15 Most Effective Tool For Developer To Save Time

15 Most Effective Tool For Developer To Save Time: "

Response times, availability, and stability are vital factors to bear in mind when creating and maintaining a web application. If you’re concerned about your web pages’ speed or want to make sure you’re in tip-top shape before starting or launching a project, here’s a few useful, free tools to help you create and sustain high-performance web applications. I’ve tried to include a wide variety of tools that are easy to use, and have tried to keep them as OS and technology-independent as possible so that everyone can find a tool or two.

1. YSlow for Firebug

YSlow grades a website’s performance based on the best practices for high performance web sites on the Yahoo! Developer Network. Each rule is given a letter grade (A through F) stating how you rank on certain aspects of front-end performance. It’s a simple tool for finding things you can work on such as reducing the number of HTTP request a web page makes, and compressing external JavaScript and CSS files. A worthwhile read is the Ajax performance analysis post on IBM developerWorks that outlines practical ways of using YSlow in your web applications.

2. Firebug

Firebug is an essential browser-based web development tool for debugging, testing, and analyzing web pages. It has a powerful set of utilities to help you understand and dissect what’s going on. One of the many notable features is the Net (network”) tab where you can inspect HTML, CSS, XHR, JS components.

3. Fiddler 2

Fiddler 2 is a browser-based HTTP debugging tool that helps you analyze incoming and outgoing traffic. It’s highly customizable and has countless of reporting and debugging features. Be sure to read the “Fiddler PowerToy – Part 2: HTTP Performance” guide on the MSDN which discusses functional uses of Fiddler including how to improve “first-visit” performance (i.e. unprimed cache), analyzing HTTP response headers, creating custom flags for potential performance problems and more.

4. Cuzillion

Cuzillion is a cool tool to help you see how page components interact with each other. The goal here is to help you quickly rapidly check, test, and modify web pages before you finalize the structure. It can give you clues on potential trouble-spots or points of improvements. Cuzillion was created by Steve Saunders, the ex-Chief Performance at Yahoo!, a leading engineer for the development of Yahoo’s performance best practices, and creator of YSlow.

5. mon.itor.us

monitor.us is a free web-based service that grants you a suite of tools for monitoring performance, availability, and traffic statistics. You can establish your website’s response time and set up alerts for when a service becomes unavailable. You can also set-up weekly, automated benchmarks to see if changes you’ve made impact speed and performance either positively or negatively.

6. IBM Page Detailer

The IBM Page Detailer is a straightforward tool for letting you visualize web components as they’re being downloaded. It latches onto your browser, so all you have to do is navigate to the desired site with the IBM Page Detailer open. Clicking on a web page component opens a window with the relevant details associated with it. Whenever an event occurs (such as a script being executed), the tool opens a window with information about the processes.

7. Httperf

Httperf is an open-source tool for measuring HTTP server performance running on Linux. It’s an effective tool for benchmarking and creating workload simulations to see if you can handle high-level traffic and still maintain stability. You can also use it to figure out the maximum capacity of your server, gradually increasing the number of requests you make to test its threshold.

8. Pylot

Pylot is an open-source performance and scalability testing tool. It uses HTTP load tests so that you can plan, benchmark, analyze and tweak performance. Pylot requires that you have Python installed on the server – but you don’t need to know the language, you use XML to create your testing scenarios.

9. PushToTest TestMaker

PushToTest TestMaker is a free, open-source platform for testing scalability and performance of applications. It has an intuitive graphical user interface with visual reporting and analytical tools. It has a Resource Monitor feature to help you see CPU, memory, and network utilization during testing. The reporting features let you generate graphs or export data into a spreadsheet application for record-keeping or further statistics analysis.

10. Wbox HTTP testing tool

Wbox is a simple, free HTTP testing software released under the GPL (v2). It supports Linux, Windows, and MacOS X systems. It works by making sequential requests at desired intervals for stress-testing. It has an HTTP compression command so that you can analyze data about your server’s file compression. If you’ve just set up a virtual domain, Wbox HTTP testing tool also comes with a command for you to test if everything’s in order before deployment.

11. WebLOAD

WebLOAD is an open-source, professional grade stress/load testing suite for web applications. WebLOAD allows testers to perform scripts for load testing using JavaScript. It can gather live data for monitoring, recording, and analysis purposes, using client-side data to analyze performance. It’s not just a performance tool – it comes with authoring and debugging features built in.

