10 Ways To Keep Your Java Application Safe and Secure

With cyber-attacks becoming more sophisticated and prevalent every day, ensuring the safety and security of your Java application is more important than ever. The last thing any developer wants is to be the victim of a security breach that could compromise their users' sensitive data and jeopardize the trust they have worked so hard to build. Fear not; we've got you covered! In this blog, we'll explore ten proven ways to keep your Java application safe and secure. From basic security protocols to advanced encryption techniques, you'll be armed with everything you need to ensure your application stays protected. So, sit back, relax, and get ready to learn how to take your Java application's security to the next level!

1. Secure Your Network Connection

In our highly connected world, network links have become a critical aspect of our everyday lives. With the expanding use of technology, though, also comes a heightened hazard of cyberattacks. Thus, as a Java programmer, ensuring the security of your network connection must be of utmost importance to guard your program and its consumers.

Datafaker 2.0

One of the major changes in Datafaker 2.0 is the requirement for Java version 17 as a minimum, similar to popular frameworks such as Spring Boot 3.0. This release of Datafaker brings significant improvements to the library's performance, support of Java Records, the capability to generate larger amounts of test data, and much more.

Schemas and Transformers 

The most common use case for Datafaker is to generate random readable values in Java, such as first names, quotes, or other values. 

How to Seamlessly Integrate Data Into NetSuite?

When integrating data into NetSuite, there are important decisions to make regarding the source of data, technical options, automation requirements, and the scope of professional services. This article explores the considerations involved in integrating data into NetSuite and highlights different options for achieving seamless integration.

This article is an excerpt from my recent book, NetSuite for Consultants, Second Edition.

Implement OpenAPI for AWS Lambda in Quarkus Using API Gateway Integrator

About OpenAPI

It is a specification that allows to describe REST API in a standard way. The OpenAPI Specification (OAS) defines a standard, programming language-agnostic interface description for REST APIs. This allows both humans and computers to discover and understand the capabilities of a service without requiring access to source code, additional documentation, or inspection of network traffic.

About Swagger 

Swagger is a set of open-source tools built around the OpenAPI Specification that can help software professionals design, build, document, and consume REST APIs. Where OpenAPI deals with specification, Swagger implements the specification to describe a REST API .

Low Overhead Continuous Contextual Production Profiling

In the realm of production applications, it is customary to address performance bottlenecks such as CPU and memory issues in order to identify and resolve their underlying causes. In order to gain insight into these problems, we gather a range of metrics and logs to monitor the utilization of system resources such as CPU, memory, and application-specific latencies. It is worth noting that this data collection process does not impact the performance of the application. However, it does not provide visibility into the operations taking place at the code level, such as method, socket, and thread states. Moreover, the process of collecting these profiles introduces overhead during application runtime and necessitates the storage and visualization of significantly large datasets.

This article explores the concept of low overhead high-frequency profilers, which offer a solution to these challenges. It delves into methods for attaching application context to profile samples, enabling the collection of profiles from tens of thousands of application deployments. Additionally, it discusses efficient strategies for storing and visualizing stacks, introduces a novel approach to comparative analysis, and explores aggregation techniques for an extended duration. Furthermore, the article explores the aggregation of profiles across a large number of similar deployments, providing valuable insights for optimizing performance.

Navigating Agile Workflows in Dynamic Environments: A Guide to Risk Management

When I first started as a software developer, traditional risk management approaches were falling short in the face of impediments caused by ever-changing scope creeps and fluctuating budgets. This gave birth to Agile methodology, an iterative and flexible approach to project management that focuses on collaboration, adaptability, and delivering incremental value.

It emphasizes frequent feedback, continuous improvement, and cross-functional teams to efficiently respond to changing requirements, reduce risks, and enhance customer satisfaction.

MSP Cybersecurity: What You Should Know

Many small and medium businesses today rely on managed service providers (MSPs) with support for IT services and processes due to having limited budgets and fully loaded environments. MSP solutions can be integrated with client infrastructures to enable proper service delivery, thus bringing certain disadvantages along with functional benefits. 

This post focuses on MSP cyber security, including the main challenges, threats, and practices. Read on to find out:

Waterfall Software Development

What Is Waterfall Software Development?

