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Almost all web applications require server-based data storage, and MySQL continues to be the most-used database solution. This article discusses various options for using MySQL on your local system during development.
MySQL is a free, open-source relational database. MariaDB is a fork of the database created in 2010 following concerns about the Oracle acquisition of MySQL. (It's is functionally identical, so most of the concepts described in this article also apply to MariaDB.)
While NoSQL databases have surged in recent years, relational data is generally more practical for the majority of applications. That said, MySQL also supports NoSQL-like data structures such as JSON fields so you can enjoy the benefits of both worlds.
The following sections examine three primary ways to use MySQL in your local development environment:
cloud-based solutions
using Docker containers
installing on your PC.
Cloud-based MySQL
MySQL services are offered by AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle, and many other specialist hosting services. Even low-cost shared hosts offer MySQL with remote HTTPS or tunneled SSH connections. You can therefore use a MySQL database remotely in local development. The benefits:
no database software to install or manage
your production environment can use the same system
more than one developer can easily access the same data
it's ideal for those using cloud-based IDEs or lower-specification devices such as Chromebooks
features such as automatic scaling, replication, sharding, and backups may be included.
The downsides:
set-up can still take considerable time
connection libraries and processes may be subtly different across hosts
experimentation is more risky; any developer can accidentally wipe or alter the database
development will cease when you have no internet connection
there may be eye-watering usage costs.
A cloud-based option may be practical for those with minimal database requirements or large teams working on the same complex datasets.
Run MySQL Using Docker
Docker is a platform which allows you to build, share, and run applications in containers. Think of a container as an isolated virtual machine with its own operating system, libraries, and the application files. (In reality, containers are lightweight processes which share resources on the host.)
A Docker image is a snapshot of a file system which can be run as a container. The Docker Hub provides a wide range of images for popular applications, and databases including MySQL and MariaDB. The benefits:
all developers can use the same Docker image on macOS, Linux, and Windows
MySQL installation configuration and maintenance is minimal
the same base image can be used in development and production environments
developers retain the benefits of local development and can experiment without risk.
Docker is beyond the scope of this article, but key points to note:
Docker is a client–server application. The server is responsible for managing images and containers and can be controlled via a REST API using the command line interface. You can therefore run the server daemon anywhere and connect to it from another machine.
Separate containers should be used for each technology your web application requires. For example, your application could use three containers: a PHP-enabled Apache web server, a MySQL database, and an Elasticsearch engine.
By default, containers don’t retain state. Data saved within a file or database will be lost the next time the container restarts. Persistency is implemented by mounting a volume on the host.
Each container can communicate with others in their own isolated network. Specific ports can be exposed to the host machine as necessary.
A commercial, enterprise edition of Docker is available. This article refers to the open-source community edition, but the same techniques apply.
Install Docker
Instructions for installing the latest version of Docker on Linux are available on Docker Docs. You can also use official repositories, although these are likely to have older editions. For example, on Ubuntu:
Docker on Windows 10 uses the Hyper-V virtualization platform, which you can enable from the Turn Windows features on or off panel accessed from Programs and Features in the the Control Panel. Docker can also use the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2 — currently in beta).
To ensure Docker can access the Windows file system, choose Settings from the Docker tray icon menu, navigate to the Shared Drives pane, and check which drives the server is permitted to use.
Check Docker has successfully installed by entering docker version at your command prompt. Optionally, try docker run hello-world to verify Docker can pull images and start containers as expected.
Run a MySQL Container
To make it easier for Docker containers to communicate, create a bridged network named dbnet or whatever name you prefer (this step can be skipped if you just want to access MySQL from the host device):
docker network create --driver bridge dbnet
Now create a data folder on your system where MySQL tables will be stored — such as mkdir data.
The most recent MySQL 8 server can now be launched with:
docker run -d --rm --name mysql --net dbnet -p 3306:3306 -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=mysecret -v $PWD/data:/var/lib/mysql mysql:8
Arguments used:
-d runs the container as a background service.
--rm removes the container when it stops running.
