New Ruby on Rails Gem Announced by Mindfire Solutions

Mindfire’s Ruby on rails development team has created a gem called “Survey” and shared it in GIT (GIT link : https://github.com/mindfire-solutions/survey). Through this gem anyone can run a survey – all you need to think of is a set of questions and answers, rest all you need to do is add this gem to your Rails application.

Mindfire has been working in Rails application development for more than 2 years now and our development team has been contributing to the knowledge base by sharing our learning with the community at large through articles and tips (on new or useful things we learned during application development). This is one more step in that direction where we realized that there are no survey gems available for quick use by Rails developers worldwide, so we created one and shared in GIT.

Prerequisites for using this gem are:

• Ruby 1.9 or higher
• Ruby on Rails 3.1.3 or higher
• Application must have an authentication system with admin and normal user privileges.
• As we are using jQuery in the gem, so your application must support (include) jQuery-rails gem.

Details of the Survey gem:

Survey is composed of various modules those are listed and explained below:

1. Categories: All the questions and the answer sets are categorized. An admin user can add categories and a normal user can just view the categories.
2. Questions: Questions are the basic module of Survey. Questions can only be added by an admin user. They are broken into following types:

• Text Box: A question with a text box as an answer field.
• Text Box (Date): A question with a textbox and a calendar. Accepts only date as answer.
• Drop Down: A question with a drop down of choices. One of the choices needs to be selected to answer the question.
• Check Box: A question with check boxes. When a question can have multiple answers.
• Radio Button: A question with radio buttons. It can be used for selecting one out of multiple options.

3. Selections: Selections are the pre-defined choices/options for the questions of types Drop Down/ Check Boxes/ Radio Buttons etc. While creating a question if one chooses the question type to be any of the above three, a link is provided for adding a selection. A question can have as many selections as needed.
4. Validations: For the questions with Text Boxes, we can limit the input by adding validations. Validations can be chosen from the pre-defined list that appears if the question type is Text Box.
5. Question Sets: A Question Set is set of questions and sub-sets. Each question/sub-set that is added to the question set is called a Question Set Item. A Question Set is classified as follows:

• Assembly: A question set that cannot be integrated into other sets. Only Assembly Question Sets can be evaluated.
• Sub-Assembly (Sub-set): A question set that can be integrated into other sets.

6. Question Set Items: A question set item is any item that is being added to the question set. It can be a question or Sub-assemble question set.
7. Conditions: If the question set item is a question then we can add a condition based on the choice a user would made. For example, if the item is a question that states “Which car do you own?” and the selections are “A. Skoda, B. Audi, C. VolksWagon etc” now we can add condition if the user chooses selection A then we can show a question/set of questions, if user chooses B then we can show a different set/question or may be nothing. A condition can be applied to a question with Text Box too, but instead of using selections as a base the validations would be considered. If the question type is Radio/Dropdown the multiple selections in a condition would mean, if either of the selections. While in case of check box multiple selections would mean all of the selected options need to match with the user selections. Text Box (Date) type questions do not have any conditions.
8. Evaluation: Evaluation is sort of answering the questions in a set. A published and assembly type question set can only be evaluated. Any user can participate in the evaluation of a question set. Though they can view/edit evaluations made by them, they are not allowed to view evaluations made by other users in the system.

Why do we use frameworks in PHP development?

It helps a lot to understand why we use frameworks in PHP development before zeroing in on a particular framework. A PHP Framework forms the basis of the platform that allows software developers to develop web applications. Hence it provides the detailed structure to develop an application.

The advantages of using a PHP Framework are manifold. First of all it helps save time. Secondly, it helps avoid the need to produce repetitive code, and thus helps the developer go for Rapid Application Development (RAD). Therefore one can always imagine how difficult it would be not to have a PHP Framework in place. These difficulties manifest while producing applications because the developer has to repeatedly code a lot of PHP. Notwithstanding the above fact, it also becomes imperative for the developer to execute the connection between his database and the application that he has been trying to develop from scratch. In these circumstances using a PHP framework makes custom PHP development easier by ensuring that this connection remains intact.

Essentially, PHP development is based on the Model View Controller (MVC) fundamentals which is an architectural pattern featured in a number of popular programming languages. The MVC architecture helps separate the domain logic from the user interface. Hence it is often quoted that, the key to understanding PHP Frameworks better comes through a thorough knowledge about the MVC architecture.

