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Software development is much like composing music. Each part of the application should be written with attention to details and meet the needs of the user. Like any instrument in an orchestra, it should flawlessly play its part to become the whole piece that will delight the listener.

This metaphor is not accidental, because we will discuss Symfony software in this article. Nowadays, 82% of all websites are created in the PHP programming language. Sites can be based on either pure PHP or one of its frameworks. It all depends on the level of sophistication of the application, the time frame of the project, team experience and many other factors.

Symfony comes third in the popularity ranking, just behind Laravel and Codelginter. This framework is widely praised in the programming environment, where experts share many positive opinions about it. Why?

Any entrepreneur who has success on his account, when asked about what is most important in running a business, will answer the same thing - a good business model. In other words, a development plan based on a specific strategy. So what is Business Model Canvas? It is a template that helps organize data that will later be used to create a business model. Why is it important to create it?

Contemporary businesses are definitely different from those we knew only a few years ago. Today you don't need a taxi fleet to provide transport services. You also don't have to open a hotel to welcome customers under your roof. Various companies use this type of innovative business models, including Uber and Airbnb, as you guessed. A similar situation occurs in the field of sales. Today, if you want to sell online, you don't even need to have your own goods in stock, all you have to do is use the dropshipping method, such as the Alibaba website.

These types of business models were created to facilitate the conduct of many activities. They provide a variety of values, hence a lot of people use their solutions. Discover 10 inspiring business models and see if one of them is right for you!

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the general order of things and has forced us to form new habits. Due to the closing of stationary stores, the burden of shopping transactions has shifted to online stores. This situation forced some changes to be made by sellers. E-commerce has quickly evolved from an alternative to coercion for many recipients. The new normality quickly took its toll and forced entrepreneurs to act. How did they deal with it?

Convincing customers into the brand and making them loyal buyers is not easy. First, you need a predictable and repeatable strategy to encourage them to buy again. And this is where loyalty programs for customers appear. If you manage your activities properly, you will not only gain dedicated customers, but also maintain a flawless image of the brand. How to do it?

What is Symfony? This is a framework developed by Sensio Labs in 2011. Based on PHP language. It has been released under a free software license. So in this case, you can modify, copy, share, and even sell it after the changes. However, what is important in Symfony is the fact that it is easy to use, installed on most platforms, and also that it uses the object-oriented programming model. However, easy operation is not the only advantage of this framework. It brings a number of other benefits. Find out what you can get by betting on Symfony!

Utility

From a business point of view, thanks to the fact that Symfony enables the rapid creation of high-quality applications, the investor saves time and money. Optimization is a tedious process that is most often revealed at the end of the project. It is difficult and it takes time to finish the project.

Symfony has a huge number of plugins, which makes application development very fast. This significantly extends the configuration options. It also means a guarantee of compliance with the highest standards and modern application construction standards. In addition, this framework works on the principle of MVC (Model-View-Controller), i.e. it allows organizing the structure of applications with graphical user interfaces.

Flexibility

What makes Symfony simplify application development so much? First of all, the possibility of expansion from ready libraries. It can be installed and configured on most available platforms in an easy and intuitive way. It is very flexible due to its independence from the given database system and due to the ability to manage sessions and validate forms.

Scaffolding

This framework also uses the scaffolding method. This means building on databases and the assumption that the developer creates a specification describing the structure in the database, and only the compiler generates code that can be read and updated in the database. This degree of automation not only removes the manual work from the programmer's arms, but also minimizes the likelihood of making a mistake.

Three ways of programming

Application development can occur in three ways. You can use Full Stack if you need to expand the application with many functionalities. Brick by brick, if the framework is created according to the functionalities needed in the project or microframework, if you need to use specific functions in the project. It does not require programming everything from the beginning, but only selecting the necessary elements.

Plugins

The Symfony package system, or bundle, is a plugin in other programs. Each of them introduces new possibilities and new options. Plugins can be used repeatedly, which means that they can be used in many different projects and shared with the needs of the community. This is another advantage and feature extending the flexible nature of this framework. Instead of a thorough rebuild, the plugin allows you to adjust the appearance of the project on an ongoing basis, without having to configure everything again.

