Locating and tracking site visitors is a hassle, but not anymore. IPStack is super handy when it comes to handling all the geo-related tracking of your audience.

Last year, Ahmad Awais built an open-source Covid19 tracking tool, corona-cli. It displays the latest stats of the disease throughout the world. If we were to take it further, we could include IP tracking to automatically show information relevant to the visitor’s country so that the users won’t need to specify their country manually. Pretty neat, right? I can think of many more use-cases like these from the top of my head. I am sure you can too. 

To implement site visitors’ tracking and identification, you need a geolocation API. IPAPI by ipstack is the one I recommend because of its extensive information without compromising performance. Not only that, I went through some user reviews, and it turns out it is pretty accurate as well.

With that said, let’s jump in and see how we can use IPAPI to get location-related information. 

Information provided by IPAPI

The data provided by the API is categorized into location, currency, timezone, connection, and security modules. For visitor tracking and identification, you only need the first three modules. These modules provide information-based features that ipstack offers. Here is a brief breakdown:

•  Location: It includes all the location parameters like region, city, etc.
•  Timezone: It gives the Time zone of the visitors and time-related metadata.
•  Currency: Information about Primary currency, code, symbol, and more. 

Enough talk. Let’s see the API in action now. 

Working with IPAPI

First, go ahead on the IPAPI or ipstack website and sign up using a free or a premium plan as per your requirement. Once you have successfully signed up, you will be redirected to the quick-start guide page. 

→ Step 1 – API Access Key

The first thing you will see is your API access key. Copy it and store it somewhere, as we will use this key to make API calls.

→  Step 2 – Requesting the API

The next step is requesting the API for IP-related information. The API provides you three lookup options:  

• Standard Lookup: Gets data for a single IP Address.
• Bulk Lookup: Gets data for multiple IP Addresses
• Requester Lookup: Gets data of the requester.  

Using any of these endpoints is pretty straightforward. You can find more about them in the documentation. For our testing, we will use the standard lookup method. The quick start guide conveniently creates the API endpoint using your IP address and your access key.

Now, you can open the API endpoint/link in a new tab to see the response. If you are using a free plan, you will get a response like this: 

{
"ip": "2400:adc7:901:c900:552c:21b1:----:----",
"type": "ipv6",
"continent_code": "AS",
"continent_name": "Asia",
"country_code": "PK",
"country_name": "Pakistan",
"region_code": null,
"region_name": null,
"city": null,
"zip": null,
"latitude": 30,
"longitude": 70,
"location": {
"geoname_id": null,
"capital": "Islamabad",
"languages": [
{
"code": "en",
"name": "English",
"native": "English"
},
{
"code": "ur",
"name": "Urdu",
"native": "اردو",
"rtl": 1
}
],
"country_flag": "http://assets.ipstack.com/flags/pk.svg",
"country_flag_emoji": "",
"country_flag_emoji_unicode": "U+1F1F5 U+1F1F0",
"calling_code": "92",
"is_eu": false
}
}

As you can see, the response in the free plan includes the location module and gives location information according to different parameters. If you are subscribed to their Basic plan or higher, the response will additionally include Currency, Timezone, and Connection modules. To give you an idea, it will look like this: 

{
    "ip": "161.185.160.93",
    "hostname": "161.185.160.93",
    "type": "ipv4",
    "continent_code": "NA",
    "continent_name": "North America",
    "country_code": "US",
    "country_name": "United States",
    "region_code": "NY",
    "region_name": "New York",
    "city": "Brooklyn",
    "zip": "11238",
    "latitude": 40.676,
    "longitude": -73.9629,
    "location": {
        "geoname_id": 5110302,
        "capital": "Washington D.C.",
        "languages": [
            {
                "code": "en",
                "name": "English",
                "native": "English"
            }
        ],
        "country_flag": "http://assets.ipapi.com/flags/us.svg",
        "country_flag_emoji": "",
        "country_flag_emoji_unicode": "U+1F1FA U+1F1F8",
        "calling_code": "1",
        "is_eu": false
    },
    "time_zone": {
        "id": "America/New_York",
        "current_time": "2018-09-24T05:07:10-04:00",
        "gmt_offset": -14400,
        "code": "EDT",
        "is_daylight_saving": true
    },
    "currency": {
        "code": "USD",
        "name": "US Dollar",
        "plural": "US dollars",
        "symbol": "$",
        "symbol_native": "$"
    },
    "connection": {
        "asn": 22252,
        "isp": "The City of New York"
    },
    "security": {
        "is_proxy": false,
        "proxy_type": null,
        "is_crawler": false,
        "crawler_name": null,
        "crawler_type": null,
        "is_tor": false,
        "threat_level": "low",
        "threat_types": null
    }
}

Step 3 – Integrate into your application

Now that we have seen what kind of information we can get, we can utilize it in our applications. IPAPI’s JSON and XML API design makes it super easy to integrate into your application.

