Hybrid development has started to gain virtues over native development in the past few years. The reason is simple: low development cost, native-like experience and an easy to maintain single codebase for multiple platforms. 

When it comes to which framework you should use, two of the most popular and trending choices would be React Native and <a href="http://www.flutter.dev">Flutter</a>.

Flutter is all about widgets. Super comfy widgets.

I have chosen <a href="http://flutter.dev">Flutter</a>&nbsp;for all my hybrid mobile app developments and I'm going to tell you why.

I've been a Native Android developer for almost 5 years before I started developing with Flutter. Android being owned by Google and Flutter being founded by Google as well, it happened to be quite natural in the first place but that wasn't of course the only reason.

<a href="http://flutter.dev">Flutter</a>&nbsp;is defined as a UI tool kit for development. If someone asks me a question about what Flutter is? I would say "Flutter is all about Widgets”.

<a href="http://flutter.dev">Flutter</a>&nbsp;is also about quick development, Widgets in Flutter make most of your work easy. They are pre-coded elements which you can customize using their properties.

If you want to add a Text in the UI, you can simply use the text widget and customize it using its properties like textAlign for alignment, overflow to handle the overflow text and style to control its styling like fontWeight, fontFamily, color etc.

There are many such widgets available in Flutter to match your various use cases of design. Once you are familiar with their properties, you really can develop an app in no time.

<a href="http://flutter.dev">Flutter</a>&nbsp;allows you to create your own widgets by extending the two major types of widgets: Stateless and Stateful. Widgets help in quick development but they also come with another advantage which is less code and more work.

As I have previously mentioned, widgets are pre-coded elements so they help us complete a lot of functionality in lesser code compared to writing native code. 

Let's take an example with the below screen:

So the above screen contains an App Bar, a bottom bar and a Text Widget. 

All this in 17 lines of code shows you how fast and efficient development is with Flutter. 

The built-in widgets are powerful and help you develop fast while writing less amount of code.

To support more functionalities in an app, <a href="https://flutter.dev/">Flutter</a>&nbsp;offers a lot of packages i.e external libraries available to help developers add specific functionality to their hybrid applications. You can go through these libraries on <a href="https://pub.dev/">https://pub.dev/</a>.

To conclude Flutter is a very easy choice for hybrid development. Its developer community is growing really fast and newer versions with more functionalities keep getting released regularly. 

Now that being said, many of my friends are on React &amp; Javascript and have easily switched to React Native to develop production level mobile applications. I might be talking about that in a future article if you give me a high-five on this one!

Single codebase, native-like experience and low-cost development: why I think Flutter is a great framework for Hybrid Mobile Development.

rich-tervet-q2GNdFmhxx4-unsplash.jpg

Why I Chose Flutter for Hybrid Development

Vikas Dwivedi

How to avoid relative nesting hell ('../../') in your React files

In this article, let me show you how to use absolute imports to avoid relative nesting hell ('../../') in your React files.

Usually when writing JS code, we tend to use the relative import method. This can create code that is difficult to read and maintain.

Let me show you an example: I’ve created a React app using create-react-app to demonstrate.

Look at the file directory structure below:

The two relevant files we need to look at are:

• Button.js - A custom Button component&nbsp;

(src &gt; common &gt; Button.js as per above screenshot)

In the screenshot above, look at line 2 in index.js

This method of importing files is called ‘Relative imports’ and it is the default way you can import files. But, there are certain drawbacks to this:

• The import code needs to be re-written in every file if the custom component (Button.js) is used in those files.. 

• The code is not easily maintainable. 

• If the component is nested deep inside the directory tree, we can get trapped in ‘../../../../’ hell, which is unpleasant to code.

To use absolute imports,&nbsp;we need to create a new file in the root directory called jsconfig.json&nbsp;

The purpose of writing this is to specify a base directory for absolute imports. Here, the src directory is chosen as the base directory. If we look back at our directory structure, the src folder contains all our code.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;│ &nbsp; └── Button.js

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;└── components

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;└── Home

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;└── index.js

Using this, now we can write absolute import statements like:&nbsp;

This greatly simplifies the code and makes it easy to read.