Communities and creators

The Symfony Framework places a strong emphasis on good programming practices, and the developer's philosophy is combined with a professional approach to application development. It is to serve not only the user, but also the programmer. However, the highest goal is to create the right software and the framework developers are aiming for it. Thanks to this approach, Symfony is a willingly chosen framework.

This system is supported by SensioLabs, which consists of a large community involved in the development of the framework. They have extensive experience in the industry and in the platform itself, so using their help and their extensions is a great convenience. Especially if the developer is waiting for the first project using Symfony. It is regularly updated and updates come out frequently. Users test it and try to fix subsequent patches, thanks to which the use of their software can be handled without unnecessary surprises.

Cashing management

Symfony has good cashing management. MySQL executes every query read by the framework. They sign up so you don't have to follow these instructions again. You can also cash parts of the page. This reduces the number of queries per database. You can use this function for shopping cart or comments or login statuses.

The benefits are multiplied when describing each subsequent function of this framework. Great flexibility comes from being able to work on many different platforms, and the free software license provides unlimited expansion options. In addition, there is a large community that cares about Symfony development and designs additional add-ons, tests them and makes them available. This definitely makes it easier to build applications on this framework. Symfony does not consume large system resources or financial resources. The simplicity of construction translates into simplicity of programming, and this in turn on the speed of project progress. Symfony allows you to create complex company pages, and the applications built on it are compatible with most platforms. So, in addition to flexibility, there is also high compatibility. This framework is perfect for a wide variety of projects, and the amount of additional materials should encourage even programmers who have not dealt with it before.

Full-text search Apache Solr is currently an extremely popular technology implemented and developed by programmers. Many global giants use it - including Adobe, Apple, Disney, Netflix, and Instagram, as well as NASA and the US Department of Homeland Security services. What makes Apache Solr so popular? See how it works and how you can use the potential of this tool!

Implementation of projects based on agile methodologies consistent with the Agile manifesto is a popular practice recently. This type of solution is just Agile Scrum - the framework, which is a design skeleton, containing a set of rules and appropriate attitudes that improve the quality of work on the project and the whole team. What exactly is it and in which cases is it worth using? You will learn later in the article!

IT services are very popular on the market. Virtually no entrepreneur can run his business without using IT solutions. Creating websites, programming and building applications are services that allow you to have your own business card website, use dedicated software and offer your clients convenient applications that allow you to use the services of the company without leaving home. What role does software house play in the process of creating all these solutions, what is it and what does it specialize in? Check what this, still enigmatic, concept means!

In times of constant rush, it is extremely important to quickly find information that interests us. Regardless of the topic, everyone wants an answer at their fingertips. Search is particularly important in the online environment and in the very process of creating IT tools. Regardless of the language in which the application is created, it usually has a huge amount of saved data. You need to search them to find the right ones. Therefore, the order of the steps performed and the very structure of the record are important. ElasticSearch is a facilitation for the entire search process. Check what exactly it is and why it's good to use it!

Competitive prices don't always matter in trade. Stores can encourage customers to buy products with exceptional customer service or product quality. How does it look in e-commerce? If there is no physical service, it must be replaced by a comfortable and responsive interface, and due to the lack of tangible quality verification, a sophisticated product information system should be built.

So you should ask yourself - does my e-commerce business meet the expectations of a potential customer? If not - what can I do to keep up or outperform the competition?

The modern buyer is a demanding customer to whom the sales strategy and special offers should be adjusted. The flexible Magento platform comes with help. No matter if you run B2B or B2C business - transformation is advisable if you require a reliable and solid base for your store.

The term startup has recently been found in the dictionary of Polish entrepreneurs. It means a company created to find a specific business model. The main goal is to achieve rapid financial success and to discover the market for the development of your product. After learning these general guidelines, questions may arise. Which industry is the best to start and is the game worth the effort at all?

