The robots.txt file is a text file placed on a website to communicate with search engine robots (also known as "bots" or "crawlers"). It instructs the bots which pages or sections of the site should not be crawled or indexed. Some benefits of using robots.txt in SEO include:
Preventing unnecessary indexing: By specifying which pages should not be crawled, you can prevent search engines from indexing pages that have no SEO value or that you do not want to appear in search results.
Improving crawl efficiency: By limiting the number of pages the search engine bots crawl, you can improve the efficiency of the crawling process and reduce the load on your server.
Protecting sensitive information: By disallowing the crawling of sensitive pages, such as login pages or confidential information, you can prevent sensitive information from appearing in search results.
Note: It's important to remember that while the robots.txt file can prevent bots from crawling a page, it does not guarantee that the page will not appear in search results.
Google is constantly refining its search algorithms in an effort to provide searchers with the best and fastest answers to their search queries. Although these changes can be frustrating for webmasters as they work to optimize their WordPress website for search, the updates generally help to improve the user experience. Recently, Google made one such […]
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is one of the most proven database administration and management tools. Whether you use SQL Server Management Studio for Database Administrators or just for database development, it's a proven tool. We want to increase our capabilities, adapting this tool to our specific needs. For this, we use a range of SSMS add-ins and extensions.
We'll discuss two productivity-focused add-ins that help us achieve more in less time. They're a great way to extend the functionality of the SSMS. They make it more flexible and enhance our SQL codings with autocompletion, snippets, and refactoring.
With a rapidly changing business landscape, security is one of the biggest challenges for developers and testers in their modern web development cycle. The complexity of building and deploying modern web apps leads to more security vulnerabilities. As per a Cost of Data Breach report by IBM and Ponemon Institute, in 2021, data breach costs rose from USD 3.86 million (average cost in 2019) to USD 4.24 million, which is the highest average cost of this report in seventeen years.
Therefore, cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important in the software development lifecycle to ensure user data security and privacy. Wouldn’t it be great if you could develop and test websites and web apps without worrying about security vulnerabilities? Sandboxing is one technique that can help you achieve this. Sandboxing is an approach for securely isolating an application, a web browser, and a piece of code. It prevents malicious or faulty apps from attacking or spying on your web resources and local system.
As digital transformation reaches more industries, the number of data points generated is growing exponentially. As such, data integration strategies to collect such large volumes of data from different sources in varying formats and structures are now a primary concern for data engineering teams. Traditional approaches to data integration, which have largely focused on curating highly structured data into data warehouses, struggle to deal with the volume and heterogeneity of new data sets.
Time series data present an additional layer of complexity. By nature, the value of each time series data point diminishes over time as the granularity of the data loses relevance as it gets stale. So it is crucial for teams to carefully plan data integration strategies into time series databases (TSDBs) to ensure that the analysis reflects the trends and situation in near real-time.
In this article, we’ll examine some of the most popular approaches to data integration for TSDBs:
Application Dependency Mapping is the process of creating a graphical representation of the relationships and dependencies between different components of a software application. This includes dependencies between modules, libraries, services, and databases. It helps to understand the impact of changes in one component on other parts of the application and aids in troubleshooting, testing, and deployment.
Software Dependency Risks
Dependencies are often necessary for building complex software applications. However, development teams should be mindful of dependencies and seek to minimize their number and complexity for several reasons:
In the first chapter of my debugging book, I discuss IDE debugging. In that chapter, I mostly talk about IntelliJ/IDEA. People often ask me why I didn’t write as much about VS Code…The reason is that there isn’t much to write about. Its debugger is simpler for better and for worse. It isn’t as powerful as other IDEs. I created the following video that covers the content of this post:
This isn’t a slam against VS Code or against Microsoft. Visual Studio has one of the most powerful debuggers around. But, Visual Studio Code doesn’t have a lot of the features from Visual Studio or other IDEs. I think this is intentional. I think this is a user experience-driven decision in which they removed features to simplify usability. One thing VS Code did well was exposing the log point (tracepoint) feature, so it is more discoverable to the casual developer. That’s pretty great and wouldn’t have been practical if the IDE had all the salient features.
