Securing and Monitoring Your Data Pipeline: Best Practices for Kafka, AWS RDS, Lambda, and API Gateway Integration

There are several steps involved in implementing a data pipeline that integrates Apache Kafka with AWS RDS and uses AWS Lambda and API Gateway to feed data into a web application. Here is a high-level overview of how to architect this solution:

1. Set Up Apache Kafka

Apache Kafka is a distributed streaming platform that is capable of handling trillions of events a day. To set up Kafka, you can either install it on an EC2 instance or use Amazon Managed Streaming for Kafka (Amazon MSK), which is a fully managed service that makes it easy to build and run applications that use Apache Kafka to process streaming data.

Add property to standard object

I, very hackily, create an object of type stdClass as so:

$arr = array(
    'foo' => 'bar',
    'baz' => 'bat'
);

$obj = json_decode(json_encode($arr));

How can I now quickly add a third property to $obj without PHP getting angry?

Journey Through Java Execution: From Loader to Memory Model

Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes when you hit that "run" button on your Java program? The process involves a series of complex steps, from compiling and loading the code into memory to managing data in data structures like the heap and stack.

Here, we'll explore the steps of running a basic Java program, highlighting the roles of the loader, compiler, runner, and memory model. Consider a simple Java program that calculates the factorial of a number "n" using recursion.

JS Toolbox 2024: Runtime Environments and Package Management

Series Introduction

Staying ahead of the curve in JavaScript development requires embracing the ever-evolving landscape of tools and technologies. As we navigate through 2024, the landscape of JavaScript development tools will continue to transform, offering more refined, efficient, and user-friendly options.

This "JS Toolbox 2024" series is your one-stop shop for a comprehensive overview of the latest and most impactful tools in the JavaScript ecosystem.

How to Create a Video Portfolio in WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to create a video portfolio in WordPress?

Videos are an engaging medium that can display your skills and creativity in a way that static images can’t. By default, you can easily embed videos in WordPress, but you can’t display them in a portfolio-style layout.

In this article, we will show you how to easily create a video portfolio in WordPress without slowing down your website or writing code.

Create a Video Portfolio in WordPress

How to Get Started with Your Video Portfolio

First, you will need to start a WordPress blog or a website. If you already have one, then you can move to the next step.

WordPress allows you to easily embed videos in your blog posts and pages. However, it does not let you create a beautiful video portfolio out of the box.

For your portfolio, you will want to display your videos in a nice grid-based layout so that more videos can be viewed without a lot of scrolling.

You also need to make sure that the portfolio works on mobile devices and offers a good user experience. This can help improve your website rankings, as high-quality video content can lead to more organic traffic.

While you can upload a video to your WordPress site, we recommend using a third-party service like YouTube or Vimeo because videos are resource-intensive and can slow down your site.

For more details, you may want to see our article on why you should never upload videos to WordPress.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily create a video portfolio in WordPress, step by step.

Creating a Video Portfolio in WordPress With Envira Gallery

You can easily create a video portfolio in WordPress with Envira Gallery. It is the best WordPress gallery plugin on the market that comes with a video addon.

The plugin lets you create beautiful galleries and offers premade templates, watermarking, a lightbox feature, and much more.

First, you need to install and activate the Envira Gallery plugin. For detailed instructions, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: Envira Gallery also has a free plan. However, you will need a premium plan to unlock the Videos addon.

Upon activation, visit the Envira Gallery » Settings page from the WordPress dashboard to enter your license key. You can get this information from your account on the Envira Gallery website.

Add the Envira Gallery license key

Next, you must head to the Envira Gallery » Addons page and locate the ‘Videos’ addon.

Once you do that, click the ‘Install’ button next to it. After that, you need to click ‘Activate’ to start using it on your website.

Install the Videos addon

Now, it’s time for you to start creating your video portfolio. To do this, go to the Envira Gallery » Add New page from the WordPress admin sidebar.

Keep in mind that Envira Gallery allows you to create a gallery of your self-hosted videos as well as videos hosted on platforms like YouTube, Wistia, and Vimeo.

However, we recommend using third-party video hosting services to avoid performance issues or problems with your WordPress hosting.

Upon uploading your videos on YouTube or Vimeo, you can add a name for your gallery and then click the ‘Select Files from Other Sources’ button.

Click Select files from other Sources button

This will launch the media library, where you have to switch to the ‘Insert Videos’ tab.

