{"_index":"location","_type":"_doc","_id":"27737","_version":1,"_seq_no":5577,"_primary_term":1,"found":true,"_source":{"Locid":27737,"GPS1":"25.0173, 121.462","GPS2":"2501'02.2\"N 12127'44.8\"E","CompanyID":1005070,"ads":"142 Sec. 1, HsIn Nan Rd cung Ko Dst, New Taipei City, Taiwan","Crid":75,"con":"Taiwan","Ctid":5894,"Cn":"Zhonghe District","pushdate":"2019-12-26T03:38:20.883"}}
I need to return two values from GPS1 :
longtiude : 25.0173
latitude : 121.462
Based on LocationId parameter :27737
So that I need to create service
take location id parameters
and return two values of GPS1
Longtude
And
latitude
2020 is literally just hours away and we want to talk about 5 graphic design trends in 2020 that you’ll need to be looking out for.
We all know that there are some design trends that are bomb and some that should just hide under a rock and go away forever.
Today, we only want to go over the best of the best of graphic design trends in 2020.
So let’s do this.
Graphic Design Trends in 2020 You Need To Look Out For
So let’s do this. May the new year bring loads of good times and good graphic design trends!
Realism
Realism and 3D designs are a trend that reigned all of 2019, and we expect it to become even more popular during 2020.
Technology is constantly evolving and improving and we’re always impressed and excited to see what designers will do with this. We’re convinced that we will continue to see 3D designs all throughout 2020.
Lots of people always like to combine real objects and images into their designs, but if this is something you choose to do, make sure you avoid the uncanny effect!
I’ve been reading a lot about color associations recently and I’ve learned that people will ignore neutral colors or worse, won’t even notice them, whereas when someone sees a vibrant color after seeing lots of neutrals, it’ll break the boredom and they will feel notions of excitement and fun.
This year in 2020, break all of the rules and embrace the vibrant colors that this world has to offer.
Life is short, use all the colors!
Stand out of the crowd by using bright and vibrant colors.
Thanks for sticking by our side another year and we are more than thrilled to see what design trends this next year holds for each of us.
We wish you a happy New Year’s and all our best wishes.
We hope you enjoyed the 2020 design trends that you can expect to see. What trends do you expect to see in 2020? Let us know in the comment sections below.
Privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA are changing the way data is collected and used. Data-driven organizations use data collaboration to understand their customers and research organizations that rely on data collaboration to advance research are being restricted. As more privacy regulations come online, what can organizations do to future-proof their use of data, whilst still adhering to privacy regulations?
Technology is now available that will allow organizations to continue to collaborate without ever exposing or moving the underlying data.
Acknowledging the need and importance of friction-free customer engagement and significant experience, Microsoft has stepped up to launch the open data initiative partnering with Adobe and SAP. With ODI, the trio aims to enhance the customer experience offering a more personalized profile. It entails the likelihood where data from different kinds of channels can be clubbed together to build a streamlined user profile in real-time. This can be regarded as the initiative to redefine customer experience management.
Why Such an Initiative and Why Now?
There have been tons of debates questioning the need for this partnership and the likes of an open data initiative. It is no doubt that data is ruling every business activity today. Companies have shifted from adopting a revenue-driven approach to customer-oriented undertakings. Technologies excel on the data front to build and deliver user-specific solutions. And this is just the start. According to a survey, there would be around 47k exabytes of data by 2020, and the number is only expected to rise.
Joshua Wold, co-representative for the WordPress design team, shared an early exploration of an author card block. Community members explored several ideas at the design table during the contributor day at WordCamp US 2019. In the post, Wold followed up on the original sketches from that melding of design minds.
The original idea for the author block was a GitHub ticket created in July 2017, but it was far ahead of its time. The Gutenberg project needed to focus on the basics and more common blocks for post content at that point. Now is the time to shift gears and begin work on these more complex blocks that will likely be a large part of the full-site editing phase of the project.
Currently, there are several proposed components to the author block:
Image/Avatar
Name
Description/Biography
Website Link
Social Network Links
Recommended Posts
I am on the fence about a recommended posts option as part of the block. If they were recommended posts written by that author, it could be an interesting concept to explore. However, version 1 of the block should focus on the most common elements, which the other components in the list cover.
Wold asked four key questions about the future of the block. The following are my responses to each.
What Is the Value of the Block and How Will It Be Used?
Coming from the theme world, what surprises me is that WordPress has never standardized on this feature at this point. Author bio sections are commonplace in theme development. Core should have standardized this feature years ago. We have a standard search form, comment list, featured image, and more. Many of the features that WordPress has standardized over the years were born out of theme designers carving the path forward, and author bios are no different.
It has long made sense for an author bio template tag to exist. However, we are living in a block world. The concept has merely shifted.
