PWA Vs Native App- Which One Is Best For You?

 

These days, mobile apps has become an integral part of our life and hence there is a need for mobile apps to deliver a great experience and good results. Android and ios native apps are popular for its advanced features and exceptional performance. In recent years, interest for progressive web apps has been increasing. It includes the features of native app with accessibility of a website.

Most of the ecommerce websites are not compatible with mobile so users are less likely to download a native app just to make a purchase. Ecommerce companies need a digital store which is like a website and app too. Here comes the need of Progressive web apps in focus. It is like taking a midway approach between mobile applications and mobile websites. But which should you choose? A progressive web app or a native app? To help you in the selection of the best one, here we’ll see pros and cons along with the comparison of PWA vs Native on the basis of various parameters. Before digging into the comparison, let us see PWA and Native apps in detail.

What Is Progressive Web Apps?

A progressive web app is a website which functions similar as a native app. Main difference between progressive web apps and native apps is that  Progressive Web application runs in a browser, hence it doesn’t need to download it from an application store. PWAs can store information in the cache on a user device, because of service workers. And hence, it allows users to consistently keep updated, without internet connectivity. PWAs are intended to remove various issues like weak networks, data restriction, lack of connectivity. 

Many popular companies like Medium, Flipkart, Starbucks etc use PWA apps. It’s amazing features have made it ideal for businesses that are looking to attain mass visibility at low cost and developmental effort. Some of its amazing features are- 

Fast-

Rapidly responds to user interactions with no janky scrolling and seamless animations.

Reliable-

Quickly loads and never shows that a website is down, even under uncertain network terms.

Re-engageable-

Can access the re-engagement UIs of OS, eg., push notifications.

Pros Of PWA-

1. Compatibility-

As PWA is accessed through a browser, hence it runs on any type of OS and mobile device(tablet or smartphone).

2. URL Access-

You don’t need to download and install a PWA to use it.  Like any website, PWA can be shared through a short URL.

3. SEO Benefits-

As PWA is a website, instead of launching marketing campaign, you can rely on SEO benefits for its promotion. Also, due to Google’s mobile first indexation policy, your app will be given higher ranking. 

4. Mobile Friendly-

As PWAs are not downloadable, it needs small amount of memory.

5. App-like UX/UI-

A PWA feels like a native one.

6. Updates-

A PWA updates without user clicking any buttons- all new features are available automatically.

Also know the development of PWA with React Native at- How you can create PWA with React Native?

What Are Native Mobile App?

A native app is a software app built with a specific programming language for a specific device platform, android or ios. Generally native android apps are written in Java whereas Native ios apps are written in Objective C or Swift. They are explicitly intended for one platform and can exploit all device features, like camera, GPS, accelerometer, compass, contact list, etc. 

You can know the comparison of Swift vs Objective C at- Swift VS Objective-C: What language to Choose in 2019?

Pros Of Native Apps-

• Good UX/UI experience- Attractive layouts, vivid animations, smooth scrolling and native look and feel.
• Performance- Native app is developed using native languages of a device. Means while offering high speed and wide range of features, mobile apps do not consume more battery power.
• Complete access to hardware aspects- Unlike PWAs, mobile apps have complete access to in built features of mobile devices like GPS, camera, Bluetooth, contact list microphone, NFC, accelerometer and player. 
• Offline mode- Because of local storage and seamless data synchronization with cloud, mobile app can function properly in an offline mode. Such apps caches data when connection is available.
• Security- Native apps have full access to hardware components hence they are better at security and data protection.

PWA Vs Native App- A Comparison

1. Development Language- 

PWAs are written to run with browser, hence uses HTML, CSS and JavaScript for development.

Native apps run on mobile devices, hence developed with programming languages of each platform (Java for android, Objective C and Swift for iOS).

2. Performance-

As compared to responsive or mobile site, PWA loads much faster. At the core of any PWA is service workers, scripts that run in the background and separate from the web page. With these service workers, you can manage offline requests, prefetch and cache particular resources, sync data with remote servers and more. Means after adding your app to the home screen, you can load it quickly and use it offline. Also, PWA runs from browser, means there will be latency and more battery consumption than native app. 

Native app can tie into the underlying operating system. It can access device hardware to do more calculations and deliver better experience to users. Native code is faster and native app is more powerful.

