Use Zool Tool & Navigator Panel in Photoshop

In this tutorial, we will learn how to use Zool Tool, Navigator Panel & awesome Shortcuts that I am Sure gonna help you in your next project

#photoshop

Pdf2gerb: Perl Script Converts PDF Files to Gerber format

pdf2gerb

Perl script converts PDF files to Gerber format

Pdf2Gerb generates Gerber 274X photoplotting and Excellon drill files from PDFs of a PCB. Up to three PDFs are used: the top copper layer, the bottom copper layer (for 2-sided PCBs), and an optional silk screen layer. The PDFs can be created directly from any PDF drawing software, or a PDF print driver can be used to capture the Print output if the drawing software does not directly support output to PDF.

The general workflow is as follows:

Design the PCB using your favorite CAD or drawing software.
Print the top and bottom copper and top silk screen layers to a PDF file.
Run Pdf2Gerb on the PDFs to create Gerber and Excellon files.
Use a Gerber viewer to double-check the output against the original PCB design.
Make adjustments as needed.
Submit the files to a PCB manufacturer.

Please note that Pdf2Gerb does NOT perform DRC (Design Rule Checks), as these will vary according to individual PCB manufacturer conventions and capabilities. Also note that Pdf2Gerb is not perfect, so the output files must always be checked before submitting them. As of version 1.6, Pdf2Gerb supports most PCB elements, such as round and square pads, round holes, traces, SMD pads, ground planes, no-fill areas, and panelization. However, because it interprets the graphical output of a Print function, there are limitations in what it can recognize (or there may be bugs).

See docs/Pdf2Gerb.pdf for install/setup, config, usage, and other info.

pdf2gerb_cfg.pm

#Pdf2Gerb config settings:
#Put this file in same folder/directory as pdf2gerb.pl itself (global settings),
#or copy to another folder/directory with PDFs if you want PCB-specific settings.
#There is only one user of this file, so we don't need a custom package or namespace.
#NOTE: all constants defined in here will be added to main namespace.
#package pdf2gerb_cfg;

use strict; #trap undef vars (easier debug)
use warnings; #other useful info (easier debug)


##############################################################################################
#configurable settings:
#change values here instead of in main pfg2gerb.pl file

use constant WANT_COLORS => ($^O !~ m/Win/); #ANSI colors no worky on Windows? this must be set < first DebugPrint() call

#just a little warning; set realistic expectations:
#DebugPrint("${\(CYAN)}Pdf2Gerb.pl ${\(VERSION)}, $^O O/S\n${\(YELLOW)}${\(BOLD)}${\(ITALIC)}This is EXPERIMENTAL software.  \nGerber files MAY CONTAIN ERRORS.  Please CHECK them before fabrication!${\(RESET)}", 0); #if WANT_DEBUG

use constant METRIC => FALSE; #set to TRUE for metric units (only affect final numbers in output files, not internal arithmetic)
use constant APERTURE_LIMIT => 0; #34; #max #apertures to use; generate warnings if too many apertures are used (0 to not check)
use constant DRILL_FMT => '2.4'; #'2.3'; #'2.4' is the default for PCB fab; change to '2.3' for CNC

use constant WANT_DEBUG => 0; #10; #level of debug wanted; higher == more, lower == less, 0 == none
use constant GERBER_DEBUG => 0; #level of debug to include in Gerber file; DON'T USE FOR FABRICATION
use constant WANT_STREAMS => FALSE; #TRUE; #save decompressed streams to files (for debug)
use constant WANT_ALLINPUT => FALSE; #TRUE; #save entire input stream (for debug ONLY)

#DebugPrint(sprintf("${\(CYAN)}DEBUG: stdout %d, gerber %d, want streams? %d, all input? %d, O/S: $^O, Perl: $]${\(RESET)}\n", WANT_DEBUG, GERBER_DEBUG, WANT_STREAMS, WANT_ALLINPUT), 1);
#DebugPrint(sprintf("max int = %d, min int = %d\n", MAXINT, MININT), 1); 