--name mysql assigns a name of mysql to the container for easier management.
-p 3306:3306 forwards the container port to the host. If you wanted to use port 3307 on the host, you would specify -p 3307:3306.
-e defines an environment variable, in this case the default MySQL root user password is set to mysecret.
-v mounts a volume so the /var/lib/mysql MySQL data folder in the container will be stored at the current folder's data subfolder on the host.
$PWD is the current folder, but this only works on macOS and Linux. Windows users must specify the whole path using forward slash notation — such as /c/mysql/data.
The first time you run this command, MySQL will take several minutes to start as the Docker image is downloaded and the MySQL container is configured. Subsequent restarts will be instantaneous, presuming you don’t delete or change the original image. You can check progress at any time using:
docker logs mysql
Using the Container MySQL Command-line Tool
Once started, open a bash shell on the MySQL container using:
docker exec -it mysql bash
Then connect to the MySQL server as the root user:
mysql -u root -pmysecret
-p is followed by the password set in Docker's -e argument shown above. Don’t add a space!
Any MySQL commands can now be used — such as show databases;, create database new; and so on.
Use a MySQL client
Any MySQL client application can connect to the server on port 3306 of the host machine.
If you don't have a MySQL client installed, Adminer is a lightweight PHP database management tool which can also be run as a Docker container!
Instagram never ceases to amaze us, doesn’t it? The Facebook-owned media sharing service has been on a roll lately when it comes to introducing exciting features. Over the last year or so, Instagram has been emphasizing on its Story feature and for all the right reasons! Speaking about Stories, it...
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Tech companies often find themselves in the midst of controversies and there is no exception for Twitter as well. From harassment cases, child abuse, to leaked account information – the micro-blogging network has faced, apologized, and rectified it all. Now, it has another issue creeping on its...
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A business cannot survive without CRM software—you need it to manage customer contacts, track leads, and manage your finances. A CRM system can help you streamline your business systems and have all customer details in one place.
What is CRM Software?
CRM (customer relationship management)software is a tool that helps automate and manage the relationship between your customers and the sales and marketing department. It serves to consolidate every aspect of the relationship with customers, hence improving performance and increasing productivity.
One of the biggest challenges that a business owner faces is to manage their multiple projects and tasks. Also, they have to track client and staff activities, plan upcoming events, and a lot more.
Here are some of the best-selling CRM and project management scripts on CodeCanyon for 2020.
At CodeCanyon, you will find the right CRM software for freelancers, as well as any business that requires this type of software. Some of the features of these CRM and project management software include:
proposals and invoices
expense tracking
receiving payments with just one click
chat systems for communicating with staff and clients
reports
payment systems
A good CRM system will allow you to:
know every customer's name, contact info, interests, and even address
see what products and services a client is interested in based on their inquiries, searches, or purchases
prioritize business leads
automate repetitive processe
9 Best CRM and Project Management Scripts on CodeCanyon
Let's look at some of the trending CRM and project management scripts available at CodeCanyon.
Freelance Cockpit 3 is a simple CRM that allows you to stay organized so you can have the time to focus on getting work done. Freelance Cockpit provides a lot of features such as:
messaging platform
invoicing
supports ticketing for clients
Gantt charts for every project
dedicated client portal where clients can view the status of their projects and invoices
calendar which supports Google integration
email notifications
payment methods such as PayPal and Stripe
ability to assign different states for projects (On Hold, Not Started, Started, or Ended)
Perfex is the perfect solution to organize tasks and send out invoices, all from one place. One of the most outstanding features of this CRM is that you can set up an auto backup of your database each X days to prevent data loss, and you also get encryption for your data.
Some of the best features of this Perfex include:
built-in calendar where you can view tasks, contracts, and invoices in one place
full-featured customer area
project proposal creation tool
goal tracking and reporting all in one place
lead management tool
reporting, invoicing system, and electronic signatures
ticketing system
payment systems such as Paypal, Stripe, Mollie, Authorize.net, 2Checkout, PayU Money and Braintree etc.