We do not need an author bio block today. We will need it tomorrow. As we shift closer and closer to full-site editing, we need to be building, iterating, and testing these types of blocks in preparation for the point of no return. This block, along with similar blocks, should drop in core at the same time the switch is flipped on full-site editing.
The primary use case will be for end-users to edit their theme’s block templates to stick the author bio at the end of their single post views. However, such a block need not be limited to that scenario. Users could create a “team” or “authors” page on their site. Some may want to drop these into columns or create some sort of gallery of author bios.
I could see taking this even further and naming it a “user bio” block. Use cases do not have to be centered around the concept of an author.
Where Should the Author Data Come From?
The primary, or at least initial, source of data should come from user data and metadata stored in the database. It does not make sense to duplicate efforts by retyping content within the block if it already exists.
One big question will be around social icons. If these are a part of the block, there is no current source to pull the URLs from. If automatically generating the data, WordPress will need to add social media contact methods to the user profile screen in the admin. That can be a slippery slope when deciding which social networks to include. However, core WordPress could stick to three or four major networks and provide a filter hook for plugin authors to utilize along with a standard for how additional fields are handled.
There is also the possibility that this block could simply be a pre-defined pattern of existing, smaller blocks that pulled in data like a user biography, user social icons, and user avatar. Then, the site owner could move other blocks in and out as they saw fit.
What Block Design Options Should Be Available?
The obvious design options are the standard text color, background color, and font size options. Border design options would be a bonus, but that goes beyond the scope of this specific block.
The standard alignment options would be welcome, particularly center, wide, and full. An alignment option for the avatar image to shift it left or right could also be useful. It could work similarly to the existing Media & Text core block.
I would not go overboard with design options. Let theme authors create custom block styles for users to choose from. That is the theme author’s job.
What Additional Features Should the Block Handle?
Outside of an avatar and biography, a social icon list is the most necessary feature. It is almost ubiquitous with author bio boxes.
What I would like to see is an author/user “gallery” block that builds upon this initial idea. At the moment, I am already imagining the painful user experience of creating a team page and putting individual user bio blocks into columns. Then, I am further imagining having to update that page and potentially move columns around. As an end-user, there are times when I want to micro-manage certain aspects of my site. This would not be one of them. Just give me a simple block to list user bios in some sort of columnized format.
Such a block could provide an avenue for many types of options. Maybe an option to list authors of a certain post type. Perhaps an option to list users by role. Or, let me list the top users by post count.
This idea may be pushing over into plugin territory. However, in terms of what I would want to do with my sites, this would be high on the list.
There's been a run of tools, articles, and resources about color lately. Please allow me to close a few tabs by rounding them up here for your enjoyment.
Curated colors in context
Happy Hues demonstrates a bunch of color palettes in the context of the site itself. That's a nice way to do it, because choosing nice colors isn't enough — it's all about context. It can go bad, as the Refactoring UI blog demonstrates.
Dynamic, Date-Based Color with JavaScript, HSL, and CSS Variables
Rob Weychert shows off how he created date-based color schemes (so that every single day of the past 30 years would have a unique color scheme, each day looking slightly different than the day before).
Calculating Color: Dynamic Color Theming with Pure CSS.
The other day I went to dinner, and it made me appreciate the need for fast application programming interfaces (APIs). Confused? Let me explain.
To get to dinner, I used an app to hail a car from my smartphone. Most of us are familiar with this routine ā you open the app, enter your destination, get a ride, step out of the car when you arrive, and pay for your trip automatically using the credit card on file. While you're waiting for the driver to pick you up, the map updates in real time to indicate the location of the car on approach. But on that day, the app did not update the map. I waited five increasingly uncomfortable minutes, not knowing if a driver was on the way or had even accepted my request. After 10 minutes, I got frustrated and switched to an alternative ride-hailing app! This time I was successful and watched in real time as my driver approached and picked me up. I made it to dinner with a few minutes to spare.
Weāre all used to the idea of digital content recommendations by now.
Netflix recommends films and shows we might want to watch based on our preferences and past viewing history. Spotify recommends songs and artists to us that we might want to listen to based on what weāve played recently and/or most extensively. And Amazon recommends Kindle books we might want to read based on the authors and topics weāve shown an interest in.
How AI Is Saving Lives and Stopping Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a horrific crime that impacts between two and four million victims. The impact of modern-day slavery is far-reaching and affects families across the globe. Social scientists, developers, and law enforcement are working together to cut down on the number of people victimized by human trafficking.
Everyone involved was at a loss when trying to track down and arrest these criminals. Worse yet, the trafficker would likely only get charged with one crime, even if they were running a trafficking empire.
Want to jump straight to the answer? The best video conferencing service for most people isVonage.
Video conferencing software has to work perfectly, or it doesn’t really work at all. If there’s any lag in the video, it’s nearly impossible to have a conversation. If someone doesn’t get the invite, you may have to reschedule.
