Automating Efficiency: Setting Up Autoscaling in AWS RDS SQL Server Instances

Automating tasks in cloud environments like Amazon Web Services (AWS) can significantly enhance efficiency, reduce manual workload, and ensure that operations run smoothly and reliably. When it comes to AWS Relational Database Service (RDS) for SQL Server, one valuable automation task is setting up auto-calling, which can automate various database operations such as backups, maintenance, and data processing. This article will guide you through the process of setting up auto-calling in an AWS RDS SQL Server instance, highlighting key considerations and steps to ensure successful implementation.

Understanding AWS RDS and SQL Server

AWS RDS is a managed relational database service that simplifies the setup, operation, and scaling of a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost-effective resizable capacity while automating arduous admin tasks such as hardware provisioning, database setup, patching, and backups. SQL Server on AWS RDS offers the same capabilities as on-premises SQL Server but with the added benefits of the cloud.

CRUDing NoSQL Data With Quarkus, Part One: MongoDB

MongoDB is one of the most reliable and robust document-oriented NoSQL databases. It allows developers to provide feature-rich applications and services with various modern built-in functionalities, like machine learning, streaming, full-text search, etc. While not a classical relational database, MongoDB is nevertheless used by a wide range of different business sectors and its use cases cover all kinds of architecture scenarios and data types.

Document-oriented databases are inherently different from traditional relational ones where data are stored in tables and a single entity might be spread across several such tables. In contrast, document databases store data in separate unrelated collections, which eliminates the intrinsic heaviness of the relational model. However, given that the real world's domain models are never so simplistic to consist of unrelated separate entities, document databases (including MongoDB) provide several ways to define multi-collection connections similar to the classical databases relationships, but much lighter, more economical, and more efficient.

How to Add a Customer Reviews Page in WordPress

Do you want to add a customer reviews page in WordPress?

Many businesses add a review page on their website to showcase testimonials from their satisfied customers. This builds trust among potential buyers by proving that your product or service is of good quality.

In this article, we will show you how to easily add a customer reviews page in WordPress.

Add a customer reviews page in WordPress

Why Add a Customer Reviews Page in WordPress?

If you are running an online store or a business website, then you probably already have customers who are happy with your products and services.

Showing social proof like customer reviews and testimonials helps you gain the trust of new customers. This can lead to increased sales by convincing potential buyers to make a purchase.

Preview for testimonials

Plus, testimonials can also improve your search engine rankings by bringing fresh and unique content to your WordPress website.

Reviews can also increase engagement and create a sense of community, building brand loyalty among users.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to add customer review pages in WordPress. You can use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use:

Method 1: Add Customer Reviews Using Reviews Feed Pro

The easiest way to add customer reviews to your WordPress website is by using the Smash Balloons Reviews Feed Pro plugin.

It is the best WordPress customer reviews plugin on the market that allows you to add reviews from the biggest platforms on the internet, including Google, Yelp, and Facebook.

It also automatically copies your website design so that the reviews suit your WordPress theme and look like a natural part of your blog.

First, you need to install and activate the Reviews Feed Pro plugin. For more details, you may want to see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: Reviews Feed also has a free version that you can use to integrate with Google or Yelp. However, we will be using the Pro version in our tutorial as it has more features and integrations.

Upon activation, head over to the Reviews Feed menu tab from the WordPress admin sidebar.

Once there, simply copy and paste your license key into the field and click the ‘Activate’ button.

You can get your license key from your account page on the Smash Balloon website.

Activate the license key for the Reviews Feed plugin

Once you have done that, the ‘Create a Review Feed’ page will open up on your screen.

From here, just click the ‘+ Add Source’ button to add a source for your customer reviews.

Click the + Add Source button

This will open up the ‘Add Sources’ prompt on the screen, where you can select the source for your reviews. For this tutorial, we will be using Google as the source.

After making your choice, click the ‘Next’ button to move forward.

Choose Google as customer review source

You will now be directed to the next step.

Here, you need to add an API key for Google reviews so that the Reviews Feed plugin can fetch data from your account and display it on your WordPress website.

Google API key

Create a Google API Key

To get an API key for Google reviews, visit Google Console and sign in using your Google account.

Once you are on the ‘Google Cloud’ page, click the ‘Create Project’ button.

Click the Create Project button

This will take you to the ‘New Project’ page, where you can start by typing in a name. For instance, we will be naming our project’ Customer Reviews Plugin API’.

After that, choose an Organization and Location for the project from the dropdown menus and click the ‘Create’ button.

Create project

Once you have created the project, you will be redirected to the ‘APIs & Services’ page.