Here, you can add your video’s title, caption, and alt text. Once you do that, just add the video URL in the ‘Video URL’ field.

If you want to upload a video from your computer, then you can click the ‘Upload Media’ button.

You can also add more videos by clicking on the ‘Add Video’ button at the top. Then, repeat the process until you have added all the videos you wanted to show in your portfolio.

Once you are done, simply click the ‘Insert into Gallery’ button.

Add video URL, title, caption, and alt text

Envira will now show the thumbnails it fetched from your videos in the ‘Currently in your Gallery’ section.

Here, you can click the pencil icon on top of each thumbnail to change the alt text and captions, video heights, widths, and more.

Edit video details by clicking the pencil icon on top of each thumbnail

Once you have done that, just switch to the ‘Configuration’ tab.

You can now choose your gallery layout, add gallery columns, enable lazy loading, change image dimensions, and add captions under the videos.

Go through the gallery configuration settings

After that, switch to the ‘Lightbox’ tab from the left column and check the ‘Enable Lightbox’ option. Your videos will now play on the same page in a lightbox popup.

For detailed instructions, you can see our tutorial on how to add a gallery in WordPress with a lightbox effect.

Enable the lightbox option for the video portfolio

Next, switch to the ‘Videos’ tab and check the box next to the ‘Display play icon over gallery image’ option. That way, users can click on the play button to start watching your videos.

After that, you can scroll down to the ‘Video Lightbox Settings’ section and enable video autoplay, display video controls, add a progress bar or current time, enable video download, and more.

Configure the video settings

You can then also configure other gallery settings according to your liking. Once you are done, click the ‘Publish’ button at the top to store your settings.

Next, open the WordPress page or post where you want to add your video portfolio. Here, click the ‘+’ add block button to open the block menu and add the Envira Gallery block.

Once you do that, select the video portfolio gallery that you just created from the dropdown menu within the block itself.

Add the Envira Gallery block for the video portfolio

Finally, click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button to store your settings.

You can now visit your WordPress site to view the video portfolio. This is what it looked like on our demo WordPress website.

Video portfolio preview

Bonus: Add Your YouTube Feed to Your WordPress Site

Apart from creating a video portfolio, you can also add your entire YouTube feed to your WordPress site to drive traffic to your channel and increase user engagement.

This can also help improve your website rankings and allow you to showcase your skills and creativity within the video feed.

You can easily add a YouTube feed in WordPress with the Smash Balloon YouTube Feed plugin. It is the best WordPress YouTube gallery plugin on the market that comes with multiple feed types, customizable layouts, social sharing, and live stream support.

Smash Balloon YouTube Feeds Pro

Upon plugin activation, all you have to do is connect your YouTube channel with WordPress.

Once you do that, your YouTube feed will be launched in the Smash Balloon builder, where you can customize the layout, add a subscribe button, change color schemes, and edit individual elements.

For detailed instructions, you can see our tutorial on how to create a video gallery in WordPress.

Smash Balloon's video style settings

Apart from YouTube, you can also use other Smash Balloon plugins to embed your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter feeds within your website.

For more information, just see our complete Smash Balloon review.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a video portfolio in WordPress. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide on how to boost WordPress speed and performance and our top picks for the best WordPress portfolio themes for your site.

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 Create a Video Portfolio in WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

9 Call Center Integrations You Can’t Afford to Overlook

Gone are the days when each piece of software existed in a vacuum. Thanks to APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), software now communicates between each other easily. However, businesses often buy software without considering what they truly need—especially when it comes to call center solutions. When you start using a call […]

The post 9 Call Center Integrations You Can’t Afford to Overlook appeared first on .

Efficient Message Distribution Using AWS SNS Fanout

In the world of cloud computing and event-driven applications, efficiency and flexibility are absolute necessities. A critical component of such an application is message distribution. A proper architecture ensures that there are no bottlenecks in the movement of messages. A smooth flow of messages in an event-driven application is the key to its performance and efficiency.

The volume of data generated and transmitted these days is growing at a rapid pace. Traditional methods often fall short in managing this kind of volume and scale, leading to bottlenecks impacting the performance of the system. Simple Notification Service (SNS), a native pub/sub messaging service from AWS can be leveraged to design a distributed messaging platform. SNS will act as the supplier of messages to various subscribers, resulting in maximizing throughput and effortless scalability.

