Artificial intelligence (AI) has made a profound impact in industries around the world and the sports industry is no exception, with a wide range of AI applications aimed at improving athletic performance and enhancing the fan experience.
From analyzing game footage to optimizing training regimens, AI is being used in a variety of ways to make sports more competitive and efficient. With the increasing use of AI and high-performance computing in sports, the potential benefits of AI in sports are vast and will be interesting to see how the technology has changed the landscape.
Isolating Noisy Neighbors in Distributed Systems: The Power of Shuffle-Sharding
Effective resource management is essential to ensure that no single client or task monopolizes resources and causes performance issues for others. Shuffle-sharding is a valuable technique to achieve this. By dividing resources into equal segments and periodically shuffling them, shuffle-sharding can distribute resources evenly and prevent any client or task from relying on a specific segment for too long. This technique is especially useful in scenarios with a risk of bad actors or misbehaving clients or tasks. In this article, we'll explore shuffle-sharding in-depth, discussing how it balances resources and improves overall system performance.
Model
Before implementing shuffle-sharding, it's important to understand its key dimensions, parameters, trade-offs, and potential outcomes. Building a model and simulating different scenarios can help you develop a deeper understanding of how shuffle-sharding works and how it may impact your system's performance and availability. That's why we'll explore shuffle-sharding in more detail, using a Colab notebook as our playground. We'll discuss its benefits, limitations, and the factors to consider before implementing it. By the end of this post, you'll have a better idea of what shuffle-sharding can and can't do and whether it's a suitable technique for your specific use case.
FIFO vs. LIFO: Which Queueing Strategy Is Better for Availability and Latency?
As an engineer, you probably know that server performance under heavy load is crucial for maintaining the availability and responsiveness of your services. But what happens when traffic bursts overwhelm your system? Queueing requests is a common solution, but what's the best approach: FIFO or LIFO? In this post, we'll explore both strategies through a simple simulation in Colab, allowing you to see the impact of changing parameters on system performance. Comparing the pros and cons of each approach helps to build an understanding of the trade-offs and make better calls about queueing strategies, improving your engineering skills in the process. After all, as the saying goes: "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand."
Model
To compare the performance of FIFO (which processes requests in the order they are received) and LIFO (which prioritizes the most recent requests) queueing strategies, we'll build a simple model using a Client that generates requests and a Server that handles them. You can find the details in this Colab. The essential characteristics of the model are:
Create Spider Chart With ReactJS
Hi again!
I've been publishing new data visualization content here in DZone but never published anything about React.
Custom Validators in Quarkus
Quarkus is an open-source, full-stack Java framework designed for building cloud-native, containerized applications. As Quarkus is built for cloud applications, it is designed to be lightweight and fast and supports fast startup times. A well-designed containerized application facilitates the implementation of reliable REST APIs for creating and accessing data.
Data validation is always an afterthought for developers but is important to keep the data consistent and valid. REST APIs need to validate the data it receives, and Quarkus provides rich built-in support for validating REST API request objects. There are situations where we need custom validation of our data objects. This article describes how we can create custom validators using the Quarkus framework.
How To Use Artificial Intelligence to Ensure Better Security
The advancement in disruptive technologies has given rise to a plethora of opportunities for miscreants to fuel cyber sabotage and data integrity risk. The proliferation of cloud-based technologies has accelerated the process of data exchange and sharing—data is more easily accessible to users across business ecosystems. The odds for any user to enter a business ecosystem are more favorable than ever.
Organizations are struggling to deal with cyber breaches and threats on two fronts—from amateur artists who find it rewarding to particular crime syndicates with intentions to destabilize the economy and disrupt the existing system. According to a report by Security Intelligence, the average cost of a data breach is $4.35 million. As per a report submitted by Cybersecurity Ventures, the cost of cybercrime will hit $8 trillion in 2023 and will grow to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025. This means the impact cyber threats will have on the world is huge. The alarming numbers will only increase if proper actionable steps are not taken.
Microsoft Azure Key Management Service
Encryption keys in Azure can be controlled by the platform or the customer.
Encryption keys, known as platform-managed keys (PMKs), are created, kept, and controlled exclusively by Azure. PMKs are not used in customer interactions. For instance, PMKs are the default type of keys used for Azure Data Encryption-at-Rest.