Waterfall software development is a traditional project management approach that follows a linear and sequential process. It is characterized by distinct phases, with each phase being completed before the next one begins. The approach gets its name from the cascading flow of activities from one phase to another, much like a waterfall.

Some Typical Phases of the Waterfall Software Development Model

  1. Requirements Gathering: In this phase, the project requirements are gathered and documented. This involves understanding the client's needs, identifying project goals, and creating a comprehensive requirements document.
  2. Framework Plan: When the necessities are laid out, the framework configuration stage starts. This involves creating a detailed system architecture and design based on the gathered requirements. The design includes software modules, data structures, user interfaces, and any other relevant components.
  3. Implementation: In the implementation phase, the development team starts coding and programming based on the system design. Each module is developed and integrated into a complete software system.
  4. Testing: After the software is implemented, it undergoes testing to identify and fix any defects or issues. Testing incorporates unit testing, mix testing, framework testing, and client acknowledgment testing. This phase aims to ensure that the software functions as intended and meets the specified requirements.
  5. Deployment: Once the software has passed testing and received approval, it is deployed to the production environment or delivered to the client. This phase involves installation, configuration, and making the software available for end-users.
  6. Maintenance: After organization, the product enters the upkeep stage. This involves ongoing support, bug fixes, updates, and enhancements based on user feedback and changing requirements.

The waterfall model emphasizes a structured and sequential approach, where each phase has well-defined inputs and outputs. It is suitable for projects with stable and clearly defined requirements, where changes are less likely to occur. However, it has limitations in accommodating changes during development, as the next phase cannot begin until the previous one is completed.

Use cases – postToConnectionOutput apigatewaymanagementapi Go

I'm trying to find a concrete example where that type is used, I can't find any on the whole internet, the documentation of the package is very advanced or doesn't give details.

It all started from trying to find an error that was "goneException" when using postToConnectionInput to a client that doesn't exist, well it's like that by default, but I thought I could find a more specific error message. That's when I got to postToConnectionOutput. How can I see it? How can I use it? Can it be used in my code example?

Note: I'm not asking about how to fix the goneException, it's an error by the way, I want to know more. Can I apply the postToConnectionOutput to my example and what would it do for me?

I mention that I don't know the language to the maximum, there are some things that I don't understand well, then I put a function that what it does is send a message to all the connected clients, everything works fine, except that I INTENTIONALLY put an ID that doesn't exist, and I would like to know if I can get more information about what happens, not just a "goneException" Can postToConnectionOutput be used, what would it be for? I also leave below the types of goolang and the associated documentation.

My code, use postToConnectionInput:
All errors: goneException (correct!) I can see more with postToConnectionOutput What does postToConnectionOutput? and And how is it implemented?
https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/service/apigatewaymanagementapi#PostToConnectionInput

I don't understand what the function of postToConnectionOutput is and how it is implemented, I tried, I searched many places, I couldn't. Can postToConnectionOutput be applied to my code? What good would it do me? What do I do with that?

Thank you very much if someone could explain or tell me, or give me an example, or what it is for. Grateful.

func sendAll(r events.APIGatewayWebsocketProxyRequest) (interface{}, error) {
    idCon := r.RequestContext.ConnectionID
    cantidadClientes := strconv.Itoa(len(ListaClientes))
    fmt.Println("sendAll ejecutada, ID DE CONEXIN (emisor): ", idCon, "cantidad de clientes: ["+cantidadClientes+"]")
    mensaje := "Este es un mensaje para todos"

    mySession := session.Must(session.NewSession())
    api := apigatewaymanagementapi.New(mySession, aws.NewConfig().WithEndpoint("xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"))

    for _, idcliente := range ListaClientes {
        structRes := &apigatewaymanagementapi.PostToConnectionInput{
            ConnectionId: aws.String(idcliente), 
            Data:         []byte(mensaje),
        }

        _, err := api.PostToConnection(structRes)
        if err != nil {
            fmt.Println("WARNING, sendAll(), idconexin: ["+idcliente+"]->", err, "<-")
            if awsErr, ok := err.(awserr.Error); ok {
                log.Println("Error:", awsErr.Code(), awsErr.Message())
                log.Println("Error:", awsErr)
                fmt.Println("ee: ", errors.Unwrap(awsErr))
                if origErr := errors.Unwrap(awsErr); origErr != nil {
                    fmt.Println(origErr)
                }
            }
            x := fmt.Errorf("%w", err)
            fmt.Println(x)
            fmt.Println(fmt.Printf("%v", x))
            var gne *apitypes.GoneException
            if errors.As(err, &gne) {
                log.Println("error:", gne.Error())
            }
        }

    }
    return events.APIGatewayProxyResponse{
        StatusCode: 200,
    }, nil
}

How to Fix WooCommerce Product Search Not Working

Is the WooCommerce product search not working in your online store?