3. Functions-

Geofencing- It helps developers to set up virtual boundaries in real life. When user steps in this boundary, the app can trigger phone actions. When combined with push notifications, geo-fencing provides great option to reach and engage with users. Geofencing is currently available only in native apps.

Push notifications- It increases the chances of engaging users. PWA has push notifications because of service workers. Native app can build the function from scratch or use third-party integration.

Mobile payment- On account of PWA, interaction with NFC chip or other digital payment hardware varies on various platforms.

4. Cost Of Development-

PWA development is cheaper than native app development. Progressive web app is faster to build and update. Rather than developing an app from scratch, you can build a website with tools like Google Lighthouse. With responsive design, you simply need one version of the application, and it will show in an identical way on all devices.

For native apps, you have to learn language and build a version for each platform. Means, you need two versions for android and ios, and the resources to maintain and update each version. As per the purpose and complexity of app, it needs more time and money to build.

5. Distribution-

PWA bypasses app store requirements. Users just need a web browser and a URL. Most of the PWA features are supported by well known browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge. It eases app to reach large audience in a short time. You can easily deploy updates without wait for approval. And it makes PWA more convenient for developers and users too.

With native apps, instead of developing separate versions for different platforms, you will have to submit them to different App stores like Apple’s app store and android’s play store. With these stores, you have to pass some requirements to publish.

6. Security-

PWAs are secure than normal web apps as because they run under HTTPS. In a secure environment, customers can enter personal details and credit card information without worrying of getting stolen. 

With native apps, you have option to build in various security measures. If an app needs login, you can implement multi-factor authentication. Also you can use certificate pinning for more secure communication. 

When To Choose PWA?

• You can go with PWA, if you’ve just started and want a simple app for users.
• Choose PWA, if you have time and budget constraints. PWA takes less time and money to develop and publish.
• Progressive Web Apps will be the best alternative when you want to improve brand awareness and SEO. PWA is like any website and reaches a wide audience. 

When To Choose Native App?

• Choose native app, if you want to build credibility for your brand. Native apps have more security options.
• Go with native app, when you want to use advanced smartphone features

Final Words-

PWA and native apps are two options to deliver seamless experience with different strengths and weaknesses. The above comparison will surely help you to choose the best one and the choice between them should be made based on the goals and resources for your project. If you are still confused to choose the best between PWA vs Native apps, consult with solace experts. We are here to help you through consultation and development. You can also hire android developers, ios developers of Solace team for an effective and secured app development. Connect with Solace and get a free quote for an app development that will raise you business to the next level. We will be happy to help you.

Mobile App Testing Techniques For A Winning App

 

What do you think, which is the most important step in developing successful mobile app? App idea, design, framework or testing? According to the survey, it has been noticed that 58% of mobile apps fail in app stores because of poor performance resulting from improper testing. Generally users have no patience for apps that stuck or crash continuously. Imagine that, your app is getting lots of negative reviews and poor feedback. In such cases your app nearly dead in the market. Quality is necessary for success of an app and it cannot be achieved without continuous and thorough testing. Let us know the goals of mobile app testing-

• Check that functionality works as specified
• Ensure easy-to-support code as per standards
• Detect bugs and fix them immediately

This results in seamless working app and satisfied users. Here we’ll see  the various mobile app testing techniques.

Is Mobile Testing Different Than Desktop One?

• Screen size of mobile devices are smaller than desktops and laptops
• Generally mobile devices have less memory
• Network connections are different for smartphones and computers
• Not each tool for desktop app will work on a mobile app
• On a desktop or a laptop, an app is tested on fewer machines. With mobile devices, you need many devices to test your product.

Mobile app testing needs lots of effort and generally beginners don’t know, from where to start. But not only beginners face issues about testing. Testing techniques for ios and android apps are similar but challenging too. Let us see the mobile app testing techniques.

Things To Follow While Testing Mobile Application-

• Plan- Create a list of priority and requirements as per your idea. If you do not have test scenarios, data and criteria it will become so complicated. So you should plan first.
• Create Checklist- Checklist is used to be kept for a variety of tasks to be tested particularly for repetitive tasks. For instance, you are testing an app at various levels of battery. Then create a checklist of how it behaves at 25, 50, 75.
• Field Testing- It includes on field testing such as using app in an atmosphere of too much traffic, in areas of having less network coverage, out of coverage areas, while on the drive etc. 
• Test In Various Settings- Test app in various environments such as, low to high brightness, with Wi-Fi turned on and off, in airplane mode or silent mode, while using a keyboard etc. 
• Automation Plan- It is necessary in the testing aspects that are repetitive. Also it is handy while developing or updating applications. You won’t have to go through complete app creation and this is one of the main advantage of automation testing. 