Side nav menu with accordion sub-items
I've searched, but can't even find what to call this. Any links or code would help a ton. I want 8 main items to appear from a side-menu with 4 sub-items branching out to their right when clicked. As any sub-item is clicked, I'd like for 4 items below that to appear in an accordion-style fashion. The entire thing should never get any larger than 8x2.
Does this make sense? What am I looking for here? Thanks for any help you're able to provide.
How to Show Before and After Photo in WordPress (with Slide Effect)
Do you want to show a before and after photo in WordPress?
A before and after photo allows you to show a side by side comparison of two images with minor differences. This is perfect for showing the impact of your products and services, or simply encouraging people to interact with your content.
In this article, we’ll show you how to add a before/after photo to your WordPress website with a slide effect.
Why Show Before and After Photos in WordPress (with Slide Effect)?
A before-and-after image is an interactive picture that typically shows some kind of change.
Visitors can use a slider to switch between the different ‘versions’ of the image in an engaging and interactive way.
If you run an online store using a plugin such as WooCommerce, then a before and after photo can show the effect of your products or services.
You simply need to show a ‘before’ photo that the customer can relate to, and a desirable ‘after’ photo. This will make shoppers want to buy the thing that takes them from the ‘before’ state to the ‘after’ state.
If you’re an affiliate marketer, then showing persuasive before and after photos on your website is a great way to promote your affiliate links, and get more sales.
Before and after photos can also encourage visitors to interact with your content. Dragging a slider to reveal the ‘after’ photo is an easy way to get more engagement, which can keep visitors on your site for longer. This can also help increase your pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.
With that being said, let’s see how you can create a before and after photo in WordPress using a slide effect. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
Method 1. How to Show Before and After Photos Using a Free Plugin (Easy)
The easiest way to create before and after photos is by using the Ultimate Before After Image Slider & Gallery (BEA).
The BEA plugin allows you to create horizontal and vertical sliders, and customize the image with different labels and colors.
The first thing you need to do is to install and activate the Ultimate Before After Image Slider & Gallery (BEA) plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, go to Before and After Slider » Add New in your dashboard.
To start, type in a name for the image slider. This is just for your reference so you can use anything that will help you identify it.
With that done, you can add the ‘before’ image by scrolling to the ‘Before Image’ section.
Here, click on ‘Add or Upload Image’ and then either choose a picture from the WordPress media library or upload a new file from your computer.
To help search engines understand this image and show it to the right people, it’s a good idea to add some image alt text. To do this, simply type into the ‘Image Alt’ field.
For more information about alt text, please see our beginner’s guide to image SEO.
With that done, scroll to the ‘After Image’ section.
You can now add the ‘after’ image by following the same process described above. Don’t forget to add some alt text to this image, too, since it’s important for WordPress SEO.
You can also show some text below the image, by adding a title and a description.
For example, you might encourage visitors to interact with the slider. This is especially important for visitors who might have never run across a before-and-after photo before.
This is also an easy way to add some context to the image.
To add some text, simply type into the ‘Slider Title’ or ‘Slider Description’ fields.
You can also add a ‘Read More’ URL, which can link to any post or page on your WordPress website, or even an external website. For example, you might send visitors to a page where they can buy the product featured in the slider image.
This link will appear below the before/after image, and also beneath any slider title or description you’re using.
To add a link, type the destination into the ‘Read More Link’ field.
You can then decide whether to open the link in the same tab, or in a new tab using the ‘Read More Link Target’ dropdown.
If you’re linking to another website, then we recommend choosing ‘New tab’ so you’re not sending visitors away from your WordPress blog.
With that done, you can choose whether you want to create a vertical or horizontal slider by clicking on one of the thumbnails in the ‘Orientation Style’ section.
After that, scroll to the top of the screen and click on ‘Options.’
Here, you’ll see the ‘Default offset’ is set 0.5. This means the visitor sees half of the ‘before’ image when the page first loads.
If you want to show more of the before image, then type in a bigger number such as 0.6, 0.7, or higher.
If you want to show the entire before image, then type in 1. This will place the slider at the top or right of the before image, as you can see in the following image.
By default, the plugin shows ‘Before’ and ‘After’ labels when the visitor hovers their mouse over the image.
You may want to replace these labels with something more descriptive.
