Category: Website Design

  • Website Content Management System

    Website Content Management System

    In this article, we will get an overview of website Content Management System (CMS).

    When first website was put on internet, it was created using HTML language that had specific HTML tags surrounding the actual contents of the website. It was information availability across globe 24 by 7 that made world wide web popular and many websites soon were developed with HT ML. 

    Whenever these website contents required updates, it was a job of website developer to rebuild entire HTML page, taking care of HTML tags and layout in a way to make updated contents readable. These are termed as static webpages because content remains static to HTML page. 

    This limitation was soon realized considering the need to provide updated information more often and periodically. Managing HTML pages became costly affair and need arised to separate website content from webpage’s technical layout. These are called dynamic webpages. Contents are primarily pulled from database through query scripts and are populated into final webpaage. 

    This separation of content from HTML gave birth to Content Management System.  A system that allows to create, edit and delete webpage content without having a technical knowledge of webpage developer, is called Content Management System.

    Key features of CMS:

    1. A simple web content editor that gives visual display of webpage layout so that user doesn’t have to take a wild guess on how the final webpage will look like.

    2. Variety of webpage templates to choose from library. Templates are like blueprint of website. They define overall webpage structure, text area, images area, navigation bars, etc.

    3. Variety of webpage themes to choose from library. Themes give look and feel of final webpage. They define font types, font sizes, color schemes, etc.

    4. Version control of contents for traceability of webpage content updates.

    5. Archive of contents for making webpage lighter with relevant content and for maintaining historical data.

    6. Scheduling of content so that periodic content updates are reflected timely and accurately on final webpages.

    Based on your business type, your website can make use of Content Management System to work on its contents –

    eCommerce – An online store has a huge advatange of adding, deleting products using CMS. And to make end customer’s online shopping experience delightful, a shopping cart option is provided by CMS.

    Blog – If your website has a free flowing information updated regularly, such as blogs, CMS provides good option to create, edit and delete blog contents.

    Small businesses – Small businesses can make use of SEO friendly CMS to increase visibility of their websites.

    There are variety of CMS softwares to choose as per your business type. There are open source options as well as paid options. Some of the good CMS softwares are WordPress, Magento, Drupal and Joomla.

    Magento is good for ecommerce website. 

    For blogging, WordPress is good. 

    Drupal is good for small businesses who wants to take care of SEO as well. 

    Joomla is good for small businesses who want cheap and easy maintenance of website.

    Overall, WordPress is rated high as the best CMS available in the industry.

    We, at Butterfly Themes, have designed and developed CMS websites in WordPress, Magento and Drupal.  

    In this article, we have seen website Content Management System overview.

    Have any questions or suggestions for us?

    Kindly ping us at support@butterflythemes.com or call us on 9930447774.

  • Cloud Computing Overview

    Cloud Computing Overview

    Cloud Computing Overview

    As technology is advancing day by day, we see that websites are now hosted in cloud instead of a standalone web hosting server. In this article, you will get an overview of cloud computing.

    Software application runs on a server hosted in your premises. This application provides specific software services to cater needs of your day-to-day business. With internet coming into picture, this delivery model slowly changed. We saw its first version in web email services like hotmail. 

    At the simplest form, we can say – When software services are published over internet (without a hosting server in your premise) and are consumed over internet is called cloud computing.  

    In its broad umbrella, cloud computing is a technology of software development, deployment and delivery/consumption of software services over internet.

    The unique advantage of such delivery model over internet is it is available from anywhere and any time. And key technological characteristic of cloud computing is virtualization.

    For application to run, we first needed a physical server/hardware platform, with operating system installed, with so and so  storage capacity. Virtualization is a technology that simulates hardware platform, operating system and storage device. This gives us Virtual Machines.

    At heart of cloud architecture, it has Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). 

    IaaS – When cloud provider offers infrastructure components such as hosting server, data center on cloud in form of Virtual Machines, it is Infrastructure as a Service.

    PaaS –   When cloud provider offers virtualized platform such as operating system, database or web server to develop, deploy and publish software service, it is called Platform as a Service.

    SaaS – When service provider offers software application over internet/cloud, it is called Software as a Service.

    At the back of cloud, we have a shared pool of resources – servers, platforms, databases and applications. We use a slice of this shared pool via virtualization, as per our business need and pay only for that. With this slice, we are able to launch our service to end customers for consumption over internet.

    Advantages of cloud computing –

    Since you do not own infrastructure and platform, it reduces cost significantly in terms of just rent being paid for virtual infrastructure and platform on cloud.

    This also removes headache of maintaining infrastructure and platform by yourself. This is now done by cloud provider.

    This means you are able to concentrate on your core business function without hassle of its IT management.

    Cloud gives scalable infrastructure. So as you grow,  let your virtual infrastructure expand instead of being stuck in fixed innfrastructure setup. This gives flexibility of scale up or scale down as per current  business and pay as per use of infrastructure.

    With demanding change in technology, cloud gives you handle to upgrade infrastructure and platform as and when needed. So that your software is not running on outdated technology.

    Cloud follows and implements necessary regulatory compliance and robust security, so that you can concentrate on your business solution.