Types Of Mobile App Tests-

1. Unit Testing-

As the name suggests, this kind of test analyses the small units of code like functions or classes. Every time whenever a developer finishes working on a small part of code, he/she has to test it. Unit tests are written by developers themselves and it is easier for developers to change the code they’ve written because they can see where something went wrong. All development environments have unit test frameworks – programs that drives testing process. Testing frameworks allow developers to test each function. Bugs detected at this stage are generally fixed in the code without describing in bug tracking system. Obviously, it is not possible to test everything, but you should test as much as possible. Every small part of feature should be unit tested. All unit tests are connected, hence you get a chain. If a small part of this chian fails, the complete test will fail.

One of the best practice for mobile app testing is writing automated tests before starting the development process and this is called test-driven development or a test-first approach. If you use this strategy, you initially create small part of code. Then you launch the tests that you wrote prior to coding. Development goes on until all tests are successfully passed. It seem too time consuming. Lack of time is the most serious problems in testing but unit tests can save more time and improve development speed. Also, it can serve as a kind of documentation for your library. Unit testing can take up to 30% of the estimated development time.

2. Auto Testing-

This type of tests are complex than unit tests and are written by QA engineers by using Ruby or Java. Mainly, they used to test unexpected user behavior and check how app copes. For instance, user may give incorrect data such as wrong address or phone number. Auto tests are created based on test cases, and it includes unexpected behaviors and other circumstances like- memory shortage, low battery, device lag, interruptions etc. Such things can be checked manually, however generally auto tests are used due to many functions have to be repeatedly checked. 

In auto testing, QA engineer just has to write a test once and can then use it throughout the development process. While unit tests check just positive results, auto tests are interested in any result – positive, negative, or even odd.

One disadvantage of auto testing is that such tests are rather expensive and complex. In case of any changes in an application, the QA will have to rewrite the auto test. Hence, such tests are generally used for only core features. For instance, for an ecommerce app, features like search, ordering and buying probably won’t change, hence you can write auto tests for them. For some small changes, manual testing can be used. If you have an expert in auto testing they it will be an advantage as auto testing is  powerful to test mobile apps.

3. Acceptance Testing-

Acceptance testing is at last last stage of development. QA engineer is responsible for it, but the user also takes part in the testing process. This kind of testing is done on a ready-to-release product. Acceptance testing uses test cases and scenarios based on app requirements. If it does, the customer accepts the app and releases it. If customer is satisfied with the app quality, the product is ready to be installed on user side. But if customer is not satisfied, acceptance testing will continue until the customer is satisfied.

4. System Testing-

System tests are used to check higher level of functionality. They’re a lot more extensive than unit tests and they test the entire application, comparing the real result with the expected result. It’s vital that the system stays the same during testing so the input is the single thing that can change the results of the test. Obviously, an application’s design may change times prior to its release, that is the reason of why each change to a system has to include a system test also. Test creation for app and then trying to change code so it passes the test is a huge mistake. 

Generally system tests are manual tests and are performed manually by QA engineers. During design and development phases, QA professionals gets all the ideas from developers and tech specialists while coding and prepares a testing plan. QA engineers should check the app in detail and test the app manually using different devices or emulators to see how exactly the app works.

Know the mistakes in app development that you should avoid at- Mistakes in app development that break your mobile app success

Mobile App Testing Methods-

1. Compatibility Testing –

In this type of testing, app is tested for its ability to work on different hardware, operating system, apps, network environments and so on. We can divide compatibility testing into two- Backward compatibility testing and forward compatibility testing. Backward compatibility tests the interaction of developed software/hardware with old versions. Forward compatibility testing tests the interaction of developed hardware/software with updated version.  

2. Installation Testing-

It checks whether the app installs and uninstalls properly. Also, it ensures that it doesn’t cause any issues for user while installing all software components and the installation process is not time consuming or inconsistent. Installation testing validates the successful installation and software upgrading or restoring it. 