Note: Relative imports still work in your code. So if you want to import a sibling component and do not want to start from inside the src directory and specify the file, you can still use relative imports.

Thank you for reading. Hope you found it useful!

Usually when writing JS code, we tend to use the relative import method. This can create code that is difficult to read and maintain. In this article, We’ll learn how to use absolute imports to avoid relative nesting hell ('../../') in your React files.

joshua-reddekopp-SyYmXSDnJ54-unsplash.jpg

How to Use Absolute Imports in React for Better Readability

Kaustubh Bhagwat

In this article I am going to show you all the steps &amp; files required to setup Selenium Web Driver in VS Code.

This will help you to test an application more easily &amp; efficiently. 

VS Code is easy to use &amp; the extensions are like a cherry on the cake.

 Just follow the steps below &amp; download the required files from the given link and you should be good to go!

Use the following link: <a href="https://code.visualstudio.com/">https://code.visualstudio.com/</a>

&gt;&gt; Install &amp; run the application

Step 2: Until the application starts, go to your browser and download the browser driver. 

It depends upon which browser driver you want to test on. I am choosing Chrome Driver here so find the below link.&nbsp;<a href="https://chromedriver.chromium.org/downloads">https://chromedriver.chromium.org/downloads</a> Download the same driver version present in your system.

For Edge:&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/webdriver/">https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/webdriver/</a>

Step 3: Download Selenium Web Driver (Java). 

Follow the below link &amp; download the marked package:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.selenium.dev/downloads/">https://www.selenium.dev/downloads/</a>

Step 4: Create a separate folder anywhere in the system, and copy both the driver folder &amp; selenium web driver jar folder and paste it in the folder. 

This will make easier for you to locate it “in code” &amp; while importing jar file in Referenced Libraries of VS Code.

Step 5:&nbsp; Download the following Extension for VS Code

Link:&nbsp;<a href="https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vscjava.vscode-java-pack">https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vscjava.vscode-java-pack</a>

Step 6: Once the extension is installed, a new window will open up in VS Code and will ask you to download “Java SDK (Runtime)” in your system. 

If you have already installed Java SDK then you don’t need to follow this step.&nbsp;

Download the Java SDK and install it. Once installed, close the tab and you are good to go. Restart your system for better results (optional)

Step 7: Create a project directory in the system, choose it as the project directory in VS Code. Create a new file &amp; name anything “xyz.java”. 

Make sure that you use .java as file extension.&nbsp;

Step 8: Link the project with the web driver jar files. Go to “Java Projects” &amp; select “+” symbol in Referenced Libraries.

Step 9: 	A new window will open and go the folder where the selenium jar files are present and select all at once and hit “Ok”. 

Doing that, all the jar files will be linked to the project which will allow you to write &amp; perform actions according to code we write. It will look like this once you link the files:

Step 10: You can start writing Automation Scripts for any website you wish

If not, we are always available in the comment section below!

Simple & Accurate Steps for setting up Selenium Web Driver (Java) in VS Code.

vscode

How to setup Selenium Web Driver (Java) in VS Code

Mayur Arora

I was an accomplished architect, so I never saw myself here, as a UX/UI designer. 

I spent my whole childhood in the Mumbai suburbs; yet, when I went to the city for college, I was constantly in awe at the sheer amount of labour that went into creating those enormous stone structures. I would sit and stare at those wondering how they must have designed this!

I graduated with top marks in the field of architecture. I worked on great projects with incredible architects. 

As time went on, I grew increasingly interested in how architecture could influence our daily lives, our emotions, our behaviors. As a result, I was amazed by the idea that people's lives could be improved through design, and how they would modify every aspect of their lives in response to what we created for them.&nbsp;

I was amazed by the idea that people's lives could be improved through design, and how they would modify every aspect of their lives in response to what we created for them.

After 6 years of working as an architect, the bubble started to burst!

