One of the additions in the upcoming Zato 3.2 release is an extension to its publish/subscribe mechanism that lets services publish messages directly to other services. Let’s check how to use it and how it compares to other means of invoking one’s API services.
In your Zato service, you can publish a message to any other services as below. Simply point self.pubsub.publish to the target service by the latter’s name and it will receive your message.
As a core component of continuous delivery, feature flagging empowers developers to release software faster, more reliably, and with more control. This Refcard provides an overview of the concept, ways to get started with feature flags, and how to manage features at scale.
Source de l’article sur DZONE
Ever since Patrick Debois coined the word DevOps back in 2009, teams and organizations have been clamoring to adopt relevant practices, tools, and a sense of culture in a bid to increase velocity while maintaining stability. However, this race to incorporate “DevOps” in software development practices has resulted in a perversion of the concept. This does not mean that there are no successful practices of teams adopting DevOps practices, but the word overall has become a buzzword. As per the DORA 2019 State of DevOps report, team managers are more likely to proclaim that their teams are practicing DevOps compared to the actual frontline engineers and developers.
Therefore, this piece aims to realign the meaning of DevOps as well as highlight the need for considering debugging as a core element of the practices and cultures that enable DevOps for teams. The argument for debugging as a core component in the DevOps pipeline is a result of the evident need for a shift-left in the way we build and release software, empowering developers to adhere to the intrinsic principle of you build it you run it.
We’ve been big fans of Ghost since it first launched via a Kickstarter campaign way back in 2013. Ghost 4.0 has just been released, and the host of new features is another giant leap forward for the popular blogging platform.
The content management space is one of the most crowded for startups; there are traditional CMS, headless CMS, site builders, and the omnipresent WordPress, which, if current trends persist, will power 729% of the web by next Thursday.
Ghost is a blog-focused CMS, as WordPress is. Unlike WordPress, it’s minimal, fast, and a pleasure to use.
To survive in the competitive space, Ghost has niched-down to specializing in monetized content — charging membership for sites to bring in revenue for the site owner (Ghost doesn’t charge any commission on this income). As part of that effort, Ghost 4.0’s new engagement-centered dashboard is designed to help you fine-tune your content for profitability.
For any release right now, a dark mode is almost mandatory, and Ghost 4.0 includes it. It may sound like a vanity feature, but once you find yourself working late writing and editing content, your battery and your eyes will thank you for it.
Other notable features include a brand new theme store with professional templates that install with a single click and built-in email newsletters to help foster a sense of site-loyalty among your fanbase.
Ghost is one of the best writing experiences in its class and one of the best publishing experiences for individual creators. If you like publishing on Medium, but wish you had more ownership of your content, then you should give Ghost a try.
You can trial Ghost 4.0 free for 14 days; after that, plans start at $9/month.
The post Ghost 4.0 Released first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
If you were paying close attention to your IT department around the 8th of December, you might have heard some quiet sobbing and the occasional wail of, “Why? Why?! WHY?!” Now, it was the year 2020, so this might have seemed normal to you, but it’s actually something of a problem that could affect your business: CentOS is pretty much dead.
For the non-total-nerds among us, here’s the skinny: CentOS is a Linux-based operating system, typically used on servers. CentOS has been incredibly popular, and quite a few businesses run on it. But now, that’s changing.
CentOS is a Linux-based operating system, typically used on servers…But now, that’s changing
CentOS used to be released in thoroughly tested versions, the latest being CentOS 8. CentOS 8 was released in September of 2019 and was supposed to be supported for ten years. Now, it’s been decided that CentOS will no longer have versioned releases, opting for a rolling-release style of updates. That means there’ll be one version that constantly gets new software.
That’s cool in theory, but it means the operating system will be less stable overall. Essentially, it’s going to be used as a development branch of / testing ground for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and is no longer its own OS. If you have CentOS-based servers, you should migrate to another OS sooner rather than later.
And I just got my own CentOS-based VPS set up the way I wanted it.