As with many engineering problems, there are many ways to build RESTful APIs. Most of the time, when building RESTful APIs, engineers prefer to use frameworks. API frameworks provide an excellent platform for building APIs with most of the components necessary straight out of the box. In this post, we will explore the 10 most popular REST API frameworks for building web APIs. These frameworks span multiple languages and varying levels of complexity and customization. First, let’s dig into some key factors in deciding which framework to begin building with.
How To Pick an API Framework
The first factor in choosing an API framework is usually deciding which language you want to work in. For many projects, depending on the organization you work with or your experience, choices may be limited. The usual recommendation is to go with a language you are already familiar with since learning a new language and a new framework can lead to less-than-optimal implementations. If you’re already familiar with the language, your main focus can be on understanding the framework and building efficiently.
The basic idea is that, as a user, you don’t have to open the app whenever you need to check crucial relevant information at a particular point in time.
Here’s a simple example of how your Live Activity works. Let’s say you have ordered a service. In addition to the general status of “Your order is on the way,” a widget will be displayed on your lock screen with all the necessary information, such as order status, delivery time, details about the courier/driver, etc.
If you’ve ever used JavaScript fetch API to enhance a form submission, there’s a good chance you’ve accidentally introduced a duplicate-request/race-condition bug. Today, I’ll walk you through the issue and my recommendations to avoid it. (There is a video at the end if you prefer that.)
Let’s consider a very basic HTML form with a single input and a submit button.
I am having a problem passing a $_POST[] parameter to another file via the URL.
Look at the line 34 and 138.
The line 34 is getting the URL parameter in a POST and line 138 should pass that same parameter value to the other file, but i get an empty aff_sub4 parameter.
EXAMPLE: complete.php?id=38918&aff_sub4=
I don't have a clue why is this happening, because as you can see i am inserting into a database the $name variable and its saved successfully. But when i try to pass it to the other file it gives me empty parameter.
I use JS to pass the $name variable in this code.
<?php
// Connect to the database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "user";
$password = "pass";
$dbname = "name";
// Create connection
$conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if (!$conn) {
die("Connection failed: " . mysqli_connect_error());
}
// Get the user's IP address
$user_r_ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
function getUserIpAddr(){
if(!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'])){
//ip from share internet
$ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'];
}elseif(!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'])){
//ip pass from proxy
$ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];
}else{
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
}
return $ip;
}
// Get the URL parameters
$name = $_POST['name'];
$amount = $_POST['amount'];
//Get User Location details
$user_ip = getUserIpAddr();
$geo = unserialize(file_get_contents("http://www.geoplugin.net/php.gp?ip=$user_ip"));
$country = $geo["geoplugin_countryName"];
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST' && isset($_POST['name']) && isset($_POST['amount'])) {
// Prepare the INSERT statement
$stmt = mysqli_prepare($conn, "INSERT INTO names (name, amount, country, ip) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)");
// Bind the parameters
mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt, "ssss", $name, $amount, $country, $user_r_ip);
// Execute the statement
if (!empty($name)) {
mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
echo "name empty";
//mysqli_stmt_close($stmt);
} else {
echo "<center>.</center>";
mysqli_close($conn);
$conn-exit();
}
}
?>
<?php
// Setup Variables
$api_key = 'my_api_key'; // Enter the API key that you have generated on our main Offer API page
$endpoint = 'https://downloadlocked.com/api/v2'; // The endpoint show in our main Offer API page
$data = [
'ip' => $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], // Client IP (REQUIRED)
'user_agent' => $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], // Client User Agent (REQUIRED)
'ctype' => 7,
'max' => 25,
'min' => 6
// Enter other optional vars here (ctype, max, etc)
];
// Create URL
$url = $endpoint . '?' . http_build_query($data);
// Start CURL
$ch = curl_init();
// Set CURL options
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
CURLOPT_URL => $url,
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
'Authorization: Bearer ' . $api_key,
],
]);
// Execute request
$content = curl_exec($ch);
// Check for error
if ($content === false) {
// Throw exception if request failed
throw new Exception(curl_error($ch));
}
// Close CURL
curl_close($ch);
// Parse JSON response
$content = json_decode($content, null, 512, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);
if($content->success) {
// If API response reported an success...
