Launching soon page announcing the upcoming single "Waiting On You" from artist 'Darkly'. The One Page website features a neat hover-sensitive parallax effect.
by Rob Hope via One Page Love
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
How Can the ELK Stack Be Used to Monitor PHP Apps?
This article was peer reviewed by Christopher Thomas, Younes Rafie, and Scott Molinari. Thanks to all of SitePoint’s peer reviewers for making SitePoint content the best it can be!
When things go south with our applications -- as they sometimes do, whether we like it or not -- our log files are normally among the first places where we go when we start the troubleshooting process. The big “but” here is that despite the fact that log files contain a wealth of helpful information about events, they are usually extremely difficult to decipher.
A modern web application environment consists of multiple log sources, which collectively output thousands of log lines written in unintelligible machine language. If you, for example, have a LAMP stack set up, then you have PHP, Apache, and MySQL logs to go through. Add system and environment logs into the fray -- together with framework-specific logs such as Laravel logs -- and you end up with an endless pile of machine data.
Talk about a needle in a haystack.
The ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana) is quickly becoming the most popular way to handle this challenge. Already the most popular open-source log analysis platform -- with 500,000 downloads a month, according to Elastic -- ELK is a great way to centralize logs from multiple sources, identify correlations, and perform deep-data analysis.
Elasticsearch is a search-and-analytics engine based on Apache Lucene that allows users to search and analyze large amounts of data in almost real time. Logstash can ingest and forward logs from anywhere to anywhere. Kibana is the stack’s pretty face -- a user interface that allows you to query, visualize, and explore Elasticsearch data easily.
This article will describe how to set up the ELK Stack on a local development environment, ship web server logs (Apache logs in this case) into Elasticsearch using Logstash, and then analyze the data in Kibana.
Installing Java
The ELK Stack requires Java 7 and higher (only Oracle’s Java and the OpenJDK are supported), so as an initial step, update your system and run the following:
sudo apt-get install default-jre
Installing ELK
There are numerous ways of installing the ELK Stack -- you can use Docker, Ansible, Vagrant, Microsoft Azure, AWS, or a hosted ELK solution -- just take your pick. There is a vast number of tutorials and guides that will help you along the way, one being this ELK Stack guide that we at Logz.io put together.
Continue reading %How Can the ELK Stack Be Used to Monitor PHP Apps?%
by Daniel Berman via SitePoint
The 7 Cross-Browser Testing Tools You Need in 2016
Even with responsive design and ever-improving standards support, cross-browser issues are not a thing of the past. Since it's neither possible nor feasible to manually test your site in the galaxy of popular browsers and OS's in broad use today, cross-browser testing tools come to the rescue!
In the past we have covered both free cross-browser testing tools and paid cross-browser testing tools and the lists are not totally outdated. Many of the tools in this article have been around for years and fortunately, unlike some of the other tools, they still are.
So, here are the 7 cross-browser testing tools – both free and paid – I find especially useful.
1. Browsershots
Browsershots is a simple and very useful tool. It's a free tool but it does provide functionalities you won't find in any other tool, paid ones included.
The service is just a screenshot of how a site looks like in a range of browsers. However, the list of supported browsers is huge. You can also select the screen size, color depth, whether to check or not for issues with JavaScript (and which JavaScript version), Java and Flash.
The free service doesn't offer much in the way of scripting and navigation testing and frequently takes a long time to return the results. There are no mobile browsers but it still offers a lot for a service that doesn't ask for anything. It's great for a preview before showing a page to a client.
If you require more features and priority testing, you can switch to the paid version for $29.95 a month.
2. Browser Sandbox
Another cross-browser testing tool with a good list of browsers is Browser Sandbox. Unfortunately, this tool is only useful for Windows users. Though this isn't great news for Linux and Mac OS folks, the developers promise a Mac version is coming soon.
Otherwise, the list of supported browsers is good, including IE, Firefox, Chrome, Chromium Canary, Firefox Mobile, Safari, Opera, and Firefox Nightly. The limitation of the free service is that it allows testing in the latest version of each browser only.
If you need access to older browsers versions, you'll need to get a plan. Thankfully, they are inexpensive with the personal plans starting at $4.95 a month.
3. IE Testers
If Internet Explorer is the browser of primary interest to you and you want to test your site in it, there are a couple of free IE testers you might want to consider.
