plug-in which is very easy to install. It is a fully featured shopping card system that can easily integrate with your social profiles. The free plan offers e-commerce widgets for WordPress whereas paid plans add features like volume discounts, discount codes and inventory management.

CataBlog

If you want to create catalogs, stores and galleries for your blog, then customize your ecommerce site with this plug-in. CataBlog comes with a full developer guide that you can use to create and customize a module for your site. With CataBlog, you can create widgets for displaying your catalog and catalog categories in sidebars. Aside from filtering by multiple categories with one ShortCode, sorting your catalog by title or order is also an option.

TheCartPress eCommerce Shopping Cart

It is a free WordPress ecommerce plug-in that can be used as shopping cart, catalog or framework. Not only is it compatible with many existing plug-ins in the WordPress repository, but you can also extend its functionality with themes.

DukaPress

It is a free ecommerce plug-in that integrates a shopping cart with WordPress in an efficient manner. Moreover, it has more pre-built themes than other ecommerce plug-ins.

Are PayPal Plug-in

If you want to restrict the guests from seeing the hidden content of your ecommerce site like intellectual property or digital arts, customize your blog with Are PayPal plug-in. In order to see and access exclusive content of your blog, one will need to register on your site. This WordPress ecommerce plug-in uses Pay Pal – IPN protocol so that payment is quick and automatic.

The post 15 very useful eCommerce addons for WordPress appeared first on ENFEW.

One of the reasons this happened is of course WordPress openness to 3rd party plugin development. Which means that any developers who learn quite simple plugin creation rules can can extend WordPress, add new functionality or even integrate WordPress with any other popular CMS out there.

We have listed some great WordPress plugins in previous posts (best mobile plugins, plugins for integrating Facebook and others) and this time we have prepared the list of very useful WordPress plugin development tutorials. You will find how to create plugins, how to structure, design and install. This tutorial list is no short and suits everyone, from beginners to experienced WordPress plugin developers. Enjoy!

1.  Writing a Plugin – WordPress Codex

This tutorial is by WordPress Codex team, the team which is behind actual WordPress development. Section of the tutorial goes through the steps you need to follow, and things to consider when creating a well-structured WordPress Plugin.

2. How to Install WordPress Plugins

Plugins are tools which provide additional functionality to your application. To install a plugin you generally just need to put the plugin file into your ‘wp-content/plugins’ directory. Once a plugin is installed, you may activate it or deactivate it from the Plugins menu in your WP administration.

3. Create WordPress Plugins with OOP Techniques

Building a WordPress plugin with an object oriented code is fairly clean and efficient if you will compare it with procedural code. You can expand using inheritance techniques, which could be very helpful when creating a large plugin.

4. WordPress Essentials: How To Create A WordPress Plugin

To create a plugin, all you need to do is create a folder and then create a single file with one line of content. Inside the new folder, create a file ending with the letters .php. Open the file in a text editor, and paste the following information in it. However, if you intend to distribute your plugin, you should add as much data as possible. With that out of the way, you can go into the back end to activate your plugin.

5. Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Plugin Development

In this tutorial there are basic steps required to create a simple WordPress plug-in. The functionality is used to create dynamic excerpts based on the number passed into the function call. You will just need to upload the plug-in file and activate from the Admin panel, then follow up by calling the function from whatever pages you want the excerpt to appear.

6. A Crash-Course in WordPress Plugin Development

When creating a WordPress plugin, the first step is to make sure that you have access to a WordPress installation. Create a plugins folder, then outline the plugins and afterwards create a filter. Filters are functions that WordPress passes data through, at certain points in execution, just before taking some action with the data. Then program a function for this plugin. Finally, return to your WordPress admin panel, and click on the “Plugins” tab.

7. Useful Tutorials For Creating Your First WordPress Plugin

WordPress plugins allow you to extend your default WordPress installation with almost any kind of functionality, you can download a vast collection of plugins from the WordPress plugin repository or you can create your own. This site has elaborated Cleary on how to go about it.

8. Create a Custom WordPress Plugin From Scratch

This tutorial describes the implementation of a WordPress plugin starting from scratch. The plugin will connect to an external OSCommerce database and display random products on your WordPress site. It also implements a configuration page for the WordPress admin panel.