Ekushey is an advanced and powerful CRM which allows you to manage projects, team tasks, and client communication in a single place, in a convenient way.
clients can view the status of their projects, make payment and get developer support
staff will manage assigned projects
perform assigned tasks and provide client support
Some of the notable features of this tool include:
informative dashboard which shows your business summary including event, calendar as well as financial analysis
utility sidebar where you can note down and manage emergency todos
client and staff manager
project progress system and project discussion wall
Rise is a multipurpose software package which can cater to all types of organizations. You can use it to manage projects, tasks, clients, invoices, teams, support tickets, or estimates. If you are looking to stay organized at the same time manage your business, this is the right tool for you. It includes all the essential tools to manage your business and stay organized.
Features include:
online payment where you can send invoices and get payments
project activity logs allow you to check the activities of your team, clients, and members
track expenses, and view graphical reports
ability to enable or disable modules to fit your business
a chat feature where you can chat with your clients and team members
Managing a school is a Herculean project, with many staff and continuously changing students. Luckily, there is the Ora School Suite. Ora is school management at your fingertips, 24/7 on the web and mobile devices. Everything to do with managing a school is included
From the dashboard, you can manage:
employees, teachers, and students
schedules, including calendars of events and vacations
chat with students, parents, or potential customers
sending SMS notifications
invoices and payments
Just take a look at some of the screens from the dashboard. In this screen, you can see the invoices panel of the dashboard, with other panels showing news and messages to be answered
And here is a look at the inquiries dashboard, which lets you manage and respond to any incoming leads or questions.
Ciuis CRM is a simple CRM tool that allows you to create projects as well as proposals. When it comes to invoicing, Ciuis CRM will enable you to invoice your projects by working hours. It also allows you to track your payments. It also features a simple design that makes it super easy to use.
Other features include:
reports to keep track of your financial situation
voice notification
fully responsive design and mobile-friendly interface
ability to create and track expenses
reports for invoices, customers, support and sales
TITAN has many powerful features designed to allow you to manage unlimited projects, teams of users, essential tasks, and so much more.
Some features include:
live chat with your team
assign tasks for individual team members and receive alerts when tasks are complete
plan the progression of your project
use templates to set up recurring invoices and invoices for one-off payments
ticket system where clients can request customer support
Converting leads to clients has never been easier since Titan lets you build custom forms to send to clients and receive valuable feedback. Their responses are then stored in the Titan Project Management System!
If you need a comprehensive, all-in-one solution that brings together CRM, human resources management, and project management, the Ultimate Project Manager CRM Pro is the best choice.
Project components include:
proposals
estimates
expenses
time tracking
invoicing
project reporting
Human resources management components include:
recruitment
payroll
salary template
leave management
All this comes with a complete client management package!
Other great features include a powerful file manager and a knowledge base section where you can curate articles that are useful to your clients.
It also supports eight different payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Authorize, Mollie, Braintree, CCAvenue, and more.
WORKSUITE can be accessed on a laptop, mobile, or tablet. Its responsive design ensures clear data visibility on all types of devices.
Some features of this system include:
teams and departments can share knowledge and keep organized
real-time messaging helps team members to communicate
reports to analyze what's working and what's not
integrated with Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, AWS, and PayPal
can be accessed on laptop, mobile, or tablet
Free CRM & Project Management Plugins
Premium CRM and project management PHP scrips are more advanced in terms of features and performance. However, i have put together a collection of free scripts that can be of help in you are not yet sure or are on a budget.
WP-CRM allows you to organize and manage your users using custom attributes and filters, as well as keep track of correspondence. This CRM can effectively manage all parties in your business.
Zero BS Wordpress CRM is a simple CRM perfect for ecommerce sites, agencies, freelancers and small businesses. In addition, Zero BS is adaptable & extendible to other kinds of groups.
WP ERP is the first full-fledged ERP system through which you can manage your WordPress site and business from a single platform. It provides three core modules; HR, CRM, and Accounting.