For a fun, quick demo, I coded a simple React application. The idea is to show the user’s country flag emoji alongside their name using IPAPI. Your application might differ; therefore, this is the only piece of code you need to worry about. I am sending a GET request through Axios on the API endpoint and then used an IP address and my access key. The response is received and stored in the data variable.

// importing axios in the file
const axios = require('axios');

// function making the api call
(async () => {
    await axios
        .get('http://api.ipapi.com/YOUR_IP_ADDRESS?access_key=YOUR_API_ACCESS_KEY')
        .then(({ data }) => console.log(data))
        .catch((err) => console.log(err));
})();

 As we can see from the previous response, the country emoji resides in the location module. So, I extract the country emoji using data.location.country_flag_emoji and then pass it to my front-end code. Here is the result, with the country emoji being shown to the visitor:

Pretty cool. This was a quick tutorial on implementing visitor tracking and identification on your site using ipstack API. I leave the rest up to you and your imagination to utilize it according to your use case. 

Performance

When it comes to integrating APIs like this in your application, performance is the biggest concern. No one wants their site to hold off on content while waiting for the API to respond. I ran a few tests to check the performance of IPAPI. 

What do these numbers translate to? Close to zero impact on your page loading speed which is very impressive.

Wrapping up

With an uptime of 99.759 for the last 90 days, IPAPI is a reliable and quick way to introduce location, time zone, and currency-related features in your application. 

It has been my go-to choice for implementing features like these in my projects. So far, my experience with IPAPI has been outstanding. So, if you are looking to buy something like this, definitely give it a go. 

Have you used IPAPI or any similar service to drill user’s information? Which service did you use, and how was your experience? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

We’ve written a whole series of extensive reviews featuring IPStack and its other products. Feel free to check these out here →

The post IPStack #1 Choice for Site Visitors’ Tracking and Identification appeared first on TheDevCouple.

Nowadays, there are some big companies in the market are providing people with servers that can host any WordPress site. One of the big names is Kinsta that is famous for its blazing-fast services, incredible support team, and state-of-the-art tech. 

Kinsta offers many kinds of features to users to help them manage their websites. Most recently, they introduced a new tool, i.e., DevKinsta which is not for the users but the developers. 

I have been using this tool for some time now and I am really excited to share my experience of working with it. I will be talking about what DevKinsta is, its purpose, and how to use it. So without any further ado, let’s jump in!

DevKinsta 

Kinsta launched this tool back in January of this year. They describe it as your free local WordPress Development Suite. They are also promising that DevKinsta is not going to cost you a single penny and will be free forever.

DevKinsta provides the developers a quick way to create and set up local WordPress sites with integrated Nginx, MariaDB, and more. Everything is locally created so you can develop themes, plugins, and websites easily without giving a second thought about downtime.

Once you are done, you can directly push your site to Kinsta if you have bought any plans from them.

DevKinsta uses Docker under the hood to isolate your local development instances. So if you are on a Windows computer, make sure that you have virtualization enabled. You can do that from your system’s BIOS.

Features

DevKinsta is packed with awesome features that the developers can use right out of the box. Hence the reason why Kinsta is calling it the local WordPress development suite. Let’s take a look at some of these features.

One-click Site Creation

As discussed earlier, DevKinsta is providing the developers a quick way to set up an isolated local environment where they can develop different WordPress products. You can do all that by just clicking on the New WordPress Site option in the DevKinsta and filling in the details. You can also deploy your site to Kinsta with a single click. 

Later in this review, I am going to show you how you can create a local WordPress site with DevKinsta.

WordPress Multisite Support

The DevKinsta also provides you an option where you can enable WordPress multisite. So it means you can run multiple websites on a server with a single WordPress environment. This is a really handy feature. It makes the life of the developers easier by not making them configure the server every time they have to set up a new WordPress website.