3. UI Testing-

UI testing extent is dependent on the nature of the app. Interaction type and communication content are the factors to consider for UI testing. Educational purpose apps, commercial apps for utilities, travel etc. should replicate the user experience across various devices and OS. Here are some of the key elements to test in UI testing- 

Headings, Icons, Buttons, images, text fields, checkboxes, colors and themes of devices, long press or short press.

4. Security Testing-

Security has become a huge challenge for the entire tech world, and with the adoption of faster networks like 3G and 4G, it is considerably more precarious. There are some challenges in security testing- 

Vulnerability analysis- Check the app for countermeasures, for loopholes, the effectiveness of measures etc.

App permissions- Generally need a location and confidential data, so data and privacy should be fortified safely.

Threat analysis- It conducts analysis to cover various interactions such as security during third-party communications, when an app is installed,  downloaded etc.  

5. Load Testing-

Load testing is used to analyse whether the solution can handle many users at the same time. It is relevant for multiuser systems, generally created by using a client/server model like web servers. 

Final Words-

Testing is important in for an app’s success. For all these testing, QA engineers use various testing tools and cloud services. Many developers face issues with app testing, if you are also one of them, consult with solace experts. We are here to help you through consultation and developing a secured high performing mobile app. You can hire skilled android developers, ios developers of Solace team for high performing mobile app development. Connect with Solace and get a free quote for effective app development to raise your business to the next level. We will be happy to help you.

 

Spring Vs Laravel- Which One To Choose?

There are lots of backend frameworks available in the tech market but choosing the best one is a crucial task as it plays a vital role in web app development. Laravel and spring both are popular backend frameworks used to develop web applications, whereas Laravel is from PHP backend programming language and spring is from Java. Though both frameworks are popular in their communities, there is still confusion to choose the best one. If you are also confused, then this blog is for you. Here we’ll discuss the comparison of Spring vs Laravel on the basis of various parameters like performance metrics, scalability, testing, database etc. Before digging to the comparison, let us see the overview of Spring and Laravel.

Spring-

Spring is an open-source and lightweight framework, used for developing modern Java-based enterprise applications. It provides infrastructural support which focuses on business logic at the application level. Term “Spring” refers to a set of modules or projects like Spring Boot and Spring Cloud, which is called Spring Family. Spring creates a safe environment for programming in Java. It’s modules and frameworks are optimized to deliver desired performance, streamlined development exercise, and security. You can use Spring framework to build enterprise-grade applications, complex web applications and long-running tasks, web-based and stateful applications.

Spotify, Netflix, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are some of the popular apps built with Spring.

Laravel-

Laravel is a an open-sourced web application framework created by Taylor Otwell in 2011. It is written in PHP and follows the model-view-controller(MVC) architectural pattern. Laravel is known for its server side routing handling, HTML authentication, templating, and more. Since it is a server-side-based framework, you can build SaaS based web apps, on-demand streaming web apps, e-learning web apps, stock trading based web management systems, multilingual CMS system, web apps with reward and recognition features, self-hosted website-performance monitoring apps.

Laracasts, Barchart, Asgard CMS, World Walking, Neighborhood Lender are some of the popular apps developed with laravel.

Spring Vs Laravel- A Comparison

1. App Architecture-

Spring-

Spring framework architecture supports high-end modularity with four modules:

• Core container- It offers fundamental parts of the framework like dependency injection, Bean module, Expression language module and so on. 
• Data integration- It includes JDBC module for database connectivity and Java Messaging service module, Spring transaction management module and so on. All these modules remove boilerplate coding for data access and direct implementation. They establish seamless coordination between Java objects.
• Web container- It includes various modules like Web MVC nad Web Socket to develop web apps, multiple file uploading functions and so on.
• There are some other modules like Testing, Messaging, Aspect-Oriented Programming that support integration tests, unit tests and address crucial integrations.

Laravel-

It follows the Model-View-Controller architectural pattern which provides the ability to divide developer roles for a comfortable development process. In simple words, where frontend developer is working on the views, a backend developer can be working on the controller logic simultaneously. MVC pattern offers a complete control over the application, which eases the selection of app-specific routes and customize how your app appears on a global scale. It improves the app’s SEO and eases the implementation of external APIs and reuse of app logic. 