#define standard trace and pad sizes to reduce scaling or PDF rendering errors:
#This avoids weird aperture settings and replaces them with more standardized values.
#(I'm not sure how photoplotters handle strange sizes).
#Fewer choices here gives more accurate mapping in the final Gerber files.
#units are in inches
use constant TOOL_SIZES => #add more as desired
(
#round or square pads (> 0) and drills (< 0):
    .010, -.001,  #tiny pads for SMD; dummy drill size (too small for practical use, but needed so StandardTool will use this entry)
    .031, -.014,  #used for vias
    .041, -.020,  #smallest non-filled plated hole
    .051, -.025,
    .056, -.029,  #useful for IC pins
    .070, -.033,
    .075, -.040,  #heavier leads
#    .090, -.043,  #NOTE: 600 dpi is not high enough resolution to reliably distinguish between .043" and .046", so choose 1 of the 2 here
    .100, -.046,
    .115, -.052,
    .130, -.061,
    .140, -.067,
    .150, -.079,
    .175, -.088,
    .190, -.093,
    .200, -.100,
    .220, -.110,
    .160, -.125,  #useful for mounting holes
#some additional pad sizes without holes (repeat a previous hole size if you just want the pad size):
    .090, -.040,  #want a .090 pad option, but use dummy hole size
    .065, -.040, #.065 x .065 rect pad
    .035, -.040, #.035 x .065 rect pad
#traces:
    .001,  #too thin for real traces; use only for board outlines
    .006,  #minimum real trace width; mainly used for text
    .008,  #mainly used for mid-sized text, not traces
    .010,  #minimum recommended trace width for low-current signals
    .012,
    .015,  #moderate low-voltage current
    .020,  #heavier trace for power, ground (even if a lighter one is adequate)
    .025,
    .030,  #heavy-current traces; be careful with these ones!
    .040,
    .050,
    .060,
    .080,
    .100,
    .120,
);
#Areas larger than the values below will be filled with parallel lines:
#This cuts down on the number of aperture sizes used.
#Set to 0 to always use an aperture or drill, regardless of size.
use constant { MAX_APERTURE => max((TOOL_SIZES)) + .004, MAX_DRILL => -min((TOOL_SIZES)) + .004 }; #max aperture and drill sizes (plus a little tolerance)
#DebugPrint(sprintf("using %d standard tool sizes: %s, max aper %.3f, max drill %.3f\n", scalar((TOOL_SIZES)), join(", ", (TOOL_SIZES)), MAX_APERTURE, MAX_DRILL), 1);

#NOTE: Compare the PDF to the original CAD file to check the accuracy of the PDF rendering and parsing!
#for example, the CAD software I used generated the following circles for holes:
#CAD hole size:   parsed PDF diameter:      error:
#  .014                .016                +.002
#  .020                .02267              +.00267
#  .025                .026                +.001
#  .029                .03167              +.00267
#  .033                .036                +.003
#  .040                .04267              +.00267
#This was usually ~ .002" - .003" too big compared to the hole as displayed in the CAD software.
#To compensate for PDF rendering errors (either during CAD Print function or PDF parsing logic), adjust the values below as needed.
#units are pixels; for example, a value of 2.4 at 600 dpi = .0004 inch, 2 at 600 dpi = .0033"
use constant
{
    HOLE_ADJUST => -0.004 * 600, #-2.6, #holes seemed to be slightly oversized (by .002" - .004"), so shrink them a little
    RNDPAD_ADJUST => -0.003 * 600, #-2, #-2.4, #round pads seemed to be slightly oversized, so shrink them a little
    SQRPAD_ADJUST => +0.001 * 600, #+.5, #square pads are sometimes too small by .00067, so bump them up a little
    RECTPAD_ADJUST => 0, #(pixels) rectangular pads seem to be okay? (not tested much)
    TRACE_ADJUST => 0, #(pixels) traces seemed to be okay?
    REDUCE_TOLERANCE => .001, #(inches) allow this much variation when reducing circles and rects
};