Although it may seem very convenient to pick up the most popular PHP framework in the market, it is also quite important not to get confused with what you need your framework to do and the features that are already bundled in the framework. Not every PHP Framework offers the same support for databases, communities, and an easy to follow user guide. At the same time if you are an end user company and you would like to build a content management system for your company using PHP, then you would obviously require some expert counsel from a professional PHP development company. When you are at this juncture of the software development phase then you can always approach Mindfire Solutions to address your PHP development needs. With over 10 years of custom PHP development experience along with deep expertise in the numerous PHP frameworks widely available in the market, Mindfire Solutions can be your ideal software development partner to help you from start to finish of your project. Not only will it help you decide judiciously on the framework to be used, it will undertake with utmost professionalism all the tasks that are essential towards the completion of the project.

Mindfire Solutions is a 12-year old leading Software Development and IT services company with a strong track record of working with SMBs like you who are present across geographies. Our 750+ spirited software engineers located across three advanced development centres in India have collectively executed more than 1000 projects for our 300+ client base. Along with a guaranteed Mindfire promise of unparalleled quality, we also have 100 hours risk free trial* for new clients.

Drupal Development Services

Drupal development services enable Drupal users to customize and extend Drupal’s core functionalities and add new features to suit their unique needs better. Drupal was originally written by Dries Buytaert to be used as a community message board in 1999 for his group of friends. By 2001, Drupal had garnered wider interest and contribution and was made open source. Drupal.org – the one-stop Drupal website as we know it today – came up in the same year with an aim to enable others to experiment and extend the platform and allow new paths for development. Drupal CMS witnessed accelerated pace of development around 2005 gaining widespread acceptance and usage. Today, Drupal is one of the leading open-source content management systems in the world powering millions of websites – from simple blogs to industrial-strength enterprise apps. Drupal has been famously used for US political campaigns in the past and by top corporates and governments around the world.

What Sets Drupal Apart

Due to the rapid proliferation of content lately, content management systems (CMS) are one of the hottest application segments and a lot many of them, including open-source ones, are in use today, e.g. Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, Magento, SilverStripe, Concrete5, ModX, Umbraco, etc. Each CMS has its own strengths and weaknesses making it ideal for specific site requirements. While Drupal may be overkill for a small, single-author site with static content, it is increasingly becoming the CMS of choice for a wide variety of sites, including personal blogs, community sites, e-commerce portals, corporate, political, and government websites. Drupal has a powerful core, great extensibility, and the largest active web developer community. The availability of thousands of add-on modules and designs lets one create any site one can imagine. Drupal offers a sophisticated programming interface for developers and Drupal development services come in handy here.  Expert Drupal development services can not only expedite the process of Drupal customization, it can also make it painless and worry-free. 

Drupal Development Services

Depending on your business needs, you might be interested in Drupal implementation, Drupal customization, Drupal extensions development, Drupal theming, Drupal integration, Drupal custom solutions development, etc. You may want to migrate to Drupal from a less versatile and powerful CMS, like many companies are migrating to Drupal from enterprise content management systems like Vignette, SDL Tridion, Polopoly, Sitecore, etc. You may want to add modules relevant to you from the thousands of modules made available for Drupal, e.g. Views, Token, CCK, Pathauto, CKEditor, TinyMCE, Lightbox2, IMCE, Image, IMageAPI, ctools, Google Analytics, Admin menu, Ubercart, Moodle, Drupal Commerce, etc. You may want Drupal integration done with other applications you would be using. There are endless possibilities with what you can do with Drupal.

Mindfire Drupal Services

Companies like Mindfire Solutions provide expert Drupal development services backed by years of experience of providing Drupal services for a variety of industries and customer needs. If you want Drupal customization / extension and need some development help, get in touch with Mindfire today – call 1-248-686-1424 or email sales at mindfiresolutions dot com – to leverage the strong track record and solid experience of Mindfire’s Drupal experts to personalize and extend Drupal capabilities.

Why QTP Automation Testing is beneficial?

People often think how to produce high quality software and make their customer happy along with make-out more revenue out of it. When testing coming into the mind then it diversified, whether it will be Manual Testing or Automation Testing .The time taken to implement testing strategies is very significant. If you go with manual testing it will involves lots of time as well as you need sufficient budget for it. And if you go with Automation testing then you have to choose right tool and skillful expertise to perform your testing. The cost of investment in today's testing tools can also be significant. Test automation can bring great benefits to an organization by shortening the testing cycle and thereby reducing testing costs and you will get more Return of Investment (ROI) even. These benefits can only be realized by choosing the right tools for the job and targeting the right areas to be automated.