Know more at- https://solaceinfotech.com/blog/spring-vs-laravel-which-one-to-choose/

Node.js Best Practices To Follow In 2021

Even though only 12 years old, Node.js has emerged to be one of the most popular web development frameworks in the last decade. Built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine, Node.js projects are easy to start. Being an asynchronous event-driven JavaScript-based runtime, Node.js is widely used for building lightweight and scalable network-driven applications. Node.js apps can be scaled-up easily in both directions- horizontal and vertical. Node.js apps are used for both client-side and server-side applications. It has an open-source JavaScript runtime environment/model which provides single module caching. Here we’ll see some of the best practices for Node.js development.

With these best practices, app automatically is able to minimize Javascript runtime errors and turn it to high performing, robust node.js apps and node processes. Knowing the important JavaScript concepts will help every Node.js programmer to develop a high performing Node.js app. You can know these javascript concepts at- 10 JavaScript concepts every Node.js programmer must master.

Node.js Best Practices To Follow In 2021-

1. Take A Layered Approach-

Node.js frameworks lets you to define route handlers as callback functions that are executed when a client request is received. With the amount of flexibility that these frameworks provide, it might be enticing to define all business logic directly inside those functions. If you start in this way, you’ll get to know that things can quickly escalate and before you know it,  your petite server routes file can turn into a clunky, unwieldy and messy blob of code that is difficult to read, maintain and unit test. Hence it is good to implement the ‘separation of concerns’ programming principle. According to this, we should have different modules to address different concerns pertinent to our app. For server side apps, different modules should take the responsibility of catering to different aspects of processing a response for client request. Usually, this is likely to unfold as-

Client request, business logic + some database manipulation- returning the response. These aspects can be handled by programming three layers as shown below-

Controller layer-

In this module of code, API routes are defined. Here you define only your API routes. In route handler functions, you can deconstruct the request object, select the important data parts and send them to the service layer for processing.

Service layer-

Here business logic lives. It contains a set of classes and methods that take singular responsibility and are reusable. Service layer allows you to effectively decouple the processing logic from where the routes are defined.

Data Access Layer –

This layer can take up the responsibility of talking to database-fetching from, writing to and updating it. All SQL queries, database connections, models, ORM should be defined here. 

Three layer setup serves as a reliable scaffolding for most Node.js apps, which makes your apps easy to code, maintain, debug and test. 

2. Use npm For A New Project-

Npm init will generate a package.json file for project which shows all the packages/node apps of npm install has the information of your project.

$ mkdir demo-node app
$ cd demo-node app
$ npm init –yes

Now, you have to specify an engine’s key with currently installed version of node (node -v): 

"engines": {
  "node": "10.3.16"
}

3. Use Linting Packages-

There linting tools available, ESLint is one that most popular linting package that is used to check possible errors in code and also check code styles to meet best practices standards. It detects issues to any code patterns that could lead to any security threats and possible app-breaking that could occur in the future. There are some tools available that automatically format code and put it in a more readable way. It also resolves minor syntax errors like adding semicolons at the end of each statement etc.

Know the best Node.js packages to improve developer productivity at- 15 Essential Node.js Packages To Improve Developer Productivity.

4. Proper Naming Conventions For Constants, Variables, Functions, And Classes-

You should use all constants, functions, variables and class names in lowercase when we declare them. Also, you should not use any short forms rather than using only full forms that easily understandable by everyone using it. You should use underscore between two words.

Code Example-

//for class name we use Uppercase
class MyClassExample {}
// Use the const keyword and lowercase
const conf = {
Key: ‘value’
};
// for variables and functions names use lowercase
let variableExample = ‘value’;
function foo() {}

5. Use Of Strict Equality Operator (===) –

Use strict equality operator === rather than weaker abstract equality operator = ==, == will convert two variables to a common type then compare them while === doesn’t type case variables, and ensures that both variables are of the same type and equal.

Example-

null == undefined //true
true == ‘true’ //false
False == undefined //false
“ == ‘0’    //false
False == ‘0’   //true
0 == ‘0’       //true
‘\t\r\n’ == 0  //true
0==”      //true
False == null    //false

Above statements will return false when === is used.