To do this, simply go ahead and type into the ‘Before Label’ and ‘After Label’ fields.
By default, visitors will move the slider using drag and drop. Some people may find this difficult, especially if they have mobility issues or they’re using smaller devices like smartphones or tablets.
With that being said, you may want to change how visitors move the slider.
If you select the ‘Yes’ button next to ‘Move slider on mouse hover,’ then visitors can move the slider simply by hovering their mouse over the image.
If you select the ‘Yes’ button next to ‘Click to move,’ then visitors can click anywhere on the image to move the slider to that point.
These settings can make it easier to interact with the before/after image, but it’s typically not the way that sliders behave. With that in mind, we recommend using these settings carefully.
Next, click on the ‘Style’ tab.
Here, you can change the colors used for the different labels, backgrounds, headings, descriptions, and the read more button. This can help the before/after image blend in with your WordPress theme, or even stand out from the rest of your website’s design.
You can also change the font size and text alignment.
When you’re happy with how the slider is set up, click on the ‘Publish’ button.
This creates a shortcode that allows you to add the before/after image and slider to any page, post, or widget-ready area.
For more information on how to place the shortcode, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.
After adding the shortcode to your site, simply click on the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button to make the before/after image and slider effect live.
Method 2. How to Show A Before and After Photo Using SeedProd (Advanced)
If you simply want to add a before and after image to a page or post, then the BEA plugin may be a good choice. However, if you’re using the image to promote a product, service, or business then we recommend using SeedProd.
SeedProd is the best drag-and-drop WordPress page builder. It comes with more than 180 ready-made templates that you can use to create high-converting landing pages, sales designs, and more.
It also has a ready-made ‘Before After Toggle’ block that you can use to create beautiful before-and-after images your users can interact with.
Simply drag the block from the left-hand menu, and then drop it onto any page design that you may happen to be working on, including sales pages.
If you’re using WooCommerce to sell your products, then SeedProd integrates with WooCommerce and even comes with special eCommerce blocks. This is perfect if you plan to use before and after images to promote your WooCommerce products.
Note: There is a free version of SeedProd that allows you to create custom pages no matter your budget. However, we’ll be using the premium version as it comes with the Before After Toggle block. It also integrates with many of the best email marketing services you may already be using on your website.
For information on how to use SeedProd, please see our guide on how to create a custom page in WordPress.
After creating a page, it’s easy to add a before and after image to your design. In the SeedProd page editor, simply find the ‘Before After Toggle’ block.
You can then drag and drop this block anywhere on your design, to add it to the page layout.
With that done, simply click to select the ‘Before After Toggle’ block. The left-hand menu will now update to show all the settings you can use to create your before-and-after image.
To start, you’ll need to add the picture you want to use as the before image. Under ‘Before Image’ either click on ‘Use Your Own Image’ or ‘Use a Stock Image’ and choose the picture you want to use.
By default, SeedProd shows a ‘Before’ label above this image. However, you can change this to something more descriptive by typing it into the ‘Before Label’ field.
With that done, scroll to the ‘After Image’ section.
You can now add an image and customize the default ‘After’ label by following the same process described above.
SeedProd can add a vertical or horizontal slide effect.
To switch between these two styles, scroll to the ‘Slider Orientation’ section and then click on either ‘Vertical’ or ‘Horizontal.’
By default, visitors will move between the before and after images by dragging the slider. However, some users may find it easier to move the slider by hovering their mouse over the image.
This is particularly true for larger images where the visitor would need to drag the slider a greater distance.
To try this setting, enable ‘Move on Hover’ in the left-hand menu.
Next, you may want to add a colored overlay to both the before and after images. This can help the image blend in with the rest of the color scheme, or stand out from the background.
You can even make the colored overlay semi-transparent, to create a more subtle effect.
To try different colors, click on the ‘Overlay Color’ section and then make your changes in the popup that appears.
With that done, you can customize the slider handle by clicking to expand the ‘Comparison Handle’ section.
By default, SeedProd shows half of the ‘before’ image and half of the ‘after’ image. To change this, simply drag the ‘Handle Initial Offset’ slider.
To display less of the before image, drag the slider to the left so that it shows a lower number. To show more of the before image, drag the slider to the right, which increases the number.
Next, you can change the slider’s color using the ‘Handle Color’ settings.