Netrenderer
With Net Renderer you can test your site in IE 5.5 to 11. It's a quick and straightforward tool, though it doesn't come with tons of features.
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge is a complete platform that goes beyond testing in IE only. As a matter of fact, it offers screenshots of your site in other browsers and on various mobile devices, too. The reason I've bracketed it with the IE testers group is that it offers virtual machines with different IE versions only and that it7 Cross-browser Testing Tools offers the Azure Remote App that allows you to remotely test in IE.
My Debugbar
Finally, My DebugBar, also known as IETester, is one more tool to use if you want to test in IE. Unlike Net Renderer, this is a 60MB desktop app. It requires download and works only on Windows.
IETester has some known and well-documented limitations, so before you begin melting down over horrendous test results, make yourself aware of the bugs in the tool.
4. Webshot by Mobile Ready
Unlike most of the other services, Webshot is a tool to test mobile cross-browser compatibility only. It's a free offering but it requires registration.
As of the time of writing this article, Webshot wasn't working – at least not for me. I am getting an Internal Server Error when I try to register. A couple of weeks ago I sent the developer an email about the issue – no response so far. That's obviously not promising for the future.
Nevertheless, I've left it this list because it offers something worthwhile IF it gets fixed.
5. Browsera
My section covering paid cross-browser testing tools starts with Browsera. This is a very thorough suite and you definitely know what you are getting for your money. With Browsera, you can test layout, JavaScript, dynamic pages, password-protected pages, etc.
It requires no installation. You can sign for a 30-day free trial. They also offer a very limited free account and plans from $39 to $99.
6. CrossBrowserTesting
What I really like about this tool is that it uses real devices to run the browsers on. While emulators basically do a great job, nothing beats the real thing. The features list is really good and CrossBrowserTesting certainly is worth its money. I believe their list of supported browsers and operating systems is the largest in the industry – 900 browsers across more than 40 operating systems, including iOS, Android, Windows, Mac and more.
I also like their live testing feature. With it, you can test your pages in a real environment. You can test AJAX, HTML forms, JavaScript, Flash. Among its other noteworthy features are local testing, Selenium tests (write automated scripts), and screenshots comparisons.
Plans start from $29 a month and there is a 7-day free trial.
7. BrowserStack
BrowserStack is another big name in the industry. It's great for mobile testing (real physical devices, as you can expect) but it also supports 700+ desktop browsers.
It also offers local testing, quick screenshots, as well as resolutions from 800x600 to 2048x1536. Similarly to its CrossBrowserTesting competitor, plans start from $29 a month but they also have a cheaper limited offer of $12.50/mo for Freelancers. For eligible open source projects, they even offer free services.
There are many more paid services but I can't list them all. I've included only the most popular ones because not all paid services offered good value for the money. The free services are also great, though they certainly lack many essential features. Try the services listed and see which ones you find the most useful.
Continue reading %The 7 Cross-Browser Testing Tools You Need in 2016%
by Ada Ivanoff via SitePoint
10 Development Assets to Help You Kickstart Your Next Project
Starting a new website or app from scratch is exciting, even if the road ahead is a long one. We can take a different route though, one that involves sourcing ready-made code assets and building upon them, cutting development times, and better yet, development costs. Let’s take a look at 10 development assets from Codester that can help you kickstart your next venture.
Codester is an online marketplace that sells ready-to-use web development assets to developers and designers who are looking for the advantages outlined above. Codester sells PHP scripts, app templates, WordPress themes, PrestaShop themes, logo templates and graphics.
Videogator — Video Sharing PHP Script
Video is one of the most digestible types of media — it’s fun, informative, and the level of engagement is usually higher than other types of media. Videogator is a PHP script that offers a barebones social video-sharing network in the style of Google’s “Material Design”, and with an easy-to-use CMS to help manage video imports from YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion.
Word Search Game — Android Source Code
Word Search: Malay is a hugely successful 4-star word-search app for Android with over 500,000 downloads. You can build your own version of the application (in a different language or with different a design) using the source code as a base.
TheFour - Business WordPress Theme
If you need a responsive website design with beautiful typography and a tonne of flexible options, built with clean HTML and LESS-compiled CSS, then this Wordpress theme is for you. Better yet, it has social sharing buttons built-in and two stunning (and highly customisable) “big header” components — one for the homepage, and another for the blog layout.