9. Anatomy of a WordPress plugin

Creating a wordpress pluggin will only need a basic understanding of the PHP programming language and some information on how WordPress expects your plugin to behave.  The simple steps to follow include:

• Creating a pluggin template
• Adding Functionality
• Making the Widget
• Creating settings menu for updating the widget preferences.

10.  How to Write a Basic WordPress Plugin

Plugins for WordPress can be very elaborate and require significant programming expertise to develop.  But learning to develop a WordPress plugin doesn’t have to be difficult; you can start small and grow your skills over time.  The simple steps include naming your plugin file and subdirectory.  Name using lower case and underscores.  Add a plugin header and afterwards a filtering function and complete the plugin.

11. Writing Your First Plugin for WordPress: A Primer

In this tutorial, you will get an idea on the possibility of adding your own customized processes, enhancements and functions, without the need to touch the core system.

12. The Ultimate Guide to Building a WordPress Plugin

The first thing is to generate ideas and reasons to write a WordPress plugin. If your plugin idea seems simple enough to create from scratch, try using your plugin idea as your sample application instead of spending time building a useless application that you’ll never use, just for practice. Generally, the best practice is to start researching other existing plugins and work on ideas to improve them.

13. Building a WordPress plugin: Tweetable

This tutorial will guide you in creating a WordPress plugin from scratch that is tweetable. It will take in the latest five tweets and display them in your WordPress sidebar.

14. Create Database Tables for Your WordPress Plugin

Database tables are used to save info used by a plugin. To be able to develop your WordPress further, you need to learn how to work with and create more database tables. With a plugin specific table, you can define the precise data structure needed for your plugin development.

15. WordPress plugin development from scratch

4 part tutorial covering most of the tasks you will have to do while creating your first WordPress plugin.

The post Best WordPress plugin development tutorials appeared first on ENFEW.

Minimalism

When designing an ecommerce shop, it’s natural to want to go big and bold with your design. However, think about your own favourite online shopping experiences before you get started. If you take a look at the most successful websites on ecommerce platforms like Shopify, you’ll find that many of them embrace a cool, minimalist aesthetic. Crisp edges, white space, and flat images are popular design touches now used by many designers to create an online shop that’s easy to use and optimised for any viewing device. A minimalist background can also make your products really pop.

Display and Promo Videos

Although clear, high-quality photos are a must for any ecommerce store, more and more ecommerce websites are now using video displays as well. This is particularly important if you are selling clothing or any other product that would benefit from being shown in a three-dimensional format. You can use videos to provide a better view of your product, or to demonstrate how it works. These are also well-designed for sharing on social media networks.

Local Design in a Global Market

One of the major benefits of opening up an ecommerce business is that you can serve customers around the globe. Yet at the same time, don’t neglect your local market. As you start to design your website, it can be helpful to bring in a local Chicago web design team or whichever city you are based in, who can incorporate a more localised shopping experience. Colour preferences, local slang, and localised sales can all help you build a strong following both at home and abroad. This can make your products seem more exotic to foreign customers, while at the same time providing a more personalised experience for those living close by.

Enhanced Security Features

Building the latest security features into your web design is a great way to give your customers added peace of mind. Be sure to use an ecommerce platform which provides adequate security features, or speak to your web developer about which options are available. Features like one-page checkout systems can make customers feel more secure about placing an order.

Mobile Optimisation

More and more consumers are making purchases using their smartphones and tablets. The best ecommerce shops will translate well to these venues. You can either choose to create a site that can be easily navigated both on a traditional device or a smartphone, or create a separate mobile site for smartphone users. Responsive design is a way to create a website which can adapt itself to any screen size and resolution, creating an optimal user experience.

To succeed in ecommerce, it’s worth taking these trends into consideration and thinking about how they could fit into your site’s design.

The post Using Web Design Trends to Improve Ecommerce Shops appeared first on ENFEW.

What is Trello?

Trello is a project management and collaboration tool that organizes your projects and ideas into boards.
Its as simple as having the board for each project with the lists and cards on them.
With minimalistic and intuitive drag & drop interface you can move cards from one list to another as your project progresses. There can be as many or as few lists as you decide.
Being collaboration a tool Trello allows you to add people to the project by simply finding them through the search field.
You can assign cards to specific people, add comments, to do lists and attach files.
Trello supports archiving, and sharing via shortened url’s.
And it is free online product.