You can also make the handle thicker or thinner using the ‘Handle Thickness’ slider.
In this way, you can make the handle stand out, or create a more subtle effect.
When you’re happy with the handle, you may want to change the circle. You can make the circle bigger or smaller using the ‘Circle Width’ settings, and change the ‘Circle Radius’ to create sharp or curved corners.
As you make changes, the live preview will update automatically so you can try different settings to see what looks the best.
When you’re happy with the circle, you may want to change the size of the triangles inside that circle. For example, if you’ve made the circle bigger then you might want to increase the size of the triangles too.
To make this change, drag the ‘Triangle Size’ slider until you’re happy with how it looks.
With that done, you can continue adding new blocks and customizing the content on your SeedProd page.
When you’re happy with how the page looks, just click on the arrow next to the ‘Save’ button and then select ‘Publish.’
Now if you visit your website you’ll see your page design with the before-and after-image live.
We hope this article helped you learn how to add a before and after photo to your WordPress website with a slide effect. You can also go through our guide on the best social proof plugins for WordPress and how to choose the best web design software.
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.
The post How to Show Before and After Photo in WordPress (with Slide Effect) first appeared on WPBeginner.
What Is Continuous Testing?
Testing is a crucial part of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Testing should be included in every stage of the SDLC to get faster feedback and bake the quality within the product. Test automation can get you excellent results if it is implemented and used in an efficient way and continuous testing is the right approach.
According to Markets and Markets, the continuous testing market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15.9% during the forecast period of 2018-2023 and reach $2.41 billion by 2023. 2017 was considered the base year for estimating the market size.
Creating ‘Crap’ Faster Isn’t an Improvement
Over the last few weeks, there’s been a lot of chatter about ChatGPT, a writing tool built in OpenAI. So much noise, in fact, that everyone from CNN, the NYT, Forbes, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Guardian, BBC, TechCrunch, CNet, and approximately a half billion techbruhs on YouTube had to sound off on it. All in the last two weeks.
The opinions range from incredulous to breathless to skeptical — albeit carefully so. Nobody really knows what the next few weeks will bring, and therefore nobody is willing to declare ChatGPT entirely one thing or another.
A Simple Method for Training GPT-2 To Generate Haiku Using the NanoGPT Repository
Purpose
In this article, I will show how to easily train GPT-class neural networks from home. Let me start by saying that we won’t train NN from scratch, as that would require 8 (eight!) A100-class GPUs at least and a massive dataset. Instead, we’ll focus on fine-tuning a pre-trained GPT-2 model using a smaller dataset, which anyone can easily make or find online. OpenAI has kindly released GPT-2 under Modified MIT License.
nanoGPT
We’ll use the nanoGPT repository created by Andrej Karpathy for fast and easy GPT training. He has a comprehensive video lecture explaining how GPT-2 works and how to train such a neural network. However, we’re interested in fine-tuning the model using our own dataset and seeing the difference from the original (GPT-2 trained by OpenAI).
What Leonardo Da Vinci Can Teach Us About Web Design
Exhaustive, sometimes bizarre notes… wireframes… mind-bending blends of art and science. Is it a GitHub repository? No, it’s the life of a Renaissance genius. With the right lessons, we can all write some da Vinci code.
Web development is a pretty big tent. It encompasses color, mathematics, accessibility, typography, photography, copywriting, ethics, and the list goes on and on. The web is a near-infinite world which — for all its relentless innovation and disruption — inherits many of its most beautiful qualities from old ways.
It is in that spirit that we’ll be looking at the Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci, the latest in a rather eclectic lineup of old maestros I’ve had the pleasure of writing about:
- “What Newspapers Can Teach Us About Web Design”
- “What Saul Bass Can Teach Us About Web Design”
- “What Vitruvius Can Teach Us About Web Design”
Perhaps more than any other person in history, da Vinci showed the kind of magic that can happen in the overlap between art and science, where much of web development lives. His methods and outlooks are as applicable today as they were in Renaissance Italy.
Document Your Thoughts, Ideas, And WorkDa Vinci was a fastidious writer, producing tens of thousands of pages of notes and sketches during his life. Their content ranged from mundane to genius, and that was part of their value. One day it’s a shopping list, another it’s flying machines. There was no filter, no preciousness, only expression and exploration.