Below you’ll find my top picks for video conferencing services. These are affordable, reliable, secure options your business can depend on.
The 9 Best Video Conferencing Services
Best of 2023: Vonage, Ooma, ClickMeeting, Zoho Meeting, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Webex, GoTo Meeting, and RingCentral.
All of the video conferencing solutions that I reviewed in this guide are quality options. But these are my three favorite that stand out above the rest:
ClickMeetingĀ ā Best video conferencing software for webinars
These video conferencing services are not rankedā all have pros and cons. Use the in-depth reviews below to compare them, and find the one that works best for your needs.
Vonage offers a complete unified communications suite to businesses of all shapes and sizes. But one area where it really shines above the crowd is its dedicated healthcare solutions.
With so many healthcare practices offering virtual appointments and consultations, the ability to keep patient data safe is more important than ever before.
Vonage makes it easy to consult with patient’s from anywhere while keeping their data safe.
Vonageās video conferencing is HIPAA-compliant and PCI-compliant. The software also has a HITRUST CSF certification, which is one of the most widely adopted security frameworks for healthcare companies in the US.
In addition to basic video conferencing, Vonage has advanced communication APIs. This lets you fully personalize the patient experience in a way that works best for your practice. So whether youāre running a small therapistās office, a large hospital, or something in between, Vonage can be customized to fit your needs.
Beyond the ability to meet with patients through a video call, healthcare organizations can use Vonage to collaborate internally as well. So if a primary care physician wants to consult with a surgeon about a patient, they can do so without having to be in the same building.
Basic Vonage plans start at $17.99 per month per line. To access video conferencing, youāll need a Premium plan, which starts at $27.99 per month per line.
Consult with a Vonage expert if youāre interested in a dedicated healthcare solution and video API. Theyāll guide you in the right direction for your unique needs.
Ooma is a popular phone solution for small businesses. Itās a great way for smaller offices to get all communications needs under one roofāincluding voice, video, text messaging, virtual fax, and video conferencing.
All Ooma business phone plans come with over 50 standard features.
In terms of video conferencing, Ooma has one of the most unique features on the market. You can simultaneously share screens with another person on a video call.
Simultaneous screen sharing on Ooma is an excellent way to collaborate during meetings.
I love this feature, and itās something I wish was available on other business phone systems. Itās a great way to compare notes and share information in a way thatās more collaborative than a single screen share. This can also be used for collaborative presentations.
Meeting hosts have the ability to mute participants and add password protection to calls. Ooma also supports unlimited meeting recordings and storage for three months.
I also love that Ooma is compatible with traditional office phones in addition to its mobile and desktop app. This is perfect if part of your team works in a traditional office setting.
Hereās a quick overview of Oomaās plans and pricing:
ClickMeeting is a bit different compared to some of the other video conferencing services. This platform has a unique feature: webinars.
Itās a great option for anyone who wants to hold large online events, market products with video demonstrations, and host online courses or training sessions with live video.
ClickMeeting also offers traditional video conferencing solutions for team meetings and business collaboration. However, if that’s all you need, I’d look at other options on this list.
Pricing is complicated too. There are two plans, and each offers different levels and costs depending on how many attendees you have.
Hereās an overview of those price points per month for each plan:
Live
Up to 25 ā $30
Up to 50 ā $45
Up to 100 ā $79
Up to 200 ā $149
Up to 500 ā $179
Up to 1,000 ā $309
Automated
Up to 25 ā $45
Up to 50 ā $55
Up to 100 ā $95
Up to 200 ā $179
Up to 500 ā $229
Up to 1,000 ā $359
For video conferences with more than 1,000 attendees, contact the ClickMeeting sales team for a custom enterprise solution.
You can try ClickMeeting free for 30 days and run webinars with up to 25 attendees to try it out. Save up to 20% with annual billing instead of a month-to-month contract.
The Automated plan is your best option for broadcasting professional video webinars. This plan comes with advanced features like auto-streaming to Facebook or YouTube, automated follow-up emails to attendees, Google Analytics integration, and certificates of attendance.
ClickMeeting is definitely pricey compared to the other options on our list, which is why I wouldnāt recommend it for just basic video conferencing use. But the price is worth it if youāre planning to use the webinar features.
More Great Video Conferencing Software
Zoho Meeting – Most Affordable Video Conferencing Service With Basic Features
Zoho Meeting is arguably the most straightforward video conferencing solution on the market today. There aren’t a bunch of bells and whistles.
Some of Zohoās top features include:
RSVP scheduling
Screen sharing
Moderator controls
Embed meeting links
In-session chat
Lock meetings
Youāll also have the ability to switch a presenter, give someone control, and remove users from a video conference.
As expected, Zoho Meeting integrates seamlessly with Zoho CRM. So if youāre already using a Zoho product, this will be a top option for you to consider.