How To Automate CI/CD Pipeline With Walrus and GitLab

Walrus file is a new feature released in Walrus 0.5. It allows you to describe applications and configure infrastructure resources using a concise YAML.

You can then execute walrus apply in the Walrus CLI or import it on the Walrus UI. This will submit the Walrus file to the Walrus server, which will deploy, configure, and manage applications and infrastructure resources. This makes it easy to reuse them across multiple environments.

The Evolution of Database Architectures: Navigating Big Data, Cloud, and AI Integration

In the ever-expanding digital landscape, where data is generated at an unprecedented rate, the architecture of databases stands as the bedrock of efficient data management. With the rise of Big Data and Cloud technologies, alongside the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the realm of database architectures has undergone a profound transformation. 

This article delves into the intricate world of database architectures, exploring their adaptation to Big Data and Cloud environments while also dissecting the evolving impact of AI on their structure and functionality. As organizations grapple with the challenges of handling vast amounts of data in real time, the significance of robust database architectures becomes increasingly apparent. From the traditional foundations of Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) to the flexible solutions offered by NoSQL databases and the scalability of cloud-based architectures, the evolution continues to meet the demands of today's data-driven landscape. 

Real-Time Communication Protocols: A Developer’s Guide With JavaScript

Real-time communication has become an essential aspect of modern applications, enabling users to interact with each other instantly. From video conferencing and online gaming to live customer support and collaborative editing, real-time communication is at the heart of today's digital experiences. In this article, we will explore popular real-time communication protocols, discuss when to use each one, and provide examples and code snippets in JavaScript to help developers make informed decisions.

WebSocket Protocol

WebSocket is a widely used protocol that enables full-duplex communication between a client and a server over a single, long-lived connection. This protocol is ideal for real-time applications that require low latency and high throughput, such as chat applications, online gaming, and financial trading platforms.

Logging and Monitoring in Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is a major cloud computing platform that provides a comprehensive set of services for developing, deploying, and managing applications and infrastructure. Effective logging and monitoring are critical for ensuring the performance, security, and cost-effectiveness of your Azure cloud services. In this post, we will look at the significance of logging and monitoring in Azure, as well as numerous alternatives and best practices for logging and monitoring, as well as popular Azure services and tools that may assist you in achieving these goals.

The Importance of Logging and Monitoring in Azure

Before diving into the technical aspects of logging and monitoring in Azure, it’s crucial to understand why these activities are vital in a cloud-based environment.

Dapr For Java Developers

In this article, learn how the Dapr project can reduce the cognitive load on Java developers and decrease application dependencies. 

Coding Java applications for the cloud requires not only a deep understanding of distributed systems, cloud best practices, and common patterns but also an understanding of the Java ecosystem to know how to combine many libraries to get things working. 

Swift Predicate: Usage, Composition, and Considerations

NSPredicate has always been a powerful tool provided by Apple, allowing developers to filter and evaluate data collections in a natural and efficient way by defining complex logical conditions. Over time, with the continuous maturation and development of the Swift language, in 2023, the Swift community undertook the task of reconstructing the Foundation framework using pure Swift language. In this significant update, a new Predicate feature based on Swift coding was introduced, marking a new stage in data processing and evaluation. This article aims to explore the usage, structure, and key considerations of Swift Predicate in practical development.

What Is a Predicate?

In modern software development, efficiently and accurately filtering and evaluating data is crucial. Predicates serve as a powerful tool, allowing developers to achieve this goal by defining logical conditions that return a Boolean value (true or false). This plays a pivotal role not only in filtering collections or finding specific elements within a collection but also serves as the foundation for data processing and business logic implementation.

Machine Learning at the Edge: Enabling AI on IoT Devices

In today's fast-paced world, the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a ubiquitous presence, connecting everyday devices and providing real-time data insights. Within the IoT ecosystem, one of the most exciting developments is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) at the edge. This article explores the challenges and solutions in implementing machine learning models on resource-constrained IoT devices, with a focus on software engineering considerations for model optimization and deployment.

Introduction

The convergence of IoT and AI has opened up a realm of possibilities, from autonomous drones to smart home devices. However, IoT devices, often located at the edge of the network, typically have limited computational resources, making the deployment of resource-intensive machine learning models a significant challenge. Nevertheless, this challenge can be overcome through efficient software engineering practices.