Posted on

Why Is Edge Computing Gaining Popularity Today?

In this modern era where everything is moving towards digitization, edge computing has left no stone unturned in making its way into businesses and industries. Its popularity is growing due to the huge computing demands of cloud users and massive data explosion through IoT. Business associates are finding it the best way to streamline IoT traffic and facilitate real-time, local data analysis. IIoT has paved way to move data processing closer to its source, which involves actual industrial machines. A survey says that edge computing will reach peak productivity in the very near future.

The growing innovations in AI and IoT indicate that edge computing is likely to gain maturity as well. The growing popularity of edge computing doesn’t mean cloud computing is a history. Both are equally important to the IT infrastructure. They don’t compete with each other because they are here to live forever, side by side. Michael Dell gave a statement recently on edge computing, saying, “it will be everything and everywhere, i.e. the Internet of Things, which means that ultimately it will be the Internet of Everything.” A recent report predicted that, by 2025, edge computing will capture $3.24 billion of the market globally. Industries like oil and gas, power utilities, aerospace, and automotive will benefit from edge computing when it comes to optimizing operations.

Posted on

Ad-Maven Review: One of the best monetization tools out there

Who doesn’t want to earn money online right? Websites and blogs have become a major part of the technological revolution. Even little kids these days are coming up with ideas on how to make great blogs and websites which they can show off to their classmates. Out of the millions of websites currently existing on Read More →

The post Ad-Maven Review: One of the best monetization tools out there appeared first on WPArena.

Posted on

Gutenberg Blocks Design Library Offers Pre-Built Page Designs Using Existing Core Blocks

Gutenberg Blocks Design Library is a new plugin that provides pre-built page designs, including demo content, using only the default core blocks that come with WordPress. The free version comes with 50 different designs that users can import from the growing Gutenberg Blocks Design Library. These include simple designs for all kinds of page building items, such as text with images, columns with headers, call-to-action sections, team member listings, testimonials, contact page layouts, and more.

The plugin is fully compatible with other Gutenberg themes and plugins, since it simply adds styles to existing core blocks. It can be used in combination with block collections, such as Atomic Blocks, Editor Blocks, CoBlocks, Caxton, Kadence, GhostKit, WooCommerce blocks, and many others.

There are a few major advantages to this approach. Simply adding styles to core blocks means that the plugin doesn’t introduce a bunch of new blocks for users to scroll through in the block inserter. It also ensures data portability. If a user ends up deactivating and removing the plugin for any reason, the content is still there in the default block design.

Although Gutenberg Blocks Design Library is compatible with any WordPress theme that works with the new editor, the appearance of the the pre-made designs vary somewhat across themes. I tested various blocks with different themes and found that it seems to adapt to the active theme’s look and feel. This can be a positive feature or a negative one if the user is hoping for the designs to match the demo exactly.

After installing the plugin, the design library is available by toggling the carrot icon in the menu at the top of the editor. The user is then prompted to import 50 free designs.

The creators of the Gutenberg Blocks Design Library have also built a commercial subscription service to sell “pro designs.” Pricing during the beta period starts at $9/year for a single site. The company aims to have 1,000 commercial designs available to subscribers by November 2019. They plan to release new designs every other week.

The Gutenberg Blocks Design Library is helpful for users who don’t need the more advanced capabilities of a full-featured page builder plugin but still want some simple, pre-built page elements. The placeholder content makes it easy for users to know where to insert their own content. It is much more intuitive than importing an XML file for demo content. This plugin is a great example of the interesting new product opportunities that Gutenberg has introduced by replacing tools that previously might have been built with widgets or cumbersome shortcodes.

Posted on

Method Parameters Marked Final: Good Approach?

On a recent project, we started to employ CheckStyle to help enforce good code quality and standards. I added the CheckStyle plugin to my IntelliJ IDEA client and introduce the checkstyle.xml from another client's project and ran the analysis.

I wasn't completely sure what to expect, since the API had been created before I started the project. As it turns out, the results were not all that bad. Making sure spacing was standardized, setting private class constructors for utility classes, and removing the public prefix on interface classes were common items that needed to be fixed.