How to start?

Sign up process is quite fast and smooth. You can create account by specifying name, email and password (email confirmation process is required) or simply use your Google credentials to log in. Once logged in with new account you will see an empty board list and your new project board is just a click away (click New Board link below your profile photo).

What else is good about it?

We ourselves use Trello for many projects. All the content calendar and any technical improvements needed for Enfew.com are currently being maintained via Trello. We just like simplicity and collaboration options this tool has. Trello now has mobile applications for iOS (iPhones and iPads) and Android powered phones.
And yes, being free it reduces costs for our team as well.
You might also find these stories on how other people are using Trello for their projects useful. There are now good few of them in the Internets. Using Trello for Scrum, Trello for project management, Optimising and prioritizing with Trello

The post Review: Simplify and get your projects together again with Trello appeared first on ENFEW.

jRating

jRating is flexible and easy to work with AJAX based star rating system.
It allows customization and setup of all elements visitor sees on the screen. Free to use and Open Source.
Live demo site with many implementation examples lives here.

jQuery Raty

We featured jQuery Raty plugin on Enfew two years ago and it remains as one of the most liked 3rd party rating plugins for jQuery out there. It has good support from developer community on GitHub (456 likes!).
Worth to give it a go if you are looking for time proven solution.

Colour rating system

Colorful rating system created by Marco Kuiper  from Macrofolio.  This system is using jQuery colour plugin  and CSS3.
Even if its not released as stand alone jQuery plugin we think this example is very nice and can be great help for your projects. It makes web rating look nice!

 jQuery Star Rating

?rfan Durmu? has created this jQuery plugin for adding star ratings to your web projects. On the plugins home you’ll find his clear instructions on how to implement and make best use of it.

jQuery Bar Rating

Great bar rating plugin for jQuery created by Kazik (Netboy).
It takes much different approach on look and feel for rating elements within web projects which makes them more user friendly and innovative. Personally, we are loving it and might even use in our site redesign project!
Check the plugin code on GitHub and example implementations on demo site.

Mobile Star ratings with Mobiscroll

And here is something for your mobile application projects with jQuery rating systems in them.
Mobiscroll is an open source and free to use JavaScript library which works well with jQuery, jQuery Mobile and some other JavaScript frameworks. It allows you to build elements and components for mobile applications with great look and feel. Give it a try and see if this is something you have been looking for.

The post Top jQuery rating plugins you should use in projects appeared first on ENFEW.

High Margins & Cost Effective

There is no comparison when looking at the cost effectiveness of ecommerce versus a traditional business. Transactions become electronic processes and because of this, fees are highly reduced or non-existent when payments are made. For example, the processing fee that you might incur as a car rental business might be $15, but if processed online, the cost drops down to $3. Big savings right there.

Ecommerce is extremely cost-effective. You don’t have high rent to pay on physical premises, costs on infrastructure or insurance payments. Marketing costs decrease significantly yet still reach a wider audience. There are no or fewer staff wages to pay, that means more money in your pocket. In comparison to a physical store, an ecommerce business is a lot cheaper to run.

Evens Out the Playing Field

An ecommerce business can compete on a more level playing field with larger companies. Even though big multinational corporations have what seems like unlimited online promotional budgets, with the right strategic plan and tools your online business can compete with the big guys.
Your customer base can thrive to levels unmatched by a physical store, and you don’t need a ton of money to achieve it. For example, using an analytics tool can give you instant and valuable information on your customers – such as how they use your site and how to keep them coming back – for a fraction of the cost compared to hiring a market research company to do it for you.

Taking advantage of the boundary-free nature of the internet will serve your business well and keep it competitive.

24/7 Global Trading

Your customers have the ability to shop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from anywhere in the world. That means the restrictions of normal trading placed on physical businesses is non-existent for yours.
A lot of people enjoy shopping online and consider it a leisure activity because they don’t have to get changed, get in the car, drive to the store, get out and then find out that the product they were looking for is not available or sold out. The convenience to customers really is unbeatable, including foregoing the queues at the checkout desk, the distance, traffic and lack of parking space, and the lugging of goods from the store.