From here, first, make sure that the project you have created is the one that is selected in the dropdown menu at the top.

After that, click the ‘+ Enable APIs & Services’ button.

Click the + Enable API s and Services option

You will now be taken to the API library.

Here, click on the ‘Places API’ option in the right corner of the screen.

Choose Places API option in the API library

This will take you to a new page where you can activate the key for making Places API requests.

To do this, simply click the ‘Enable’ button.

Enable places API

Now, head back to the ‘APIs & Services’ page and switch to the ‘Credentials’ tab in the left sidebar.

Once you are there, just click the ‘+ Create Credentials’ button to open up a dropdown menu and select the ‘API Key’ option.

Choose API key option from the dropdown menu

After your API key is created, a new prompt will open up on the screen.

From here, simply copy your key and head back to the WordPress admin dashboard.

Copy the API key

Once you are there, open up the ‘Add Sources’ prompt once again.

After that, paste your Google Reviews API key into the field and click the ‘Next’ button to continue.

Paste API

Now, you will need to enter the Place ID of the cafe, restaurant, or other physical business that you want to use in your feed.

To do this, visit Google’s Place ID page and scroll down to the ‘Find the ID of a particular place’ section.

How to find the place ID for a business or location

From here, enter the address or name of the venue that you are locating and click on the right one when it appears.

Google will now show the Place ID in a small popup. Simply go ahead and copy the ID.

Copy place ID

Now, head over to the WordPress dashboard and paste the Place ID into the box.

After that, click the ‘Finish’ button to complete the setup.

Paste place ID

You have now successfully integrated Google Reviews with Smash Balloon Reviews Feed Pro.

Customize the Reviews Feed

The Google Reviews feed will now be displayed in the ‘Add Sources’ section.

From here, simply choose the feed and click the ‘Next’ button at the top.

Choose the feed and click Next

You will now be taken to the ‘Select a Template’ page.

Here, select a template for the reviews feed according to your liking.

Choosing a template for reviews feed

Once you have done that, the feed editor will automatically open up on your screen.

It will show a live preview of your feed on the right and a sidebar with different settings on the left.

Google Review feed editor

From here, you can customize the layout, header, colors, and more of your reviews feed. For more details, you may want to see our tutorial on how to show Google, Facebook, and Yelp reviews in WordPress.

After you have finished customizing the feed, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top right corner to store your settings.

Embed the Customer Reviews Feed on a WordPress Page

To embed the reviews feed in a WordPress page, click on the ‘Embed’ button at the top right corner.

This will open up the ‘Embed Feed’ prompt on the screen. From here, simply click on the ‘Add to a Page’ button.

Click Add to a page button

The plugin will now display all the pages on your WordPress website.

You have to click on the page where you want to add the reviews feed and click the ‘Add’ button.

Click the Add button

The page you chose will now open up in the block editor.

Here, click the ‘Add Block’ (+) button at the top left corner of the screen and find the ‘Reviews Feed’ block.

Upon adding the block, the reviews feed will automatically be added to the WordPress page.

Add Reviews Feed block into the page

Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.

Now, you can visit your WordPress blog to check out the reviews feed in action.

Reviews feed preview

Method 2: Create a Customer Reviews Page Using SeedProd

If you want to add customer reviews to your website manually, then this method is for you.

SeedProd is the best WordPress page builder plugin on the market that allows you to create aesthetically pleasing themes and pages without using any code.

It even comes with a Testimonials block that can manually add customer reviews and testimonials to your landing pages.

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

Note: SeedProd also has a free version that you can try. However, we will be using the premium version in our tutorial as it has more features.

Upon activation, head over to the SeedProd » Settings page to enter the plugin license key.

You can find this information in your account on the SeedProd website.

Paste license key

Next, go to the SeedProd » Landing Pages section from the admin dashboard and click on the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button.

For this tutorial, we will be adding customer reviews to a landing page.

Click the Add New Landing Page button

This will direct you to the ‘Choose a New Page Template’ screen.

SeedProd offers many pre-made layouts that you can use for your landing pages. Simply choose one and click on it.

You will then be asked to enter a page name and choose a URL. After entering this information, click on the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button to continue.

Enter your page details

This will launch SeedProd’s drag-and-drop page builder, where you can now start editing your page. For detailed instructions, please see our tutorial on how to create a landing page in WordPress.

Once here, you need to look for the Testimonials block in the block panel on the left side of the screen. Upon finding the block, simply drag and drop it to your preferred location on the landing page.