Posted on

Data Modeling With Indexes: Event Sourcing (Part 1)

In this post, I want to take the notion of doing computation inside RavenDB’s indexes to the next stage. So far, we talked only about indexes that work on a single document at a time, but that's just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with indexes inside RavenDB. What I want to talk about today is the ability to do computations over multiple documents and aggregate them. The obvious example is in the following RQL query:

That is easy to understand — it is simple aggregation of data. But it can get a lot more interesting. To start with, you can add your own aggregation logic in here, which opens up some interesting ideas. Event sourcing, for example, is basically a set of events on a subject that are aggregated into the final model. Probably the classiest example of event sourcing is the shopping cart example. In such a model, we have the following events:

Posted on

Supercookies

Supercookies, also known as evercookies or zombie cookies, are like browser cookies in that they can be used to track you, but are much harder to remove.

What Is a Supercookie?

The way I first heard supercookies described was as a cookie that you can appear to delete, but as soon as you do, software rewrites the cookie. Like the Hydra from Greek mythology, cutting off a head does no good because it grows back [1].

Posted on

6 Benefits of Adopting a Managed File Transfer (MFT) Solution

A Managed File Transfer solution to move large volumes of unstructured data, differs from a plain File Transfer tool, like the world-famous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client/server combination. It does this by offering technical capabilities that earned it the prefix “Managed.” These capabilities include:

  • Guaranteed delivery that leverages ‘retry’ and ‘resume’ options to ensure the successful delivery of files and recovery from failed transfers.
  • File integrity to certify that the file was not altered accidentally or voluntarily (think “man-in-the-middle”) during its transit.
  • Non-repudiation or the ability to prove that a file was sent by one party to another by using digital signatures for each participant.
  • Automation of file transfer-related activities and business processes, both pre- and post-transfer, and on success or error.
  • End-to-end reporting on file transfers. Notification of successful file transfers (acknowledgment) all the way to the sending business applications.
  • Global visibility and auditability on administrative (configuration) and runtime (transfer) operations.
  • End-to-end security for data-in-transit and at-rest, with support for PKI.

All these criteria are characteristics of a Managed File Transfer solution and represented the boxes that vendors had to check during a Request for Proposal (RFP) processes back in the early days. Over time, the technologies and industry requirements (especially around compliance and risk management) have evolved, putting more pressure on the MFT vendors to come up with new points of differentiation. Here are six of those benefits to keep in mind when adopting a digitalized Managed File Transfer solution.

Posted on

Top 5 Free Scala Programming Courses for Java Programmers

Scala is a powerful object-oriented and functional programming language that has been long touted as the successor to Java or to replace Java. Well, that didn't just happen in the last few years. Scala has certainly made a lot of progress and established itself as a scalable programming language for big things. If you are a social media user and know Twitter, then let me tell you that they are using Scala, which proves that Scala has all the tools you need to build a high-performance, scalable application like Twitter, and Twitter is not the only company that is using Scala. If you look at Scala's website, you will find that IBM, Goldman Sachs, Verizon, and SAP are all using Scala.

You might already know that Scala is an acronym for scalable language, or should I say scalable programming language. It is actually a modern, multi-paradigm programming language designed to express common programming patterns in a concise, elegant, and type-safe way.

Posted on

No Framework for Your Microservices?

Axon Framework is an open source framework frequently used for building event-driven microservices on the JVM. Its architectural concepts are CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation), DDD (domain-driven design), event sourcing, and location transparency.

The choice of using a framework for application development is somewhat controversial. You might have a look at this blog by Peter Kummins, which argues against the use of frameworks in general. More specific to the field in which my organization, Axon operates, father-of-CQRS Greg Young is known for advising “don’t write a CQRS framework,” and DDD authority Mathias Verraes recommended on Twitter not to use a framework for applications that have to last multiple years. This article by Tomas Petricek makes some other interesting points, clearly distinguishing between libraries and frameworks, and advocating for the use of libraries over frameworks.

Posted on

Best Form Plugin WordPress – (Review Updated For Winter of 2019)

How can your website visitors contact you?

It’s a simple question, yet I see so many sites with complex solutions.

Take a moment to put yourself into the shoes of a user navigating your website. For one reason or another, they have decided they want to reach you. This person shouldn’t be forced to find your phone number, dial, wait on hold, and potentially get a voicemail depending on your business hours. That’s just too many steps and not very efficient.

Here’s another scenario. The visitor has to look up your email address, navigate to their email platform, then copy and paste your email address before typing a message.

I’ll give you one more example, just for good measure. In order to contact you, the website visitor has to search you on social media, and then send a direct message or leave a comment on your page.

Should you have options for people to contact you via phone, email, and social media? Absolutely.

But you can simplify this process by allowing people to contact you directly from your website. The solution: contact forms.

A simple contact form can help you increase conversions and improve your customer experience. Each additional step a visitor has to take to perform an action reduces the chances that they’ll complete that action.