#Also, my CAD's Print function or the PDF print driver I used was a little off for circles, so define some additional adjustment values here:
#Values are added to X/Y coordinates; units are pixels; for example, a value of 1 at 600 dpi would be ~= .002 inch
use constant
{
    CIRCLE_ADJUST_MINX => 0,
    CIRCLE_ADJUST_MINY => -0.001 * 600, #-1, #circles were a little too high, so nudge them a little lower
    CIRCLE_ADJUST_MAXX => +0.001 * 600, #+1, #circles were a little too far to the left, so nudge them a little to the right
    CIRCLE_ADJUST_MAXY => 0,
    SUBST_CIRCLE_CLIPRECT => FALSE, #generate circle and substitute for clip rects (to compensate for the way some CAD software draws circles)
    WANT_CLIPRECT => TRUE, #FALSE, #AI doesn't need clip rect at all? should be on normally?
    RECT_COMPLETION => FALSE, #TRUE, #fill in 4th side of rect when 3 sides found
};

#allow .012 clearance around pads for solder mask:
#This value effectively adjusts pad sizes in the TOOL_SIZES list above (only for solder mask layers).
use constant SOLDER_MARGIN => +.012; #units are inches

#line join/cap styles:
use constant
{
    CAP_NONE => 0, #butt (none); line is exact length
    CAP_ROUND => 1, #round cap/join; line overhangs by a semi-circle at either end
    CAP_SQUARE => 2, #square cap/join; line overhangs by a half square on either end
    CAP_OVERRIDE => FALSE, #cap style overrides drawing logic
};
    
#number of elements in each shape type:
use constant
{
    RECT_SHAPELEN => 6, #x0, y0, x1, y1, count, "rect" (start, end corners)
    LINE_SHAPELEN => 6, #x0, y0, x1, y1, count, "line" (line seg)
    CURVE_SHAPELEN => 10, #xstart, ystart, x0, y0, x1, y1, xend, yend, count, "curve" (bezier 2 points)
    CIRCLE_SHAPELEN => 5, #x, y, 5, count, "circle" (center + radius)
};
#const my %SHAPELEN =
#Readonly my %SHAPELEN =>
our %SHAPELEN =
(
    rect => RECT_SHAPELEN,
    line => LINE_SHAPELEN,
    curve => CURVE_SHAPELEN,
    circle => CIRCLE_SHAPELEN,
);

#panelization:
#This will repeat the entire body the number of times indicated along the X or Y axes (files grow accordingly).
#Display elements that overhang PCB boundary can be squashed or left as-is (typically text or other silk screen markings).
#Set "overhangs" TRUE to allow overhangs, FALSE to truncate them.
#xpad and ypad allow margins to be added around outer edge of panelized PCB.
use constant PANELIZE => {'x' => 1, 'y' => 1, 'xpad' => 0, 'ypad' => 0, 'overhangs' => TRUE}; #number of times to repeat in X and Y directions

# Set this to 1 if you need TurboCAD support.
#$turboCAD = FALSE; #is this still needed as an option?

#CIRCAD pad generation uses an appropriate aperture, then moves it (stroke) "a little" - we use this to find pads and distinguish them from PCB holes. 
use constant PAD_STROKE => 0.3; #0.0005 * 600; #units are pixels
#convert very short traces to pads or holes:
use constant TRACE_MINLEN => .001; #units are inches
#use constant ALWAYS_XY => TRUE; #FALSE; #force XY even if X or Y doesn't change; NOTE: needs to be TRUE for all pads to show in FlatCAM and ViewPlot
use constant REMOVE_POLARITY => FALSE; #TRUE; #set to remove subtractive (negative) polarity; NOTE: must be FALSE for ground planes

#PDF uses "points", each point = 1/72 inch
#combined with a PDF scale factor of .12, this gives 600 dpi resolution (1/72 * .12 = 600 dpi)
use constant INCHES_PER_POINT => 1/72; #0.0138888889; #multiply point-size by this to get inches

# The precision used when computing a bezier curve. Higher numbers are more precise but slower (and generate larger files).
#$bezierPrecision = 100;
use constant BEZIER_PRECISION => 36; #100; #use const; reduced for faster rendering (mainly used for silk screen and thermal pads)

# Ground planes and silk screen or larger copper rectangles or circles are filled line-by-line using this resolution.
use constant FILL_WIDTH => .01; #fill at most 0.01 inch at a time

# The max number of characters to read into memory
use constant MAX_BYTES => 10 * M; #bumped up to 10 MB, use const

use constant DUP_DRILL1 => TRUE; #FALSE; #kludge: ViewPlot doesn't load drill files that are too small so duplicate first tool

my $runtime = time(); #Time::HiRes::gettimeofday(); #measure my execution time

print STDERR "Loaded config settings from '${\(__FILE__)}'.\n";
1; #last value must be truthful to indicate successful load


#############################################################################################
#junk/experiment:

#use Package::Constants;
#use Exporter qw(import); #https://perldoc.perl.org/Exporter.html

#my $caller = "pdf2gerb::";

#sub cfg
#{
#    my $proto = shift;
#    my $class = ref($proto) || $proto;
#    my $settings =
#    {
#        $WANT_DEBUG => 990, #10; #level of debug wanted; higher == more, lower == less, 0 == none
#    };
#    bless($settings, $class);
#    return $settings;
#}

#use constant HELLO => "hi there2"; #"main::HELLO" => "hi there";
#use constant GOODBYE => 14; #"main::GOODBYE" => 12;

#print STDERR "read cfg file\n";

#our @EXPORT_OK = Package::Constants->list(__PACKAGE__); #https://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=1072691; NOTE: "_OK" skips short/common names

#print STDERR scalar(@EXPORT_OK) . " consts exported:\n";
#foreach(@EXPORT_OK) { print STDERR "$_\n"; }
#my $val = main::thing("xyz");
#print STDERR "caller gave me $val\n";
#foreach my $arg (@ARGV) { print STDERR "arg $arg\n"; }

Download Details:

Author: swannman
Source Code: https://github.com/swannman/pdf2gerb

License: GPL-3.0 license

#perl

Corey Brooks

1657254050

Top 9+ Common CSS Mistakes To Avoid

In this tutorial, we'll summarise what the top 9+ CSS mistakes are and how to avoid them.

Top 9+ Common CSS Mistakes To Avoid

It’s easy to get tripped up with CSS. Here are some common CSS mistakes we all make.

1. Not Using a Proper CSS Reset

Web browsers are our fickle friends. Their inconsistencies can make any developer want to tear their hair out. But at the end of the day, they’re what will present your website, so you better do what you have to do to please them.

One of the sillier things browsers do is provide default styling for HTML elements. I suppose you can’t really blame them: what if a “webmaster” chose not to style their page? There has to be a fallback mechanism for people who choose not to use CSS.

In any case, there’s rarely a case of two browsers providing identical default styling, so the only real way to make sure your styles are effective is to use a CSS reset. What a CSS reset entails is resetting (or, rather, setting) all the styles of all the HTML elements to a predictable baseline value. The beauty of this is that once you include a CSS reset effectively, you can style all the elements on your page as if they were all the same to start with.

It’s a blank slate, really. There are many CSS reset codebases on the web that you can incorporate into your work. I personally use a modified version of the popular Eric Meyer reset and Six Revisions uses a modified version of YUI Reset CSS.

You can also build your own reset if you think it would work better. What many of us do is utilizing a simple universal selector margin/padding reset.

* { margin:0; padding:0; }

Though this works, it’s not a full reset.

You also need to reset, for example, borders, underlines, and colors of elements like list items, links, and tables so that you don’t run into unexpected inconsistencies between web browsers. Learn more about resetting your styles via this guide: Resetting Your Styles with CSS Reset.

2. Over-Qualifying Selectors

Being overly specific when selecting elements to style is not good practice. The following selector is a perfect example of what I’m talking about:

ul#navigation li a { ... }

Typically the structure of a primary navigation list is a <ul> (usually with an ID like #nav or #navigation) then a few list items (<li>) inside of it, each with its own <a> tag inside it that links to other pages.

This HTML structure is perfectly correct, but the CSS selector is really what I’m worried about. First things first: There’s no reason for the ul before #navigation as an ID is already the most specific selector. Also, you don’t have to put li in the selector syntax because all the a elements inside the navigation are inside list items, so there’s no reason for that bit of specificity.

Thus, you can condense that selector as:

#navigation a { ... }

This is an overly simplistic example because you might have nested list items that you want to style differently (i.e. #navigation li a is different from #navigation li ul li a); but if you don’t, then there’s no need for the excessive specificity.

I also want to talk about the need for an ID in this situation. Let’s assume for a minute that this navigation list is inside a header div (#header). Let us also assume that you will have no other unordered list in the header besides the navigation list.

