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Design Faster & Smarter with BeTheme’s 3 Builders & 600+ Pre-Built Sites

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The WordPress themes and plugins you choose for your clients’ sites don’t just impact how the interface looks or how well it works. They also impact your ability to build them.

The point in using WordPress themes and plugins is to make your life easier, not to create more work for yourself or limit what you’re able to do. If you’ve struggled to find WordPress tools you can rely on from job to job, BeTheme might just be the total package you’ve been looking for.

BeTheme has it all:

  • A backend builder
  • A frontend builder
  • A WooCommerce builder
  • 600+ pre-built websites

There’s nothing extra to pay with BeTheme. One fee gets you all the tools you need to easily build professional-grade websites for your clients.

Get to Know BeTheme’s All-In-One WordPress Solution

Want to see how the BeTheme powerhouse works? Check it out:

1. Build and Manage the Backend With Muffin Builder 3

Let’s be honest, WordPress page builder plugins leave something to be desired. While they all have their strengths, it’s hard to find one that offers different tools for how you want to work.

Many of them offer a visual drag-and-drop builder, leaving designers with little flexibility in how they build websites. With BeTheme, you don’t have to compromise.

Muffin Builder 3 is the intuitive backend editor that gives you full control. And if you want to code it all by hand? You can. If you’d prefer to tap into BeTheme’s wide array of templates, pre-built sections, and predefined settings? You can do that as well.

What’s more, the backend builder makes it easy to add sliders to your website, optimize your pages for search, and more.

2. Design and Perfect Your Site on the Frontend with Muffin Live Builder

One of the reasons why drag-and-drop website builders have become so popular in recent years is because they empower everyone — from the DIY business owner to the professional web designer — to build websites visually. There’s just one problem:

While it’s great that developers both inside and outside of the WordPress ecosystem are creating these intuitive builders, they sometimes come at a cost.

One thing that tends to get sacrificed is speed. Because they take the editing out of the WordPress dashboard and onto the frontend of the website, many of them can take a while to load. (Some of them are known for stalling out on occasion, too.)

Another thing that gets sacrificed is how much you’re allowed to customize. You either have to design your website with the features and settings available from your page builder plugin or you have to do all the work inside of WordPress.

Muffin Live Builder doesn’t suffer from these issues.

For starters, the visual builder is lightweight, so it won’t keep you waiting around for pages to load or changes to reflect on the frontend.

Also, you don’t have to choose which builder you want to use. If you want to primarily build sites with the backend editor and then perfect the designs on the frontend, you can. With BeTheme, you don’t have to pick-and-choose which editor you want to use.

3. Create Great Looking Monetized Sites with the Muffin Woo Builder

Many page builders are built for one purpose: To help WordPress users visually design websites so they can see their work reflected on the site in real-time.

That said, many page builder plugins haven’t accounted for the ecommerce piece.

Users can design and customize the regular pages on their websites with the visual builder, like the Home, About, and Contact pages. However, their ecommerce pages — Shop, Products, Cart, Checkout, and more — have to be managed through WooCommerce’s interface.

WooCommerce is a great ecommerce plugin. However, it’s not ideal having to design different parts of your site with different tools.

Be now has a solution for this: Muffin Woo Builder.

The Muffin Woo Builder allows designers to build their own single product and shop templates instead of just customizing the default ones provided by WooCommerce or the theme.

It also gives you design editing capabilities that no other page builder plugin can. For example:

  • Create design rules for your ecommerce pages
  • Choose from 11 product gallery styles
  • Switch between Shop and Catalogue mode
  • Set custom variation swatches
  • Show or hide the cart button
  • Add a sidebar
  • Configure settings for how product images render
  • Enable a Wishlist
  • Pick and choose which icons appear in the header

If you want this level of control over the layout and look of your ecommerce pages, you have to install other plugins or custom-code those changes into the backend. So, this is definitely a unique feature amongst page builders.

4. Instantly Design an Attractive Website With One of 600+ Pre-Built Sites

BeTheme isn’t just the fastest WordPress builder because it’s lightweight or because there are various builder options that allow you to work the way that’s best for you.

BeTheme also comes jam-packed with 600+ pre-built websites, with new ones released every week.

When you install a pre-built site, BeTheme is going to do a number of things for you:

  • Install all the specific plugins you need for the site
  • Load a fully designed and fully functioning website into your WordPress installation
  • Add placeholder content and imagery throughout so you can easily swap in your own

That’s going to save you a lot of time. Think about the cost savings, too. You get access to more than 600 pre-built websites without having to pay anything extra for them.