What is the main distinguishing feature of Magento Commerce? It is certainly a community creating a peculiar ecosystem, consisting of partners and programmers who support and constantly expand the sales platform. Thanks to this configuration of work, the tool is developed with new functions, and the originators themselves can be called the driving force of innovation, because it is often on their initiative that plans to introduce further solutions appear, significantly facilitating work in online sales.

One of the innovators can certainly include Accorin - a branch of Riddle & Bloom and Magento Business Solution Partner, which offers a full range of services with headquaters in Boston, USA. How do they work? They used their talents primarily to develop new approval options for their workflow B2B customers, while meeting the common requirements for all purchases in the B2B sector.

Although e-commerce is still not a huge part of overall retail sales, online shopping is becoming more and more popular. Both among business clients and consumers. In the current situation, when it is recommended to be at home, traders are especially trying to take care of their online sales. If you are concerned about this issue or you just want to learn how to improve your way of working in e-commerce, learn about 15 facts that influence the strategy of conducting online activities in 2020. We present interesting statistics on how and how many people and companies buy online. We also show what trends in e-commerce we can expect in the future!

E-commerce is a constantly growing sales branch. It brings better and better sales results every year. This is due to the development of technology responsible for customer service on the internet, but also thanks to the thriving and motivated entrepreneurs who care about their sites. E-commerce is still not ahead of traditional sales, but it is a big part of commerce. In 2019, holiday online sales reached $ 138 billion (Forrester, 2019 US Online Holiday Sales: Retailers, Buckle Up For A Strong Season). This number represents a 12.7% increase year-on-year. As much as 58% of network traffic in online shopping comes from mobile devices, but still only 36% of sales are finalized on phones and tablets (Adobe, 2019 Holiday Shopping Trends). As a result of the pace of changes in e-commerce, sellers do not always have the opportunity to prepare in time. For this reason, it is worth following the latest trends to keep up to date!

Amazon Business in the world of e-commerce B2B (business to business) is an absolute phenomenon. Their sales increased from $ 1 billion to $ 10 billion in just three years. Their success is so spectacular and the popularity so high that over 70% of business buyers use it to check products and prices. It is therefore understandable that a significant proportion of B2B companies are deciding to move their stores to the Amazon platform. Still, there are more and more companies that are choosing to build their own B2B platforms. The demand for this type of services is growing and market technologies are becoming more available. Why is this happening? What do tailored B2B markets offer?

Great ideas are often born during brainstorming. Similarly, with large enterprises that arise by joining forces of two or more giants. Using this type of experience, two significant IT companies have decided to follow in the footsteps of success - Magento Innovations Lab is expanding its existing partnership with Amazon Web Services. Going beyond cooperation in cloud solutions, it enlarges the ranks of developer communities. The company emphasizes the great joy of being able to invite programmers and partners to collaborate to create new Magento opportunities by combining AWS innovations with Innovation Labs proposals.

Formerly augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) were unreachable as useful technologies because they were too futuristic and underdeveloped. But this time is over. Technology has changed and now we can see how its impact shifts us towards fluid, fast, engaging and personalized experiences.

B2B sales have been growing in strength over recent years. This is an important branch of business in which the development of the company is constantly investing its resources. What does it consist of? B2B sales, or business to business, are sales between two companies. Most often it is done with the help of sales representatives who present the company's offer to the representatives of the other enterprise. In many respects, it differs from B2C (business to customer) sales, i.e. consumer sales. First of all, it seems that this is a type of sales in which purchasing decisions are much more thought-out and rational. However, is this always the case? Get to know 15 interesting facts about B2B sales that will surely surprise you!

Creating a good and useful application is in the interest of both the team of developers and stakeholders. There is no single recipe for success or golden rules to ensure positive results. However, you can certainly do everything in the power of the team to refine the design in the smallest details. You can be sure of one thing - you can never have too many tests. After all, how else does the application work properly if its functioning is not checked in real conditions?