I didn't have enough creative freedom while working as an architect in a large city in India. Lack of space, a tight budget, and a disregard for design deterred me from making this my career. When I say that I was working long hours without receiving a fair wage, I believe that every architect would be able to sympathize. Not to mention having no social life at all! 

I enjoy travelling and discovering new locations. How am I meant to do that when I spend all day and night staring at my laptop? But every dark night has a new day asking you to wake up and change your past!

In this pursuit, I started looking for alternative job paths that would complement my architectural design training. It was challenging at first; I would spend my weekends reading articles to learn about people's journeys toward their calling and how switching careers, even at the age of 40, had a positive impact on their lives. I was motivated to find my true calling!&nbsp;

I finally found it after searching for two years. I started my search by looking for architecture businesses that just dealt with design, employing sustainable architectural techniques, and even attempting to explore interior design, but I was having no luck. I needed a stronger purpose, something where design could help solve larger problems.

It was time to expand my search and step outside of my comfort zone. 

This is how UX/UI came to me, through a friend. This is also how I found my calling at <a href="http://www.antarcticaglobal.com">Antarctica</a>.

With a lot of fascination and curiosity, my research began, I started exploring what it meant, watched tons of videos on <a href="http://www.youtube.com">Youtube</a>&nbsp;and read articles on <a href="https://medium.com/">Medium</a>. Youtube is a great platform to find content and yes there’s a lot, so let me help you with some of channels with great content:

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/ByolAuAdobe">Bring Your Own Laptop</a> ∙ For free short courses with an Adobe certified instructor, Dan. Even if UX is not your thing, you can discover something to improve your design skills because he teaches a variety of design tools that are frequently used by designers.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/RachelHow">Rachel How</a>&nbsp;∙ She is passionately committed to sharing her self-taught knowledge and showing others how to make their own way in the creative industry.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/Mizko">Mizko</a>&nbsp;∙ This channel features over 30 hours of content with just over 1.2M hours watched, including in-depth lessons, tutorials, career advice, and insights into the day-to-day of the Design team.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/VAEXPERIENCE">Vaexperience</a>&nbsp;∙ Vy Alechnavicius is an award-winning experience designer, design leader, strategist, and UX team manager. He uses the Vaexperience channel to concentrate on more all-encompassing, human-centered services and goods.

In 2020, during the pandemic, I took up an online course to learn the fundamentals of UX design. It was a 6-week course with live sessions on the weekends with our instructor. After a day of the course, I knew there and then that this was something I was going to dedicate myself to.&nbsp;

I took up another course, this time the Google’s UX design certificate <a href="https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/google-ux-design">course</a>. The course covers enough to set students up for entry-level jobs in the UX design space and is a well-respected certificate in the industry.&nbsp;

There are free courses online to get you started on your journey to a new career path, well into UX design specifically:

<a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/user-experience-design">Coursera • Georgia Tech&nbsp;• Introduction to User Experience Design</a>

You can take this course on Coursera for free; the only fee is for the certificate.

<a href="https://www.interaction-design.org/courses/design-for-the-21st-century">Design for the 21st century with Don Norman</a>

A lot of people stop here. Most people enjoy watching videos and reading articles as a form of passive learning, which makes them feel good about themselves, but learning doesn't happen until you put what you've learned into practice.

The simplest approach to get started is to take something that is already available and COPY it or redesign it using a tool like <a href="https://www.figma.com/">Figma</a>&nbsp;based on what you think is right.

When you take a good design and recreate it pixel by pixel, you may begin to understand why choices were made for the layout, font, and space.

The fantastic design community will support you in this by offering insightful criticism on your work. But don't stop there; continue to test your designs on friends, family and colleagues to receive honest feedback; after all, they might just be the users of your future websites and apps. 

It will enable you to iterate and enhance your designs in addition to giving you a new perspective on your project. Asking for comments can make you feel vulnerable, but keep in mind that all of the most well-known designers became who they are through incorporating criticism.

Changing professions can be challenging, especially if you have dedicated a lot of time to one industry. But once you're in the right place, everything magically clicks into place, so follow your gut and take the risk! 