Here’s the short, short version of the history of CentOS: Red Hat (an OS developer) has two Linux distributions of its own and has had for a long time. There’s the free and community-focused Fedora and the business-focused highly expensive Red Hat Enterprise Linux (AKA RHEL).
Funny story: RHEL, despite its expensive licenses, is still mostly made from open source code, which anyone can access and use. And it’s a good OS, particularly for people who like stability.
In 2004, some smart people took all the open-source parts of RHEL and made a brand new, nearly identical operating system with it: the Community Enterprise Operating System, or CentOS. Basically, people could download and use an enterprise-level server OS for free. All the documentation for RHEL was compatible, and you could get support from the community.
It was the perfect alternative for anyone who didn’t have the budget for expensive software licenses.
In 2014, Red Hat offered to partner with the CentOS community. The idea was basically this: “It’s pretty much the same software. If our company and your community work together, both our products will be better! We make our money from enterprise customers, anyway.”
Most importantly, with Red Hat doing a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of updates and support, the CentOS community could focus on growing in other ways.
Red Hat pinky swore [citation needed] that they were in this for the long haul, and CentOS did continue to flourish. You know, until 2020.
Red Hat must have eventually decided that having a popular free version of its own enterprise software and managing it themselves no less — wasn’t that good for business. So they all but shut the project down.
Well, technically, they just changed how it operated. Instead of producing tested, production-ready versions, CentOS is merely a testing ground for RHEL. It is no longer, in my opinion, a good option for anyone who wants to run a stable server.
So if you jumped on the CentOS 8 bandwagon, what should you put on your physical and virtual servers now? Well, you’ve got options.
For those who don’t mind going to a very different kind of Linux, Debian has been the picture of OS stability and sysadmin-friendliness for a long time. If you want more frequent software updates, the Debian-based Ubuntu Server is popular and pretty good.
Yes, that Oracle has a RHEL-compatible Linux distribution of its own. But it’s not a clone, exactly. I mean, this is Oracle. It’s set up to use their tools and ecosystem, so I hope you like Oracle products. But hey, the OS itself is free!
ClearOS is another RHEL-compatible OS that’s mostly doing its own thing, though I’m not entirely sure what that thing is. Does the company have some deal with Hewlett-Packard? Anyway, they do have a free community edition and paid editions for home and business use.
This is an upcoming release from the makers of CloudLinuxOS. It looks like they intend to load the new RHEL-based OS with some of their own tools, such as reboot-less server update tech. The first release is intended to be a more or less drop-in replacement for CentOS 8.
So the community that made and loved CentOS in the first place is, to say the least, ticked. They are so ticked that Greg Kurtzer (a co-founder of CentOS) has decided to do it all over again by making Rocky Linux and keep it in the community this time.
Again, the goal is to make a re-build of RHEL, a drop-in replacement for CentOS (at least for now). Eventually, the goal is to migrate from CentOS to Rocky Linux as easy as using a single, one-line command. The ETA for initial release isn’t quite set in stone, but I can personally vouch for how hard the community is working.
[See, full disclosure here… after writing this article, I joined the Rocky Linux documentation team.]
Some are out now, and others will be soon. Again, CentOS 8 will be supported until the end of 2021. CentOS 7, weirdly, will be supported until June 2024.
Migration shouldn’t be too complicated. Still, a pain in the rear that we have to do this at all, though.
The post How CentOS Became 2020’s Final Victim first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
2020 has been one of the most memorable years in our history. Few of us have been alive long enough to experience a more turbulent time. But throughout the year, we saw design respond to challenging events with positivity, color, and a desire to elevate those people and projects working to make the world better.
As we head into 2021, there’s no denying that 2020 has changed our outlook on life and marked a major turning point in web design trends.
Here’s a collection of the websites we loved the most this year. Enjoy!
On Looks Like You Need Iceland, you are invited to record a scream, which will then be broadcast into the Icelandic wilderness. It’s meant as a form of therapy. The idea is that you will one day visit Iceland in person. That might still be some way off for most of us, but we could certainly use a good therapeutic scream.
Across 2020 there were major protests around the world in support of Black Lives Matter. The movement’s website is a central hub for news, resources, and civil rights information in 38 countries.