$offers = $content->offers; // Do something with $offers
usort($offers, function($a, $b) {
return $b->payout <=> $a->payout;
});
} else {
// If API response reported an error...
throw new Exception($content->error);
}
?>
<body>
<h3>Confirm Firewall & User-Agent</h3>
<p class="desc">Complete 2 offers</p>
<p class="desc"><b>USING VPN WILL NEVER CONFIRM SUCCESSFULLY THE FIREWALL</b></p>
<div class="offer-container">
<?php
foreach ($offers as $offer) {
// Extract the image URL, short name, and ad copy from the offer object
$imageUrl = $offer->picture;
$nameShort = $offer->name_short;
$adCopy = $offer->adcopy;
$offerid = $offer->offerid;
$adLink = $offer->link."&aff_sub4=".$name;
?>
<div class="offer">
<img src="<?= $imageUrl ?>" alt="<?=$nameShort?>">
<div>
<h3><a href="complete.php?id=<?=$offerid?>"><?=$nameShort?></a></h3>
<p><?=$adCopy?></p>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}
?>
</div>
</body>
</html>
I have no errors to show you because i dont get any errors.
Applications today collect an infinite amount of data. Many applications need to transform this data before applying any meaningful business logic. Tackling this complex data or a similar processor-intensive task without a thought-through strategy can have a high-performance impact. This article introduces a scalability pattern – pipes and filters – that promotes reusability and is appropriate for such scenarios.
Problem Context
Consider a scenario where incoming data triggers a sequence of processing steps, where each step brings data closer to the desired output state. The origin of data is referred to as a data source. Examples of data sources could be home IoT devices, a video feed from roadside cameras, or continuous inventory updates from warehouses. The processing steps during the transformation usually execute a specific operation and are referred to as filters. These processing steps are independent and do not have a side effect; i.e., running a step does not depend on any other steps. Each filtering step reads the data, performs a transforming operation based on local data, and produces an output. Once the data has gone through the filters, it reaches its final processed stage where it is consumed, referred to as data sink.
Every country has its currency and different patterns or ways of displaying monetary amounts. When we appropriately express a number, it is easier to read and comprehend for readers.
When you use data from an API or an external resource, it will be in some generic format. For instance, if you are creating a store, you may have data such as pricing.
Every business needs a phone solution. Historically, most companies just used a traditional landline because there weren’t any alternatives. But today, organizations have more options to choose from, and most are torn between two choices—PBX and VoIP. This in-depth guide will break down the key differences between PBX and VoIP phones so you can determine which one is right for your business.
The 12 Best Phone Systems For PBX vs. VoIP
As you compare the differences between PBX and VoIP, you also need to find a business phone service that aligns with your needs. These are our top recommendations for different business types and use cases:
CallHippo— Best VoIP Phone System for Industry-Specific Compliance
11Sight — Best One-Click Audio and Video Calling for Sales and Marketing Teams
Zoom — Best Call Monitoring Features For Business Users
1. Call Quality and Reliability
One of the most significant differences between PBX and VoIP is how each service is delivered. This delivery method directly impacts the quality of the calls and the reliability of the phone service.
PBX (private branch exchange) systems rely on traditional PSTNs (publicly switched telephone networks) to facilitate calls. PBX phone systems are similar to traditional landlines in the sense that they use copper wiring and circuit switching. While traditional landlines are typically used to connect two parties, PBX phones allow businesses to operate a private phone network.
As a result, PBX systems are often highly reliable and provide high-quality calling.
VoIP (voice over internet protocol) phones rely on stable internet connections to work. When there’s a strong and fast connection, the quality and reliability of the calls are excellent—especially if you’re using a top VoIP phone provider. In most cases, nobody on the call will even be able to tell that VoIP technology is being used.