This exhaustive documentation was valuable for a number of reasons. They were of benefit to him as an outlet for his thoughts, ambitions, and experiences and as points of reference for long-term projects. Getting his thoughts down allowed them to be tested and iterated on.
The benefits of such extensive documentation were not limited to da Vinci himself. Writing his ideas down also allowed them to survive him for the benefit of countless millions since. Centuries on his notebooks continue to surprise, delight and educate.
Da Vinci’s zeal for writing and sketching lends itself to web development. First is the powerful — sometimes downright mysterious — creative freedom of jotting down what’s going on inside your head. Sometimes you start writing down idea A and suddenly find yourself at solution X.
Not everything we do has to be perfect. Anyone expecting to arrive directly at the final product is going to be disappointed or have a pretty shoddy final product. Writing and sketching give you the license to be playful, maybe even a little bit audacious. Many timeless ideas are born on notebook paper.
There is a sense sometimes that the code we write is akin to sand sculptures — pretty but temporary. This doesn’t have to be the case. Even if the final form of websites continues to change, the thinking behind that evolution is invaluable. How did we get here, and why?
Documenting your pull requests to survive when you’re dead may be a bit strong, but your successors at old jobs will be grateful for the insight and guidance.
- “The Power Of Pen And Paper Sketching” by Tracy Osborn
- “Playfulness In Code: Supercharge Your Learning By Having Fun” by Jhey Tompkins
Web devs and designers ought to document their own journey, be it through PR descriptions or an actual notebook of their own:
- Flesh out ideas,
- Jot down idle thoughts,
- Doodle page layouts.
May future generations be delighted and awed by your pull request descriptions. May the feature ideas in your GitHub issues be as aspirational as da Vinci’s flying machines.
The best ideas in the world are of no practical use for as long as they’re stuck in one’s head.
Obsess Over GeometryAs most famously demonstrated by the Vitruvian Man, da Vinci was a lifelong student of geometry, shape, and proportion. He was fascinated by the recurrence of various shapes in nature, as well as by the workings of proportion and perspective. He understood their value to paintings and architecture alike.
Da Vinci took great pains to understand these invisible frameworks and replicate them in his work. Although he is more often remembered for his fine art, everything he did was underpinned by a fascination with science and mathematics.
These are essential tools for any web developer. Pages look similarly off-kilter if they are not assembled around invisible guidelines. Grids are the most common example of this, but areas like typography and responsive design are similarly rooted in questions of size, proportion, ratio, and shape.
Showing a da Vinci-like interest in the rules behind these subjects is the difference between a website being pleasing to the eye and being a complete disaster. If you’re unsure where to start, then it’s safe to say Smashing has you covered:
- “Building Better UI Designs With Layout Grids” by Nick Babich
- “Document Object Model (DOM) Geometry: A Beginner’s Introduction And Guide” by Pearl Akban
- Rachel Andrew’s Understanding CSS Grid series
- “Symmetry: A Balancing Act In Two (Or More) Parts” by Maggie Macnab
- “Applying Divine Proportion To Your Web Designs” by Vitaly Friedman
- “The Shapes of CSS” by Chris Coyier
- “What Vitruvius Can Teach Us About Web Design” by me
From nature to painting to architecture to web design, applied geometry can create a sense of the sublime.
Think Right-To-LeftIn his notebooks, da Vinci typically wrote right to left in ‘mirror script’. He only wrote the ‘normal’ way when he intended it to be read by other people.
Why did he write that way? He was left-handed and wasn’t classically schooled. It prevented him from smudging the ink. It made his ideas harder to steal. Whatever the combination, it’s clearly what he felt most comfortable with.
Da Vinci’s mirror script shows the value of embracing ways of working that suit you. Da Vinci didn’t have to justify his methods to anyone else. And neither do you.
Trust what feels natural and customize the way you work to fit. Personalize your IDE, choose fonts and colors that you like, and write and draw however comes naturally — be that with a tablet or in a leatherbound journal.
- “Falling In Love With The Web: Inspiring Websites And Tools” by Cosima Mielke
- “Useful UX Guidelines, Tools And Resources” by Cosima Mielke
- “Top Front-End Tools Of 2022” by Louis Lazaris
- “Boosting Productivity For Designers With Efficient Tools” by Ashish Bogawat
- “Useful Figma Plugins and Tools” by Janet John
- “Everything Developers Must Know About Figma” by Chrinstine Vallaure
Norms being what they are doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how they should be. You will feel better about yourself, and who knows, maybe making space for your methods will allow unexpected ideas to appear.