This isnāt the most feature-rich video conferencing software out there. But itās a quality solution for small business owners who just need basic features and already utilize Zoho products.
Pricing is tiered based on the number of participants in a meeting, and charged per host per month. Hereās a breakdown of what that looks like:
10 participants ā $3 per host per month
25 participants ā $6 per host per month
50 participants ā $9 per host per month
100 participants ā $12 per host per month
150 participants ā $14 per host per month
200 participants ā $16 per host per month
250 participants ā $18 per host per month
Thereās also a free forever plan with limited features that supports 100 meeting participants and 100 webinar attendees.
Microsoft Teams is an instant messaging service with chat, audio, and video capability. The platform is designed specifically for internal comms in the workplace.
With the ability to support group sizes of 10 or 10,000, MS Teams is the ultimate in-house communication solution.
MS Teams shines over competitors like Slack with its superior technology and video conferencing features. But the setup, usage, and onboarding are a bit more complex compared to other options on the market.
MS Teams is best when itās accessed from a desktop device or web app. Your team can also take advantage of the mobile app version of the software, but itās not as easy to navigate as the web version.
Letās take a quick look at the plans and pricing options:
Microsoft Teams ā Free
Microsoft Teams Essentials ā $4 per user per month
Microsoft 365 Business Basic ā $6 per user per month
Microsoft 365 Business Standard ā $12.50 user per month
Microsoft 365 Business Premium ā $22 per user per month
All paid plans are only available with an annual contract.
Youāll still have access to quite a few features with the free version, including video calls. But youāll need Office 365 Business Premium to get the most out of this software.
Paid plans have 140+ app integrations, 1 TB of storage, scheduled meetings, meeting recordings, and administrative support. Our in-depth Microsoft Teams review covers its features and capabilities in greater detail.
Aside from its complexity, MS Teams does have some limitations. Itās not really a true video conferencing service. Instead, itās better for one-on-one video meetings or smaller groups.
If you want to host large-scale video conferences and make presentations to clients, you should look elsewhere for a more suitable solution.
Since launching in 2011, Zoom has quickly become an industry leader in the video conferencing space. The software is trusted by large businesses like Ticketmaster, Uber, Pandora, and GoDaddy, just to name a few.
Zoom shines with its simplicity, which is highlighted in our full Zoom review. There’s a plan for businesses of any shape and size, including a free-forever option.
Zoom has video conferencing capabilities with up to 1,000 participants, and up to 49 videos on the screen simultaneously.
Zoom helps connect entire organizations with video conferencing.
The platform is secure and has role-based user security options, password protection, and waiting rooms. Zoom makes it easy for your team to collaborate with screen sharing, filing sharing, and other interactive features.
Zoom is modern, so naturally, the service can also be accessed from a mobile app. This is perfect for participants who are on the go and unable to reach a computer for a meeting.
Hereās an overview of Zoom’s pricing model:
Basic ā Free
Unlimited one-on-one meetings
Up to 100 participants
40-minute limit on group meetings
Unlimited number of meetings
Pro ā $14.99 per month per host
All basic features
24-hour meeting limit
User management tools
Admin feature controls
Reporting tools
1 GB of cloud recording
Business ā $19.99 per month per host
All of the Pro features
Up to 10 hosts
Up to 300 participants
Dedicated phone support
Company branding
Cloud recording transcripts
Admin dashboard
Enterprise ā $19.99 per month per host
All of the Business features
Up to 50 hosts
Up to 1,000 participants
Unlimited cloud storage
Dedicated customer support manager
Executive business reviews
Bundle discounts available for Zoom Rooms and webinars
As you can see, there is a plan for everyone. The free option is an excellent choice for a small team or freelancer who only needs to video chat once in a while for brief meetings.
Beyond personal use, youāll need to upgrade to the Pro or Business plans to get the most out of Zoom. Fortunately, Zoom makes it easy for you to scale to another plan as your company grows.
Just be aware that your plan will impact the level of customer support you receive. To get premium support, youāll need to upgrade.
Webex – Best Video Conferencing Service For Cloud Collaboration
Cisco is a brand name thatās synonymous with superior business technology. So it should be no surprise that Cisco Webex ranks so highly on our list for video conferencing software.
With Webex, you can host massive virtual events with up to 100,000 participants and run an interactive webinar for 3,000-person audiences.
Webex is perfect if you need to run on-demand training lessons for large groups as well. This is a great tool for onboarding employees at scale throughout multiple locations.
You can use webex to join or host video conferences from your computer or mobile app.
The Webex mobile app is another standout feature of the platform. Hosting and joining meetings are both simple and accessible from anywhere.
Arguably the best part about this video conferencing software is the cloud collaboration features. Itās easy to share files and screens with other meeting participants to stay organized and make the conference more interactive. That’s what makes them great for teams.