With that said, if the internet goes down, VoIP phones can have problems. This won’t be an issue for most businesses. But if you’re in a rural or remote location with spotty internet, then PBX might be more reliable.
One quick way to check your connection is by running a VoIP speed test.
Use Nextiva’s speed test to check your internet connection.
This can help you determine if your current internet connection can support the VoIP calling capabilities that you’ll need on a daily basis.
2. Costs
VoIP phone systems are significantly less expensive than PBX systems.
While your total costs will depend on your business size, required lines, employees, and other factors, you can almost always expect to pay more for a PBX system than a VoIP service.
A business with around 20 users can expect to pay anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 on hardware and equipment alone. Software licensing fees are an additional $2,000 to $3,000, and you’ll typically pay around $1,500 for installation. Ongoing maintenance for your PBX phone can cost around $3,000 annually.
Business VoIP services typically start around $20 per user per month.
Nextiva VoIP is an affordable alternative to PBX phone systems.
Your dollar also goes much further when you use a VoIP phone. That’s because many of the best VoIP phone providers include features that go beyond basic telephone calling.
Depending on your provider and plan, you can access features like internet faxing, SMS messaging, video calling, and more, all included with your flat monthly rate.
For smaller businesses on a limited budget, VoIP systems are a no-brainer. They also work well for larger organizations, as you typically get better per-user rates based on volume and contract length.
3. Installation and Setup
Cost aside, setting up a PBX network for your business can be complex. This is not something that most businesses will handle on their own, and it typically requires IT assistance and installation from your PBX provider.
The process involves lengthy steps for KSU wall attachments, circuit cards, and connecting your private branch to a telephone network. PBX vendors provide the cables and cords that are required for the private branch, and these act as the main line for your PBX system. All of the individual phones need to be connected to the system as well.
Deploying a PBX system for your business may include drilling some holes in your walls and running new wires through the ceilings. It’s definitely not a DIY job.
Conversely, VoIP phones are ultra-easy to set up and deploy. There’s virtually no installation process, and you likely already have many of the prerequisites handled.
VoIP phone systems can be deployed in minutes.
In some cases, setting up your VoIP phone system can be done on the same day. This is especially true if you don’t need any additional hardware and your calls are being made from existing laptops, smartphones, and VoIP phones.
The only thing that may need to be installed is a piece of software for each device. Beyond that, all you need to do is get your users onboarded to the system, which is not something that requires any IT assistance.
So for those of you who don’t have dedicated in-house IT support, a VoIP phone system will make your life much easier.
4. Scalability and Flexibility
Since PBX systems rely on on-premises hardware and connectivity, scaling them is not easy. For example, if your company is opening a second office in a different location, you need to build a PBX infrastructure there as well.
Even if you’re adding new devices and users at an existing location, you may need to replace certain modules with something that can handle the increased capacity.
Scaling your VoIP system is much easier. Whether you’re adding new employees to one location, opening completely new locations, or wanting to onboard remote staff, scalability is achieved with just one or two clicks.
You can add new users to your Nextiva plan in seconds.
You can manage all of your users, phones, lines, extensions, and features from a simple admin portal. You won’t have to send a technician out to an employee’s home if you want to add a new remote user. Everything is handled from the cloud.
You can only go so far with a PBX. The ability to add more features is much more limited compared to a VoIP system.
VoIP phone providers typically don’t lock you into strict contracts either. So if you want to upgrade your plan to support new features or new users, you can do so without having to jump through hoops. The only thing that might change is your monthly subscription rate.
PBX systems typically tie users to specific desk phones. An employee couldn’t take calls on the road or answer calls from home. The calls must be made from the phone associated with their extension.
VoIP systems are highly flexible—allowing users to make and receive calls from virtually anywhere. Someone could start a call on their computer at work, then transfer it to the mobile app while they’re leaving the office, and transfer it again to a laptop when they get home.
5. Hardware Requirements
VoIP phone systems have minimal hardware requirements.
You really only need to have internet access and a router. Beyond that, calls can be made using existing smartphones and computers. You don’t have to purchase any actual phones to use a VoIP system.