It's never too late to make a change in your life; who knows, at forty I might find another passion. I won't be worried because I'll know exactly what to do at that point. 

I'll be following my heart up until then to see where it leads.

I hope you enjoyed my story. Give me a high-five if you did! 

In my next article I will tell you how <a href="http://www.antarcticaglobal.com">Antarctica</a>&nbsp;changed the way I look at design and how we apply design to solving the world's problems through software development so stay tuned!

From an Architect to Becoming a UX/UI Designer - A Brief Journey of my Decision to Change Career for the Good

Antarctica Global - Shraddha - Linkedin.jpg

Changing careers at the age of 30 ∙ How I became a UX/UI Designer

Shraddha Pawar

Becoming a full stack developer can be a real “search in the dark” for few people, especially when you are new to web development. With the need for mastering technologies over various domains, where to start and how to proceed are commonly asked questions by rookies. This article is about my journey of becoming a full stack developer.

I started my professional journey as a SAP ABAP Tester. Still fresh out of college, I took this as a new challenge which excited me quite a lot. But I used to always get fascinated by the web development domain. I would see these beautiful websites and relevant integrations and I would admire them like a kid admiring a candy. So eventually, after the admiration phase, came the “I want to be a developer” phase.

Yes, bottom. Although I had some amount of knowledge in HTML and CSS technologies, to be a professional developer, I had to be at par with the industry standards. This meant that I would have to study all relevant concepts as well as have practical knowledge.

So I began with HTML and CSS, again. But this time, with proper resources and by building static websites for all the concepts I learnt. (practical implementation is the most important part). After getting comfortable with these concepts, I went to the main heart of web development - Javascript Language. Since I had Java and Python language in my undergrad curriculum, understanding Javascript became&nbsp; a little easy. The core concepts in every coding language are quite similar and they mainly differ in syntax.

Here are the resources which helped me in my learning process:

Next in line was the Frontend development. 

There are various libraries and frameworks which help you in the frontend development. My target was to become a MERN Stack developer which comprises of MongoDB, Express.js, React and Node.js.&nbsp;

Order in which you should go about React :

Once I got comfortable with building static pages and using React concepts of hooks and functional components, it was time to integrate and connect the APIs. 

Node.js is a powerful technology when we talk about backend. 

It allows you to build complex and powerful applications without writing complex code (which makes our life easy!)

Order in which you should go about Node.js:

The final piece in our jigsaw puzzle of Fullstack Development is somewhat easier than our previous steps. We have a wide range of databases available in both structured and unstructured databases. I went on to study MySQL and MongoDB since these two databases are most widely used.

After getting well versed with web development, though I didn't have any professional experience, the good folks at Antarctica Global gave me a shot to bring my dream into reality. 

Antarctica Global has a diverse and dynamic team which will always make you feel like you are a part of an extended family. All of my silliest doubts were solved with utmost clarity and nobody ever questioned the magnitude of silly questions. 

Within no time, I started developing functionalities and implementing beautiful UIs. I am forever grateful for this opportunity and am looking forward to expanding my skill sets by being here at Antarctica Global!

I will be here for you in case you want to join our team too!

This article is about my journey of transitioning from QA Testing to becoming a full stack MERN developer!


Kevin Antarctica.JPG

My Journey from QA Tester to Fullstack Developer for a Leading Technology Company

Kevin Shah

Systems that are designed to serve the needs of many organizations are broadly termed as multi-tenant (MT) architectures. The new age of technology leads to the development of MT architecture systems and these are mostly used for building scalable applications. So, in this blog article, we’ve given a thorough description on what MT Architecture is and why one should opt for it.

Multi-tenant architecture is a software architecture that allows for multiple tenants, or users, to use a single instance of a software application. In a multi-tenant environment, each tenant has their own unique set of data and configurations, but shares the same code base and infrastructure.

Multi-tenant architecture is often used in cloud-based applications, as it can result in significant cost savings by reducing the need to provision and manage separate instances for each tenant. Additionally, multi-tenant architectures can improve resource utilization and provide better scalability than traditional single-tenant architectures.