Cisco offers four different plans for you to choose from, including a basic free option.
Free ā $0 per month
Up to 50 participants
40-minute limit on meetings
Unlimited meetings
1 GB of cloud storage
Starter ā $16.95 per month per host
Up to 50 participants
Unlimited meeting duration
5 GB of cloud storage
Recording transcriptions
User management
Application and file sharing
Plus ā $22.95 per month per host
Up to 100 participants
Assign alternate hosts
Allow others to schedule meetings for the host
Customizable Webex URL
Admin portal
24/7 customer support
Business ā $32.95 per month per host
Up to 200 participants
10 GB of cloud storage
Branding and custom options
Single sign-on
Active Directory sync
Minimum five licenses per month
At first glance, the Webex prices appear to be higher than Zoom. However, you can save 20% per month with an annual contract.
Itās also worth noting that the Webex Plus plan doesnāt have any host minimums, and the business plan has just a five-license minimum. Zoom has a 10- and 50-host minimum for their plans at similar price points.
So Webex will be a better option if you want those business or enterprise-level features for a smaller team.
GoTo Meeting – Best Video Conferencing Service For Small Businesses
GoTo Meeting makes it easy for you to turn any video conference into a highly collaborative workspace.
It’s a fantastic choice for remote workers from sales managers to business owners to IT teams.
Why? GoTo Meeting easily integrates with the systems your business is currently using.
It also offers an all-in-one hardware and software kit for those of you who want to transform your physical conference room into a digital one. This hardware is more advanced than the built-in cameras, microphones, and speakers on your current devices.
Some other top features and benefits of using GoTo Meeting for video conferencing include:
Cloud collaboration
Automatic bandwidth adjustments
Available on Mac, PC, iOS, and Android
Single-click start and join sessions
Multi-channel support
Integrated scheduling
GoTo Meeting offers three plans to choose from:
Professional – $12 per organizer per month billed annually
Business – $16 per organizer per month billed annually
Enterprise ā Contact sales to request a quote
The Professional and Business plans are very similar. You get unlimited meetings and unlimited meeting durations with either plan. Youāll also benefit from Salesforce integration, Slack meeting launcher, and an admin center with both plans.
The significant difference is the Professional plan can host up to 150 participants while the Business plan supports up to 250 participants. In addition, the Business plan also offers extra video meeting features like transcripts, keyboard and mouse sharing, unlimited cloud storage, drawing tools, meeting lock, note taking, and mobile cloud recording.
I think signing up for the Business option instead of Professional is a no-brainer. The added benefits are worth the extra $4 per month.
GoTo Meeting also offers enterprise-grade plans for up to 3,000 participants. But those prices arenāt available online. Youāll need to speak to a sales rep for a custom quote.
Save 16% on your GoTo Meeting plan with an annual contract.
You can get rid of your traditional phone plan, too. RingCentral provides video conferencing features as an added bonus.
You can always purchase RingCentral Meetings as a standalone product. Those plans are below:
Free ā $0 per month
Up to 100 participants
Unlimited one-on-one meetings
40-minute limit on group meetings
Essentials ā $14.99 per month per user
Up to 100 participants
Unlimited group meetings
24/7 phone support
1,000 call minutes per license
Advanced ā $19.99 per month per user
Up to 100 participants
2,500 call minutes
Real-time usage dashboard
SLA available
The free plan is decent if you compare it to others on the list. The meetings cap at 40 minutes each, but you can still have up to 100 participants.
Paid plans are also limited to just 100 participants, which is low compared to the competition. However, you can add on larger meeting options to your plan for an upcharge.
RingCentral also has great enterprise solutions. Youāll need to contact their sales team to get a custom quote. But you can save some money by bundling RingCentral Meetings with a VoIP business phone.
Now that youāve had a chance to review the top solutions on the market, how can you find the best option for your unique situation? This is the methodology that I used to come up with this guide.
Iāve identified each feature set that matters the most and why you need to take it into consideration when youāre evaluating prospective platforms.
Conference Size
In the world of work-from-home and distributed teams, video conferencing sizes are a very important consideration.
Make sure you choose a service and plan that can accommodate the number of people you need for your video conferences. You donāt want to overpay for a plan that has participant limits that youāll never reach. But more importantly, you donāt want to be in a situation where your participant list is too large for your platform and plan.
Meeting Length
With the global pandemic putting a ton of people into remote work, businesses and schools need to be able to take as long as they need for certain calls.
That’s why we took a close look at how long each plan allows you to meet when determining this list. Often, they had to be counterbalanced with how many participants are allowed in a plan as well.
After all, a plan that offers unlimited time but with only a dozen participants might not be helpful for larger teams.
Scheduling Options
Good video conferencing tools allow you to schedule easily and across a wide breadth of calendar apps.