Features of the CRM module include:
contacts with life stages and contact groups
filter contacts
schedule calls meetings & directly
make notes for each customer
activity logs
CRM activity reports such as customers and business growth
Conclusion
A functional CRM and project management system is a huge asset. It comes with features designed to help you keep your customers happy and coming back. It increases your efficiency and productivity by automating day-to-day tasks. It helps you build confidence in your customers. The payoffs are enormous and will help you keep your customers happy and coming back.
Here is a nightmare customer service situation. You have written notes down in different computer files, napkins, and notebooks, and you don’t have all the details in one place. You forget an important follow-up appointment. You don’t call at the time you promised. Not good for the longevity of your business, right?
As a freelancer or a small business, your growth and continuity depend on the way you build trust with customers and potential customers. Boosting customer satisfaction requires you to be on top of small details. CRM and project management systems help you do just that.
Understanding CRM
Think of a neighborhood corner store. The store serves local needs. The owner knows the customers who shop there and what they frequently buy. She knows what kind of tools they like, and if they’re out of stock, she suggests something similar. How’s that for personalized customer experience? She even knows about the personal life of her customers—family, work, sports teams they like. This is an example of customer relationship management on a very neighborhood brick-and-mortar scale.
You may not have that kind of interaction with your online customers, but you can still build and maintain personalized business relationships with them. You can know their names, phone numbers, and addresses. You can track products and services they’ve purchased. You can see what products and services they’re interested in based on their search history. You can suggest more products and services based on their inquiries, searches, or purchases. You can prioritize business leads. You can automate repetitive processes.
But how does a business build and maintain relationships with its customers? How does it identify and fulfill their needs? How does it identify and follow up on business leads? Don’t forget that in this day and age, customers want a personalized experience.
Here is where a CRM system comes in: to help you with the day-to-day management of your customer relationships, sales, and marketing.
What Is a CRM?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. A CRM system can help you:
interact effectively with your customers or potential customers
manage day-to-day aspects of your customer relationships, sales, and marketing
automate repetitive processes for efficiency and productivity
track and make sense of customer data
The end result of this is customer satisfaction!
Types of CRM
Operational CRMs: the most common and popular type. They help with managing the day-to-day details of your business. They automate sales, marketing, and customer service operations.
Analytical CRMs: analyze customer data that has been gathered from different sources.
Collaborative CRMs: share company data across different departments within a business.
What Does a CRM System Do?
Manage Contacts: stores and organizes data about customers, clients, and leads, including preferred method of contact.
Track Communications: records detailed notes on interaction with customers, clients and leads like emails exchanged, what products they’re interested in, orders, frequency of purchases, returns, complaints, etc.
Automate Workflow: creates task lists, reminders for appointments, calendars, alerts and templates that will help streamline your dealings with customers.
Generate Reports: tracks and analyzes data, giving you the information necessary to grow your business—for example, how to focus your marketing efforts.
Why Should You Use a CRM?
A CRM allows you to prioritize your leads and get started with turning them into customers—that way, you maximize your business opportunities. By automating day-to-day tasks, you are freed up to focus on the most important business functions, making you efficient and productive. Finally, happy customers means return customers.
Even if your business is small, it could be worthwhile starting with a CRM. As your business grows, a CRM system grows with you.
So let’s have a look at some of the best CRM and project management plugins available on CodeCanyon.
Freelancers and small businesses can streamline their project management, from the first estimate to the final billing and everything in between, with Freelance Cockpit 3.
This CRM and project management PHP script is a small investment with huge payoffs.
Here's a quick look at some of the included features:
several invoice payment options, including PayPal, Stripe, and others
project timer and optional Google Calendar integration
track expenses and send estimates
set up recurring invoices
private messaging
and much, much more
As a freelancer, this is top of my list of possible solutions to organize and execute projects.
Freelance Cockpit 3 brings all the important information together, so you can focus more on what you do best.
This CRM and project management solution is more than just a way to organize your tasks and easily send out invoices. Perfex is about customer relationships.
Provide your client with more than just a good product; offer them the kind of customer relationship they won't be able to find anywhere else.