12. DBMonster

DBMonster is an open-source application to help you tune database structures and table indexes, as well as conduct tests to determine performance under high database load. It’ll help you see how well your database/s will scale by using automated generation of test data. It supports many databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MSSQL and (probably) any database that supports the JDBC driver.

13. OctaGate SiteTimer

The OctaGate SiteTimer is a simple utility for determining the time it takes to download everything on a web page. It gives you a visualization of the duration of each state during the download process (initial request, connection, start of download, and end of download).

14. Web Page Analyzer

The Web Page Analyzer is an extremely simple, web-based test to help you gain information on web page performance. It gives you data about the total number of HTTP requests, total page weight, your objects’ sizes, and more. It tries to estimate the download time of your web page on different internet connections and it also enumerates each page object for you. At the end, it provides you with an analysis and recommendation of the web page tested – use your own judgment in interpreting the information.

15. Site-Perf.com

Site-Perf.com is a free web-based service that gives you information about your site’s loading speed. With Site-Perf.com’s tool, you get real-time capturing of data. It can help you spot bottlenecks, find page errors, gather server data, and more – all without having to install an application or register for an account.

Related posts:

1. Ajax Framework to Know Developer


2. Why Paper is Still the Most Important Tool For Designer


3. Free High-Quality HTML/CSS Templates

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How to writing high quality software documentation

How to writing high quality software documentation: "

Software documentation is an important part of every company involved in software product development. Software documentation is a document or a written text which either aims at explaining how a software works or how a user can operate a software. There are different types of documentation associated with the development of software depending upon the various stages involved in a software development life cycle (SDLC). Right from the very beginning of a software development cycle until the final delivery of the product, each phase requires software documentation. Therefore, this has made documentation process to be an integral part of every software product development company.

It is very important for every software documentation expert to deliver a high quality document. For writing a high quality software document, the experts need to follow some standards and guidelines. As such, there are no specific guidelines or standards for designing a software documentation template. These standards vary in each and every organization. But, by following some of the general guidelines, one can really come out with a well versed and high quality document. Let us see what all is required for technical documentation.

Technical documentation describes writing the technical aspects or working of the software. The very first thing which needs to be taken into account by a software documentation expert is to know what is required to be documented in technical documentation. Technical writer must identify the goal of writing the document.

In general, for most of the software products, technical documentation template can include the below mentioned details. These details are:

a) Technical document can have a list of important files associated with the functioning of the software.

b) Details of functions or sub routines used in an application.

c) Details of the global variables and constants used for the development of software.

d) Specification of 3rd party objects.

e) Details pertaining to Application Programming Interface (API) reference.

These are few in-general things required for getting forward with the documenting process in every software development company.

Also, we would like to highlight few things which need to be taken into account by a technical writer to get an effective and high quality document.

1. The technical writer must be clear with his goal of writing the document.

2. Proper and correct usage of grammar is necessary.

3. While documenting, just keep in mind to keep screen shots small. Rather than capturing whole screen for highlighting just a part of screen, try to take small snap shots focusing on the area which needs to be highlighted or discussed.

4. Be clear in your explanations. Make use of examples wherever possible to make the reader easily understandable.

5. Do not create a document using narrow margins. Always use sufficient margins while designing a document.

6. Remember to reveal sources and references which are basically the authorities as well experts in the field.

7. Proof read the document once before making final submissions for review.

8. Lastly, always forward your document for a review.

Related Article
1.Document Preparation
2.Software Document Writing Style
3.Document Standard
4.Software Document Structure
5.Writing The Project Statement of Work

"

Meet The Future – HTML5 Demos

Meet The Future – HTML5 Demos: "HTML5 is supposed to have features like video playback which currently depends upon third-party(and proprietary) browser plug-ins like Adobe Flash. Today we have collected 50 awesome HTML5 demos to show its potential. 3D Chess Anevent Apart HTML5 Experiment 2 Bacterium Bakemono Ball Pool Blob Bomomo Canopy Canvas Animation Demo Canvas in 3D Canvas Photo Chain [...]"

PHP Debugging in NetBeans on Google Chrome

PHP Debugging in NetBeans on Google Chrome: "I got link on a short tutorial Local and Remote PHP Debuging in NetBeans with Xdebug on Google Chrome (just like in Visual Studio). It can be useful for users, who use Google Chrome for development, but the most steps are browser independent.
"

Great Free Video Training on ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC

Great Free Video Training on ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC: "

We’ve recently published some great end-to-end ASP.NET video training courses on the http://asp.net web-site. 