2ºC Earth takes the user to 5 locations worldwide and shows what will happen there if global temperatures rise by 2ºc. Sound is used really well here to create an immersive experience, along with some beautiful photography.
Along with some new features announced earlier this month, GitHub has a glossy new homepage. It has a clean feel, with some nice scrolling animation and sparing but effective use of illustration.
Political and social initiatives were big in 2020, and non-profit activism initiative I Weigh Community is the brainchild of actress Jameela Jamil. It’s devoted to radical inclusivity, communicated with bold, expressive graphics.
Back in January, we clicked around UNREAL’s site for hours, enjoying the sharp transitions. The Swiss agency produced a wonderfully chaotic love letter to web animation.
Delassus grows fruit, from citrus to avocados. The Moroccan company employs a cornucopia of 3D design to make its site bold, fun, and practical.
We loved everything about Lynn Fisher’s site back in May. The homepage illustration was awesome. It was a humorous approach to RWD that we really appreciated. The site has since changed, with tons more to explore.
The Minervo site feels distinctly Latin, with the hot pinks and sun-blasted desaturation feeling suitably South American. We love the cropping on the custom typeface.
Norwegians have an almost mystical connection with the sea, which is evident in the site for Babord, a Norwegian seafood supplier. We loved the brand font too.
Calexo makes THC-infused beverages, and back in April, we loved the color and positivity of the site. The animated hamburger menu was a hit too.
Moooi’s site layers illustration with a maximal effect that makes you feel like you’re chasing a white rabbit. There are tons of great UI details here, especially the bar that reveals the product videos.
The Blind Barber celebrates 10 years of success with this microsite. A deconstructed grid and an entirely black and white design, but with color photos, create energy and a sense of joy.
Zand Harirchi is an architecture firm based in Tehran, Iran. Its site features subtle references to architecture, like the delightful thumbnails reminiscent of small windows.
The WFN (Women’s Funding Network) is an international alliance supporting women’s foundations and gender justice funders. The sophisticated color palette and clean type are both confident and feminine.
We loved exploring Nathan Taylor’s playful site all the way back in January. The different lighting modes were a firm favorite.
A tribute to the life and work of Käthe Kollwitz, an Expressionist printmaker. There’s a catalog of her work, presented alongside large type and splashy color transitions.
Emotive Feels is a design manifesto from the Emotive Brand agency that illustrates an A–Z of potential brand emotions with simple animations that we likened to a Blue Note release.
A.N Other’s site for perfume highlights quality ingredients, materials, simplicity, craftsmanship, and the environment; in the process, it cleverly invokes a sense of luxury.
Danish type foundry Playtype’s site fits its name perfectly. The playful site with bright blocks of color and the occasional animation shows off some pretty nice typefaces.
All-text sites are always a thrill, and back in June, we were treated to this simple one-pager by Feijoo. Details like the numerals being replaced by words are delightful.
Although this site’s subject matter is harrowing, it is presented in a very beautiful, thoughtful manner.
Sophisticated typography, the wave textures, the nostalgic feel of the photography, and even the cookie notice’s on-brand styling all show attention to detail, which gives this site its appeal.
Find and ‘photograph’ the endangered species to learn about them in this delightfully illustrated game.
When Curbed came under the umbrella of New York magazine earlier this year, it got a makeover. Neon highlights and a distorted grid give an edge to the classic magazine layout.
The carousel of fonio (it’s a West African grain) products on Yolélé’s landing page is a good example of horizontal scrolling that works well. There are some great page transitions too.
Pantheone Audio’s site employs elegant scrolling to enable seamless navigation of an extremely luxurious site, underpinned by a complex grid.
Bright color, an irregular grid, illustrations, and a display type that feels almost hand-drawn perfectly captures the aesthetic of this NY-based home furnishing brand.
This site for private membership leisure club Highcourt uses subtle background color changes and simple line illustrations to create a sense of calm. Black and white are softened to dark blue and ivory, and gentle animation adds interest.
Kate Jackling’s site takes a step back and allows the content to bask in the glow of attention, placing her photography at center stage.