    Cloud Web Hosting

    When you use virtual infrastructure (IaaS) and virtual platform (PaaS) given by a cloud provider and host your website on cloud, it is called as Cloud Web Hosting.

    We, at Butterfly Themes implement cloud web hosting to launch your website.

    Have any questions or suggestions for us?

    Kindly ping us at support@butterflythemes.com or call us on 9930447774.

  • Agile Methodology to manage software development projects

    Agile Methodology to manage software development projects

    In this article, we will briefly talk about Agile Methodology to manage software development projects.

    Project Management for software development came from a traditional thought of assembly line of factory. There is a definite sequence or phase for development. So software development was broken into Design, Build and Test phases in traditional waterfall methodology or Software Development Life Cycle. But it forgets the very basic nature of software engineering – fact that you have flexibility to change part of code any time and replace it with new more functional, more enhanced piece of code. It is not like, once a buiding is built, you cannot demolish a middle floor and rebuilt it.

    Also, not every requirement can be put on paper at the start of the project by client. Client has a big picture in mind on what he wants but is clueless on the granularity of every requirement, so the development team is also equally confused to grasp minute details of requirement at the start of the project. After analyzing wastage of time and money on such long running software developement projects, experts have come up with Agile Methodology of software develoment.

    Key is to build a small working part of a product in shortest duration (say, 2 weeks – so your design, build and test occurs within this time), demonstrate it to client, redefine scope and sprint to next development part. When you see a working peice, lesser things are left for imagining changes. The granularity automatically comes in further changes, if required. So no heartburns to client at the end of the project stating ‘no, this is not what I wanted’.

    Scrum 

    Scrum is a simple to follow framework in Agile Methodology which defines way for software development process. It highly relies on team’s agility to build a incremental part of end product, get empirical feedback of currrent development and team’s self management.

    So all project management, team management roles get dissolved. Scrum framework has only Product Owner, (non hierarchical) Team and Scrum Master, just these 3 roles.

    Product Owner gives you user stories (requirements). Scrum Master tracks it on daily deliverable basis for a single iteration (called  sprint, mostly 2 weeks). Team delivers output in 2 weeks. And this sprint cycle repeats till entire product is built.

    Scrum framework has only 5 defined meetings – Product Backlog Refinement, Sprint Planning, Daily Standup, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.

    Product Backlog Refinement meeting, as name suggests, is used to refine requirements of product.

    Sprint planning meeting is used to plan deliverables in a single sprint/iteration.

    Daily Standup meeting of just 15 minutes, coordinated by Scrum Master, is to track progress on daily basis with 3 questions – what is done yesterday, what will be done today and what are bottlenecks to achieve so.

    Sprint Review is demonstration to Product Owner of what has been developed in a single sprint.

    Sprint Retrospective is a meeting to capture lessons learned in that sprint.

    Because of the simplicity to follow and benefits gathered in terms of time and money, many organizations are executing software development projects in Scrum Framework of Agile Methodology.

    This “what you see is what you get” approach reduces development costs tremendously and it also gives client confidence to launch the product to market in a precisely defined time.

    We, at Butterfly Themes, follow Agile Methodology in our software development projects. 

    In this article, we have briefly talked about the Agile Methodology to manage software development projects.

    Have any questions or suggestions for us?

    kindly ping us at support@butterflythemes.com or call us on 9930447774.

  • SSL certificate

    A step-by-step guide toward website protection

    Everything you need to know about securing your website

    Security is of the uttermost importance and priority when we talk about business. Whether it’s an offline business or an online business.

    Irrespective of the platforms,

    A secure business is one of the notorious traits that are crucial from the customer’s point of view as well.

    Talking about the online or digital platforms, the security of your business (website) is determined by the presence of a valid and tenacious SSL certificate.

    So, without any further adieu, 

    Let’s go through the various aspects falling under the “SSL certificate” step-by-step.

    Following are the few of the many topics that we will be covering in this article:

    • What is an SSL certificate?
    • How does SSL certificate authentication work?
    • What are the types of SSL?
    • Importance of SSL certificate from a search engine’s ranking perspective

    What is an SSL certificate?

    SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is a type of digital security certificate for your website.

    In simple language, 

    SSL certificate is a trademark of security that you have on your website.

    This makes the new audiences trust your website as well as the present already converted clients. 

    It makes a whole lot of difference to your website having an SSL certificate in terms of scaling competitive advantage in your niche/domain as compared to those who don’t.

    Well, it’s not just a certificate or a trademark for your website. 

    It makes your website a secure platform for the audiences keeping every data on it safe and sound.

    How does SSL certificate authentication work?

    The working of SSL i.e Secure Sockets Layer is not very tricky to understand.

    In fact, it’s quite straightforward and transparent.

    When a browser tries to connect to a website, it requests the website or web server to identify itself.

    This is when the SSL certificate comes into the scenario.

    The website sends a replica of the SSL certificate to the browser as requested.

    In return to this SSL certificate, the web browser shares a signed acknowledgment starting an encrypted and secure session.