You can reap the benefits too because you will be able to manage your online business from anywhere in the world. Say you want to attend a trade fair in China; well you could do that and still manage your online store with no replacement staff necessary. It’s definitely a win-win for both you and your customers.

Simple and Cheap to Set Up

It could take months to set up a traditional business. You have to find the right location and building at the right price. Then you will be locked into the lease for a minimum amount of time regardless of whether you make money, lose it, or break even.

With an ecommerce business, there is no need to devote a whole wad of capital on set up costs like rental property, insurance, utilities, staff, etc. which can be extremely risky when first starting out. You don’t need much hardware to set up your business – just a reliable, good quality computer and an internet connection. However you will need to be well researched and prepared to use readily available online tools and techniques that will give you the best possible chance at success – and yes, this will require an investment of your time and money.

These are just a few advantages to having an ecommerce business. Of course there are disadvantages so it’s wise to get acquainted with those as well. If fear is the only thing stopping you, here’s a tip – start small and do it in your spare time. That way you can decide for sure whether it’s for you.

This guest post has been provided by Mia, working in partnership with Vibrations Direct – an online adult ecommerce store.

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Use the Right Software

It’s a good idea to look for an e commerce platform when you are first setting up your shop, because this type of software will help you run your business with ease. A good platform will not only provide web hosting for your online store, but will also give you design templates, a content management system, and assistance with analytics and marketing tasks. All of this is what you need to initially get your business off the ground, and manage it for the long haul. Another benefit of using the right tools is that they will help enable payments for you, adding to the ease of your customers. When it’s easy to pay, customers are more willing to buy.

Sell Products You Enjoy

A common mistake that people make when they are first setting up an online business is choosing an industry based on what they think will sell, and ignoring their own interests. Business owners who work in an industry they’re passionate about tend to do better, because they are willing to invest more time and effort into it. This is no different in the world of ecommerce and online sales. You can take a look at sales figures to determine which industries are showing rapid growth, but you should also take into account your own feelings towards these products. It’s also important to note that ecommerce shops can sell services and digital products as well as physical ones, opening up a wide array of options.

Use Categories to Manage Inventory

If your product catalogue is easy to navigate and browse through, customers will be more likely to put something in their shopping cart. It will also be easier for you to manage your own inventory if you group it into logical categories or groups. To further entice customers, you can include specialty categories for promotional items or gift ideas.

Create Daily Growth

Many new business owners find that setting up a daily work schedule with maintenance tasks and sales goals is a good way to manage their project most effectively. There are many ways to stay on top of your business, including setting up email alerts and instant notifications when a sale is made. It’s a good idea to work on your website every single day, whether it’s reaching out to clients through social media, managing blog content, or finding new inventory to help build your business. Small but consistent steps will help you keep moving forward.

The post How do you boost Ecommerce site sales? appeared first on ENFEW.

It seems increasingly likely that cloud computing will revolutionize the way in which we receive and consume our personal entertainment. A number of industries are already investigating the ways in which they can harness the cloud to provide us with rich-media content through a variety of internet-enabled devices.
However, it is the games industry which seems to be embracing the cloud in the most forward-thinking and practical ways.
By digitally providing access to games and game-related services in the cloud, like in-game shops, consumers get the experience they want, when they want it. Publishers, on the other hand, manage to remain in control of their property. They can govern the rules in which gamers receive access and play. This includes how much users have to pay for their services.
Using the cloud to access games on-demand also has other benefits that are sure to be exploited in the future. These include the method of delivery to gamers and how publishers intend to make their profit.

Delivery over the cloud

Some believe that the gaming future will be led by platforms which care less about what specification a computer user might have and more about how fast their internet connection is. Several platforms of this kind are already in existence.
Both Gaikai and OnLive promise on-demand full video game streaming services either from a PC, or even an internet-enabled television.
The technologies behind these services rely on the rendering and processing power of a managed private cloud server to deliver the game to a user’s machine. Thanks to this, it means that even a low-end PC can run the latest high-end gaming experience – rivaling even that of a fully-fledged games console.
However, because they rely on the speed of the user’s broadband, the quality of the gaming experience is limited to maximum upload and download speeds. Until the UK is guaranteed consistently-high broadband speeds, it’s unlikely that the technology will be widely adopted for a ‘premium’ games experience.
Many believe that services like these are the future of gaming; the ones that remove the need for expensive hardware and software retailers altogether. Cloud gaming of this sort is much more conceivable when we consider the possibility that internet-enabled televisions could one day become the norm.