Is BeTheme the total design package? You bet it is!

It can’t be overstated what a game-changer BeTheme is for WordPress designers. Two page builders, one WooCommerce builder, and 600+ pre-built sites all rolled into one?

Everything you need to design high-quality websites is baked in.

That’s something you rarely see in any product or service, let alone in WordPress.

If you’re ready to say “Goodbye!” to page builder plugins and transform the way you work, get the BeTheme powerhouse now.

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The post Design Faster & Smarter with BeTheme’s 3 Builders & 600+ Pre-Built Sites first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.


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Understanding Interface Testing With Types, Strategy, and Tools

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The testing that is done to verify the interface functionality is called Interface testing. It is also defined as a software testing type that verifies whether the communication between two different software systems is done correctly. 

Common Components of Interface Testing 

  • Web server and application server interface.
  • Database server and application server interface.

When and Why Should We Test an Interface?

Interface Life-Cycle

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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8 Freelance Project Management Apps for 2021+

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In my experience, the biggest challenge that freelancers face — more than winning clients or setting prices — is project management; take on too much work, and you’ll start missing deadlines, take on too little, and you’ll start missing your rent.

Some people are naturally organized; they rock up at their desk at 08:59, fully confident in what they will spend the next 8–12 hours working on. Let’s be kind and say that I am not one of them, and leave it at that. The only way I have managed to survive the industry is by self-consciously micro-managing my schedule on a daily basis.

When I worked in an agency, I knew what I would be working on days in advance. Now, I know 90% of what I’ll be working on, weeks in advance.

That level of organization requires very, very, very careful planning. I hold team meetings at the end of the day, yes, “team” meetings of one person. To do that I use a number of tools that suit me.

How to Choose a Project Management App

The most important aspect of any project is the end. That’s when the client will assess your work, and that’s when you get paid. So when you choose a project management solution, make sure it gives you a clear path to the project conclusion.

I know one freelancer who sets himself a hard stop at 7 pm every day. At 7 pm, he downs tools switches off, and walks away. I once heard him end a client call at 7 pm because he’d reached his cut-off point. It made me wince — I would have stayed on until the call concluded — but it hasn’t affected his business.

I know another successful freelancer who works on a budget. When she has earned the money she needs for that day, she stops. She bills by the hour to make this work, so when she sits down in the morning, she knows exactly what time she’ll finish.

Personally, I prefer a task-based approach. I know what I have to get done; if I can get ahead, then great, but my main focus is ensuring I don’t fall behind. I believe that if you hit your deadlines, everything else will take care of itself. Admittedly, there have been a few late-nights (and all-nights) over the years, but thankfully they’re less common these days.

No one style of project management suits everyone. And it doesn’t matter what approach you take, provided you take an approach.

8 Best Project Management Apps for Freelancers

As a freelancer, the most important thing characteristic you can have is reliability. Cultivate a reputation for delivering on your promises, and you’ll become invaluable to your clients. The best project management app is the one that helps you keep your promises.

There are some excellent tools on the market that facilitate project management, but most are aimed at SMEs, or project managers running a team of freelancers.

The tools here are listed from least, to most useful for the average freelancer. I’ve avoided too many time-tracking apps because I find these tend to encourage billing by the hour, which is potentially damaging to your business long term. If you do need pure time-tracking, check out Harvest. I’ve also avoided solutions that are too large-scale to benefit freelancers. If you’re looking for a project management tool for teams, then Basecamp, Jira, Project.co, and Redbooth are all worth considering.

Sadly none of these apps are perfect, and there’s a good chance you’ll need to use two or three to manage your projects.

8. Todoist

Todoist is hands down the best to-do app on the market. The downside is that its feature set is minimal.

Todoist really excels at lists. You can break down tasks into sub-tasks, and sub-sub-tasks. The downside is there’s no real scheduling or comparison of multiple projects in a single view.

The mobile apps are great, and Todoist recently introduced boards, a form of kanban board that gives you a good overview of everything. If it introduces a gantt chart, I can see myself relying on it more.

Todoist has a free forever plan that is fine for most freelancers, and the paid plans start at just $3 per month.

7. Bonsai

Bonsai is an excellent service for freelancers that grew from a simple invoicing app to include proposals, contracts, time-tracking, and more.

I used Bonsai for invoicing for a couple of years, and it does everything it claims to do. However, there are a couple of significant areas where it falls down. Firstly, its invoicing is super-aggressive and cannot be customized — make sure you’re on friendly terms with any client you send a Bonsai invoice to. Secondly, while it does a good job of tracking what you have done, it doesn’t help you plan what needs to be done beyond a formal proposal.