You'll find lots of helpful features in this system:
see your invoices, contracts, tasks, and more in the built-in calendar
create a customer knowledge base
goal tracking and reporting
full-featured customer area
lead management tool
I found the project proposal creation tool and helpful customer service toolset to be one of the best you'll find. This isn't just something to make your business run better, it's a new service you can offer your clients.
Every CRM and project management system has its own angle, and Perfex's niche is to offer top-notch tools for your customers.
While this CRM and project management app serves freelancers well, it adds another layer that small businesses with multiple team members will find extremely helpful. Ekushey Project Manager CRM introduces a full-featured project space that makes collaborating much more efficient:
discuss the project with clients on a "wall"
organize and share your tasks, notes, and files
use the timesheet and accept payments
Additional features include:
multi-language and currency support
Dropbox integration
sidebar to-do lists
and much more
I especially like the intuitive client and profile overviews and the ease of adding people to projects.
Ekushey is a robust CRM and project management tool that's useful for freelancers and powerful enough for businesses with many team members.
Here is why I like RISE: its clean and easy-to-navigate dashboard. This simplifies management of clients, projects, and team members.
Its features include the ability to:
share notes, documents, and project progress with team members
track time each member spends on the project
view stats related to each project on one screen
track project expenses
send invoices as PDF copy via email
Not only that, but clients can pay you directly through RISE via PayPal or Stripe.
Installation is very simple, and you can install the updates from within the app. But don’t take my word for how great it is—go to the demo and try for yourself!
Managing a school is a Herculean project, with many staff and constantly changing students. Luckily, there is the Ora School Suite. This is school management at your fingertips, 24/7 on the web and on mobile devices. Literally everything to do with managing a school is included.
From the dashboard, you can manage:
employees, teachers, and students
schedules, including calendars of events and vacations
communication with students, parents, or potential customers
sending SMS notifications
invoices and payments
Just take a look at some of the screens from the dashboard. In this screen, you can see the invoices panel of the dashboard, with other panels showing news and messages to be answered.
And here is a look at the enquiries dashboard, which lets you manage and respond to any incoming leads or questions.
"... it deserves 5 stars. Honest this the best school management web application I have today, everything is well done. The pages open quickly. In short, a great job."
"Being a coder myself I have build my own CRM before, but this is just on another level. If you are thinking of getting a CRM you have come to the right place."
TITAN has many powerful features designed to allow you to manage unlimited projects, teams of users, important tasks, and so much more.
Some features include:
live chat with your team
assign tasks for individual team members and receive alerts when they're done
plan the progression of your project
use templates to set up recurring invoices and invoices for one-off payments
ticket system where clients can request customer support
Converting leads to clients has never been easier, since Titan lets you build custom forms to send to clients and receive valuable feedback. Their responses will then be stored in the Titan Project Management System!
If you need a comprehensive, all-in-one solution that brings together CRM, human resources management, and project management, the Ultimate Project Manager CRM Pro is the best choice.
Project components include:
proposals
estimates
expenses
time tracking
invoicing
project reporting
Human resources management components include:
recruitment
payroll
salary template
leave management
All this comes with a very complete client management package!
Other great features include a powerful file manager and a knowledge base section where you can curate articles that are useful to your clients.
In addition, it supports eight different payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Authorize, Mollie, Braintree, CCAvenue, and more.
"Powerful CRM is a mostly all-in-one solution for managing our firm and projects. This product is specifically designed to support the complete project lifecycle of professional services firms."
"A very well-made application. High level of functionality and very professionally written code. Definitely too low price for such a powerful tool. I highly recommend it!!!"
Conclusion
A good CRM and project management system is a huge asset. It comes with features designed to help you keep your customers happy and coming back. It increases your efficiency and productivity by automating day-to-day tasks. It helps you build confidence in your customers. The payoffs are huge. You keep your customers happy and coming back.
For more CRM and project management PHP scripts, take a look at Envato Market or at our other posts here on Envato Tuts+.