Monetizing online gaming

Another driving factor in the future of cloud-gaming concerns itself with how games publishers intend to make money.
Should the majority of gaming take to the cloud, then it’s possible that games publishers will one day stop paying bricks-and-mortar retailers to sell their products to the public altogether. This way, then the publisher has complete control over the price of the game, the access rights and discounting options.
Therefore, instead of games retailers, it is expected that there will be more gaming platforms-as-a-service (PaaS), or gateways, whereby users access a central hub and decide what content they want from a variety of publishers.
Such as system is already in place, with services like ‘Steam’ from renowned video game developer Valve. Arguably, Microsoft’s ‘Xbox Live’ service on the Xbox 360, and Playstation’s ‘Playstation Network’ already offer this kind of hub too, providing links to full-retail release length games – as well as indie developer content.
Aside from games, these platforms also offer access to other rich content like videos and music from providers such as the BBC, LoveFilm, Netflix, YouTube or LastFM.
Monthly subscription fees and micro-transactions, which enable players to purchase in-game content, are also going to steer gamers to the cloud.
Several titles today, most notably MMORPG’s (massively multiplayer online role playing games) like ‘Warcraft’, rely on gamers paying a recurring fee just to access the game. Meanwhile, developers also entice gamers to advance their characters more quickly through purchasing items designed to make their characters stronger.
Considering these two areas alone, it’s clear that the cloud could have a significant role in the future of online gaming; offering both gamers and publishers clear benefits to move away from tradition console gaming. It seems that it is only a matter of time until the delivery of these services is fast enough to satisfy the speed that gamers need, whilst then enabling publishers to charge the fees they really want.

The post How cloud computing will shape the future of gaming? appeared first on ENFEW.

1. Build your first game with HTML5

NetTuts+ team have produced great tutorial about building your first HTML5 game with a little help of Box2D. Must see for all who are starting HTML5 road.

2. Build your own HTML5 3D engine

Tutorial created by Mikko Haapoja and covering HTML5 3D magic. Mikko goes into deep detail on how to build small yet efficient canvas-based 3D engine. Great advanced tutorial.

3. How to Build Asteroids game with the Impact

In this tutorial you’ll see how to build a simple space-based asteroids game using the Impact HTML5 game engine, one of the more robust engines out at the moment. After finishing this tutorial you’ll have fully working HTML5 based space game. 

4. Auto-Resizing HTML5 Games

Really useful piece on adjusting your games to different screen sizes and various media game players will use to play your HTML5 game. Variety of Internet enabled devices out there is overwhelming and you have to make sure your game looks good on top ones.

5. Learn HTML5 With This Simple Avoider Game Tutorial

New to HTML5? No worries, the best way to learn is by creating simple game.
Michael James Williams explains insides of HTML5 game development with JavaScript and the canvas elements. He guides you through initial steps of creating simple game and also advises on mistakes to avoid.

6. Yes, another HTML5 game explained

Michal Budzynski has created superb 5 part tutorial where he step by step walks through Doodle Jump type game design and development with help of HTML5.

7. Bear, background woods and some noises. Secrets of creating HTML5 games

Jason Croucher explores woods, noises and wild animals while developing HTML5 based game.

8. Make sure your HTML5 game runs optimized

Nicola Hibbert created good tutorial about optimizing your HTML5 games. She goes through many steps and explains performance optimization techniques plus what value optimization brings to game developers and players.

9. Creating great HTML5 game in 5 lessons

Another 5-piece tutorial. Aditya Ravi Shankar expert HTML5 game developer has created it for those who are starting with HTML5 games.

10. HTML5 Multiplayer Game Development

This is over 1 hour long video from Google Tech Talk where Rob Hawkes talks HTML5 multiplayer. Many good points to take away.