Know more at- https://solaceinfotech.com/blog/node-js-best-practices-to-follow-in-2021/

 

DevOps Vs Agile Methodology- A Comparison

Evolution of software development has three important milestones. Waterfall method focused on the time required to release a product, then agile methodology which optimized the development life-cycle. Now, DevOps seeks to unite development and operations to work together as a single team. It expands efficiency, improves coordinated effort, and conveys predominant items. It improves productivity, collaboration and delivers superior products. Embracing agile and DevOps practices in software development presents a challenge to many. First step to overcome this issue is understanding the difference between agile and devops. Here we’ll see the difference between DevOps vs Agile. Before digging to the comparison, let us see overview of Devops and agile.

What Is DevOps?

DevOps is a software development method that focuses on communication, integration and collaboration among IT professionals for rapid deployment of products. Also, it is a culture that promote collaboration between development and operation team. DevOps allows to deploy code to production rapidly and in an automated way. It also helps to increase an organization’s speed to deliver app and services. It can be defined as an alignment of development and IT operation.

Goal Of DevOps-

• It focuses on creation of a culture for continuous improvement and innovation using experimentation and learning.
• DevOps works on CALMS- culture, automation, lean, measurement, and sharing.
• One can employ automation to attain better software delivery performance, that has a positive impact on organization in terms of revenue, net worth and customer satisfaction. 
• With an inclusive team, you can easily prepare, deploy and deliver software after testing without sacrificing quality if you have proper documentation.

What Is Agile?

Agile Development

Agile methodology includes continuous iteration of development and testing in the SDLC process. It also focuses on iterative, incremental and evolutionary development. The Agile development process divides product into small parts and integrates them for final testing. It can be implemented in lots of ways, including scrum, kanban, scrum, XP etc. 

Goal Of Agile –

• Agile methodology focuses on a specific project and they cycle stops after completion of the project.
• It uses smaller manageable teams who can work with changes based on immediate customer feedback.
• It ensures rapid implementation and task execution within a time frame without compromising quality with its sprints. 
• Face to face communication is best way to convey information and  necessary
• Skilled and motivated people working in a team will give best results
• Success measure comes from working software
• Sustainable companies focus on customer needs instead of contract negotiation 

DevOps Vs Agile : Differences Between DevOps And Agile –

1. Communication And Project Goals –

First point of comparison of DevOps Vs Agile is Communication and project goals. DevOps fortifies communication among developers and IT operations. In DevOps, they value the customer, but feedback comes from the internal team, that causes immediate release cycles and product scope.

Agile addresses communication gaps between developers and customers. They require and value the opinions of the customer, and all feedback for the next product release is reliant on the customer. Because of this dependability, Agile has long release cycles.

2. The Team- 

DevOps incorporates development and operations teams together with particular tasks for everyone. It has larger size as it includes stockholders also. The team doesn’t have the ability to cross-function since everyone is an expert of their respective skill. Devops requires a streamlined flow of production, development and implementation.

Agile methodology uses small and reliable teams with each team member having many skills, who can fill in positions of absent people. If the team is small, the movement will be faster. Also, because of a smaller team, each member should be more productive and proactive. 

3. Development Process-

Know more at- https://solaceinfotech.com/blog/devops-vs-agile-methodology-a-comparison/

11 DevOps Metrics And KPI To Boost Results & RoI

 

DevOps has become the go-to standard for developing software. This is due to its potential of developing high-quality software at faster rates and ensuring that customer requirements are met steadfast. DevOps standards have also been significant in flawlessly combining the functions of development and operations teams as a particular entity instead of two diverse silos. To use the numerous benefits that it can bring to the software development process, it is essential to treat DevOps as a journey and not a destination unto itself. The essentially means collecting feedback, creating benchmark and continually measuring results to track progress. Here comes the tracking metrics into focus. Let us see the top 11 devops metrics and kpi to track for measuring devops.

Know the details of DevOps at- What is Devops? | The complete guide to DevOps (With Examples)

Top 11 DevOps Metrics And KPIs-

1. Deployment Frequency-

This KPI indicates how frequently new capabilities and features are rolled out. Deployment frequency must be tracked and measured on weekly or daily basis. Organizations that are scaling up their DevOps journey to improve efficiency mostly prefer to track this metric on a daily basis. The deployment frequency should either remain consistent or keep a little but consistent upward trajectory. Any sudden dip in deployment frequency shows that DevOps processes are being obstructed by bottlenecks in the workflow. Whereas, a high frequency of deployments is considered healthy, a high failure rate or spike in deployment time is seen as a sign of issues that should be resolved.