If your WooCommerce search isn’t working correctly, users won’t be able to find the products they are looking for. This can result in a poor user experience, abandoned carts, and fewer sales.

In this article, we will show you what to do when the WooCommerce product search is not working. We will also explain how to improve the search feature.

Fixing the WooCommerce product search not working issue

The Importance of WooCommerce Product Search

Without a functional search tool, users won’t be able to browse through your product catalog and make purchases in your WooCommerce store.

WooCommerce search not working

This can result in frustrated customers leaving your site, which will skyrocket bounce rates and decrease profits.

In turn, it can also damage your store’s reputation. If many people struggle to use your online store, then they may go to your competitors instead.

The error may also cause your website SEO to suffer because search engines use the search functionality to rank websites.

If your site has lower rankings in the search results, then fewer customers will be able to find and purchase your products online.

By fixing the WooCommerce search feature, you can improve the customer experience, making it easier for shoppers to find what they are looking for and make more sales.

That being said, you can follow the steps in our troubleshooting guide and learn what to do when the WooCommerce product search is not working.

Step 1: Check With Your Hosting Provider

The most common reason the search feature isn’t working is because of your WordPress hosting.

The server hosting your site may not have enough resources to handle a large number of WooCommerce products at once.

This server may also have some software restrictions that limit the amount of available memory and prevent the search feature from working correctly.

If this is the case, then you can try contacting your hosting provider’s customer support, as this problem cannot be solved from your end. They can help you figure out if the WooCommerce search isn’t working due to the server and help you fix the issue.

However, if the issue is not with your hosting, then you will need to move on to the next step.

Step 2: Deactivate Plugins

The WooCommerce product search may not be working because of an outdated or new plugin on your WordPress website that is causing some errors.

This can happen if a plugin has bugs in its software or isn’t compatible with other plugins on your website.

You can easily fix this issue by deactivating every plugin apart from WooCoomerce on your site.

First, you will need to go to the Plugins » Installed Plugins page from the WordPress admin sidebar. Once you are there, just select all the activated plugins except WooCommerce from the list.

Next, simply choose the ‘Deactivate’ option from the ‘Bulk actions’ dropdown menu and click on the ‘Apply’ button to deactivate all the plugins on your site.

Deactivate all the plugin except WooCommerce

Now, you can visit your website to check if this has fixed the issue.

If it has, then simply activate the plugins one by one until you can find the one causing the error. You will then need to look for an alternative plugin or contact the developers for support.

If deactivating plugins didn’t fix the issue, then keep reading to solve the problem.

Step 3: Update the WooCommerce Database

A corrupted database can be another reason that the WooCommerce search is not working.

For instance, you may have imported a large number of products as a CSV file, which is causing a problem with the database.

To fix this issue, you will need to update the WooCommerce database. Make sure to create a complete backup of your website before updating its database.

First, head over to the WooCommerce » Status page from the WordPress sidebar.

Once you are there, simply switch to the ‘Tools’ tab and click the ‘Regenerate’ button next to the ‘Product lookup tables’ option.

Click Regenerate next to the Product Lookup Table option

After that, scroll down to the ‘Update database’ option and just click the button next to it.

This will update the WooCommerce plugin’s database to the latest version.

Update the WooCommerce database

Next, simply visit your online store to check if the issue has been resolved.

Step 4: Check Catalog Visibility Settings

Another reason for this problem can be that you have set the catalog visibility of your products to ‘Shop only’ or ‘Hidden’.

With these settings, the products won’t show up in the search results in your online store.

To check this, you need to visit the Products » All Products page from the WordPress admin sidebar and click on the ‘Edit’ link under a product name.

Click the Edit link under the product name

Once you are on the product page, simply click the ‘Edit’ link under the ‘Catalog visibility’ option in the ‘Publish’ section on the right.