When looking at scheduling options, see if they integrate with common planning and calendar services such as Google Calendar, iCal, and Office 365.
Video Streams
You might be able to have a large number of participants in a conference, but that doesnāt necessarily mean that every user will be able to broadcast a video stream.
For example, RingCentral plans have up to 100 participants per meeting, but limit you to just ten simultaneous video streams.
So donāt be swayed by the participant limits alone. Always check to see how many users can actually stream a video at the same time.
Collaboration Tools
Collaboration tools are crucial for groups and teams.
Features like screen sharing, built-in chat, file sharing, and cloud collaboration are very useful for presentations and group projects. Itās also helpful when a video conferencing service integrates with existing tools and platforms that youāre already using to run a business. You can look for features like Salesforce integration or Google Analytics integration.
The Top Video Conferencing Services in Summary
Video conferencing software has become the new normal for business use, especially with remote work and dispersed teams trending upward. For daily standups, interviews with prospective hires, and quick calls to prevent long email chains, video conferencing improves efficiency in the workplace.
It’s worth noting that your internet connection will impact the quality of your video conferencing calls. So you should always test your connection or sign up for a free trial to see how the quality holds up.
Compare Quotes From The Best Video Conferencing Services
Get matched up with a video conferencing service that fits your specific needs.
Build a site on a single domain, but detect mobile, and render a separate mobile site
Build a separate mobile site on a subdomain
It's funny how quickly huge industry-defining conversations fade from view. This was probably the biggest question in web design and development this past decade, and we came up with an answer: It's #1, you should build a responsive website. Any other answer and you're building multiple websites and the pain from that comes from essentially doubling the workload, splitting teams, communication problems across those teams, inconsistencies across the sites, and an iceberg of other pain points this industry has struggled with for ages.
But, the web is a big place.
This emailer specifically mentioned imdb.com as their example. IMDB is an absolutely massive site with a large team (they are owned by Amazon) and lots of money flying around. If the IMDB team decides they would be better off building multiple websites, well that's their business. They've got the resources to do whatever the heck they want.
Page builders take away much of the grunt work in building websites, and make it (almost) a fun activity. This is true especially for non-coders. Whatās even better is when you have a base theme thatās compatible with your page builder! In todayās post, we round up the best themes for Thrive Architect, a page builder from Thrive Themes.
Helping Browsers Optimize With The CSS Contain Property
Helping Browsers Optimize With The CSS Contain Property
Rachel Andrew
In this article, Iām going to introduce a CSS Specification that has just become a W3C Recommendation. The CSS Containment Specification defines a single property, contain, and it can help you to explain to the browser which parts of your layout are independent and will not need recalculating if some other part of the layout changes.
While this property exists for performance optimization reasons, it can also affect the layout of your page. Therefore, in this article, Iāll explain the different types of containment you can benefit from, but also the things you need to watch out for if applying contain to elements in your site.
The Problem Of Layout Recalculation
If you are building straightforward web pages that do not dynamically add or change elements after they have loaded using JavaScript, you donāt need to worry about the problem that CSS Containment solves. The browser only needs to calculate your layout once, as the page is loaded.
Where Containment becomes useful is when you want to add elements to your page without the user needing to reload it. In my example, I created a big list of events. If you click the button, the first event is modified, a floated element is added, and the text is changed:
When the content of our box is changed, the browser has to consider that any of the elements may have changed. Browsers are in general pretty good at dealing with this, as itās a common thing to happen. That said, as the developer, you will know if each of the components is independent, and that a change to one doesnāt affect the others, so it would be nice if you could let the browser know this via your CSS. This is what containment and the CSS contain property gives you.
How Does Containment Help?
An HTML document is a tree structure which you can see when inspecting any element with DevTools. In my example above, I identify one item that I want to change by using JavaScript, and then make some changes to the internals. (This means that Iām only changing things inside the subtree for that list item.)
Inspecting a list item in DevTools
Applying the contain property to an element tells the browser that changes are scoped to the subtree of that element, so that the browser can do any possible optimizations — safe in the knowledge that nothing else outside of that element will change. Exactly what a particular browser might do is down to the engine. The CSS property simply gives you — as the developer and expert on this layout — the chance to let it know.
In many cases, you will be safe to go right ahead and start using the contain property, however, the different values come with some potential side effects which are worth understanding before adding the property to elements in your site.
Using Containment
The contain property can set three different types of containment:
layout
paint
size
Note: There is a style value in the Level 2 Specification. It was removed from Level 1, so does not appear in the Recommendation, and is not implemented in Firefox.
Layout
Layout containment brings the biggest benefits. To turn on layout containment, use the following snippet:
.item {
contain: layout;
}
With layout containment enabled, the browser knows that nothing outside the element can affect the internal layout, and nothing from inside the element can change anything about the layout of things outside it. This means that it can make any possible optimizations for this scenario.