The post Top 10 must read HTML5 game development tutorials appeared first on ENFEW.

1. Uploadify – JQuery File Upload Plugin Script

Uploadify is a jQuery plugin that integrates a fully-customizable multiple file upload utility on your website. It uses a mixture of Javascript, ActionScript, and any server-side language to dynamically create an instance over any DOM element on a page.

Uploadify was born out of the need for a multiple file upload utility for a CMS that was being developed. After evaluating the other available options, RonnieSan decided the best option was to build a new plug-in and make it available to the development community. In order to make the plug-in easy to implement and highly-customizable, the jQuery format was chosen. After word got out, the popularity of the plug-in spawned the need for a dedicated site. Travis Nickels volunteered his help to refine the Uploadify plug-in and make it what it is today.

2. jQuery.upload – A simple ajax file upload plugin

jQuery upload is jQuery plug-in to upload files by the Ajax style. It is possible to upload files simply and easily in the same way as jQuery.post and the jQuery.get.

3. jqUploader

jqUploader is a jquery plugin that substitutes html file input fields with a flash-based file upload widget, allowing to display a progressbar and percentage. It is designed to take most of its customization from the html code of your form directly – so you don’t have to do things twice . For instance, the maximum file size, if specified via html, will be recognized and used in the rich upload interface generated by jqUploader.

4. SWFUpload jQuery Plugin

• Native jQuery event handling using .bind()
• Ability to assign multiple callbacks per event
• Makes multiple SWFUpload instances on a single page easier to manage
• Ability to completely separate SWFUpload object from UI code (callbacks)
• Assign event handlers before SWFUpload instance is even created!
• No global functions or variables needed!
• A nice, chainable solution!

5. Ajax Upload; A file upload script with progress-bar, drag-and-drop.

This plugin uses XHR for uploading multiple files with progress-bar in FF3.6+, Safari4+, Chrome and falls back to hidden iframe based upload in other browsers, providing good user experience everywhere.

6. jQuery Form Plugin

This page demonstrates the Form Plugin’s file upload capabilities. There is no special coding required to handle file uploads. File input elements are automatically detected and processed for you.

7. Really simple jQuery Ajax File Uploader plugin.

This jQuery plugin creates a hidden iframe and sets the form’s target attribute to post to that iframe. When the form is submitted, it is posted (including the file uploads) to the hidden iframe. Finally, the plugin collects the server’s response from the iframe.

This pseudo ajax file upload plugin is about 550 bytes minified and gzipped.

8. Get User Facebook Albums and Pictures

getFacebookAlbums is a plugin that allows the user to connect on Facebook and choose a picture among his/her own albums. It’s an alternative to the simple upload form the hard drive disk.

9. File Style Plugin for jQuery

Browsers do not let you style file inputs. File Style plugin fixes this problem. It enables you to use image as browse button. You can also style filename field as normal textfield using css. It is written using JavaScript and jQuery.

10. jQuery Multiple File Upload Plugin v1.47

The Multiple File Upload Plugin (jQuery.MultiFile) is a non-obstrusive plugin for the jQuery Javascript library that helps users easily select multiple files for upload quickly and easily whilst also providing some basic validation functionality to help developers idenfity simple errors, without having to submit the form (ie.: upload files).

11. jQuery File Upload

The maximum file size for uploads in this demo is 5.00 MB (default filesize is unlimited).
Files uploaded in this demo are not publicly accessible and will be deleted after 5-10 minutes.
To be able to view your uploaded files Cookies have to be enabled.

12. Plupload

Allows you to upload files using HTML5 Gears, Silverlight, Flash, BrowserPlus or normal forms, providing some unique features such as upload progress, image resizing and chunked uploads.

The post Best jQuery File Upload Plugins appeared first on ENFEW.

Ionize is a powerful & friendly Content Management System… and it’s multilingual, efficient and free !

What can Ionize do for you ? – Makes your client happy With its user friendly back-end interface, Ionize is very easy to use.
Your clients will love it !
Increases your efficiency  –Ionize provides a powerful template language, which decrease significantly your coding time.
Makes you Enjoy coding – Ionize uses CodeIgniter, a simple and powerful PHP framework.
This gives you the awaited flexibility.