By setting up a contact form on your website, people can reach you without having to take extra steps or navigating to third-party platforms. There’s a high likelihood that they won’t finish a multi-step process. They might get distracted, or give up — it’s not worth all that work to them.

Adding a form plugin to your WordPress site will make it much easier for visitors to get in contact with you. You can also use these plugins for other forms.

So what’s the best form plugin for WordPress? I’ve identified the top options worth consideration.

1. Ninja Forms

Ninja Forms

When it comes to simplicity, the Ninja Forms plugin is definitely toward the top of the rankings. Unlike other plugins on the market, Ninja Forms integrates nicely into your WordPress dashboard and makes it easy for you to create a form in minutes.

Ninja Forms is great for beginners but has enough add-on options for advanced WordPress users as well. That’s why more than one million sites are actively using this plugin.

You can sync the forms up with your email marketing software. So all of the responses can be managed through services that you’re already using. Ninja Forms supports the majority of the most popular email tools:

  • Constant Contact
  • MailChimp
  • Aweber
  • Campaign Monitor
  • iContact
  • GetResponse

Ninja Forms even has features that allow you to collect payments through Stripe, PayPal Express, and Elavon.

Another reason why this is one of the best form plugins for WordPress is the ability to collect, export, and analyze any data submitted in the forms. Ninja Forms integrates with CRM software such as Salesforce, Zoho, and Batchbook. You can also send data to productivity and team tools like Trello, Slack, and Zapier.

The basic version of Ninja Forms is free, but add-ons can be purchased separately. They also have plans starting at $99 per year.

2. WPForms

WPForms

WPForms is arguably one of the most beginner-friendly form plugins available for WordPress. That’s because it offers a drag and drop form builder that’s as straightforward as it gets.

The simplicity behind the drag and drop builder makes it easy for anyone, regardless of their technical background, to create a form in just a few minutes. WPForms also has plenty of pre-built templates to get you started in the right direction.

You can create forms with conditional logic. This means that certain elements of the form (such as fields, sections or buttons) will be changed based on options a user selects.

For example, a website visitor who is filling out a form about a previous purchase could have different form options than someone who has a question about one of your products that hasn’t been purchased yet.

WPForms also lets website visitors submit files. Let’s say someone has a problem with something they bought from you. You can give them an option to upload a picture to improve the communication about the issue.

This plugin can also integrate with email marketing software as well as productivity tools.

WPForms can be embedded anywhere on your website.

Pricing for WPForms starts at just $39 per year, which is pretty affordable considering all of the benefits you’ll get.

3. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms offers a clean navigation for building and managing forms on WordPress. You can consider using this plugin if you’re a beginner, but Gravity Forms offers lots of options for advanced WordPress users as well.

Other form plugins require you to add on the conditional logic feature, but that option comes standard with Gravity Forms.

Another feature I like is the ability for visitors to save and continue a form for later. This is great for those of you who plan on adding longer or more complex forms to your website. Sometimes those won’t be completed in one sitting, and you don’t want to force people to re-submit information or abandon the process altogether.

Gravity Forms lets you limit the number of submissions through one particular form. They also give you the ability to schedule forms.

Something else that sets this plugin apart from the competition is its calculations feature. Gravity Forms can automatically perform advanced calculations based on the form fields submitted by a visitor. So if you had a real estate website, you could set this up to calculate an estimated mortgage payment based on things like the purchase price, down payment, interest rate, and mortgage period.

Gravity Forms starts at just $59 per year for a basic license. If you’re a developer or have an agency, you can purchase an elite license for just $259 annually, which is valid for an unlimited number of sites.

4. HappyForms

Happy Forms

A reason why HappyForms is considered one of the best form plugins for WordPress is because it’s 100% free.

According to its website, the average cost of a WordPress form plugin is $186 per year. So for those of you who are looking for a free form plugin, this will be a top choice for you to consider.

HappyForms lets you completely customize your forms with different types of form fields.

  • Short text
  • Long text
  • Email
  • Website links
  • Multiple choice options
  • Single choice
  • Dropdown menus
  • Numeric fields
  • Phone numbers

All of these can be added to one form. The drop-down menus and multiple choice options are very user-friendly. It’s easier for someone to make a selection from a list as opposed to manually typing a response. This will also help you stay organized when you’re sorting through data and submissions from these fields.

It’s easy for you to manage all of your messages from one place. HappyForms lets you filter the messages based on your preferences, so you can respond in a logical way. For example, you may prioritize a certain type of request over another, as opposed to responding in the order the forms were submitted in.