2. Deployment Time-

How long does it take to deploy once they’ve been approved? Generally, deployments can occur with greater frequency if they’re quick to implement. Dramatic increases in deployment time warrant further investigation, particularly if they are accompanied by reduced deployment volume. Whereas, short deployment time is necessary, it shouldn’t come at the cost of accuracy. Error rates that are increased may suggest that deployments occur very rapidly.

3. Failed Deployment Rate-

Deployments that has performance issues or leading to subpar customer experience is recognized as a failed deployment. Hence, tracking the rate or percentage  of such deployments is an important metric of assessing DevOps success. Here the expectation is that teams will be able to build high-quality products from the beginning of a project, as the responsibility of keeping up the highest quality standards rests with the whole team and not simply the QA department. This should imply that there are no failed deployments at all. However, that is not a realistic expectation. Tracking of failed deployment percentages can help to take a stock of ground realities and prepare a plan to counter roadblocks. This pushes you nearer to the 0 failed deployment rate. However long your failure rate is below 5%, your DevOps processes can be viewed as robust. Failed deployment rate of 10% or more, indicates a need for overhauling the processes.

4. Change Failure Rate-

It refers to the extent to which releases lead to unexpected outages or other unplanned failures. Low change failure rate indicates that deployments occur rapidly and regularly. On the other hand, a high change failure rate shows poor application stability, which can lead to negative end-user outcomes.

5. Time To Detection-

Low failed deployment rate doesn’t mean that your processes are free from issues. Time to detection is a KPI that helps you to understand whether your response time and application monitoring processes are functioning optimally. DevOps teams should strive to limit the time between the rise of an issue and its detection and remedy.  Also, the closer your time to detection is to zero, the more robust your DevOps processes. This can’t be achieved without implementing appropriate protocols and establishing communication channels between team members.

6. Lead Time-

Know more at- https://solaceinfotech.com/blog/11-devops-metrics-and-kpi-to-boost-results-roi/

Best Golang Tools And IDEs For Development In 2021

 

Google’s Go programming language is gaining immense popularity among common users. It is a new language, considering modern architectures and made to be effective, competitive and simple. Go language is made to build low-level monolithic for Google and ultimately proved best suited to service-oriented architectures because of its easy deployment, productivity and scalability. Because of open-source, compiled programming language, Golang makes it easy for developers to create dependable, easy and proficient software. Golang reduces the amount of writing code and unique APIs without compromising performance. In the Golang development, some IDEs are well suited for Golang and are gaining popularity with its efficient features of the most popular programming languages. Here we will see best tools and IDEs for golang development. Before digging to it, let us see basics of ide.

Best Golang Development Tools-

1. Gonative-

It helps to build Go Toolchains with the help of native libraries that can be easily cross-compiled. Gonative keeps the libraries updated by downloading binary distributions for each platform.

2. Apicompat-

Using this tool developers can detect exported declarations and incompatible changes in the background. One of the greatest advantage of this tool is that false positives can be avoided in Apicompat.

3. Depth-

With Depth, web developers can visualize and retrieve Go source code dependency trees.It can be used as a specific package within your project or as a standalone command-line app. You can add customizations by using the relevant flags on Tree before fixing it.

4. Go Vendor-

This tool works well with standard Vendor folder. Also it enables developers to copy current dependencies from $GOPATH with Go Vendor add or update. One can pull new dependencies or update current ones directly using Go Vendor fetch and transit legacy systems using Go Vendor migrate.

5. Go-Callvis-

This is a web development tool that enables visualization of Go program’s call graph using Graphviz’s dot format. It is helpful in developing large projects using complicated codebases. Also it helps to understand other developers’ code structures or recreate somebody else’s project. 

With Callvis, developers can concentrate on particular packages inside a program, group functions as per the package, and techniques according to the type and restrict packages to tailor path prefixes and neglect those which comprise them.

6. Gosimple-

This Golang linter concentrate to ease Go source code. It always targets the most recent Go version, so requires the Go version 1.6 or more. If there is a new Go launch, Gosimple will recommend the simplest and easiest technique to avoid complex structures.

What Is IDE?