Created by Pluralsight (a great .NET training company), these video courses are available free of charge and provide a great way to learn (or brush-up your knowledge of) ASP.NET Web Forms 4 and ASP.NET MVC 3.  Each course is taught by a single trainer, and provides a nice end-to-end curriculum (from basic concepts to working with the new Entity Framework “code first” model to security, deployment, and testing).   

Below are some details on the two free training courses we published this weekend (and links for how to watch them):

ASP.NET MVC 3 Training

This weekend we posted the final videos in a brand new 10 part ASP.NET MVC 3 training course taught by K Scott Allen.  You can now watch the entire series for free on the http://asp.net/mvc page (it is on the left-hand side within the “Essential Videos” section):

Below is a breakdown of the 10 video modules in the ASP.NET MVC 3 series:

• Introduction (35 minutes)
• Controllers (35 minutes)
• Razor Views (45 minutes)
• Working with Data: Entity Framework Code First (39 minutes)
• Working with Data: Validation and Mapping (33 minutes)
• Javascript, jQuery and Ajax (47 minutes)
• Security (43 minutes)
• Caching, Localization, Resources and Diagnostics (34 minutes)
• Unit Testing (37 minutes)
• Deployment and Configuration (37 minutes)

You can find pointers to the entire series on the http://asp.net/mvc page.

ASP.NET Web Forms 4 Training

Dan Wahlin is developing a great course on ASP.NET Web Forms 4.

You can watch the series for free on the http://asp.net/web-forms page (it is on the left-hand side within the “Essential Videos” section):

Below is a breakdown of the 9 video modules in the ASP.NET Web Forms series:

• Introduction to ASP.NET (64 minutes)
• ASP.NET Web Forms Features (111 minutes)
• Working with Data (75 minutes)
• Entity Framework (47 minutes)
• Master Pages (24 minutes)
• JavaScript and Ajax (62 minutes)
• Security (coming soon)
• Using ASP.NET Dynamic Data (coming soon)
• Web Deployment (coming soon)

You can find pointers to the entire series on the http://asp.net/web-forms page.  We’ll be posting links to the final 3 videos in the series later this month.

Even More Content Coming

Keep an eye on the http://asp.net/web-forms and http://asp.net/mvc learning centers in the months ahead as we post even more textual and video training content.  Each of the two learning centers now has a nice structured outline of content that you can use to quickly look things up as well as learn how ASP.NET works.  We’ll be refining and extending the content even more in the weeks and months ahead.

Hope this helps,

Scott

P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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Web Applications are often not optimized for all Browsers

Web Applications are often not optimized for all Browsers: "Outlook Web Access is a great example of a Web 2.0 Application that leverages certain "featurees" of Internet Explorer and only provides a simple workaround implementation for other browsers leading to performance degradations in Firefox, Chrome, ...










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Hot Trends in Web Development

Hot Trends in Web Development: "

What makes the work of the web developer challenging and exciting at the same time are the ever-changing trends!

"

Easy Way to Add Style & Validation to Forms

Easy Way to Add Style & Validation to Forms: "

Formly allows an unbelievably easy way to add style and validation to your forms. Forms are everywhere and, usually, suck. Formly makes adding forms to your site a bit more exciting. Easily add style, validation, and a more impressive user interaction with a single function.

Formly is a light little fella. 17kb in total for the full and 14kb for the minified version. It has been tested on iPhone/iPad, Chrome 8.0+, Firefox 3.0+, Safari 4.0+, Internet Explorer 7.0+.

Requirements: jQuery Framework
Demo: http://thrivingkings.com/formly/
License: MIT License

Related Posts

• Apprise: Attractive Alert and Dialog Box for jQuery

  

• How to Prepare Your Web Content for iPad

  

• Open Source WYSIWYG HTML Editor Using jQuery UI

  

• The 1140 CSS Grid 12 Columns Fluid Down to Mobile

  

• Create Rounded Corners with CSS3 Border-Radius Property

  

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28 HTML5 Tutorials and Cheat Sheets

28 HTML5 Tutorials and Cheat Sheets: "

HTML5’s popularity is growing. With Adobe’s new Creative Suite 5.5, the owner of Flash has embraced HTML5, which lets developers create the same apps more or less simultaneously for the full range of mobile devices. According to an article in Barron’s, Adobe is said to be testing a Flash-to-HTML5 converter to make this even easier.

To keep you at the top of your HTML5 game, here is a list of HTML5 tutorials and cheat sheets.