HappyForms also has ReCaptcha and Honeypot built-in, so you won’t have to worry about getting spam messages.

Overall, this is one of the best free form plugins for WordPress on the market.

5. Caldera Forms

Caldera Forms

Caldera Forms also has a free option. If you want to upgrade to a pro version, pricing starts at $15 per month. They also have individual add-ons available for purchase.

With that said, if you’re just looking for a basic form plugin, you can probably get away with the free version.

This plugin is another option that includes a drag and drop builder, which is great for those of you who aren’t too tech-savvy and want to create forms as fast as possible.

Caldera Forms has advanced calculations, drop down menus, and conditional logic. There’s also a built-in spam filtering tool, so you won’t have to waste your time reviewing spam submissions.

I dig the auto-responders, which ensures that your website visitors always get a quick reply.

For those of you who run a blog and accept guest posts, users can submit posts directly through the form fields with Caldera Forms, too.

6. FormCraft

FormCraft

FormCraft is unique because it specializes in designs. We’ve all been to websites that have generic forms that just aren’t very appealing. You don’t want your website visitors to have that feeling when they’re on your site.

This WordPress plugin also has a drag and drop builder, making it easier for anyone to create a from as fast as possible.

FormCraft also has a wide range of templates based on the type of form that you’re trying to build. This is very helpful for those of you who will be embedding multiple forms on your WordPress site. For example, a form to sign up for your email newsletter should be distinguishable from your contact form.

Another top benefit from FormCraft is its popup forms. A user action can trigger a form to appear on the page, as opposed to embedding it somewhere on a landing page that might be overlooked.

You can create multi-page forms with FormCraft as well, although this is one of the many paid add-on features. The basic package starts at $49 per year. Add-ons range from $19 to $29 each.

7. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is another WordPress plugin that’s completely free. They won’t try to upsell you with any premium features or add-ons. With over 5 million active installations, this is one of the most popular free WordPress plugins you’ll find.

What I found interesting about Contact Form 7 is that they have exceptional customer support for a free plugin. You’ll have access to an extensive FAQ page, support forums, and documents explaining how to do things.

Some of the top features of Contact Form 7 include:

  • CAPTCHA fields
  • Radio buttons
  • Drop down menus
  • Checkboxes
  • Quizzes
  • File submission fields

You’ll be able to embed the forms anywhere on your website. It’s a top option for anyone who doesn’t want to buy a form plugin.

8. weForms

weForms

I like weForms because it’s extremely sleek and responsive. It has a drag and drop builder, which makes it easy for beginners to create a form. There are also tons of pre-built templates that will save you time compared to creating a form from scratch.

The shortcode allows you to embed forms within your posts, as well as anywhere else on your site. With weForms, you can build forms that have entry and time restrictions and over 33 types of form fields for you to choose.

The versatility of weForms makes it one of the best form plugins for WordPress.

It syncs with some of the most popular email marketing solutions on the market. It provides anti-spam protection, and let you create forms with conditional logic. In addition to contact forms, it’s great for:

  • Volunteer application forms
  • Event registration forms
  • Error reporting forms
  • Applications
  • Referrals
  • Internal company requests
  • Patient intake forms

9. Quform

Quform

At just $29 per year, Quform is an affordable WordPress form plugin. This plugin is extremely responsive and mobile-friendly.

You’ll have the option to create multi-page forms, with complex layouts, and reCAPTCHA with the drag and drop builder.

The plugin comes with lots of different form themes as well. You can set up conditions that will automatically display elements for specific replies through your website forms. With Quform, users can attach files to their submission.

For those of who you don’t want to spend a ton of money on a plugin, but want to upgrade from a free WordPress form plugin, you’ll definitely want to checkout Quform.

10. Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms

Last, but certainly not least on our list is Formidable Forms.

This plugin is unique because it lets you create forms that are GDPR compliant. So for those of you who have lots of European visitors navigating to your website, you’ll want to consider Formidable Forms.

You can create simple contact forms as well as complex multi-page forms with this plugin. It comes standard with top features like advanced calculations, file uploads, and conditional logic.

Formidable Forms is also one of my favorite plugins for analyzing data that’s been submitted in your website forms. You can view information in graphs, which is always helpful for identifying trends.

This plugin lets you take the information that you collect through forms and use it to build directories, listings, or any other data-driven application.