Software suite which includes all the tasks of programming in one app is called an Integrated Development Environment or IDE. It plays a role of single interface that includes; Code editor, automation tools, compiler and debugger etc. It completes the requirements of developers for writing and testing software.

Why Use An IDE?

• Integrated Testing
• Integrated Debugging
• Integrated Code Organization and Navigation

Benefits Of An IDE-

• Easy collaboration
• Improves productivity
• Standardization
• Effective project management
• Encourages continual Learning

Best Golang IDEs-

1. Goland-

It is a Go language integrated development environment launched by JetBrains. It is also based on the IntelliJ platform and supports the plugin system of JetBrains. Goland allows you run tests directly on the code without need to switch to the terminal. Some other types of languages like SQL, Bash or support tools like Docker can be added manually, that are cross sectional for any of Jetbrains IDE. Goland is helpful to analyze- 

• Code generation
• Tabbed interface
• Source code
• Refactoring,
• Inspections and quick fixes
• Smart code completion
• Quick navigation
• Highlighting function exit points
• Showing the type of any expression

Being a commercial IDE, it offers Golang developers a robust, ergonomic environment. It has a wide ecosystem as created by an established company. 

2. Visual Studio Code-

Visual studio code is an extensible open-source IDE developed by Microsoft. It offers support for a wide range of programming languages and is focused on web development. Visual Studio Code is based on Electron, that is, in turn based on Chromium. It supports golang development by integrating all Go tools and Delve debugger through Delve debugger. One can install some Go tools and packages to get started. Golang has a supportive and strong community including golang developers with regular contributions. Visual studio code is very quick and responsive. Features of Visual studio code are as follows-

• Snippets
• Signature Help
• Find References
• Workspace symbol search
• Completion Lists
• Symbol search
• Call stacks
• Code navigation
• Code navigation
• An interactive console
• Bracket matching
• Run Tests under the cursor, in the current file, in the current package, in the whole workspace
• Semantic/Syntactic error reporting as you type
• Add/Remove Tags on struct fields
• Build-on-save & List-on-save
• Generate unit tests skeleton

3. Vim-

It is an open-source, highly configured and customized IDE with various plugins. It installs all the necessary binaries automatically to create a hassle-free environment for Go developers. Some great features of Vim are as follows-

• Source code analysis
• Goto definition
• Multiple 3rd liner support
• Quick file execution
• Adding and removing import paths 

4. IntelliJIDEA-

It is an open-source IDE released by Jetbrains. With the help of  Go language support plugin, this IDE can be used with Go. IntelliJIDEA uses a rapid indexing method which provides import suggestions for the IDE and contextual hints on auto-completion object members. Some of the basic features are error identification and refactoring. Every feature of this IDE is made to boost developers’ productivity and coding experience. Some of the features of this IDE are as follows-

• Advanced refactoring
• Shortcuts
• Smart code completion
• Detects duplicates
• Supports other tools and frameworks.

5. Sublime Text-

It is one of the great and sophisticated IDE for Go with a huge community of programmers. It offers great speed and improved performance. GoSublime is a plugin for Sublime Text 3 and it provides code completion from Go Code, syntax check while you are writing code, automatic removal and addition of package imports etc. Some of the best features of this IDE are as follows-

• Syntax check while wiring codes
• Removal of package imports
• Automatic code completion
• Code completion from Go code, and more.

6. Komodo-

It is a full-featured Golang IDE that supports other programming languages like Node.js, Perl, Ruby, Python and so on. Developers can easily write clean code easily with Komodo. Komodo works well for team cooperation as several developers can edit a document at the same time. You should use only one license to install this IDE on Windows, Mac or Linux. 

Features of Komodo-

• Intelligent code completion
• Advanced code editor
• Version control
• Unit testing
• Syntax checking
• Golang code intelligence

7. Eclipse With GoClipse-

Goclipse is one of the plugins for Eclipse, that provides Go source code editing along with automatic indentation, configurable syntax highlighting and brace completion. Also, it works as a project builder and wizard that creates errors immediately and reports syntax. 

Feature-

• Source code editor
• A builder to report errors
• GDB debugger support
• A project wizard and more.

Final Words-

Golang is gaining popularity among developers community and now it has a powerful ecosystem that comprises different choices for the development environment. Here we have seen the best tools and IDEs for golang development. This will surely help you for developing a software product with golang.