This will open up a list of visibility choices.

From here, you need to make sure that the catalog visibility is set to ‘Shop and search results’.

Choose the Shop and Search Results option from the Catalog Visibility section

After that, click the ‘OK’ button to save your changes. Then, simply click the ‘Update’ button.

Now visit your website to check if the WooCommerce search is working. If it isn’t, then you will need to keep reading our tutorial.

Step 5: Reindex WooCommerce Products

You may not have indexed your Woocomerce products properly, making the search feature inaccessible.

To reindex the products, head to the Products » All Products page from the WordPress admin sidebar. From here, check the box at the top of the list to select all the products.

After that, select the ‘Edit’ option from the ‘Bulk actions’ dropdown menu and click the ‘Apply’ button.

Edit all the WooCommerce products

This will open up the ‘Bulk Edit’ tab on the page.

From here, simply click the ‘Update’ button to reindex all the WooCommerce products.

Click the Update button to reindex products

Once you have done that, you need to visit your website to test the search results.

Improve WooCommerce Product Search With SearchWP

If you have tried all the steps above and they haven’t fixed the product search problem, then it’s time for you to switch to a search plugin.

This is where SearchWP comes in.

It is the best WordPress search plugin on the market that can help you improve WooCommerce product search by automatically replacing the default WordPress search with a more powerful search feature.

It puts you in complete control of the WordPress search algorithm and builds an index that matches search keywords in content, titles, categories, tags, shortcodes, documents, products, and more.

SearchWP

First, you will need to install and activate the SearchWP plugin. For more detailed instructions, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, head over to the SearchWP » Settings page from the admin sidebar and switch to the ‘General’ menu option.

Here, you have to copy and paste the license key into the ‘License Key’ field. You can get your key from the ‘SearchWP Accounts’ page on the SearchWP website.

After that, simply click the ‘Activate’ button.

Enter your SearchWP license key

Next, you have to visit the SearchWP » Extensions page from the admin sidebar.

From here, click the ‘Install’ button under the ‘WooCommerce Integration’ extension. Upon installation, the extension will be activated automatically.

Install WooCommerce integration extension

Next, head over to the SearchWP » Algorithm page from the WordPress admin sidebar and click the ‘Source and Settings’ button.

This will open a popup where you need to check the ‘Products’ option to add WooCommerce products as a search source.

After that, click the ‘Done’ button to continue.

Add Products as search source

Now, if you scroll down, you will see a new ‘Products’ section added to the list of search sources.

By default, SearchWP will look at the product title, content (description), slug, and excerpt (short description) for search matches. You can add relevance (importance) to these search attributes by moving the sliders next to them.

For more detailed instructions, you may want to see our tutorial on how to make a smart WooCommerce product search.

Depending on how your site is set up, you may also be able to search for other content by clicking on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.

Add weight to search attributes

This will open up a popup from where you can add custom fields and taxonomies to the attributes as well.

Improve WooCommerce Product Search With Categories, Tags, SKUs, and Other Attributes

To make your WooCommerce product search more accurate, we recommend adding categories, tags, and SKUs as search sources using SearchWP.

Once the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ popup appears, simply start by typing ‘SKU’ into the ‘Custom Fields’ box. For more information, we recommend reading our guide on how to enable search by product SKU in WooCommerce.

After that, select the ‘Product categories’, ‘Product tags’, and other product attributes from the ‘Taxonomies’ dropdown menu.

Add SKU, tag, categories, and attributes as custom fields and taxonomies

Once you have done that, click the ‘Done’ button to save the changes.

Now that tags, SKUs, and categories have been added as search sources, move the slider next to these options to assign weight to these attributes.

Assign weight to the added fields

Note: If you don’t know how to create tags, categories, and attributes for your products, please see our tutorial on how to add product tags, attributes, and categories to WooCommerce.

After you have finished configuring settings for SearchWP, simply click the ‘Save’ button at the top.

Now the default search box on your WooCommerce store will be automatically replaced by SearchWP.

Click Save to store your changes

Finally, you can visit your website to check out the new and improved WooCommerce product search box.

Improved WooCommerce product search

We hope this article helped you learn what to do when the WooCommerce product search is not working. You may also want to see our article on how to fix WordPress search not working and check out our expert picks for the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your online store.