Database Management

To manage the database, Kinsta is using a lightweight open-source software, Adminer, that provides you an interface where you can interact with your website’s database. It is similar to phpMyAdmin but has a much-reduced footprint and thus snappier to work. 

With Adminer, you can easily edit your existing database tables. You can import and export your database backup and you can also run your SQL queries. 

HTTPS Local Support

To ensure that your site is protected all the time and you can test and build your WordPress site with security in mind, the DevKinsta provides HTTPS right out of the box. You can enable this feature when you create a local WordPress development environment. Once you do this, your local site will run with HTTPS protocol instead of HTTP.

Built-in Email Testing

The DevKinsta uses MailHog under the hood to provide you a built-in email testing feature. It uses a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server and comes with an inbox where you can see and debug all the outgoing emails from your local WordPress sites. With this feature, you have a separate inbox for every site you create.

WordPress Error Logging

This is another feature of DevKinsta that comes really handy when debugging a WordPress website. It allows you to keep a debug log of your website. When troubleshooting an error, you can use these logs to figure out where exactly the bug lies. 

The default path to access these logs is <projectPath>/logs. Also, make sure you have these debug logs enabled in your site’s control panel. 

Installation

DevKinsta is easy to download and install. I am going to install it on macOS. Just follow the steps below and you are good to go:

→ Step #1

Go to the official website of DevKinsta or you can open it from here. Now click on the Download DevKinsta.

→ Step #2

It will ask you to sign up by writing your name and email address. Once you do that, click on Send Message. After a while, you will see that the downloading has begun.

→ Step #3

Now open the .dmg file to install DevKinsta. Once it is installed, open it. 

When you run it for the first time, it is going to do some configurations to set itself up. It is also going to go ahead and start installing Docker if your system has not already Docker installed. 

Once everything is done, DevKinsta will open and you will see a screen something like this:

Note: When I opened DevKinsta for the first time, I got stuck at the point where it began downloading Docker. It was giving me an error DK0003 and also provided me the link where the solution was present. And I found out that I needed to install Docker manually. So I did that and it worked! 

Creating A Local WordPress Environment

Once you have installed DevKinsta successfully on your device, you can use it to create local environments. And within these environments you can develop any WordPress related products you are interested in: 

→ Step #1

Open the DevKinsta. Once it’s opened, click on New WordPress Site. 

→ Step #2

When you click on the New WordPress Site button, you will be directed to a different screen. Here, the DevKinsta will ask you to write the name of your site, its WordPress admin username, and password. The minimum length for the password is eight so make sure you don’t go with admin as your password.

Once you write everything down, click on the Create site button. It is going to take a minute to set up everything.

→ Step #3

Once everything is done, you will see a control panel for your website. It will show multiple options. You can access the WP Admin by clicking on its button or you can see the live preview of the site by clicking on Open Site. 

Documentation

Kinsta is famous for its detailed documentation, knowledge base, and incredible support. It is no wonder they made sure that everything about DevKinsta is well documented. You can click here to check the DevKinsta documentation.

This documentation contains almost everything you may need to work with DevKinsta. It is so well detailed that they have also added the common errors that might occur at different stages of working with DevKinsta. This particularly helped me when I was installing DevKinsta for the first time.

Final Words

This new development tool that Kinsta has put on the market is going to be a real competitor for the Local by Flywheel. It is packed with all the things you may need while working on a WordPress product. It is easy to install and use, has great documentation, and most importantly it is free. 

The neat and shiny user interface of DevKinsta lets you create a new WordPress site, import an existing site, or create a custom site. So if you are looking to find an alternative for the Local, I would highly recommend you to take a look at this new amazing tool.

Are you using the DevKinsta? Or are you thinking of moving from Local to DevKinsta? I would love to hear from y’all in the comments below. 

Peace!

The post DevKinsta – One Suite For All Your WordPress Development appeared first on TheDevCouple.

There are a lot of products in the market that provides you the location data of your visitor. One of them is the ipwhois.io that not only provides you the geolocation information but also the timezone, currency information, and then some.

Today, I am also going to show you how you can use the ipwhois.io to get the information you require. Also, I am going to test its performance and discuss its features along with a couple of other things. So without any further ado, let’s jump in!

IPWhoIs.io

As I said earlier, it is a geolocation API. It provides you the location data of your website’s visitor. You can also get information about a particular IP address with this API.

When you make the API call to ipwhois.io, you have the option to get receive information in one of the three formats. These formats include JSON, XML, and Newline. You need to specify your format of choice in the API URL.