The drag-and-drop builder paired with front-end WordPress editing makes Formidable Forms impressive. Pricing ranges from $49 to $399 per year, depending on your needs. But I’d say the majority of you won’t need one of the higher-cost plans.

Conclusion

Traditionally, website forms are used as a contact method. It’s a great way for your website visitors to reach you directly without having to leave or site or go through extra steps.

But as you can see, these forms can be used for so much more. That’s why it’s crucial for you to have a WordPress plugin that can help you create the forms you need.

So what’s the best form plugin for WordPress?

It depends on what you’re looking for. Some websites need to build complex, multi-page forms, with conditional logic and file submissions. Other sites may just need a simple form with a few fields.

How do you want to create your forms? If you want something that’s easy and user-friendly, you’ll want to look for a plugin that has drag and drop builders.

Price is also something that you need to keep in mind when you’re searching for a form plugin. Some are free, while others vary in price range depending on features, plans, and add-ons.

Based on all of this information, I’m sure you can find what you’re looking for on the list that I’ve come up with above. These are the best form plugins for WordPress, and I made sure to include something for everyone.

Posted on

#CodePenChallenge: Triangles

New week, new #CodePenChallenge!

Last week, we bounced into the shapes challenge with circles. Browse through the Pens from the challenge in our #CodePenChallenge: Circles 🔵 collection.

February's Challenge Sponsor: CodePen PRO

CodePen PRO combines a bunch of features that can help any front-end designer or developer at any experience level. You'll be able to drag-and-drop to upload assets • Cross-browser test easier with no-login Debug View and Live View • Make anything private with the flip of a toggle • Collaborate in real time with Collab Mode • So much more.

Week Two Prompt: Triangles 🔺

This week we're getting to the point of the shapes challenge with Triangles!

Your Challenge

Create a Pen that features triangles in an interesting way.

How to Participate

Create a Pen and tag it codepenchallenge and the weekly tag cpc-triangle. We'll gather those Pens into a collection and share our favorites on Twitter and Instagram (Use the #CodePenChallenge tag on Twitter and Instagram as well).

Ideas

  1. Show off your favorite way to make a triangle in the browser. Will you make it with CSS, SVG, or another technique?
  2. Have you heard of the Sierpinski triangle? It's a fascinating fractal you can generate with JavaScript.
  3. Triangles are the root of the low-poly image style. Could you create an interesting image from triangles?

Resources

  1. Here are a couple of approaches to creating triangles in the browser: the classic border method, and the clip-path method.
  2. Feeling fractal-y? Study up on Sierpinski with Massimo's Sierpinski triangle or Jarrod Thibodeau's The Chaos Never Ends.
  3. Thinking about going the low-poly route? Check out Mikael Ainalem's Ocean and Luke Reid's Low Poly Landscape for inspiration.

The post #CodePenChallenge: Triangles appeared first on CodePen Blog.

Posted on

Where Do You Nest Your Sass Breakpoints?

I love nesting my @media query breakpoints. It's perhaps the most important feature of Sass to me. Maybe I pick a method and do it like this:

.element {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 100px 1fr;
  @include breakpoint(baby-bear) {
    display: block;
  }
}

That's straightforward enough. But what if my element has several sub-elements and the breakpoint affects them as well? There are different approaches, and I'm never quite sure which one I should be doing.

I could duplicate the breakpoint for each child:

.parent {

    @include breakpoint(desktop) {
    }

    .child {
        @include breakpoint(desktop) {
        }
    }

   .child-2 {
        @include breakpoint(desktop) {
        }
    }

}

The compiled CSS comes out to something like this:

@media screen and (min-width: 700px) {
  .parent {
  }
}
@media screen and (min-width: 700px) {
  .parent .child {
  }
}
@media screen and (min-width: 700px) {
  .parent .child-2 {
  }
}

Or, I could duplicate the children under the first nested breakpoint:

.parent {

    @include breakpoint(desktop) {

       .child {
       }

       .child-2 {
       } 

    }

    .child {
    }

   .child-2 {
    }

}

That results in:

@media screen and (min-width: 700px) {
  .parent .child {
  }
  .parent .child-2 {
  }
}
.parent .child {
}
.parent .child-2 {
}

Or I could do a combination of the two. Neither of them feels particularly great because of the duplication, but I'm not sure there is a perfect answer here. I err a little more on duplicating the media query, as it seems less error-prone than duplicating selectors.

The post Where Do You Nest Your Sass Breakpoints? appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Posted on

The ineffectiveness of lonely icons

Icons are great and all, but as we've been shown time and time again, they often don't do the job all by themselves. Even if you do a good job with the accessibility part and make sure there is accompanying text there for assistive technology, in an ironic twist, you might be confusing people who browse visually, like the situation Matt Wilcox describes with his mother in this linked article.