Add the testimonials block

Now that the ‘Testimonials’ block has been added, just click on it to open up its settings in the left sidebar.

After that, click on the demo testimonial to open its settings in the sidebar.

Next, you can add the text, image, name, and title for the customer review.

Add text an image for customer reviews

Once you have done that, scroll down to the ‘Carousel Settings’ section in the left column.

From here, you can choose the testimonial color mode, autoplay speed, the number of testimonials shown in a row, and more.

You can even change the color of the speech bubble by clicking on the ‘Bubble Color’ option to open up a color picker.

Configure the Carousel settings

Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your settings.

Finally, click the ‘Publish’ button to publish the landing page on your website.

Save the landing page

This is how the customer reviews looked on our demo reviews page.

As you can see, we have different colors for our customer reviews.

Preview for testimonials

Bonus: Add Social Proof in Real-Time to Increase Conversions

Another way to encourage users to buy your products or services is by adding real-time social proof to your WordPress website.

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where users have a natural urge to copy other people’s actions.

This means that you can show a notification bubble with recent purchases and form submissions by other users on your website in order to encourage potential customers to take action.

You can easily do this using TrustPulse. It is the best WordPress social proof plugin on the market that allows you to display real-time user activity notifications on your website, such as products being purchased or form submissions.

Is TrustPulse the best social proof plugin for WordPress?

The plugin also comes with features like real-time event tracking, smart targeting, flexible design options, actionable analytics, and more. For more information, you can see our complete TrustPulse review.

With this plugin, you can use FOMO to create anticipation and excitement around your products or store, which can ultimately lead to increased conversions.

For detailed instructions, you can see our tutorial on how to use FOMO on your WordPress site to increase conversions.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add a customer review page in WordPress. You may also want to see our tutorial on how to embed a YouTube live stream in WordPress and our top picks for the best social media plugins to grow your 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 Add a Customer Reviews Page in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How To Handle Optional Values in SwiftData Predicates

SwiftData has revamped the mechanism for creating data models, incorporating a type-safe mode for predicate creation based on model code. As a result, developers encounter numerous operations involving optional values when constructing predicates for SwiftData. This article will explore some techniques and considerations for handling optional values while building predicates.

From "Inside-Out" to "Outside-In" Transformation

Among the many innovations in SwiftData, the most striking is allowing developers to declare data models directly through code. In Core Data, developers must first create a data model in Xcode's model editor (corresponding to NSManagedObjectModel) before writing or auto-generating NSManagedObject subclass code.

Secure Your API With These 16 Practices With Apache APISIX (Part 1)

A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon this list of 16 practices to secure your API:

  1. Authentication: Verifies the identity of users accessing APIs.
  2. Authorization: Determines permissions of authenticated users.
  3. Data redaction: Obscures sensitive data for protection.
  4. Encryption: Encodes data so only authorized parties can decode it.
  5. Error handling: Manages responses when things go wrong, avoiding revealing sensitive info.
  6. Input validation and data sanitization: Checks input data and removes harmful parts.
  7. Intrusion detection systems: Monitor networks for suspicious activities.
  8. IP Whitelisting: Permits API access only from trusted IP addresses.
  9. Logging and monitoring: Keeps detailed logs and regularly monitors APIs.
  10. Rate limiting: Limits user requests to prevent overload.
  11. Secure dependencies: Ensures third-party code is free from vulnerabilities.
  12. Security headers: Enhances site security against types of attacks like XSS.
  13. Token expiry: Regularly expiring and renewing tokens prevents unauthorized access.
  14. Use of security standards and frameworks: Guides your API security strategy.
  15. Web application firewall: Protects your site from HTTP-specific attacks.
  16. API versioning: Maintains different versions of your API for seamless updates.

While it's debatable whether some points relate to security, e.g., versioning, the list is a good starting point anyway. In this two-post series, I'd like to describe how we can implement each point with Apache APISIX (or not).

How To Split Exchange Server DAG

Database Availability Group (DAG) setup in Exchange Server provides full protection and recovery in case of database, network, or server failure. In a DAG, you can have up to 16 mailbox servers hosting a set of databases. This helps provide automatic, database-level recovery in case something happens. 

Sometimes, situations arise when you need to split the Database Availability Group (DAG) and move the mailboxes from one availability group to another. Some common situations are:

Enabling Compliance and Security in AI-Driven, Low-Code/No-Code Development

AI is rapidly changing the way that people develop and build their own apps, automation, and copilots, helping enterprises improve efficiency and outputs without further straining IT and the help desk. While this is leveling the playing field for software development, it also brings increased cybersecurity risks.