Experimenting With The API

Now I am going to show you how this API works and how you can use it to get the geolocation data. Just follow the steps below and you will be alright.

→ Step #1

We need the API first. So for that, head over to the ipwhois.io website, and then from there, the documentation page. Now scroll down and in the example section, you will see an API endpoint. Go ahead and copy it.

→ Step #2

I am going to use JavaScript specifically Node.js to make the API call. I am going to write a simple program that will hit the API and log the results on the console.

I am not going to provide the API any IP address so it can detect where I am coming from automatically. Just copy-paste the following code inside a JavaScript file and run it using node yourfile.js. I have also added the response I received in the gist below.

const axios = require('axios');

// Fetch IP Who Is data.
axios
  .get('http://ipwhois.app/json/')
  .then(({ data }) => console.log(data))


// Sample Response:
{
  "ip": "8.8.4.4",
  "success": true,
  "type": "IPv4",
  "continent": "North America",
  "continent_code": "NA",
  "country": "United States",
  "country_code": "US",
  "country_flag": "https://cdn.ipwhois.io/flags/us.svg",
  "country_capital": "Washington",
  "country_phone": "+1",
  "country_neighbours": "CA,MX,CU",
  "region": "New Jersey",
  "city": "Newark",
  "latitude": 40.735657,
  "longitude": -74.1723667,
  "asn": "AS15169",
  "org": "Google LLC",
  "isp": "Google LLC",
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "timezone_name": "Eastern Standard Time",
  "timezone_dstOffset": 0,
  "timezone_gmtOffset": -18000,
  "timezone_gmt": "GMT -5:00",
  "currency": "US Dollar",
  "currency_code": "USD",
  "currency_symbol": "$",
  "currency_rates": 1,
  "currency_plural": "US dollars",
  "completed_requests": 0
}

API Features

I get a lot of information back when I hit the API. Since I didn’t provide any IP address, all of the information is related to where I am right now. Let’s take a look at some of the information it provided us in detail:

• IP: The first thing I received was my IP address. The ipwhois.io API fetched my IP address while making the API call. P.S. I’ve changed the IP to something random.
• Success: It is the status of whether my API request is a success or not. Since I was able to hit the API, it gave me back true as its value.
• Type: The API provided me the type of my IP address that is Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4).
• Continent: It is the continent I am currently on while making the API call. Since I am in Pakistan, I got Asia in this field. If you are from Europe, you will see Europe here.
• Continent Code: Every continent is assigned a two letter unique continent code. You get the code according to the continent you are living in at the moment.
• Country: This is the country you are currently living in while making this API call. If you are living in Japan, you will see Japan here.
• Country Code: This is the two-letter country that is assigned to every country in the world.
• Country Flag: This is a URL to an SVG of your country flag. You can place it directly inside an image tag and it will render the flag on your app.
• Country Capital: This is self-explanatory. It is the capital of the country you are living in.
• Country Phone: This is the country phone code that you use while making international calls.
• Country Neighbors: This field includes all the countries surrounding the country you are living in while making the API call. The countries are not mentioned by their names but with their country code.
• Region: Now the API is narrowing down the search. In this field, you will see the country region you are in currently.

These are some of the features that this API provides.

Pricing

ipwhois.io currently provides three paid plans and one free plan. With a free plan, you get up to 10,000 requests per month.

The three paid plans are Pro, Business, and Platinum. As you upgrade your plan, you get more and more API requests per month. For instance, with the Platinum plan, you get almost 10 million requests per month.

Wrapping Up

If you are in the market for a geolocation API, I would recommend that you should give ipwhois.io a shot. You can try it for free before buying any of its plans. And try it out and see if it is what you are looking for in your product.

It provides you a detailed location data of any IP address. You can use it to get all sorts of information about your visitor including the timezone and the city they are living in.

Have you used ipwhois.io or any similar service to get the user’s geolocation data? Which service did you use and how was your experience? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

The post IPWhoIs.io Review – Get User Location Data In An Instant appeared first on TheDevCouple.

Ebad Ali: An Engineer by trade, an Automotive professional by passion, and an Entrepreneur by vision.

Having a decade of experience with Global Automotive Giants such as Toyota, KIA, and now Stellantis, I wish to revolutionize Pakistan’s automotive landscape and eventually positively impact the future of Global Mobility.