Find Good Patrons (Or Failing That, Good Employers)Da Vinci was picky about the work he did and the patrons he found. He lived in places that gave space to his flamboyance and creativity. Florence valued the arts, so it valued da Vinci as well as peers like Michelangelo.
When he moved to Milan, he delighted the courts with his theatrics, eloquence, and stagecraft. On the other end of the spectrum, da Vinci also spent a couple of years in the service of Cesare Borgia, a man so conniving, violent, and altogether horrible that he was a major inspiration for Machiavelli’s book The Prince. Still, it gave him the opportunity to apply himself in new areas like mapping.
Time inside the belly of the beast can be educational in its own way. However, it’s telling that da Vinci only spent a few years in Borgia’s service before slipping back into the less murderous company.
Although patrons are all well and good, we, in the world of web development, usually have to settle for employers. We owe it to ourselves — if at all possible — to find spaces for our creativity, to find outlets for our passions, or at the very least, not feel like a cog in some colossal evil machine.
Have enough pride in your work to channel it into projects you care about. Even da Vinci needed a good working culture. Find your Florence, and if you can’t, do what you can to make where you are a little more like it.
Iterate, Iterate, IterateIt may be of some comfort to know that Leonardo da Vinci was, at times, a breathtaking procrastinator. He would take years to complete works, and that’s if he finished them at all.
Da Vinci worked on many of his paintings for years, including the Mona Lisa, which he took with him on his travels until the day he died.
Da Vinci’s creations were the result of countless experiments, tangents, and iterations. The final products are what looms large in the public consciousness today, but each was but the final step of long, often difficult journeys.
One particularly pertinent example of this process in action is Leonardo’s Horse, an equestrian monument da Vinci was commissioned to design and build in 1482 by the Duke of Milan Ludovico il Moro. A decades-long frenzy of research ensued, ranging from horse anatomy to concocting entirely new bronze casting techniques.
The project was not completed in da Vinci’s lifetime, but his work made it possible for the effort to be renewed when his extensive notes resurfaced in the 20th century. In 1999, a cool 517 years after he was commissioned, da Vinci’s horse was finally unveiled in Milan.
For all his brilliance, da Vinci was also an exemplar of the power of slow, steady progress — even procrastination. Yes, sometimes inspiration strikes, but more often, we find it at the end of a long, laborious journey. As Steven Pressfield puts it in The War of Art, “The Muse favors working stiffs.”
In the world of web design, the idea of something being ‘finished’ is pretty quaint. There will always be dependencies to update, tweaks to make, and new devices to accommodate. This is a good thing. It is true to nature. It’s exciting. In how many fields can one rebuild something they’ve made? Architects don’t have that luxury. Even painters can only change so much before they have to start again.
The ethereal nature of the web and its technologies lends itself to a da Vinci-esque approach to iteration. Build it, then build it again better. And again. And again.
Do not get too attached to what it is now. It is valuable, yes, but ultimately a stepping stone to what is to come. It is not about throwing away your work but evolving it.
Seldom is a work truly finished. There are always more perfections to be made.
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”Feed Your Inner Polymath
— Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was too multifaceted to be tied down with one label. He was a writer, painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, scientist, philosopher, and the list goes on and on.
“He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards a ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.”
— Leonardo da Vinci
His knowledge of each field improved his proficiency in others. Anatomical studies led to more realistic illustrations. His studies of light helped him to create more lifelike paintings.
This, in part, stemmed from his atypical education. By avoiding the classical syllabus, he was able to explore on his own terms, blurring the lines between different subjects. His understanding of the world was fluid and holistic.
Web developers operate within a similarly vast and beautiful constellation of interconnected disciplines. The really good stuff happens when we tie them together.
“Technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”
— Steve Jobs
Play with new languages, old languages, frameworks, and libraries. Browse Smashing Magazine categories that you’re a novice in. Go down those rabbit holes. Pull on those threads. As da Vinci said of art, so too is true of the web: it can never be finished, only abandoned.