For security leaders, it’s important to understand this new wave of business application and AI development and the subsequent risks – and to have a game plan for how to address them. The good news is that you don’t have to choose between AI-driven development and security/compliance. 

Building a Multi-Modal Image Search Application With MyScale

In the world of machine learning, there used to be a limit on models — they could only handle one type of data at a time. However, the ultimate aspiration of machine learning is to rival the cognitive prowess of the human mind, which effortlessly comprehends various data modalities simultaneously. Recent breakthroughs, exemplified by models like GPT-4V, have now demonstrated the remarkable ability to concurrently handle multiple data modalities. This opens up exciting possibilities for developers to craft AI applications capable of seamlessly managing diverse types of data, which are known as multi-modal applications.

One compelling use case that has gained immense popularity is multi-modal image search. It lets users find similar images by analyzing features or visual content. Thanks to the rapid advancements in computer vision and deep learning, image search has become incredibly powerful.

The Use of Machine Learning in Cybersecurity: Threat Detection and Prevention

With a rapidly increasing reliance on online networks, cloud computing, and online data storage, companies must strengthen their cybersecurity procedures. As the cyber terrain grows, so does the onslaught of cyber threats that put companies at risk of data breaches, loss of sensitive data, and other ever-evolving cyber threats. Organizations must change their security posture, expand beyond perimeter-based security techniques, and adopt new machine-learning cybersecurity techniques that enhance network security. 

A subset of artificial intelligence, machine learning uses algorithms from previous datasets and statistical analysis to make assumptions about a computer’s behavior. The computer can then adjust its actions, even performing functions it wasn’t programmed to do. These abilities have made machine learning a crucial cybersecurity asset.

Tips To Help GitHub Admins Prepare A Company For SOC 2 And ISO 27001 Audits

Who doesn’t want to be treated as a safe, trustworthy, and reliable business? It’s hard to find anybody in the IT or cybersecurity area who would say that they don’t. That is the reason why everybody who works with data wants to obtain SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 compliance. 

SOC 2 Compliance: Whats and Whys

When a company is SOC 2 compliant, it guarantees that it maintains a high level of information security and meets all the necessary criteria the Audit demands, such as Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. 

Why Agile Engineering Practices in Software Development Are Essential to Achieve Agility

In the Oxford Dictionary, the word agility is defined as "the ability to move quickly and easily." It is, therefore, understandable that many people relate agility to speed. Which I think is unfortunate. I much prefer the description from Sheppard and Young, two academics in the field of sports science, who proposed a new definition of agility within the sports science community as "a rapid whole-body movement with a change of velocity or direction in response to a stimulus" [1]. 

The term “agility” is often used to describe “a change of direction of speed.” However, there is a distinct difference between “agility” and “a change of direction of speed.” Agility involves the ability to react in unpredictable environments. Change of direction of speed, on the other hand, focuses purely on maintaining speed as the direction of travel is changed. Maintaining a speed while changing direction is usually only possible when each change of direction of travel is known in advance. 

Exploring the Nexus Between DevSecOps and Cybersecurity

DevSecOps, short for Development, Security, and Operations, is an approach to software development that integrates security practices into the DevOps (Development and Operations) process. The main goal of DevSecOps is to ensure that security is an integral part of the software development lifecycle rather than being treated as a separate phase.

The DevSecOps approach not only reshapes the development lifecycle but also plays a pivotal role in fortifying organizations against the challenges posed by cyber threats. In this blog, we’ll delve into the symbiotic relationship between DevSecOps and cybersecurity. 

End-To-End Test Automation for Boosting Software Effectiveness

In the current fast-paced digital environment, organizations deliver more and more complicated software solutions. These have multiple interconnected modules responsible for diverse business processes, third-party services, or databases that must be updated regularly. Failures in their cohesive operation can result in massive problems — from slow loading speed and freeze to complete system outages and data breaches.  

Any of these will negatively affect end-user satisfaction, user retention rates, and profit. Financial losses caused by system outages in the USA quite often reach $100,000, as reported by the Uptime Institute. Just remember the case of a major social network that lost more than $60 million in advertising revenue after a six-hour outage.  

Top NodeJS Frameworks for 2024

NodeJS is a leading software development technology with a wide range of frameworks. These frameworks come with features, templates, and libraries that help developers overcome setbacks and build applications faster with fewer resources. This article takes an in-depth look at NodeJS frameworks in 2024. Read on to discover what they are, their features, and their application. 

What Is NodeJS?

NodeJS is an open-source server environment that runs on various platforms, including Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and more. It is free, written in JS, and built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine