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Monthly Archives: December 2015

Understanding PSD to Magento Theme Conversion in Just 5 Steps

Magento is considered to be the most popular ecommerce framework and it runs on PHP and supports extensive visual as well as UI customization. With over 240,000 users, it is an ecommerce platform that allows business owners to sale online various products and services. If you have an elegant design and you are willing to convert it to a Magento theme, then it is very important to convert the PSD files into /CSS.

Here in this blog, I will discuss with you the steps that are involved in the conversion process.

PSD to Magento conversion involves the process that converts different layers into the Magento HTML format while offering the exact functionalities as defined in the initial requirements.

Prepare The PSD Files: The first step of the conversion process is to get the PSD files by using Adobe Photoshop image editing software or some other tools. Developers should analyze them and make a plan to suit the web requirements. Create designs that are clean and consider the color, font and logo.

Slice the PSD Template: Designers are usually comfortable to create designs by using Photoshop. But such files cannot be directly loaded onto the website. For this, the Photoshop file has to be sliced up so that it can be used for the Magento theme. This is an important step where the static designs are partitioned to encode them effectively. There should be separate templates for each page of the site.

PSD to XHTML/CSS Conversion: Once the slicing is done, the next step is HTML and CSS format conversion of the static files.  Since PSD based image files are not compatible with web browsers, so the sliced image files are converted into XHTML/CSS markup files. The HTML/CSS files should be hand coded, cross browser compatible, W3C valid, clean, fully optimized and SEO semantic.

psd-to-magento-conversion
HTML to Magento Integration
: The next step is to integrate the HTML and CSS coded files into a Magento theme. The markup files are integrated with Magento powered theme or templates to make the website live. This integration ensures responsive theme to make them visible on different screens and devices without any hassles. Directories, sub-directories and folders must be created in this step.

Add Relevant Data and Test the App: The final step involves adding relevant data like categories, products, descriptions, prices and images to your online shopping store. After the data is added, the store should be checked for cross browser and mobile compatibility.

I hope the above steps will help you to clearly understand the PSD to Magento conversion process and help you to create a fully-fledged and interactive shopping store.

 

A Comparison Of Best Open Source CMSs: Joomla, Drupal, Umbraco

For those who are willing to create a powerful website that can help to boost the business and reach out to more audience, it is vital to understand the various CMS options before them. Each CMS comes with their own features and are capable of satisfying various business needs. But it is you, who have to decide on the best platform and check whether it suits your specific business needs or not. Here in this blog, I will compare the most popular CMSs Joomla, Drupal and Umbraco so that you can easily select one without putting much effort searching for the various technical aspects of the frameworks.

Joomla

It is one of the most preferred CMS applications and has been considered by developers because of its powerful features and wide range of functionalities. It is a software that is used to create, organize, publish and manage the content for websites, blogs, mobile apps and intranets. Owning to its MVC architecture, it is a great base for web apps and holds about 9% of the market share. It supports multilingual website development and offers various extensions for added functionalities. The One Click version update feature makes it very easy for the users having any skill levels. Not only this, Joomla development also supports

  • Banner Management,
  • Content Versioning
  • Front-end Editing
  • News-feed Management
  • Nested Categorization
  • Huge Community Support

drupalvjoomlavumbraco

Drupal

Drupal content management features make it easy for the developers to create and manage the web content easily. It is a fully featured CMS that can be infinitely enhanced through the installation of various modules or even by customized development. While  the standard installation configuration is Apache, Linux and MySQL, it can also be installed on Windows servers running IIS  and Microsoft SQL server, Solaris, Mac OS X BSD if needed. Some important features of Drupal are

  • Granular user management
  • Flexible taxonomy and Menu structures
  • Standard templates and themes
  • Multiple content types
  • Device specific display
  • Content syndication and administration
  • Tracking and statistics
  • Contributed modules

Umbraco

Umbraco development is an open source CMS that offers great flexibility to run anything from brochure sites to small campaigns to even complex applications. It is very easy to learn thereby making it perfect for web developers, designers and content creators. Strongly supported by an active community, it is backed by solid commercial organizations that offer professional support and tools. Some of it features include:

  • Simple and easy editing interface
  • Microsoft word integration
  • Permission based access levels
  • Version control option
  • Multilingual capabilities
  • Media library
  • Easy control of markups and templates layout
  • Documentation and community support

 

I hope this blog will help you to quickly understand the features of the popular CMS frameworks and choose the best according to your business needs.

iOS or Android – What Is Best For You?

While buying a smartphone, the biggest question that you might face is which operating system to go for. Whether you are an Apple fan or a Google lover, the decision totally depends on your requirements and the comfort zone you want to enjoy. The same thing happened with me too when I was planning to get myself a smartphone. With iOS app development and Android app development companies always coming up with exciting and amazing applications every now and then for the user, there is a stiff competition between both of them to capture the market base.

Here in this blog, I will share with you some important features of both the OS platforms that can help you to decide which phone is best for you.

ios-vs-android
iOS tends to appeal to the consumers who are looking for ease of use, high quality third party apps, reliability and security.

iOS Keeps Working: Apple’s operating system is reliable though at times there may be occasional bugs, they are quickly fixed. Unlike Android, apps on iOS can’t directly access the operating system, which means that even if they crash, your phone would work fine. All you need to do is to restart the app. This is not so with Android.

High Quality Apps: Most iOS or Android developers usually release their apps on both the platforms, but many choose to release first on iOS as it is easy to develop apps on the platform and offers high quality. The platform is also consistent across all the devices, making updates easy with the new release of versions. Android is a fragmented OS and most devices don’t run the latest version, making development harder.

Secured Operating System: Apple manually inspects every single app that has been posted on the iOS App Store before making it available to the public. This keeps any malware or virus from infecting your phone and the theft prevention software in the OS also makes it easy to track the phone, in case it is stolen.

On the other hand, Android has become the most popular mobile OS because some of its features are appealing to the consumers:

Easily Customizable: Android offers much more flexibility when you are willing to change the look and feel of your phone with little technical knowledge. Every part of the interface from fonts to icons can be switched out or tweaked. In simple words, you have more control on your phone.

New Features and Technologies: Features like IR blaster or NFC chips are available on Android phones. Unique and extra features allow you to use your phone in different ways while having fun.

Reasonable Price Range: Android has gained much popularity in the market as most of the phones offered by the manufacturers are available at various price ranges for you to pick from.

I hope the above comparison will surely help you to take a decision while choosing the best smartphone.