However, you do have the option to use traditional-style phones with a VoIP subscription. You just need to make sure the phones are VoIP-enabled, so it’s best to get them directly from your VoIP provider.
Nextiva has a wide range of VoIP phones to choose from.
You can also get VoIP cordless phones, conference calling phones, headsets, and more. There are even VoIP adapters that transform traditional analog phones into VoIP phones. This will help keep your costs low if you don’t want to purchase more hardware.
PBX hardware is more involved.
You need to get desk phones, cables, splitters, modems, circuits, and wall jacks. These systems also require on-site PBX servers; most businesses need backup power sources.
6. Advanced Features
PBX phones don’t really come with any advanced features. A PBX is a phone system that comes with everything you’d expect in a high-quality business phone system, but it ends there.
VoIP systems take basic business calling to the next level. Depending on the provider and plan you select, your VoIP phone system is included with an entire business communication suite.
Nextiva is an all-in-one solution for voice, video, and live chat.
Some examples of advanced VoIP features beyond call capabilities include:
Unified communications
Video calling and conference calling
Team chat
Helpdesk software
Sales CRMs
Screen sharing
File sharing
Call analytics and live data
Automated workflows
Customer journey management
Third-party software integrations
You won’t find these in a PBX solution.
7. International Calling
PBX phones typically charge high rates for international calls. But with a VoIP phone system, you can make international calls for just a few cents per minute.
These rates vary by location, but they’re often extremely flexible. This means that you won’t necessarily have to get an international calling plan that’s separate from your monthly subscription. Any international calls will just be added to your bill.
Nextiva offers built-in international calling capabilities.
For businesses with global branches, VoIP phone systems make it possible to communicate with users on the same network at no additional cost. For example, your New York office can communicate with your London team if the calls are made directly through the same VoIP platform.
The Similarities Between PBX and VoIP
While PBX and VoIP phone systems have several differences, the two also share some common ground.
First and foremost, these are the two top options to consider for business phones. Both VoIP and PBX systems have options for basic local calls and domestic calling. You’ll have the ability to keep your existing phone number, add new phone numbers, and set up custom extensions and new lines for your staff.
Both systems come with basic business phone features. This includes voicemail, call holding, call transfers, overhead paging, conference calling, and more.
It’s also worth noting that both PBX and VoIP phones are both highly secure. There’s sometimes a misconception that VoIP systems can have security problems because it uses the internet for calling. But this is a non-issue if you’re using a reputable VoIP phone service.
Nextiva handles security on your behalf, so you won’t have to worry about it.
For example, Nextiva offers 24/7 monitoring, call encryption, and biometric checkpoints to access their servers. The network also has HIPAA-compliant and PCI-compliant solutions, meaning businesses in every industry can rely on Nextiva for security.
Final Thoughts About PBX vs. VoIP
PBX and VoIP phone systems are very different. PBX solutions are better for businesses in rural locations that can’t rely on internet connectivity for calls. They also work well for organizations with on-site IT teams and offices that won’t be scaling beyond a single location.
VoIP phone systems are much more cost-effective than PBX phones. They’re easy to use, highly flexible, mobile, and can be deployed anywhere. A VoIP system will be much easier for you to scale and maintain if your business has multiple offices or remote workers.
Another standout of using a VoIP phone system is that you can often get an entire suite of communication tools with your subscription. This includes video calling capabilities, team chat, collaboration features, SMS messaging, and so much more.
Are you tired of constantly struggling to keep up with the demands of a growing user base for your application? If so, it's time to focus on scaling. But where do you start? Don't worry; you've come to the right place. In this article, we'll provide you with ten expert tips for scaling your application and optimizing its performance.
As your application grows and attracts more users, it's important to ensure that it can handle the increased demand. Scaling your application is the process of increasing its capacity to meet these demands, and it's crucial for ensuring the success of your application.
Google is constantly refining its search algorithms in an effort to provide searchers with the best and fastest answers to their search queries. Although these changes can be frustrating for webmasters as they work to optimize their WordPress website for search, the updates generally help to improve the user experience. Recently, Google made one such […]