A few additional things happen when layout containment is enabled. These are all things which ensure that this box and contents are independent of the rest of the tree.
The box establishes an independent formatting context. This ensures that the content of the box stays in the box — in particular floats will be contained and margins will not collapse through the box. This is the same behavior that we switch on when we use display: flow-root as in explained in my article āUnderstanding CSS Layout And The Block Formatting Contextā. If a float could poke out of your box, causing following text to flow around the float, that would be a situation where the element was changing the layout of things outside it, making it a poor candidate for containment.
The containing box acts as the containing block for any absolutely or fixed position descendants. This means it will act as if you had used position: relative on the box you have applied contain: layout.
The box also creates a stacking context. Therefore z-index will work on this element, itās children will be stacked based on this new context.
If we look at the example, this time with contain: layout, you can see that when the floated element is introduced it no longer pokes out the bottom of the box. This is our new Block Formatting Context in action, containing the float.
With paint containment enabled, the same side effects as seen with layout containment occur: The containing box becoming an independent formatting context, a containing block for positioned elements, and establishing a stacking context.
What paint containment does is indicate to the browser that elements inside the containing block will not be visible outside of the bounds of that box. The content will essentially be clipped to the box.
We can see this happen with a simple example. Even if we give our card a height, the floated item still pokes out the bottom of the box, due to the fact that the float is taken out of flow.
The float is not contained by the list item
With paint containment turned on the floated item is now clipped to the size of the box. Nothing can be painted outside of the bounds of the element with contain: paint applied.
Size containment is the value that is most likely to cause you a problem if you arenāt fully aware of how it works. To apply size containment, use:
.item {
contain: size;
}
If you use size containment then you are telling the browser that you know the size of the box and it is not going to change. This does mean that if you have a box which is auto-sized in the block dimension, it will be treated as if the content has no size, therefore the box will collapse down as if it had no contents.
In the example below, I have not given the li a height; they also have contain: size applied. You can see that all of the items have collapsed as if they had no content at all, making for a very peculiar looking listing!
If you give the boxes a height then the height will be respected when contain: size is used. Alone, size containment will not create a new formatting context and therefore does not contain floats and margins as layout and paint containment will do. Itās less likely that you would use it alone; instead, it is most likely you would apply it along with other values of contain to be able to get the most possible containment.
Shorthand Values
In most cases, you can use one of two shorthand values to get the best out of containment. To turn on layout and paint containment, use contain: content;, and to turn on all possible containment (keeping in mind that items which do not have a size will then collapse), use contain: strict.
ācontain: content is reasonably "safe" to apply widely; its effects are fairly minor in practice, and most content wonāt run afoul of its restrictions. However, because it doesnāt apply size containment, the element can still respond to the size of its contents, which can cause layout-invalidation to percolate further up the tree than desired. Use contain: strict when possible, to gain as much containment as you can.ā
Therefore, if you do not know the size of the items in advance, and understand the fact that floats and margins will be contained, use contain: content. If you do know the size of items in addition to being happy about the other side effects of containment, use contain: strict. The rest is down to the browser, you have done your bit by explaining how your layout works.
Can I Use Containment Now?
The CSS Containment specification is now a W3C Recommendation which is what we sometimes refer to as a web standard. In order for the spec to get to this stage, there needed to be two implementations of the feature which we can see in both Firefox and Chrome:
Browser support for containment (Source: Can I Use)
As this property is transparent to the user, it is completely safe to add to any site even if you have lots of visitors in browsers that do not support it. If the browser doesnāt support containment then the visitor gets the experience they usually get, those in supporting browsers get the enhanced performance.
I would suggest that this is a great thing to add to any components you create in a component or pattern library, if you are working in this way it is likely each component is designed to be an independent thing that does not affect other elements on the page, making contain: content a useful addition.
Therefore, if you have a page which is adding content to the DOM after load, I would recommend giving it a try — if you get any interesting results let me know in the comments!
Related Resources
The following resources will give you some more detail about the implementation of containment and potential performance benefits:
WordPress is super versatile. You know that. I know that. But sometimes this can be an overwhelming prospect. How on earth will you get your site up and running? What platform will you use? Zurb Foundation and Bootstrap are two options but which is best?
Here, we offer up some side-by-side comparisons as well as suggestions for starter themes to use for both Zurb Foundation and Bootstrap. With all the info on the table, you can plan your siteās launch ASAP.
Your Web Designer Toolbox Unlimited Downloads: 500,000+ Web Templates, Icon Sets, Themes & Design Assets
Comparison articles
Take a look at these comparison articles to get a sense of how these two platforms stack up.
If youāre thinking of getting started with Foundation, you should definitely consider using a WordPress starter theme. The following are all solid options:
WP-Forge is a basic starter theme for Foundation but itās so flexible you can use it to build any kind of site you want, with the latest features, too.