While there is less hustle and bustle outside than we were used to pre-pandemic, we could certainly all use some calm. Treaty’s site for CBD oils reflects that calm with a combination of video, whitespace, and botanical drawings.
Ukrainian Railroad Ladies is a book of photographs of women, and some men, who work on the Ukrainian railways. The site is basic, even brutalist, but it has charm, and the photographer’s fascination with his subject comes through.
Year & Day is an ecommerce site that sells tableware, from glassware to ceramics. The colorful collection is designed to complement different types of food, and the site’s color scheme reflects that perfectly.
Juan Mora’s ‘under construction’ holding page has probably been crafted with more care than many full-blown sites. This showcase cleverly manages to demonstrate its subject’s skills without showing a single piece of work.
Lucciano’s homepage hero video alone will have your mouth watering for some of their gelato. Much of the appeal of food is visual, and the photography here does not disappoint. Circular text boxes in ice cream colors complement the product shots nicely.
Back in April, we were already a little weary of lockdown — if only we’d known how long it would last! The amazing color blobbing of bored.solutions was the ideal distraction.
Grand Matter is an artist agency representing illustrators. There is a wealth of talent on show here and a broad enough range of styles to keep the web interesting for a good while.
This site for Dunderville motion design studio features a paper fold detail, which adds tactility to the virtual. Some superb type and vector animations showcase an impressive portfolio.
Album Colors has taken the covers from 150 albums released this year and arranged them by dominant color. The hex code for each color is provided if you want to copy it.
Mammut uses stunning photography and a strong narrative to present its Eiger Extreme outdoor clothing. Longing for the great outdoors will either be alleviated or exacerbated by this one.
808303.studio is a virtual Roland TR-808 drum machine and TB 303 bass synthesizer. You can program, record, and share your very own 80s techno masterpiece.
Humor can be hard to get right, especially when you want to be taken seriously at the same time. Here, it works, and the result is a memorable site, oozing with confidence.
Type your message into Jazz Keys, and you’ll hear it in sound. You can send the message to anyone and let them hear your words — the web lives for side-projects like this.
The fabulous, simple site for Sao Paulo-based Érika Moreira has some awesome big type and creative case studies. It’s an excellent example of a non-visual portfolio.
Earlier this year, the site for leading paper supplier G.F Smith got a redesign. It is a simpler design than the previous site and keeps the visual focus on the products and the colors.
Abbotsford Convent is a creative arts venue in Melbourne, Australia, based in a former convent. The UI for its site blends architectural forms to acknowledge the building’s heritage.
Waka Waka designs and builds wooden furniture. The mid-century typography and the noise textures transport the site to the last century’s radical graphic design. There’s some clever disruption to the typical thumbnail approach.
Sites advertising apps always seem to want to box the design into a hastily de-branded mock-up. Cone takes a daringly refreshing approach by depicting a more expansive mobile experience.
Amsterdam’s Ride Out bike store teases the content with an intriguingly masked video. Plus, we love the wheel-inspired spinning links.
This site is a model of minimalism. Beautiful photographs and very little text, there is nothing to distract from the product on display.
Le 7 Octobre 2020 SAP a annoncé la disponibilité générale de SAP S/4HANA 2020 : la sixième version de SAP S/4 HANA vient d’apparaitre avec toujours plus d’innovations à la clé.
Avec la version 2020 de SAP S/4HANA on poursuit la logique d’innovation continue avec des nouveautés fonctionnelles disponibles sur l’ensemble des processus finance.
Ces nouveautés sont immédiatement opérationnelles et disponibles lors de la sortie de la nouvelle version On Premise car elles ont été préalablement implémentées et testées depuis des mois dans la version Cloud de SAP S/4HANA.