It is not an episode from the Game of Thrones, though it could very well be. KIA’s success in Pakistan can be attributed to a wide variety of reasons. Our entry to the market with the fantastic KIA Sportage was indeed a significant reason. The Sportage is KIA’s best-selling global model, and it offers a unique balance of performance, comfort, luxury, and value for the customer.

The crossover segment is now one of the largest global auto-segments, and in Pakistan, this segment was primarily untapped apart from a few imported units. We disrupted the industry by launching this fantastic product. More than a product, we sold a dream to the consumer who wanted to elevate from the sedan for the longest time but could not due to the massive jump to the SUV segment.

In addition, what is also really important is to have a high-quality product which is both durable and reliable. We invested heavily and made the best automotive plant in Pakistan. It’s located in Karachi, where we employ leading manufacturing technologies to replicate the global quality KPIs to ensure that our customers receive the same quality of care as any other region in the world.

We were the first OEM to offer four years 100,000km warranty as standard to our customers. Moreover, we have a wide and vast network of over 34 Dealers spread across the country, giving our customers a sense of comfort knowing that we are always there to support them. These are some of the key ingredients that have driven the success. Most of all, our success is through the blessings of the Almighty.

We aim to be the most LOVED automotive company in Pakistan. The only way to achieve that by being close to the heart of consumers. To do that, we will have the most fantastic product line-up with world-class specifications. We will not compromise on quality, have the best in class safety features. For example, we were the first auto company to have ABS brakes and Airbags standard across all models. It’s a unique after-sales experience, and most of all, we want to grow and evolve with our beloved customers and our country.

KIA is here to stay in Pakistan; it’s a brand that has grown phenomenally worldwide over the last decade. This is due to its exciting and contemporary design language, an array of lifestyle features, value for money, robust product portfolio, and most of all, the Quality / Durability and Reliability it offers.

We have the fastest growing and the most significant number of dealerships of any new auto company in Pakistan. In addition, we have the best automotive plant the employs the best global technologies and resources. Furthermore, we have an array of many new and exciting products that will be launched soon.

When we originally built our company, we were solely representing KIA in Pakistan. Since then, however, we have made tremendous progress. Recently our company has signed an Agreement with the Stellantis group, which is formed after the recent merger of PSA Groupe from France and FCA group from Italy/America.

Stellantis now represents one of the largest automotive companies in the world, comprising of 16 brands such as Peugeot, Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Maserati, Chrysler, Citroen, Alfa Romeo, and many other global brands. This indeed is a momentous milestone for our company, which will be the first multi-brand OEM in Pakistan and the general automotive landscape of Pakistan.

Thank you, Ebad, for sharing all these insights with us and our audience. Feel free to connect with Ebad on LinkedIn. Let us know if you’d like to know more — and the names of more excellent engineers working behind the scenes to single-handedly change the local automotive industry.

Ebad is standing beside the KIA Stinger at Pakistan Auto Show.

The post Ebad Ali – Auto Industry Expert Talks About the Success of Kia and Lucky Motor Corporation appeared first on TheDevCouple.

Our websites are carefully designed to meet our needs. And if we have a basic understanding of WordPress then we can do all of this all alone. But there is still one thing that we often neglect while making a website live and that is its Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

SEO is extremely important since it helps your website rank on the Internet. Search engines like Google, Bing, etc use SEO to see what your site is about and how well it is structured. Then they rank it accordingly. If you do not have an SEO optimized website then there is a strong possibility that no one will be able to find you using search engines.

Since WordPress is extremely popular and provides a lot of themes to its users, most people prefer using it over hiring someone for developing a website for them. WordPress uses plugins to extend its capabilities. These plugins help people achieve different functionalities without writing a piece of code. 

Some of these plugins entirely deal with SEO optimization. They make your website rank better on the Internet and thus improve your online presence. These plugins are extremely useful because many free WordPress themes are not SEO ready.

So today, we are going to discuss a plugin that is built just for your SEO needs. And it is none other than Rank Math. We are going to discuss how this plugin works, what kind of features it offers, and most importantly, how you can use it to rank your websites. So without any further ado, let’s get started!

Rank Math 

Rank Math plugin is a high-end WordPress SEO optimization software that is designed and developed by the folks at MyThemeShop. MyThemeShop is a top-level theme company that offers more than 150+ beautiful WordPress themes. MyThemeShop also has some plugins that they have developed. All of them are extremely useful and according to the market need.