2. PyroCMS – The modular open-source CodeIgniter CMS

Lightweight, themeable and dynamic. PyroCMS is perfect for CodeIgniter developers to kickstart your projects.

Have no idea what the first paragraph means? No worries! PyroCMS is not just for us nerdy developers, it can be used by anyone.

Many content management systems are built “by nerds, for nerds”. We designed and built PyroCMS for everyone.

3. FUEL CMS : A Rapid Development CodeIgniter CMS

An easy, flexible, empowering Content Management System for rapid development that transforms your CodeIgniter projects into client manageable brilliance.

4. Codefight PHP Content Management System (CMS)

This is still under development. So far the below items from screen shot are completed. If you want to give suggestions and feedbacks, you can do so at our forum tenthweb.com

5. Halogy – Open Source CMS for Codeigniter

Probably the Easiest CMS You’ll Find – Your clients will love updating their websites with Halogy because it is so easy!
Halogy is easy, but also contains everything your clients will need for their website, right out of the box. Get a site that has inline page editing, built in image handling, Blog and Web Forms set up in just a few hours, saving you time and saving your client money.

The post 5 Cms Scripts that are Built on CodeIgniter appeared first on ENFEW.

1. HTML5 Boilerplates by Remy Sharp at Html5doctor

Without going into the discussion of why HTML 5 is available today and not 2022, this article is going to give you a series of HTML 5 boilerplates that you can use in your projects right now.

2. HTML5 ★ Boilerplate

HTML5 Boilerplate is the professional badass’s base HTML/CSS/JS template for a fast, robust and future-proof site.

After more than three years in iterative development, you get the best of the best practices baked in: cross-browser normalization, performance optimizations, even optional features like cross-domain Ajax and Flash. A starter apache .htaccess config file hooks you the eff up with caching rules and preps your site to serve HTML5 video, use @font-face, and get your gzip zipple on.

Boilerplate is not a framework, nor does it prescribe any philosophy of development, it’s just got some tricks to get your project off the ground quickly and right-footed.

3. The real HTML5 boilerplate

A boilerplate is a starting point, it’s a base. It’s a codebase from which things are built with only the necessary and relevant additions being made (note additions, not changes).

I won’t beat about the bush, seeing the HTML5 Boilerplate makes me frustrated. It makes me wish I were a vet, or a tree surgeon, or something that isn’t a web developer. Look at all that code. 681* lines. Six hundred and eighty-one. Hell it even takes over 40 minutes to explain! That’s not a starting point, that’s a finished product and then some.

4. HOW TO: Get Started with HTML5 Boilerplate

his is not your father’s world wide web. Thanks to soaring smartphone sales, new tablet devices like the iPad, and the burgeoning trend of connected devices, individuals are accessing and experiencing the web in a very different way than they were even five years ago.

The desktop browsing experience is also undergoing radical change, thanks to the evolution of JavaScript frameworks and the push for standards successors such as CSS3 and HTML5. It’s an exciting time to be developing or designing for the web.

5. Automated Optimization with HTML5 Boilerplate Build

HTML5 Boilerplate is widely recognized as a rock-solid foundation for building new web-based sites and applications. That said, few are aware that the tool offers more than simply setting up your development environment. It also helps you “wrap up” your work by providing an awesome cross-platform build process.

If you have reached the bottom of this post, chances are that you like what you are reading. And you can stay in touch with us for even more great content. Follow us on Twitter, connect on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. Join the discussion!

The post Getting Started With HTML5 Boilerplates – 5 Useful Tutorials For HTML5 Newbies appeared first on ENFEW.

In this tenth episode of the CodeIgniter From Scratch screencast series, we will be exploring the Calendar library. We are also going to utilize the database class and jQuery AJAX. I will show you how to build a simple and CSS-styled calendar page, which will have the ability to store and display content for each day

2. Create an Event calendar using Codeigniter and jQuery by okadadesign

This blog inspired me to make an event calendar using Codeigniter. You can download Bari’s source files. Please unzip it and save them. We are going to use them later. We are going to add this to Codeigniter.

The post Create Calendar App Using Codeigniter – 2 Most Amazing Tutorials appeared first on ENFEW.