If you’re running a few simple projects, then it’s possible Bonsai is right for you. Pricing starts at $19 per month.

6. Monday

Monday is one of the biggest players in the project management market. It offers a dizzying array of options, and if this list were aimed at project management for agencies, Monday would be further along our countdown. Monday may suit freelancers, particularly those who have migrated from agency work, but for most, it’s more than we need.

There is a free-forever plan that covers almost everything you could want. However, if you need to view your projects as a gantt chart — and I strongly suggest you do — then you’ll need to update to the standard plan, which starts at $8 per user per month, with a minimum of three seats, meaning at least $24 per month when billed annually.

5. AND.CO

AND.CO stands out as a slick, easy-to-use option for managing a freelance business. Like Bonsai, it allows you to manage proposals, invoicing, time-tracking, expenses, and more.

AND.CO also has extremely well-liked customer support. An underestimated consideration when you don’t have your own accounts team to resolve problems.

As with other solutions of this type, the task-management is lacking. It does include a simple to-do list, but in my opinion, it’s not sufficient, and you’ll need to supplement it with something that supports gantt charts.

There’s a free forever plan, but it’s barely more than a free trial. Pricing for full-featured access starts at $18 per month when billed annually.

4. ClickUp

ClickUp is a SaaS that aims to replace just about everything else you could need. Unlike some options on this list, it includes a CRM, which is a bonus because there’s nothing worse than relying on the search function in your email to track down someone’s contact details.

ClickUp also offers a genuinely free-forever account with enough features to make it usable. If you choose to upgrade to a paid plan, it’s just $5 per user per month, which is excellent value.

If anything, there’s just too much in here. If you’re someone who considers themselves a power-user who enjoys digging into every nuance of a UI, then ClickUp could be for you. But, if, like me, you favor a simple tool that does what it’s told and gets out of the way, then there are better options.

3. Asana

Asana is probably the best-known project management tool on the market. It offers a tremendous number of options and is flexible enough for any style of project management.

There’s a free forever plan that is ideal for getting started and offers you most — you may be sensing a theme here — of the features you’ll need. But Asana’s best feature is its excellent timeline implementation of the gantt chart, for which you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan costing $10.99 per user per month, with a minimum number of 2 seats that translates to a rather expensive $21.98 per month.

2. Trello

Trello is famous for its kanban boards, and many people prefer them to gantt charts, which has helped the app grow rapidly in the last few years.

If you’re prepared to pay $10 per user per month, Trello actually offers gantt charts as well, in the form of its timeline feature.

Trello is mainly designed for teams, not freelancers. However, if you do have the budget for a premium plan, Trello gives you an enviable ability to switch project management styles on a whim.

1. Toggl

Toggl is perhaps the perfect balance of time-tracking and gantt chart that is ideal for freelance projects.

As with most tools, Toggl is designed for teams, with billing starting at $8 per user per month. However, it offers a solo plan, designed for freelancers, that is free forever.

The main thing you miss out on with Toggl’s Solo plan is team timelines, which you won’t need unless you’re outsourcing work. One other obvious omission is unlimited planning boards, which you may find yourself paying for sooner or later.

But for a mixture of simplicity and powerful features available for $0, Toggl is hard to beat.

 

Featured image via Pexels

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Que se passe-t-il lorsque l’ingénierie et la gestion des actifs convergent ? Place au rapprochement !

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J’ai récemment eu une conversation avec le responsable produits d’un grand fabricant d’équipements industriels. Chaque machine comporte de  multiples variantes, est vendue à des centaines de clients, ce qui représente des milliers d’installations à travers le monde et peut être utilisée pendant des décennies. Mon interlocuteur m’expliquait qu’il avait reçu un appel d’un de ses clients  pour la mise à niveau d’une de ses machines pour en augmenter la productivité et optimiser. De ce fait, les équipes de ce responsable produits  vont être très occupées pour répondre à cette demande au cours des prochaines semaines, voire des prochains mois. Imaginez maintenant le nombre de ressources et le temps qui seraient nécessaires s’il avait à répondre à plusieurs demandes similaires en parallèle.