Le document What’s new in SAP S/4HANA 2020 récapitule de façon exhaustive toutes les nouveautés apportées par cette version dans les différents domaines de la solution. Cette nouvelle version comporte des centaines d’innovations uniquement dans le domaine de la Finance et il est impossible de toutes les présenter ici. A titre d’illustration, nous vous proposons de passer en revue quelques-unes des nouveautés les plus remarquables :
Par exemple, dans le domaine de la comptabilité générale et bancaire, la nouvelle version réduit l’utilisation des comptes généraux, notamment des comptes bancaires, en simplifiant les processus de gestion des relations bancaires. L’utilisation des mêmes ensembles de comptes de rapprochement bancaire et de comptes d’attente pour la connectivité de la banque société réduit considérablement le nombre de comptes généraux requis pour les processus de paiement. Cette méthode offre également l’avantage de faciliter la gestion du plan comptable.
Dans le domaine de la clôture financière, avec SAP S/4HANA for Group Reporting, les équipes de consolidation peuvent générer simultanément des résultats dans plusieurs devises du groupe dans un seul processus de clôture. Ceci améliore l’efficacité et l’automatisation lorsque vous travaillez avec différentes devises dans le groupe ou plusieurs taux de conversions de devise, par exemple pour une conversion à taux de change constants pour le reporting comparatif.
Dans la gestion des Clients et le contrôle de Crédit, un ensemble d’états de reporting avancés a été développé sur SAP Analytics Cloud avec pour objectif de donner les moyens au crédit manager d’améliorer le pilotage du contrôle crédit. Ces états de reporting, nativement intégrés dans SAP S/4HANA, sont alimentés en temps réel par les flux des ventes et ouvrent la possibilité d’effectuer du drill-down vers les transactions opérationnelles.
Dans ce même domaine, une autre innovation réside dans la création d’une application Fiori qui donne accès à un cockpit de pilotage permettant une vue à 360° de toutes les informations nécessaires au contrôle crédit d’un partenaire donné. On peut ainsi accéder depuis un même endroit aux information générales sur le profil de crédit, des informations par segment et leurs limites et taux d’utilisation, une balance âgée synthétique, les commandes en attente d’approbation et même des informations sur des assurances ou garanties collatérales éventuelles. La navigation est ainsi grandement facilitée, les informations clés regroupées et disponibles de façon rapide, souvent dans un format graphique : voici un bel exemple d’innovation mise en œuvre pour faciliter l’adoption de la solution et assurer la meilleure expérience possible à l’utilisateur.
La plateforme SAP Central Finance a été optimisée dans la version SAP S/4HANA 2020 avec la mise à disposition de solutions d’intégration développées avec Magnitude dans le cadre du partenariat Solution Extension :
Central Finance permet la réplication des transactions des opérations issues de différentes sources dans une instance unique SAP S/4HANA, ce qui génère d’importants avantages liés à la centralisation, par exemple dans le cadre du reporting, la comptabilisation des allocations, les opérations inter-sociétés ou la mise en place et opération de centres de services.
Ces nouvelles solutions d’intégration permettent de faciliter et d’accélérer l’intégration des données tout en fiabilisant le processus et en réduisant le TCO de Central Finance.
Deux autres innovations remarquables dans Central Finance :
En conclusion, la version 2020 de SAP S/4HANA comporte une grande quantité de nouveautés qui méritent d’être découvertes lors d’une prochaine formation chez SAP France.
Voici le lien vers le calendrier des formations de H1 2021 afin de choisir celle qui vous convient le plus. Vous pouvez aussi avoir un aperçu des formations susceptibles de vous intéresser à l’aide des différents parcours de formation détaillés dans les Learning Journeys mis à votre disposition par SAP Training and Adoption France.
The post Quoi de neuf dans la Comptabilité Financière avec la release SAP S/4HANA 2020 ? appeared first on SAP France News.
Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.
Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.
As more organizations move to establish DevOps techniques into their Software Development Life Cycle, the need of security becomes even more evident when so much application development is going on. But…
The idea of security in DevOps or DevSecOps doesn’t go very well with the classic DevOps process that insists on continuous integration, delivery, and deployment. When at production you’re constantly releasing smaller bits of your code and application using the DevOps pipeline, introducing security to DevOps can slow down the process significantly. You can’t just pass that through a security team that takes several weeks bringing the new release out to production.