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 Fix WooCommerce Product Search Not Working first appeared on WPBeginner.

Meet Codux: The React Visual Editor That Improves Developer Experience

This article is a sponsored by Wix

Personally, I get tired of the antics at the start of any new project. I’m a contractor, too, so there’s always some new dependency I need to adopt, config files to force me to write the way a certain team likes, and deployment process I need to plug into. It’s never a fire-up-and-go sort of thing, and it often takes the better part of a working day to get it all right.

There are a lot of moving pieces to a project, right? Everything — from integrating a framework and establishing a component library to collaboration and deployments — is a separate but equally important part of your IDE. If you’re like me, jumping between apps and systems is something you get used to. But honestly, it’s an act of Sisyphus rolling the stone up the mountain each time, only to do it again on the next project.

That’s the setup for what I think is a pretty darn good approach to streamline this convoluted process in a way that supports any common project structure and is capable of enhancing it with visual editing capabilities. It’s called Codux, and if you stick with me for a moment, I think you’ll agree that Codux could be the one-stop shop for everything you need to build production-ready React apps.

Codux is More “Your-Code” Than "Low-Code"

I know, I know. "Yay, another visual editor!" says no one, ever. The planet is already full of those, and they’re really designed to give folks developer superpowers without actually doing any development.

That’s so not the case with Codux. There are indeed a lot of "low-code" affordances that could empower non-developers, but that’s not the headlining feature of Codux or really who or what it caters to. Instead, Codux is a fully-integrated IDE that provides the bones of your project while improving the developer experience instead of abstracting it away.

Do you use CodePen? What makes it so popular (and great to use) is that it "just" works. It combines frameworks, preprocessors, a live rendering environment, and modern build tools into a single interface that does all the work on "Save". But I still get to write code in a single place, the way I like it.

I see Codux a lot like that. But bigger. Not bigger in the sense of more complicated, but bigger in that it is more integrated than frameworks and build tools. It _is_ your framework. It _is_ your component library. It _is_ your build process. And it just so happens to have incredibly powerful visual editing controls that are fully integrated with your code editor.

That’s why it makes more sense to call Codux “your code” instead of the typical low-code or no-code visual editing tools. Those are designed for non-developers. Codux, on the other hand, is made for developers.

In fact, here’s a pretty fun thing to do. Open a component file from your project in VS Code and put the editor window next to the Codux window open to the same component. Make a small CSS change or something and watch both the preview rendering and code update instantly in Codux.

That’s just one of those affordances that really polish up the developer experience. Anyone else might overlook something like this, but as a developer, you know how much saved time can add up with something like this.

Code, Inspect And Debug Together At Last

There are a few other affordances available when selecting an element on the interactive stage on Codux:

  • A style panel for editing CSS and trying different layouts. And, again, changes are made in real-time, both in the rendered preview and in your code, which is visible to you all the time — whether directly in Codux or in your IDE.
  • A property panel that provides easy access to all the selected properties of a component with visual controllers to modify them (and see the changes reflected directly in the code)
  • An environment panel that provides you with control over the rendering environment of the component, such as the screen or canvas size, as well as the styling for it.

Maybe Give Codux A Spin

It’s pretty rad that I can fire up a single app to access my component library, code, documentation, live previews, DOM inspector, and version control. If you would’ve tried explaining this to me before seeing Codux, I would’ve said that’s too much for one app to handle; it’d be a messy UI that’s more aspiration than it is a liberating center of development productivity.

No lying. That’s exactly what I thought when the Wix team told me about it. I didn’t even think it was a good idea to pack all that in one place.

But they did, and I was dead wrong. Codux is pretty awesome. And apparently, it will be even more awesome because the FAQ talks about a bunch of new features in the works, things like supporting full frameworks. The big one is an online version that will completely remove the need to set up development environments every time someone joins the team, or a stakeholder wants access to a working version of the app. Again, this is all in the works, but it goes to show how Codux is all about improving the developer experience.

And it’s not like you’re building a Wix site with it. Codux is its own thing — something that Wix built to get rid of their own pain points in the development process. It just so happens that their frustrations are the same that many of us in the community share, which makes Codux a legit consideration for any developer or team.

Oh, and it’s free. You can download it right now, and it supports Windows, Mac, and Linux. In other words, you can give it a spin without buying into anything.