Further Reading
- Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson, a superb biography
- Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace
- “Where to View Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks Online for Free”, Margherita Cole
- “Marrying Tech and Art”, Steve Johnson
- Various da Vinci artworks at the Art Renewal Center
What’s the Best Backlink Checker? (Here’s Some New Data)
With so many backlink checkers available - and the fact that they vary greatly in their pricing, results, and SEO tools - we set out to identify the absolute best backlink checkers based on hard data and some subjective user interface testing. Fullscreen Clip Animation
How to Automatically Add WordPress Products in Google Shopping
Do you want to add your WordPress products to Google Shopping?
Adding your online store products to Google Shopping can help you increase traffic, reach more customers, and generate greater revenue.
In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add WordPress products to Google Shopping.
Why Should You Add WordPress Products to Google Shopping
Google Shopping is a virtual marketplace like Amazon and Etsy, where users can search, view, and compare products from different online stores that have paid to advertise their products.
If you have a WooCommerce store, then adding your products to Google Shopping can prove to be extremely beneficial for your business.
Your products will be shown to all users browsing through Google shopping which will increase traffic on your WordPress website, generate more revenue and bring in more customers.
That being said, let’s see how you can add WordPress products to Google Shopping.
How to Add WordPress Products in Google Shopping
Step 1: Creating a Google Merchant Account
To add your products to Google Shopping, you have to start by creating an account in the Google Merchant Center. This is the place where your product information will be stored for viewing by Google Shopping.
First, go to the Google Merchant Center page and click the ‘Sign up for free’ button.
After that, Google will ask you about your online business.
Just check the answers that apply to you, and then provide your website’s URL.
After you’ve provided the details, you’ll be redirected to another page.
Here, you simply have to click the ‘Create a Google Merchant Account’ button at the bottom of the page.
Now, you will be asked to provide your business details. You can start by writing your business name.
Next, select the country where your business is based from the dropdown menu below the ‘Registered Country’ option.
After that, click the ‘Continue to Merchant Center’ button.
You’ve successfully created your Google Merchant Account. Now all you have to do is provide your business info and shipping details.
Once you’ve filled in those details, simply click the ‘Save’ button at the bottom to store your settings.
Step 2: Linking Your Google AdWords Account
Now you’ll have to link your Google AdWords account to your Google Merchant Center account so that you can show your products via Google Shopping.
To link your account, simply go to the Google Merchant Center dashboard and click the gear icon at the top of the page.
Clicking it will open up a ‘Tools and Settings’ prompt. Here you simply have to choose the ‘Linked Account’ option present.
This will take you to the ‘Linked Accounts’ page.
Now you simply have to click the ‘+’ button to create your Google Ads account.
This will open up a ‘Create Your Google Ads Account’ prompt.
Simply choose your preferred time zone and currency and then click the ‘Create’ button.
You have now successfully created your Google Ads account.
This is how it will look once your account has been created.
Step 3: Adding WordPress Products to Google Shopping
To add your WordPress products to Google Shopping, we will be using the ELEX Google Shopping plugin to display your WooCommerce products in Google Shopping.
First, you need to do is install and activate the ELEX Google Shopping plugin. For more instructions, check our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, head over to the Google Shopping Feed » Create Feeds page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
From here, simply fill in your business details and click the ‘Continue’ button at the bottom.
Next, you’ll be taken to the ‘Map Category’ page. Here you simply have to select your product categories.
Simply type your product categories in the ‘Google Categories’ tab and click ‘Continue’
After that, you’ll be directed to the ‘Map Attributes’ page.
This is where you’ll have to fill in your product details including product id, product description, product link, pricing, image, and more.
Here select and fill in as many attributes as possible for more visibility in Google Shopping and click the ‘Continue’ button.
Now that you’re on the ‘Filtering Options’ page, simply fill in the details as required for your online store.
For example, you can include how many items you have in stock or note how many have sold already.
Next, simply click the ‘Generate Feed’ button at the bottom.
After you’ve created your Google Shopping feed, go to the Google Shopping Feed » Manage Feeds page from the admin sidebar.
Here you will be able to view your Google Shopping Feed. Now you have to simply click the ‘Download’ button beside it.
Once you’ve downloaded your feed as an XML file, go back to the ‘Google Merchant Center’ dashboard and click the Products » Feeds option from the sidebar.