The transitioning of power is fraught with difficulties. Different teams have different values, different experience, different expertise, different priorities, and that leads to different tooling, and different methodologies.
It’s tempting to think of web design as an end-to-end process, starting with research and concluding with metrics. The reality is that most designers and developers join projects part-way through an ongoing process.
That leaves us with a difficult choice: do we try and meet the client’s expectations with our own toolset, or adapt to the tools and processes that are already in place?
For anyone who’s taking over a web project from a different designer/developer/agency (D/D/A), here’s a practical guide to help you make a success of the transition.
99.99% of the time, something broke down in the previous client-D/D/A relationship.
In my experience it’s almost never about money. Most clients are willing to pay above the basic market rate if they believe they’re receiving a good return on their investment. A client that tells you the previous D/D/A is simply too expensive is anticipating negotiating your fees.
happy clients don’t shop around
Occasionally you’ll find that a freelance designer has been headhunted by an agency, and is no longer available. Occasionally the company outgrows a D/D/A, moving into areas that the D/D/A doesn’t support. But these situations are rare, happy clients — even moderately content clients — don’t shop around. If they’re speaking to you, something motivated them to do so.
It is alarmingly common that a D/D/A simply goes AWOL. It’s most common at the lower end of the market where the sums of money involved are less likely to prompt a legal dispute. Frequently, an unreputable D/D/A will ghost a client in favour of a better, newer opportunity.
Sometimes the client hires a new manager, and the new manager ushers in revised expectations that the previous D/D/A can’t meet.
Most commonly, the previous D/D/A has dropped the ball one too many times — mistakes happen, and reasonable clients will tolerate them provided they are rectified promptly, but everyone has their limits.
Most clients will be more than happy to explain what went wrong in the previous relationship; it will inevitably be a one-sided explanation, but it will help you to understand the client’s expectations.
Be extremely wary of a client who doesn’t know what went wrong. Be even more wary of a client who talks about “upgrading” their outsourcing — they’re trying to flatter you. In these cases the client may well be hiding something — like their failure to pay invoices.
Remember: at some point the previous D/D/A was new, and excited about having a new client, was optimistic about the project, and it didn’t end well. The best way to not repeat mistakes is to learn from them, and to do that you need to know what they were.
We’re often so eager to secure new work, that we rush to have the client sign on the dotted line, expecting to be able to tackle any problems later.
It is imperative that as a professional, you keep your promises. Before you make those promises, take your time to understand the project and related business. If a client is invested enough to sign a contract with you they won’t mind you doing due diligence first.
Clients rarely have a full picture of their project — they’re not web professionals, if they were they’d be building their own sites. Your best source of information is the previous D/D/A.
Before you contact the previous D/D/A check with your client; it’s possible they don’t know they’re being replaced yet. If your client is fine with it, then reach out.
When you speak to the previous D/D/A be sensitive to the fact that you’re taking money out of their pocket. Certainly the previous D/D/A may tell you where to go, they may ignore you altogether, but most will be pragmatic about handing over a project if only to ensure their final invoice to their now ex-client is paid promptly.
Every site has its idiosyncrasies, if you can establish a friendly rapport with the previous D/D/A then the transition will be considerably less bumpy.
In my opinion a company’s domain name(s) should always be held by the company; it’s such an essential business asset that it should be guarded as jealously as the company’s bank accounts.
Unfortunately there are businesses that outsource everything to do with the web. If the break with the previous D/D/A is acrimonious then securing the domain name could be problematic.
It’s not your job to secure the domain name — you have no leverage, the client does. It is your job to impress upon the client how mission-critical the domain name(s) is.
Hosting arrangements vary from project to project. It’s not uncommon, nor unreasonable, for the previous D/D/A to be hosting the client’s site on their own space. If that is the case, be prepared to migrate it quickly either to your own server, or a dedicated space.
If you’re migrating onto a new space pay particular attention to the email provision. Taking over a project usually means taking over a live project, and that usually means email accounts.
In any case, you need full access to the hosting space. You certainly need FTP access, you probably need SSH access.
In addition to hosting, check if your client’s site uses a CDN, and if it does, who has control of it.