Lastly, thereās Reverie, a stylish starter theme for Foundation thatās mobile friendly and includes custom menus, captions, and pagination.
Bootstrap WP Starter Themes
If Bootstrap is more what you prefer, then we have some Bootstrap starter themes for you as well. These are all well reviewed and nice to look at, too:
Sage is a WordPress starter theme based on Bootstrap 4 that makes it easy to write stylesheets and Sass for your site without complicated backed customization.
Lastly, Silencio is described as a ācontent-firstā starter theme for WordPress. A solid choice if you want to create an online publication or blog.
So Which is It? Foundation or Bootstrap?
Whether you choose Foundation or Bootstrap will ultimately be up to you and the needs of your website. But hopefully this collection of comparison articles will help you first figure out which platform you want to you and second, which starter theme you want to use as the base of your site.
Are you a designer or photographer looking for the easiest way to build a portfolio website in WordPress?
There are plenty of WordPress portfolio plugins that allow you to easily build beautiful portfolio websites.
However, finding the perfect portfolio plugin can be difficult for beginners. You will need to find a plugin that makes your work stand out, loads fast, and looks good on mobile devices.
In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best WordPress portfolio plugins for designers and photographers.
Choosing Between WordPress Portfolio Themes vs WordPress Portfolio Plugins
This makes many beginners wonder why would anyone want to choose a plugin when themes can do the job?
Themes in WordPress are only supposed to handle the visual appearance of your website. This includes colors, styles, layouts, and presentation of your content.
Plugins on the other hand are the proper way to add functionality to your WordPress site such as slider, contact form, and more.
Adding a portfolio comes under functionality, which is why we recommend using a plugin.
Using a theme for functionality ties your website with that theme. If you change the theme, then you will lose your portfolio data.
On the other hand, if you decide to use a portfolio plugin, then you are free to use it with any theme you want.
Having said that, let’s take a look at some of the top WordPress portfolio plugins.
WP Portfolio is the best WordPress portfolio plugin for photographers, freelancers, developers, and agencies. It allows you to instantly create portfolio websites from 40+ professionally designed portfolio templates.
It is made by the creators of Astra Theme, which is one of the best WordPress themes of all times. WP Portfolio brings the same ease of use to portfolios.
It comes with multiple style choices, layouts, supports all types of media, and can be easily customized without writing any code or CSS.
Most importantly, all portfolio layouts look equally great on mobile devices and work as elegantly as they do on laptops.
Envira Gallery is a premium WordPress gallery plugin. It allows you to create beautiful image galleries and albums. Already used by thousands, Envira Gallery is the best WordPress plugin for photographers and designers.
Creating a portfolio with Envira Gallery is quite easy. Simply create galleries containing your portfolio items with optional description and details. You can also group galleries into Albums or make filterable portfolio.
The plugin also makes it easy to add your portfolio anywhere on your WordPress site with the click of a button.
NextGEN Gallery is a popular WordPress plugin for creating image galleries, albums, and photography portfolios. Loved by beginners and expert photographers alike, NextGen comes with an intuitive user interface to create galleries.
It includes multiple styles and layout choices with support for albums, filterable portfolio, columns, and more. You can also create portfolio carousel/slider, compact portfolio albums, and list or timeline style layouts.
Visual Portfolio is an elegant WordPress portfolio plugin that allows you to create beautiful portfolio galleries.
It comes with multiple layout styles including masonry, grid, justified, tiles, and carousel. The plugin also includes a Gutenberg block which makes it even easier to add a portfolio anywhere you like.
Your users can also sort portfolio items using filters, which offers a beautiful browsing experience.
GridKit Portfolio Gallery is a simple WordPress photo gallery and portfolio plugin. It allows you to manage portfolio items in projects and make them sortable. It comes with support for new WordPress block editor with shortcode support for older editor.
The base plugin is very with limited layout styles and features. You’ll need the premium version to get access more styles and features.
Meow Gallery is a free WordPress gallery plugin with full Gutenberg block editor support. It allows you to organize your portfolio items in beautiful image galleries.
It ships with support for multiple layouts including masonry, grid, tile, and justified. You can select the number of columns you want to display. It also comes with several add-on plugins that can be used for additional functionality like lightbox, audio commentary, external links, and more.
If you are using a StudioPress theme or any theme made for the Genesis theme framework, then you would want to try Genesis Portfolio Pro plugin.
It is made specifically for Genesis framework and provides a custom post type to create your portfolio items. It also comes with templates to display the featured image you set as the portfolio item in a grid layout.
It is a simple plugin and does not include many features of several other portfolio plugins. However, if you are looking for something minimalist, then it would get the job done nicely.
That’s all we hope this article helped you find the best WordPress portfolio plugins for designers and photographers. You may also want to see our list of 41 best free photography themes for WordPress.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
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