Voyons quelles sont les tâches les plus importantes qui sont requises pour élaborer un plan de réponse complet à destination de ce client :

  • évaluer le potentiel de revenus de la demande de mise à niveau ;
  • analyser la réplicabilité de la solution auprès d’autres clients ;
  • vérifier l’état de fonctionnement de l’équipement ;
  • évaluer le mode d’utilisation de la machine ;
  • valider la compatibilité de la dernière configuration proposée par l’ingénierie ;
  • comprendre les nouvelles exigences applicatives ;
  • effectuer une analyse des risques ;
  • analyser les perturbations de la chaîne d’approvisionnement ;
  • collaborer avec les fournisseurs et les partenaires pour élaborer le plan d’exécution ;
  • et probablement bien plus encore…

Il est également important de noter le nombre de systèmes, de processus et de partenaires requis pour construire et appliquer ce plan d’intervention.

Tout est question de stratégie globale

Nous voyons de nombreux clients de tous secteurs, en particulier dans la haute technologie, l’énergie, les équipements industriels, la santé, l’aérospatiale et le pétrole et le gaz, cherchant à tirer une part croissante de leurs revenus de services stratégiques. C’est un objectif commun aux fabricants d’équipements d’origine (OEM) recherchant des marges plus élevées, une proximité accrue avec leurs clients et des revenus récurrents.

Pour y parvenir, les entreprises doivent élaborer une stratégie globale, en intégrant les services d’ingénierie à la gestion des actifs, afin de rapprocher les OEM des opérateurs.

Dans cet article, je vous expose les éléments stratégiques liés à l’intégration du monde de l’ingénierie et de l’opérationnel, qui permettront aux OEM et aux opérateurs de maximiser la valeur de leur collaboration et de mettre en place une base permettant d’explorer de nouveaux business models, tel que le Product as a Service.

Éléments stratégiques d’une intégration des services d’ingénierie à la gestion des actifs

Ne serait-il pas intéressant de disposer d’un package de solutions prêt à l’emploi permettant de gérer tous les actifs installés, prenant en compte leur durée de vie et leur état ?

Comment y parvenir ?

Voyons quelques-uns des éléments stratégiques qui permettront de briser les silos fonctionnels, pour bénéficier d’une vue à 360 degrés du cycle de vie des produits et des actifs.

 

 

  • Tout d’abord, un OEM doit savoir déterminer la configuration d’un actif existant à partir des spécifications du produit issues de l’ingénierie. Il s’agit ici de la capacité à suivre et à gérer entièrement l’actif lors son installation, puis tout au long de son cycle de vie et jusqu’à sa mise hors service. L’un des aspects importants est de comparer dynamiquement l’actif en fonctionnement avec les configurations d’ingénierie les plus récentes, afin de prendre les bonnes décisions de maintenance ou de mise à niveau.
  • Le deuxième élément est la façon dont les partenaires collaborent et partagent des données. En créant un écosystème collaboratif de nouvelle génération basé sur le cloud, les équipementiers, les opérateurs, les fournisseurs et les partenaires de service vont disposer d’une plate-forme commune. Elle permettra de rassembler l’ensemble des partenaires, de partager du contenu, des données, et même d’étendre les processus métiers au-delà des murs de l’entreprise. L’objectif est de permettre aux OEM et aux opérateurs de déterminer quelles mesures doivent être prises et à quel moment.
  • Le troisième aspect est l’efficacité avec laquelle nous utilisons les données d’ingénierie en amont pour améliorer la gestion des actifs. Avec une ingénierie de service efficace, nous pouvons établir une nomenclature des services, des conceptions de services, identifier des systèmes critiques, définir des caractéristiques de performance, planifier des stratégies de service, créer des aides visuelles et bien plus encore. Les données de l’ingénierie de service peuvent être utilisées efficacement dans plusieurs flux de gestion des actifs, tels que la planification de la demande, les services sur le terrain, la gestion des garanties, les plans de maintenance et les stratégies d’actifs. En activant une continuité numérique de bout en bout, il est possible de connecter les données tout au long de la chaîne de valeur d’un service, de sa conception à son utilisation.
  • Enfin, l’un des éléments clés est de permettre aux entreprises de capturer et d’analyser les données transactionnelles et de performance des actifs opérationnels. Une fois restituées sous forme exploitable, ces informations permettront de générer des plans de service dynamiques, mais aussi d’identifier les modifications de conception à apporter, ainsi que les mises à niveau possibles afin de maximiser la valeur d’un actif. Cette boucle de rétroaction continue reposant sur l’ensemble de la base installée permettra aux OEM de proposer de meilleurs produits, plus durables.