Once you have FTP access to the hosting server you can probably grab all backend code from the server.
The benefit of grabbing the code from the server — as opposed to accepting files from the previous D/D/A — is that you can be absolutely certain you’re getting the current (working) code.
If the client has broken with the previous D/D/A because they were unable to deliver on a particular task, you do not want to be working with files that have been partially modified.
Fresh Installs
If you’re working with something like a CMS, it’s often a good idea to run a fresh install on your server, and then copy across any templates, plugins, and migrate the database.
When it comes to acquiring source code, frontend code is far more problematic than backend.
frontend code is far more problematic than backend
If the previous D/D/A is even part-way competent then the CSS and JavaScript on the web space is minified. Minified CSS is not too problematic and can be unminified fairly easily, but you do not want to be unpicking a minified JavaScript file — I once had a project in which a developer had minified his own code in the same file with all of his dependencies, including both Vue and jQuery [yes, I know].
Dealing with frontend source code can take on an additional dimension if you discover that the previous D/D/A used techniques you don’t — using Less instead of Sass, or writing scripts in TypeScript.
Unminifying CSS & JavaScript
Unminifying (or beautifying, or prettifying) code is reasonably easy. There are tools online that will help, including Unminify, Online CSS Unminifier, FreeFormatter, JS Minify Unminify, and more. You’ll also find plenty of extensions for code editors including HTML-CSS-JS Prettify for Sublime Text, and Atom-Beautify for Atom. You’ll find that some editors have the functionality built in.
A word of warning: code beautification does not restore comments, and in the case of JavaScript, does not unobfuscate variable names. Beautifying code is no substitute for a copy of the original, unminified source code.
Emergency Measures
If unminifying the source code isn’t possible for any reason, or more likely, the unminified JavaScript still looks like minified code — albeit nicely formatted minified code — then your last resort is to import the code and override it where necessary.
The first thing to do in this case is to explain the situation to your client. Make sure they understand this is a temporary patch that you’ll iron-out as you rebuild parts of the project.
Then, copy and paste the old minified code into a fresh project setup. For CSS that probably means creating a legacy.scss file, including the old CSS, and importing it into your own Sass. For JavaScript, create a legacy.js file, add all the old JS, and import that.
This will result in a much bigger set of files than necessary, you may end up using !important in your style declarations [yuck], and you’ll trigger lots of Lighthouse warnings about surplus code.
However, in the likely event that your client has a long list of changes they wanted live yesterday, this dirty hack will give you a working site that you can then rebuild piece by piece over time.
Assets normally means images, and images can normally be grabbed via FTP.
Occasionally — although less occasionally now image files rarely contain text — you’ll need the source files to make changes to images.
Whether or not the client has them, or if the previous D/D/A will hand them over, depends largely on the agreement between the client and the previous D/D/A.
Most businesses are reasonably aware of the importance of brand assets, so you’ll probably find they at least have a copy of their logo; whether it’s an SVG or a JPG is another matter entirely. Impress upon them the importance of locating those files for you.
It is rare to receive a project that doesn’t rely on third party code. That third party code is probably entwined in the custom source code, and unpicking it is a time-consuming job.
It is very likely the previous D/D/A used a library or framework, and given the increasing number of them, it’s even more likely that the library or framework they used is not the one you prefer.
Whether you choose to unpick the code and swap out the previous D/D/A’s dependencies for your own preferences (usually faster in the long term), or whether you choose to work with what you’re given (usually faster in the short term) is entirely up to you.
In my experience it’s no hardship to pick up another CSS library; switching from one JavaScript framework to another is a substantially bigger job involving not just syntax but core concepts.
Everyone has their own way of doing things. Some D/D/As embrace build environments, some do not. Some build environments are simple to use, some are not. Some build environments are adaptable to your process, some are not.
Unlike adopting a library, or even a framework, adopting a new build process is rarely a good idea
Build environments are numerous — Gulp, Grunt, and Webpack are all popular — and D/D/As are almost as opinionated about them as they are about CMS.