HTML5 Tutorials


HTML5 – A Tutorial for Beginners. Review a basic tutorial to get started with HTML5.


Simple Website Layout Tutorial Using HTML5 and CSS3. Make a simple web page with HTML5 and styling with CSS3.
Building Web Pages with HTML5. Start using some of the new structural elements to help make sense o...

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Create Offline Web Application On Mobile Devices With HTML5

Create Offline Web Application On Mobile Devices With HTML5: "The use of Web development in mobile applications is an increasing trend."

Should I use HTML5 or Silverlight? One man's opinion.

Should I use HTML5 or Silverlight? One man's opinion.: "

I was in Belgium and The Netherlands this last week presenting and talking to folks in the community. After I presented on ASP.NET MVC 3, HTML5 and jQuery, one fellow came up after and said, "Should I use Silverlight or HTML5. I don't understand what Microsoft's strategy is or what to use in my app."

Since I work for the Web Platform and Tools team (ASP.NET, IIS, etc) I spend a lot of time working, coding, and thinking about the web. However, I'm not an official strategist, or marketing guy.  But I do have an opinion; one that is mine and no one else's.

That said, I don't think it's that hard and I'm surprised there's so much confusion about this (both outside and inside Microsoft.)  Companies have their official positions but then there's the realities of the web. Here's what the young man asked me and what I told him.

NOTE: I'm talking only about Silverlight in web browsers, not Silverlight for Phone, Games, Out of Browser, High Trust, and other environments that are uniquely Silverlighty.

Should I use HTML5 or Silverlight in my Applications? If you're embracing jQuery, where does Silverlight fit in?

Even though browsers like Chrome release and update very often, not every company is going to upgrade all their browsers every week or even twice a year. Some enterprises will be on Firefox 3.6 for a while longer, or (hopefully not) IE6. Browser plugins like Silverlight and Flash can add new functionality faster. They are called plugins for a reason. They plug-in and add something.

HTML5 isn't 100% done, but today it's already a collection of things that can be used now. Your web apps should use techniques like progressive enhancement to detect available features. As newer browsers include useful features like geolocation and video that used to require plugins, then older plugins become unnecessary. Plugins rev and add new more advanced features like DVR-like video and hardware-accelerated 3D. Those features will eventually find their way into browsers in a few years and the cycle will continue.

Silverlight 5 will become Silverlight 6, Flash 10 will become Flash 11 and HTML5 will become HTML6. Each new spec will add new features, innovating, and pushing the others forward . The web will be pushed forward by all these and more.

There's no question that advanced media apps, 3d, DVR video scenarios shine on Silverlight. Silverlight CAN do some things that HTML5 can't.

If you are creating an application for the web that needs images, links and text boxes, some animations and interactivity, there's no reason you shouldn't use HTML. With new JavaScript libraries like Modernizr, jQuery along with Polyfills, you can even use many HTML5 features and still have good functionality on ALL major browsers - not just the most recent generation.

If your application is internal or a line of business app and is what I call a basic "text boxes over data" application, you have a few choices. You can certainly use Silverlight and its databinding features, or you can use JavaScript libraries like KnockoutJS and write it in HTML. It depends on where you and your company's core skillset lies. Both are good choices and both aren't going anywhere.

If Silverlight has a feature that you need that isn't a part of mainstream browsers, consider a web app that is both HTML/JavaScript and Silverlight. I'm consistently surprised that people feel the need to make Silverlight apps that fill the entire browser but consist of mostly text, images, links, etc. Don't try to make Silverlight act like it's HTML. It's not. Plugins are complimentary to the web, they are not the web. Use them in complementary ways to make the best experiences you can.

If you need basic video like YouTube, use <video> tags if your browser supports the codecs you need, and a plugin if not. However, if you need live video, adaptive smooth streaming, DVR functionality, H.264, or other features that aren't part of HTML5, then again, use a plugin.

Also consider your own productivity and happiness and the tools you want to use. Think about your users, your dev team and their overall happiness.

Apps in C and C++ have their place in games and uniquely native scenarios. Apps using managed languages and XAML balance easy development and deployment flexibility. Apps in HTML and JavaScript work everywhere on the web. Perhaps one day we'll be able to easily mix and match these styles in the best of all worlds.

Until then, it's simple. Use HTML when it makes sense to your solution. Use a plugin when it provides unique functionality. Rinse, repeat. Apply common sense, and a little hair gel.

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© 2011 Scott Hanselman. All rights reserved.

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