If that is the case, we can even remove the ID from the unordered list in our HTML markup, and then we can select it in CSS as such:

#header ul a { ... }

Here’s what I want you to take away from this example: Always write your CSS selectors with the very minimum level of specificity necessary for it to work. Including all that extra fluff may make it look more safe and precise, but when it comes to CSS selectors, there are only two levels of specificity: specific, and not specific enough.

3. Not Using Shorthand Properties

Take a look at the following property list:

#selector { margin-top: 50px; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 50px; margin-left 0; }

What is wrong with this picture? I hope that alarm bells are ringing in your head as you notice how much we’re repeating ourselves. Fortunately, there is a solution, and it’s using CSS shorthand properties.

The following has the same effect as the above style declaration, but we’ve reduced our code by three lines.

#selector { margin: 50px 0; }

Check out this list of properties that deals with font styles:

font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;

We can condense all that into one line:

font: bold 14px/1.5 Helvetica;

We can also do this for background properties. The following:

background-image: url(background.png); background-repeat: repeat-y; background-position: center top;

Can be written in shorthand CSS as such:

background: url(background.png) repeat-y center top;

4. Using 0px instead of 0

Say you want to add a 20px margin to the bottom of an element. You might use something like this:

#selector { margin: 20px 0px 20px 0px; }

Don’t. This is excessive.

There’s no need to include the px after 0. While this may seem like I’m nitpicking and that it may not seem like much, when you’re working with a huge file, removing all those superfluous px can reduce the size of your file (which is never a bad thing).

5. Using Color Names Instead of Hexadecimal

Declaring red for color values is the lazy man’s #FF0000. By saying:

color: red;

You’re essentially saying that the browser should display what it thinks red is. If you’ve learned anything from making stuff function correctly in all browsers — and the hours of frustration you’ve accumulated because of a stupid list-bullet misalignment that can only be seen in IE7 — it’s that you should never let the browser decide how to display your web pages.

Instead, you should go to the effort to find the actual hex value for the color you’re trying to use. That way, you can make sure it’s the same color displayed across all browsers. You can use a color cheatsheet that provides a preview and the hex value of a color.

This may seem trivial, but when it comes to CSS, it’s the tiny things that often lead to the big gotchas.

6. Redundant Selectors

My process for writing styles is to start with all the typography, and then work on the structure, and finally on styling all the colors and backgrounds. That’s what works for me. Since I don’t focus on just one element at a time, I commonly find myself accidentally typing out a redundant style declaration.

I always do a final check after I’m done so that I can make sure that I haven’t repeated any selectors; and if I have, I’ll merge them. This sort of mistake is fine to make while you’re developing, but just try to make sure they don’t make it into production.

7. Redundant Properties

Similar to the one above, I often find myself having to apply the same properties to multiple selectors. This could be styling an <h5> in the header to look exactly like the <h6> in the footer, making the <pre>‘s and <blockquote>‘s the same size, or any number of things in between. In the final review of my CSS, I will look to make sure that I haven’t repeated too many properties.

For example, if I see two selectors doing the same thing, such as this:

#selector-1 { font-style: italic; color: #e7e7e7; margin: 5px; padding: 20px } .selector-2 { font-style: italic; color: #e7e7e7; margin: 5px; padding: 20px }

I will combine them, with the selectors separated by a comma (,):

#selector-1, .selector-2 { font-style: italic; color: #e7e7e7; margin: 5px; padding: 20px }

I hope you’re seeing the trend here: Try to be as terse and as efficient as possible. It pays dividends in maintenance time and page-load speed.

8. Not Providing Fallback Fonts

In a perfect world, every computer would always have every font you would ever want to use installed. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. @font-face aside, web designers are pretty much limited to the few so called web-safe fonts (e.g.

Arial, Georgia, serif, etc.). There is a plus side, though. You can still use fonts like Helvetica that aren’t necessarily installed on every computer.

The secret lies in font stacks. Font stacks are a way for developers to provide fallback fonts for the browser to display if the user doesn’t have the preferred font installed. For example:

#selector { font-family: Helvetica; }

Can be expanded with fallback fonts as such:

#selector { font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; }

Now, if the user doesn’t have Helvetica, they can see your site in Arial, and if that doesn’t work, it’ll just default to any sans-serif font installed.