In lieu of raw files, it’s not uncommon for the previous D/D/A to tell you to “just run such-and-such CLI” command, to match up your local environment to theirs. Unlike adopting a library, or even a framework, adopting a new build process is rarely a good idea because you’re relegating yourself from expert to novice at a time when you’ve yet to earn your new client’s trust.
Stand your ground. Their approach failed, that’s why you’ve been brought in. You do you.
Any third part code that has been paid for is licensed. Always check who holds these licenses. As well as being legally required, valid licenses are normally required for updates, bug fixes, and in some cases support.
Common pitfalls include: font licenses (which may be licensed under the previous D/D/A’s Creative Cloud, Fontstand, Monotype, etc. account); stock image licenses (which may be licensed for use by the previous D/D/A alone); and plugins (which are frequently bulk-licensed to D/D/As in bundles).
It’s depressingly common to find clients using unlicensed assets. On more than one occasion I’ve had to explain to a client the potential consequences of using pirated fonts.
Fortunately it’s increasingly common for third party providers to attach a licence to a specified domain, which means you may be able to claim the licence on behalf of your client. Major suppliers like CMS and ecommerce solutions frequently have an option for the previous developer to release a licence and allow you to claim it.
In the case of licensing, if you’re unsure, do not be afraid to reach out to the third party provider and check with them if your client is licensed once they break ties with their previous D/D/A.
The only thing that sours a client relationship faster than telling them they need to buy a license they thought they’d already paid for, is telling them they’re being sued for copyright infringement.
Protect your client, and protect yourself, by making sure everything is licensed properly. If you can get something in writing to that effect from the previous D/D/A, do.
One of the major benefits of taking over a site, as opposed to building from scratch, is that you have a measurable set of site-specific data to guide your decision making.
This only applies if you have the data, so ask to be added to the client’s analytics account.
There’s a strong chance that the design research carried out by the previous D/D/A is considered an internal document, not a deliverable, by the previous D/D/A. Check with your client: if they paid for the research (is it specified on an invoice?) then they’re entitled to a copy.
Clients have a tendency to use the term “website” as a catch-all term for everything digital.
When you take responsibility for a website, you’re almost always expected to take responsibility for any digital service the client uses. That means, newsletter services like Mailchimp, customer service accounts like Intercom, and 227,000 page WordPress blogs that they forgot to mention in the initial brief.
Repeat the whole of Step 2 for every additional app, micro-site, blog, and anything else the client has, unless you are expressly told by the client not to.
Up until now, you haven’t asked the client to sign on the dotted line. This whole process is part of your due diligence.
By checking these things you can identify unforeseen problems, and potential costs. Are you tied to an obscure build process? Do you need to relicense the CMS? Do you need to recreate all of the site assets?
Some of these conversations are hard to have, but the time to have them is now
If there is any question of the project being more complex than anticipated, have an honest conversation with your client — they will appreciate your transparency, and they’ll appreciate being kept informed. Any client who doesn’t value a clear picture of what they’re paying you for, isn’t a client you want.
Some of these conversations are hard to have, but the time to have them is now, not three months down the line.
This is the point of no return. From this point on, any problems aren’t the previous D/D/A’s, they’re yours.
For every service you have, from the newsletter login, to the CMS login, to the FTP details, change the password. (Make sure you notify the client.)
You’re going to need a staging site so your new client can preview the work you’ve done for them.
Set the staging site up immediately, before you’ve made any changes to the code. In doing so you’ll discover early on if there are files missing, or issues with the files you do have.
When a client commissions a site from scratch they are filled with expectation. The fact that they are leaving their previous D/D/A and seeking you out demonstrates that their experience fell short of their hopes.
You now have a client with realistic — perhaps even pessimistic — expectations. You have a benchmark against which your work can be objectively measured.
When problems arise, as they invariably will, never try to blame the previous D/D/A; it was your job to assess the state of play before you started work. If there is an issue with legacy assets, you should have brought it to your client’s attention early on.
If you learn from the previous D/D/A’s mistakes, you won’t be handing the project on to someone else any time soon.
Featured image via Unsplash.