    Thus you see a secure connection indication by the web browser for the website which means it is encrypted and safe to use.

    There are many more qualities that come with an SSL certificate that is very crucial or we can say necessary for your website.

    Benefits of SSL certificate

    • Encrypted and secure connections
    • Enriches audience trust in you
    • Protection of your and customer’s data
    • Tenacious security for cloud and mobile apps as well
    • Higher ranking in the SERPs

    What are the types of SSL certificates?

    It’s important to choose your SSL digital certificate from a trusted source otherwise, it will show you the following error.

    The security level of the SSL certificate differs among the types of certificates 

    Also, the access to certain services remains restricted.

    Suppose you have a plain website without any transaction options than the SSL certificate would not need much validation.

    But if your website includes transactions then the need for the same SSL certificate cannot be used for the process as of the plain website.

    There are 3 main types of SSL certificates that you will come across in the market 

    They are as follows:

    1. Domain validated SSL certificates

    Domain SSL certificates can be considered as the “only identification” digital certificate of the website.

    In simple words, 

    This web certificate shows the authority of your website by confirming that the website is a registered domain and the owner is himself/herself running the website.

    The validation of the domain SSL certificates is done through email, DNS, or HTTP.

    As this digital certificate requires less effort towards acquirement, 

    there are disadvantages outweighing the advantages.

    Advantages of domain SSL certificates

    • Cost-effective
    • Easy acquirement process

    Disadvantages of domain SSL certificates

    • Least secure compared to other SSL’s
    • Easily hackable without leaving any trace
    • Audiences might have trust issues
    • Customers would not trust your website for any transactions
    1. Organizational validated SSL certificates

    Organizational SSL provides your website an add-on to the above-mentioned website’s SSL certificate such as

    Where’s the organization is located in particular as per the 

    • Country
    • State
    • City

    Basically, it identifies the domain of your website along with the location of the organization in particular.

    Validation of such a digital certificate takes anywhere from hours to even days. 

    This is slightly greater as compared to the domain digital SSL certificate.

    Most of the businesses prefer the organizational validated SSL certificates.

    1. Extended validation SSL certificates

    Extended validated SSL certificates go through the most potent and tenacious validation process.

    This validation is potent for the one reason that it checks if the business is legitimate or a legal entity.

    For this, it requires organization knowledge and also domain information.

    This can be considered as the most strong form of SSL certificate.

    The validation time for such a website requires anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

    Along with this certificate, you get a green padlock on your website.

    Thus the trust of your audiences increases and also ensures that the transactions on your website are completely secure.

    Importance of SSL certificate from a search engine’s ranking perspective

    Websites that are equipped with SSL certificates receive an SEO boost from the search engines which helps them rank better in the SERPs.

    The algorithms of the search engines are purely based on providing the audience with the best user experience in addition to relevancy, quality content, etc.

    SSL certificates are the new standardized feature that every website ought to be equipped with.

    Search engines are constantly in a spree of advancing and enhancing their algorithms with respect to the objective of elevating user experience.

    The importance of SSL can be conveyed effectively through the role that it plays in protecting the website from hackers that otherwise would be compromised.

    Search engines are well aware of this notorious trait of SSL certificates that keeps the websites safe as well as the transactions taking place on it.

    Thus if your website is not validated through the SSL certificate then it might not even appear in the SERPs let alone rank on the first page of the searches.

    Buying an SSL certificate

    Buying an SSL certificate could be quite tricky especially if you have no clue about your needs.

    Thus following are the steps that can help you in buying SSL for your website:

    • Identifying you want the SSL for domain or subdomain.
    • Whether protection is needed for single or multiple properties.
    • Level of protection as per the needs.

    Opting for a free SSL certificate will be a big no.

    The biggest disadvantage of using an self-signed SSL or a free SSL certificate is that it is not supported by most of the web browsers.

    It will most probably show you the “connection is untrusted” error.

    So, it’s better that you get your SSL checked.

    Following are the basic errors that many seem to ignore them which ultimately leads to SSL error:

    • Mixed content (HTTP and HTTPS)

    Whynotpadlock will help you identify the issue in the content.

    • Mismatch error
    • Certificate expired

    So this was a complete simple and effective SSL guide that will secure your website from different threats and also stimulate ranking in the SERPs.

    We hope this article proves beneficial to you and helps you in your endeavour.

    Have any questions or suggestions?

    Feel free to contact us at support@butterflythemes.com or call us on 9930447774.

    We would love to hear from you.

  • Boost your website speed by 50% with the help of these 5 key points

    How to boost your website loading speed? (Identifying the cause and fixing it from the root)

    Before we start a hunt for a solution to the problem, it’s very much necessary that we are aware of what caused the problem to arise in the first place.

    Thus as we proceed further, we will be learning the various reasons for slow loading of a website and also how to solve it efficiently for a smoother experience. (more…)

  • Website Development Guideline for SMEs

    This article enlightens some of the important approaches about website development. SME in digital era got lot of assumptions about digital presence and practices. Being a digital marketing firm, we would like to focus on some of the key approaches, every SME should consider before developing their business website or the digital marketing strategy.

    Read More “”