By defining fallback fonts, you gain more control as to how your web pages are rendered.

9. Unnecessary Whitespace

When it comes to trying to reduce your CSS file sizes for performance, every space counts. When you’re developing, it’s OK to format your code in the way that you’re comfortable with. However, there is absolutely no reason not to take out excess characters (a process known as minification) when you actually push your project onto the web where the size of your files really counts.

Too many developers simply don’t minify their files before launching their websites, and I think that’s a huge mistake. Although it may not feel like it makes much of a difference, when you have huge CSS files

10. Not Organizing Your CSS in a Logical Way

When you’re writing CSS, do yourself a favor and organize your code. Through comments, you can insure that the next time you come to make a change to a file you’ll still be able to navigate it.

I personally like to organize my styles by how the HTML that I’m styling is structured. This means that I have comments that distinguish the header, body, sidebar, and footer. A common CSS-authoring mistake I see is people just writing up their styles as soon as they think of them.

The next time you try to change something and can’t find the style declaration, you’ll be silently cursing yourself for not organizing your CSS well enough.

11. Using Only One Stylesheet for Everything

This one’s subjective, so bear with me while I give you my perspective. I am of the belief, as are others, that it is better to split stylesheets into a few different ones for big sites for easier maintenance and for better modularity. Maybe I’ll have one for a CSS reset, one for IE-specific fixes, and so on.

By organizing CSS into disparate stylesheets, I’ll know immediately where to find a style I want to change. You can do this by importing all the stylesheets into a stylesheet like so:

@import url("reset.css"); @import url("ie.css"); @import url("typography.css"); @import url("layout.css");

Let me stress, however, that this is what works for me and many other developers. You may prefer to squeeze them all in one file, and that’s okay; there’s nothing wrong with that.

But if you’re having a hard time maintaining a single file, try splitting your CSS up.

12. Not Providing a Print Stylesheet

In order to style your site on pages that will be printed, all you have to do is utilize and include a print stylesheet. It’s as easy as:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="print.css" media="print" />

Using a stylesheet for print allows you to hide elements you don’t want printed (such as your navigation menu), reset the background color to white, provide alternative typography for paragraphs so that it’s better suited on a piece of paper, and so forth. The important thing is that you think about how your page will look when printed.

Too many people just don’t think about it, so their sites will simply print the same way you see them on the screen.

I Made These 2 BEGINNER CSS Mistakes

No matter how long you've been writing code, it's always a good time to revisit the basics. While working on a project the other day, I made 2 beginner mistakes with the CSS I was writing. I misunderstood both CSS specificity and how transform:scale affects the DOM!

Stack Overflow about transform:scale - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32835144/css-transform-scale-does-not-change-dom-size
CSS Specificity - https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_specificity.asp

#css

Solwin Infotech

1620729846

Why Use WordPress? What Can You Do With WordPress?

Can you use WordPress for anything other than blogging? To your surprise, yes. WordPress is more than just a blogging tool, and it has helped thousands of websites and web applications to thrive. The use of WordPress powers around 40% of online projects, and today in our blog, we would visit some amazing uses of WordPress other than blogging.
What Is The Use Of WordPress?

WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world. It is the first choice of businesses that want to set a feature-rich and dynamic Content Management System. So, if you ask what WordPress is used for, the answer is – everything. It is a super-flexible, feature-rich and secure platform that offers everything to build unique websites and applications. Let’s start knowing them:

1. Multiple Websites Under A Single Installation
WordPress Multisite allows you to develop multiple sites from a single WordPress installation. You can download WordPress and start building websites you want to launch under a single server. Literally speaking, you can handle hundreds of sites from one single dashboard, which now needs applause.
It is a highly efficient platform that allows you to easily run several websites under the same login credentials. One of the best things about WordPress is the themes it has to offer. You can simply download them and plugin for various sites and save space on sites without losing their speed.