I'm a fan of this markup pattern, including the inline SVG as the preferred icon system:

<button>
  <svg class="icon icon-cart" viewBox="0 0 100 100" aria-hidden="true">
    <!-- all your hot svg action, like: -->
    <path d=" ... " />
  </svg>
  Add to Cart
</button>

Or, if the button is really a link and not a JavaScript-powered action, I'll use an <a href=""> instead of a <button> wrapper.

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

The post The ineffectiveness of lonely icons appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Posted on

When Is It Time to Abandon a WordPress Plugin?

One of the biggest reasons to love WordPress is the sheer number of available plugins. It seems like, no matter what type of functionality you need, there is at least one plugin that can do the job.

But it’s no secret that plugins can sometimes outlive their usefulness. As both our needs and WordPress itself change, we can find ourselves looking for better options. That can mean moving on from a plugin that had previously served us well.

Still, it’s not always the easiest decision to make. Sort of like an athlete that’s past their prime, we can let plugins hang around long after their best days have come and gone.

So, how do you know when it’s time to ditch a plugin and start fresh with something new? The following are a few telltale signs to watch out for.

It Hasn’t Been Updated in a Long Time

Think of a WordPress plugin as a living thing. If it’s properly cared for, it will flourish. If not, the results won’t be nearly as good.

Those of us who build websites with WordPress would ideally like to see that a plugin is updated at least on a semi-regular basis. That shows that its author is still actively involved, adding new features and fixing bugs.

That’s never been more important, what with WordPress moving to the Gutenberg editor and PHP 5.x being phased out. If a plugin hasn’t been actively maintained, then it’s likely to fall short of being compatible with either of these major changes. Plus, there could be serious concerns regarding security as well.

Now, that doesn’t mean that a particular plugin has to be updated weekly or even monthly. Depending on its purpose, that may not be necessary. But you will want to look for, at the very least, a couple of updates per year. Anything less than that and you might as well give it one last hug goodbye.

An abandoned cockpit.

Updates Routinely Break

On the opposite end of the spectrum are plugins that, while continuously maintained, have become functionally unreliable. Updates are released frequently, but it’s usually because the previous ones have wreaked havoc on a number of websites.

This is frustrating, as you have a plugin that (at one point) did what you needed it to do. However, an over-aggressive developer has managed to cause as many problems as they have solved (if not more).

Depending on your personality, you may be willing to show some patience in this situation. Sometimes it actually pays off, as even a quality plugin can go through a rough patch and eventually right the ship. But inevitably things have to get better in short order. Otherwise, it’s just not worth the trouble.

Bits of broken glass.

It Has Become Bloated

A plugin quite often starts out trying to solve a specific problem. If it accomplishes that goal, its author may decide to add some related features to make it even more useful. This can be a great thing, if the new additions are well-executed.

The downside is that, over time, some plugins morph from solving a single problem into something that tries to solve every problem. This once terrific piece of software now is more accurately described as bloatware.

This can have negative effects on your website. For one, more features mean more code. The chances of both annoying bugs and hits to performance rise with every new feature.

It can get to the point where a plugin is no longer a good fit. In that case, it’s time to look for one that’s more focused and efficient in its functionality.

A boulder sitting in grass.

There’s Something Better

When it comes to plugins, part of a web designer’s job is to provide clients with the best option available. But just because a plugin was once the best option doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever.

This is especially so when it comes to plugins that occupy overcrowded categories like SEO or photo galleries. It seems like someone always comes along and tops whatever the previous leaders have done.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that we should immediately jump off the bandwagon when something new comes out. But it does suggest that it’s worth keeping an eye on what else is out there. You may find that another plugin offers something that you just can’t pass up.

Sky with the word "CHANGE" written in clouds.

Change Can Be Difficult, but Necessary

Let’s face it. It can be a real pain to swap one plugin for another. The process often involves refactoring or even recreating content that was being used by the old plugin so that it plays nicely with the new one. Therefore, it’s not a decision to take lightly.

Then, there’s always the unknown of how that new plugin will work out. Will there be any unintended consequences from using it? How can you be sure that it will still be around in a few years? Testing helps, but there’s still a leap of faith required when making a switch.

In the end, this is all part of a website’s lifecycle. The good news is that, with so many choices out there, making those changes to a WordPress website will just about always lead you to a better path forward.