This will open up the ‘Primary Feeds’ page where you have to click the ‘+’ button to add a new feed.
This will take you to the ‘New Primary Feed’ page where you can start by filling in basic details. First, start by adding all your target countries.
Next, select your preferred language and then click the ‘Continue’ button.
Then, you have to choose a name for your feed and select a method to connect your data to the Merchant center.
For this tutorial, we will be uploading the feed XML from WordPress.
After that, just click on the ‘Continue’ button.
Now that you’re on the ‘Setup’ page, simply type the name for your Google Shopping Feed.
Next, just upload the Feed file you got from WordPress and click the ‘Create Feed’ button.
You have now successfully added your WordPress products to Google Shopping.
Bonus: How to Add Google Merchant Center Schema in WordPress
To improve your product search visibility in Google Shopping and increase conversion rates, you should add a Google Merchant schema in WordPress.
Schema markup is an HTML code that provides more details about your products to search engines.
A GMC listing schema will make your search snippets more prominent and will allow your products to be featured as popular products for the relevant search terms.
The easiest way to add a Google Merchant Center listing schema to WordPress is by using the All in One SEO for WordPress.
It is the best SEO plugin for WordPress that is used by over 3 million websites.
First, you need to install and activate the All in One SEO for WordPress. For more instructions, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, a setup wizard will open up. Simply go ahead and click the ‘Get Started’ button.
After that, you need to follow the onscreen instructions in the setup wizard to configure the plugin. If you need help, please see our guide on how to properly set up AIOSEO in WordPress.
After the AIOSEO plugin has been set up, you need to visit the Products » All Products page from the admin sidebar.
From here, simply click on the ‘Edit’ link below a product to open up the ‘Edit Product’ page.
Once there, you need to scroll down to the ‘AIOSEO Settings’ section and click on the ‘Schema’ tab.
Now, you need to make sure that the schema type is set to ‘Product’ by default.
If that is not the case, then simply click on the ‘Generate Schema’ button.
It will open up the Schema Catalog which will list all the available schema templates.
From here, you need to click the ‘Add Schema’ (+) button beside the Product option to set it as your primary schema.
Note: You may see the ‘Article’ schema already applied. If so, you can remove it as you add the new one because this particular page isn’t an article or blog post in Google’s eyes.
Next, you will need to fill in the product information to add the GMC listing schema.
For that, you need to click the ‘Edit Schema’ button next to the ‘Schema in Use’ option.
This will open up the ‘Edit Product’ modal where you will need to fill in the product details.
If you’re using WooCommerce, then AIOSEO will automatically pull most of the product data from your product information.
However, if you want to fill in the information manually, you need to simply toggle the ‘Autogenerate Fields’ switch to ‘No.’
The product attributes that you will need to add include the product name, description, image, ISBN, price, material, color, shipping details, and more.
We recommend that you provide all the details so that the schema markup can make your product snippets more engaging.
Once you’re done, simply click the ‘Update Schema’ or ‘Add Schema’ button to store your settings.
You have now successfully added the Google Merchant Center listing schema to WordPress, and your products can now be featured on the platform and hopefully earn you more sales.
We hope you learned how to add WordPress products to Google Shopping. You may also want to check out our best WooCommerce reporting and analytics plugins and our article on how to speed up your eCommerce website.
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.
The post How to Automatically Add WordPress Products in Google Shopping first appeared on WPBeginner.
What is the difference between Google analytics or business analytics?
Google Analytics and business analytics are two different types of analytics tools used by businesses to gain insights and make data-driven decisions.
Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, including user behavior, user demographics, and other data related to website usage. It is designed to help businesses understand how users interact with their website and how they can improve their online presence.
On the other hand, business analytics is a broader category of analytics that encompasses a range of tools and techniques used to analyze data related to various aspects of a business, such as finance, marketing, operations, and customer behavior. Business analytics helps businesses make informed decisions by providing insights into trends, patterns, and opportunities within their data.
While Google Analytics is primarily focused on website analytics, business analytics tools can analyze data from various sources, including sales data, social media analytics, customer surveys, and more. Business analytics provides a more comprehensive view of a business's performance and can help businesses make decisions related to product development, marketing strategy, and operations.
Overall, Google Analytics is a specific tool used for website analytics, while business analytics is a broader category of tools used to analyze data across various aspects of a business.