2. WordPress Social Network
WordPress can be used for high-end projects such as Social Media Network. If you don’t have the money and patience to hire a coder and invest months in building a feature-rich social media site, go for WordPress. It is one of the most amazing uses of WordPress. Its stunning CMS is unbeatable. And you can build sites as good as Facebook or Reddit etc. It can just make the process a lot easier.
To set up a social media network, you would have to download a WordPress Plugin called BuddyPress. It would allow you to connect a community page with ease and would provide all the necessary features of a community or social media. It has direct messaging, activity stream, user groups, extended profiles, and so much more. You just have to download and configure it.
If BuddyPress doesn’t meet all your needs, don’t give up on your dreams. You can try out WP Symposium or PeepSo. There are also several themes you can use to build a social network.

3. Create A Forum For Your Brand’s Community
Communities are very important for your business. They help you stay in constant connection with your users and consumers. And allow you to turn them into a loyal customer base. Meanwhile, there are many good technologies that can be used for building a community page – the good old WordPress is still the best.
It is the best community development technology. If you want to build your online community, you need to consider all the amazing features you get with WordPress. Plugins such as BB Press is an open-source, template-driven PHP/ MySQL forum software. It is very simple and doesn’t hamper the experience of the website.
Other tools such as wpFoRo and Asgaros Forum are equally good for creating a community blog. They are lightweight tools that are easy to manage and integrate with your WordPress site easily. However, there is only one tiny problem; you need to have some technical knowledge to build a WordPress Community blog page.

4. Shortcodes
Since we gave you a problem in the previous section, we would also give you a perfect solution for it. You might not know to code, but you have shortcodes. Shortcodes help you execute functions without having to code. It is an easy way to build an amazing website, add new features, customize plugins easily. They are short lines of code, and rather than memorizing multiple lines; you can have zero technical knowledge and start building a feature-rich website or application.
There are also plugins like Shortcoder, Shortcodes Ultimate, and the Basics available on WordPress that can be used, and you would not even have to remember the shortcodes.

5. Build Online Stores
If you still think about why to use WordPress, use it to build an online store. You can start selling your goods online and start selling. It is an affordable technology that helps you build a feature-rich eCommerce store with WordPress.
WooCommerce is an extension of WordPress and is one of the most used eCommerce solutions. WooCommerce holds a 28% share of the global market and is one of the best ways to set up an online store. It allows you to build user-friendly and professional online stores and has thousands of free and paid extensions. Moreover as an open-source platform, and you don’t have to pay for the license.
Apart from WooCommerce, there are Easy Digital Downloads, iThemes Exchange, Shopify eCommerce plugin, and so much more available.

6. Security Features
WordPress takes security very seriously. It offers tons of external solutions that help you in safeguarding your WordPress site. While there is no way to ensure 100% security, it provides regular updates with security patches and provides several plugins to help with backups, two-factor authorization, and more.
By choosing hosting providers like WP Engine, you can improve the security of the website. It helps in threat detection, manage patching and updates, and internal security audits for the customers, and so much more.

#use of wordpress #use wordpress for business website #use wordpress for website #what is use of wordpress #why use wordpress #why use wordpress to build a website

Sunny Kunde

1597848060

Top 12 Most Used Tools By Developers In 2020

rameworks and libraries can be said as the fundamental building blocks when developers build software or applications. These tools help in opting out the repetitive tasks as well as reduce the amount of code that the developers need to write for a particular software.

Recently, the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2020 surveyed nearly 65,000 developers, where they voted their go-to tools and libraries. Here, we list down the top 12 frameworks and libraries from the survey that are most used by developers around the globe in 2020.

(The libraries are listed according to their number of Stars in GitHub)

1| TensorFlow

**GitHub Stars: **147k

Rank: 5

**About: **Originally developed by researchers of Google Brain team, TensorFlow is an end-to-end open-source platform for machine learning. It has a comprehensive, flexible ecosystem of tools, libraries, and community resources that lets researchers push the state-of-the-art research in ML. It allows developers to easily build and deploy ML-powered applications.

Know more here.

2| Flutter

**GitHub Stars: **98.3k

**Rank: **9

About: Created by Google, Flutter is a free and open-source software development kit (SDK) which enables fast user experiences for mobile, web and desktop from a single codebase. The SDK works with existing code and is used by developers and organisations around the world.

#opinions #developer tools #frameworks #java tools #libraries #most used tools by developers #python tools

Karianne Durgan

1637255460