WordPress Mobile Pack PRO
Wordpress Mobile Pack allows you to run a different version of your website on mobile devices. Instead of offering a complete responsive solution you’ll repurpose your content for the mobile web and style it to look like a cross-platform mobile app. You can even add it to the home screen of your device and view the “app” in full-screen. It’s still HTML, but without all of the desktop-version markup that a mobile website really doesn’t need.
Tower Cafe - Restaurant PrestaShop Theme
PrestaShop is used by 250,000 e-commerce stores worldwide, an ideal choice for anybody wanting to setup shop in the online world. While aimed at restaurant-themed websites, this easy-to-install PrestaShop theme can be adapted for any inventory, and with it’s dark visual aesthetic and sidebar navigation you can sport something both minimal and trendy.
Continue reading %10 Development Assets to Help You Kickstart Your Next Project%
by Daniel Schwarz via SitePoint
Sourcehunt: Emerging Tech Edition
In October 2015, we introduced Sourcehunt in the PHP Channel. The goal of Sourcehunt here at SitePoint was to help open source projects find new contributors, while also helping contributors gain experience and street cred by getting involved in an open source project. With this same goal, we launched Sourcehunt on the Design channel 2 months later. In this article, we're bringing it to a whole new area that is growing here at SitePoint — emerging tech!
Synergy is the keyword here. Leaving a mark on an open source project can have a great impact on future projects. I've personally been very fortunate to volunteer and contribute to projects like Mozilla or Fedora. Contributing to these projects prepared me for other more demanding projects, which would pay my bills at the end of the day. If you are able to set a few hours aside to work on side projects like these, you will see the advantages in no time!
In this edition, we will be focusing on open source projects in the Emerging Tech sector. Specifically, 3 projects from the fields of virtual reality, the Internet of Things and augmented reality. We will present a short introduction to the project, how you can contribute and conclude each with the main programming languages and license used in each project. Ready? Let's dive in.
OSVR
OSVR is an open-source software platform for virtual and augmented reality. It allows discovery, configuration and operation of hundreds of VR/AR devices and peripherals. OSVR supports multiple game engines, and operating systems and provides services such as asynchronous time warp and direct mode in support of low-latency rendering.
The name says it — Open Source Virtual Reality. Pretty damn exciting for gamers and open source lovers alike! It is especially exciting as it's maintained by Razer, a gaming hardware manufacturer that is quite popular among gamers. Another maintainer of OSVR is Sensics.
The project is relatively complex, with a lot of development, discussions and tracking not happening in a central place. However, when looking for help, a way to contribute, or how to dive into development, the first place to check out is the OSVR GitHub repo. Check out the repo's issue list if you want to help out in any specific ways. They are neatly labelled for easy inspection:
The OSVR developer portal is the hub for getting involved in the project. To get started, check out the following:
- Slides & Presentations
- List of Compatible Devices / Systems / Frameworks
- Gitter Chat Rooms
- Newsletter & Mailing Lists
If you want to work on your first bug, you should look out for the red "bug" labels and start working on them.
Bonus
If you have some spare funds, have a look at the OSVR HDK (Hacker Development Kit). It is fully open source, and the hardware schematics are free for anyone to download and tweak. If you want to go a step further, have a look.
Programming Languages & License
Over 69.3% of the code is written in C++, 21.4% in CMake and 4.4% C.
The code is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. Check out my article explaining open source licenses as well, if you are interested to know more about that license.
Kaa
With the rise of the Internet of Things, concerns of security and privacy flaws have emerged as well. A certain project named Kaa aims to change that.
Kaa is a production-ready, multi-purpose middleware platform for building complete end-to-end IoT solutions, connected applications, and smart products. The Kaa platform provides an open, feature-rich toolkit for the IoT product development and thus dramatically reduces associated cost, risks, and time-to-market.
Sounds promising, right? Kaa is completely open source and free (free as in freedom and free beer). It offers both community support and commercial support. In this article, we will focus on the community aspect and how you can get involved.
Continue reading %Sourcehunt: Emerging Tech Edition%
by Elio Qoshi via SitePoint
This Week's HTML5 and Browser Technology News (Issue 239)
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Weekly
by via HTML5 Weekly
This Week in Mobile Web Development (#107)
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Chris Brandrick recommends
Brian Rinaldi recommends
Holly Schinsky recommends
by via Mobile Web Weekly
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