Afin de répondre à cette évolution des besoins métiers sur le terrain de l’intégration des services d’ingénierie à la gestion des actifs, SAP et Siemens Digital Industries Software ont récemment annoncé  une extension de leur partenariat qui leur permettra de fournir de nouvelles solutions de gestion du cycle de vie intelligent des services et des actifs. Il est essentiel que tous ces éléments stratégiques soient liés aux processus métiers de la chaîne d’approvisionnement et qu’ils soient accessibles sur une plate-forme unique pour que les équipementiers et les opérateurs puissent en tirer une valeur commerciale.

 

Découvrez la valeur stratégique qu’il y a à gérer le cycle de vie de produits intelligents et connectés avec des technologies numériques à travers l’ensemble de votre entreprise et de l’entreprise étendue.

Demandez le livre blanc PLM 2021 de CIMdata.

 

The post Que se passe-t-il lorsque l’ingénierie et la gestion des actifs convergent ? Place au rapprochement ! appeared first on SAP France News.

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Popular Design News of the Week: September 6, 2021 – September 12, 2021

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Every day design fans submit incredible industry stories to our sister-site, Webdesigner News. Our colleagues sift through it, selecting the very best stories from the design, UX, tech, and development worlds and posting them live on the site.

The best way to keep up with the most important stories for web professionals is to subscribe to Webdesigner News or check out the site regularly. However, in case you missed a day this week, here’s a handy compilation of the top curated stories from the last seven days. Enjoy!

Pollen – A Library of CSS Variables Inspired by TailwindCSS

Using the Platform

Why You Should Switch to Code-Based Design

15 Great Chrome Extensions for Web Designers and Developers

Exciting New Tools for Designers, September 2021

24 CSS Javascript Animation Effects

3 Psychological UX Design Principles to Enhance User Experience

UX vs. UI – Which Should You Focus?

Customize TailwindCSS to Give Your Sites a Unique Look

10 Fundamental UI Design Principles You Need to Know

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The post Popular Design News of the Week: September 6, 2021 – September 12, 2021 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.


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Top 10 Most Suitable Alternatives to nTask

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Since its inception, nTask has shown its efficiency with various advanced features, frequent upgrades, inexpensive pricing, and much more. While we do enjoy the software, we are also aware that sometimes nTask might not be the right tool for your project or you might just want to take a look at its alternatives. Since we know our tool best, we have identified the top 10 nTask alternatives that compare well with the tool.

In this post, we will give you a rundown of the most suitable nTask alternatives along with a brief intro, key features, and pricing details. Without further ado, let’s dive straight in! 

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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Fluent-API: Creating Easier, More Intuitive Code With a Fluent API

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We know that, in a software project, nothing replaces good documentation. However, it is also necessary to pay attention to how intuitive the written code is. After all, the simpler and more natural the code is, the better its experience for users.

In the simple « programming rule », in which we will forget everything we have to remember, an API that « forces » you to remember is crucial proof of failure.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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Quiz: The Maddeningly Difficult Metadata Quiz

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Metadata is an essential component of any website. It clarifies the meaning behind your content in a way that search engines, and browsers are able to understand.

Using metadata effectively can mean the difference between a successful site, and a total flop. So, how well do you understand this critical web design tool? Take our maddeningly difficult metadata quiz and find out!

Featured image via Unsplash.

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Top 10 August ’21 Security Articles to Read Now

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Introduction

Security is one of the most important aspects of modern-day applications. As technology keeps getting advanced, keeping the security up-to-date is a challenge. How awesome would it be to find top trending articles in the Security Zone in one place so that you can always stay up to date with the latest trends in technology? We dug into Google analytics to find the top 10 most popular Security articles in August. Let’s get started!

10. Spring Boot Security + JWT  »Hello World » Example

Spring Boot applications have been a key in implementing the microservice architecture. Learn how to implement security in Spring Boot with JWT token. Follow the step-by-step tutorial and secure your Spring Boot microservice.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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10 Robust Enterprise-Grade ELT Tools To Collect Loads of Data

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Enterprises in 2021 deal with a massive amount of data on a regular basis. The Global Data Fabric market analysis says, « businesses that use insights from data extraction will earn $1.8 Trillion by the end of 2021 ». With such great amounts of data, it is becoming increasingly hard to maintain and categorize the collected data. Moreover, manually processing the data only became more time-consuming and monotonous. With rapid technological advancements, companies are finding ways to find even the slightest advantages to be the best in the market.  Hence, adopting the right ELT tools/platform can greatly contribute to enterprise productivity. ELT tools can collect data, segregate the data based on common characteristics and provide clear-cut insights about the collected data. 

Below is a list of the 10 enterprise-grade ELT tools that I rate above 4 (out of 5).  These can provide great advantages to enterprises that adopt them.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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