There are several challenges that must be considered when designing a multi-tenant application, including security, performance, isolation, and data management. However, these challenges can be overcome with careful planning and design. When done correctly, multi-tenant architecture can provide numerous benefits for both tenants and service providers.

There are several challenges that must be considered when designing a multi-tenant application, including security, performance, isolation, and data management. However, these challenges can be overcome with careful planning and design.&nbsp;

Why should you use a Multi-Tenant Architecture?

Multi-tenant architecture is becoming increasingly popular as more and more businesses move to the cloud. A multi-tenant architecture is a cloud-based architecture where each tenant has its own isolated environment. This means that each tenant has their own databases, applications, and storage. This type of architecture offers many benefits over traditional single-tenant architectures.

Some of the benefits of using a multi-tenant architecture include:

•  Increased security: Since each tenant has their own isolated environment, it is much more difficult for unauthorized users to access sensitive data. This helps to protect your data from breaches and hacks.. 

• &nbsp;Improved performance: Multi-tenant architectures are designed to be scalable and efficient. This means that they can handle large amounts of traffic without compromising performance.. 

• &nbsp;Lower costs: Multi-tenant architectures are typically cheaper to maintain than traditional single-tenant architectures. This is because you only have to manage one environment instead of multiple environments.

Overall, using a multi-tenant architecture offers many advantages over traditional single-tenant architectures. If you are considering moving to the cloud, then a multi-tenant architecture should be your first choice.

Pros and Cons of a Multi-Tenant Architecture

A multi-tenant architecture is a software architecture in which a single instance of the software runs on a server and serves multiple tenants. A tenant is a group of users who share the same access to the software instance. 

The pros of using a multi-tenant architecture are that it allows for better resource utilization because multiple tenants can share the same hardware and software resources, and it enables easier management because all tenants can be managed from a single control panel. 

The cons of using a multi-tenant architecture are that each tenant’s data is stored in the same database, so if one tenant’s data becomes corrupted, it could affect the other tenants as well, and performance can be impacted if one tenant is using up too many resources.

The pros of using a multi-tenant architecture are that it allows for better resource utilization because multiple tenants can share the same hardware and software resources, and it enables easier management because all tenants can be managed from a single control panel.

Multi-tenant architecture offers a number of advantages over traditional single-tenant architectures. Perhaps the most significant advantage is that it allows for much greater resource sharing and utilization. In a single-tenant environment, each tenant has its own dedicated resources. This can lead to underutilization of resources, as each tenant may not be using all of its resources all of the time. With multi-tenancy, multiple tenants share the same resources. This leads to more efficient use of resources and can help reduce costs.

In addition, multi-tenancy can offer improved scalability and flexibility. Since tenants share resources, it is easier to add or remove tenants without having to make major changes to the infrastructure. This can be helpful when demand for your service fluctuates or when you need to quickly respond to changing customer needs. Finally, multi-tenancy can offer enhanced security and isolation. By isolating each tenant’s data and applications, you can help ensure that one tenant’s activities cannot impact the others. This can be critical in protecting sensitive data and preventing outages caused by malicious or unexpected activity.

There are a few disadvantages of using a multi tenant architecture that you should be aware of. One disadvantage is that each tenant shares the same physical resources. This can lead to contention for resources and performance issues. Another disadvantage is that each tenant is isolated from the others, so if one tenant has an issue or needs to scale up, it can affect the other tenants. Additionally, multitenancy can add complexity to your system and make it more difficult to manage.

Hope you enjoyed reading this article! Give me a little high-five if you did!&nbsp;

Systems that are designed to serve the needs of many organizations are broadly termed as multi-tenant (MT) architectures. We're telling you here why you should opt for it.

 A Quick Guide To Multi-Tenant Architecture

Infrastructure technologies that we use.

Vision Management

UX/UI design

Frontend Development

Mobile Development

Infrastructure

Backend Development

Database

Quality Assurance