Mindfire Solutions is a 12 years old offshore software service provider and has successful footprint on software testing. All our test engineers have solid knowledge on QTP Testing with ISTQB and QTP certification, which helps to set off a high-level methods, ideas, and techniques to test application. Our certified QTP test engineers are more than 5 years of experience in Automation as well as manual testing. Lack of knowledge of test design and test-scripting languages often means automated testing projects fail in their objectives and test tools often end up as scrap.

Our excellent QTP service comes with significant success story of our client. We provide our offshore Quick Test Pro service to test different domain like, Content Management System (CMS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), HealthCare industry, E-Commerce, Mobile applications etc. Our QTP team sent automation testing work report to the client in daily basic or weekly basics. Sometime our dedicated offshore QTP tester explain critical bug to our customer if at any case our client fail to understand the step to find the bug. If our customer demands the test scripts we generate during the testing execution phase then we help our clients to send functional test scenarios with QTP test script to enabling them to create a reusable and repeatable test repository. This enables our clients to save a lot of time, resources and effort in functional and regression testing if they want in future.

In case you don’t have a QTP License in hand or your budget does not allow you to buy QTP license, we do have a special offer for you. You can use our license to perform QTP automation testing for your product.

Mindfire Solutions is a 12-year old leading Software Development and IT services company with a strong track record of working with SMBs like you who are present across geographies. Our 750+ spirited software engineers located across three advanced development centres in India have collectively executed more than 1000 projects for our 300+ client base. Along with a guaranteed Mindfire promise of unparalleled quality, we also have 100 hours risk free trial* for new clients.

Application development for Windows Mobile Handheld Devices

While selecting mobile computers and rugged handheld devices, it is equally important to have the right software applications installed to serve your business requirements as it is to have good quality and dependable hardware. Focusing entirely on acquiring devices with powerful processing capability alone is only one part of the job. As an organization, your foray into this area will provide a good return on investment and a low total cost of ownership (TCO) if you are successful in identifying the right IT vendor for all your software needs. Enterprise handheld applications are in reality an expansion of the functionalities provided on desktops. This enables desktop and handheld application to converse and transmit data with each other.

We have the capability to provide enterprise mobile handheld solutions across multiple mobile platforms to streamline your business processes. Our enterprise mobile and handheld solutions can be easily integrated with your ERP applications. Our experience with handheld devices started with Palm. These devices are easy to use and include many applications to help organize work schedules and tasks. Different Palm models have different operating systems and functions and most models can synchronize with PC and Mac. All contain programs for managing your calendar, notes, tasks, and contacts. For more details on our expertise you can click on Palm Expertise. With Windows Mobile Handheld, we have a dedicated team of certified developers with cross industry experience. Their advantage of using devices on Windows Mobile OS is the ease and convenience of having Microsoft Office and other Microsoft applications such as Outlook, Internet Explorer Windows Live etc. at your disposal. Windows Mobile devices can be broadly classified into two categories: the Pocket PC and Smartphone. Pocket PC phones come with a stylus that one can use to touch the screen. Smartphones on the contrary do not have a touchscreen or stylus but can securely connect to POP3 and IMAP accounts, as well as Internet-based e-mails such as Yahoo, and Google.

If you are looking for a reliable offshore vendor for your Windows Mobile app development Handheld needs, Mindfire Solutions has the required expertise to meet them. With our experienced team of Windows Mobile developers, we have successfully partnered with a number of companies across various industries. Our team of experts is competent to handle Full lifecycle Windows Mobile /CE development. They can help in designing the System architecture to suit your existing wok flows. Our apps are designed keeping in mind the exact workflows of our clients to help them get the maximum leverage out of them. We assure quality through the consistent application of uniform processes in our services.

Mindfire Solutions is the right destination for you to hire dedicated offshore Windows Mobile programmers/Developers. Our Windows Mobile Development team has an average experience of 5 + years. In addition to this you will also get the benefit of flexible hours of working at affordable cost. To get our new clients to understand and experience the quality of our delivery, please contact us for a limited risk free trial.