Now coming back to the Rank Math, it is an SEO plugin that makes it easy for anyone to optimize their WordPress content with built-in suggestions based on widely-accepted best practices. You can easily customize all of your important SEO settings. You can also set how you want your websites to appear in search with Structured data using Rank Math.

Rank Math has over 400,000+ active installs and more than 1000 reviews of its 5-star rating.

Now let’s take a look at how you can install this plugin and get started with it.

Installation

The installation is fairly simple. Just follow the steps below if you are new to WordPress plugin installation.

→ Step #1

Log into your WordPress dashboard and then go to Plugins>Add New. Now search for Rank Math in the search bar. Now click on the Install.

→ Step #2

When the plugin is installed, you would also need to activate it. For this, click on the Activate button.

Configuration

Rank Math as you know by now is an SEO plugin and like other SEO plugins, you would need to configure it otherwise it will not work the way you want. So once you have installed it, let’s configure it to our needs.

→ Step #1

The first thing you need to do is click on the Rank Math option located at the lower-left corner of your WordPress sidebar. 

→ Step #2

Once you have followed the above step, Rank Math will ask you to connect your free Rank Math to get full access. You can skip it if you want but I prefer to connect my account to get the full experience. 

→ Step #3

Once you have connected your account, you will see that Rank Math is giving you three choices. They are Easy, Advanced, and last but not the least Custom Mode which is a pro feature and is not available yet. 

I am going with Easy settings for now. You can easily switch between settings at any time you like. In Easy settings, most of the hefty stuff is set to default according to the best industry practices and you only need to work with the basics.

→ Step #4

Now you need to set your website settings for the Rank Math. You can also skip it if you like but I will strongly suggest you see it through if you want to improve your website’s ranking.

→ Step #5

After you are done with the above steps, now you have to get the authorization code of Google Search Console for your website. It is extremely easy and you just need to click on the Get Authorization Code and then sign in to your Gmail account and you will get the code.

And that’s it. Save the settings and then click on the Return to dashboard button to get back to your WordPress dashboard.

Features

Rank Math is full of useful features that you can use to optimize your WordPress site’s SEO. These features are there to have your website rank at the top of others. Now let’s take a look at some of these features.

Google Webmaster Central Integration

Google Webmaster Search Console is a web service by Google which allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility of their website. It is extremely useful if you want your website to be found on the Internet. 

Rank Math has this tool integrated inside it. This allows you to see your site’s status, keywords which your site rank for, your sitemap status, and all the indexing issues from your dashboard. This information is extremely useful in maintaining your website performance. 

Google Crawl Error

This is an extremely useful feature. It allows you to check where Google is facing problems crawling your website. Rank Math lists all the links of your website that throws a 404 Not Found error. Getting this error is not good with your visitor’s experience. So by using this option you can fix all of these pages and make your website error 404 free.

Contextual Help

Many people do not understand properly what SEO does or what a particular feature will do in their website. This can be a set back since they want their website to appear on the top when someone searches for it or something similar. But the folks at MyThemeShop realized that and made sure that you know what a feature does in Rank Math.

For this, they added a small question mark (?) in front of each section to give you helpful and informative tooltips with each section. These tooltips describe each setting, what’s it used for, and how it should be configured.

Automated Image SEO

A great number of people do not realize the importance of image SEO. Images play a big part in ranking your website. When we import an image in our blog or on our webpage in WordPress, we often do not care about its title or alt attribute. 

Rank Math takes care of that for us. It automatically adds an alt attribute as well as a title attribute to all of our images. Thus, improving your website image SEO.

XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap helps search engines find and index content on your website. Rank Math generates search engine compatible XML sitemaps for your websites automatically. Sitemaps are fully customizable and you can set what gets added and what doesn’t.

Schema Markup

This improves your click-through rate by making your content stand out in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Schema Markup provides additional information about your website to the search engines and your users. With Rank Math, you can easily do it with just a couple of clicks. It also supports various schema types and you can also set the default category from the settings.

Article Schema

The article schema allows your content to appear as a rich card in SERP. Each of your WordPress posts appropriates metadata so that search engines can understand your posts better. Rank Math supports article type schema and you can add it with just one click. 

There are a whole lot of other useful features that Rank Math provides which I have not discussed. But once you go through this SEO plugin, you will understand every feature easily.

Wrapping Up

SEO is extremely important because, without it, our website will be extremely hard to find on the Internet. And if we want to have a site in the first place then it is because we need an online presence and want people to find us through it. 

I have used many plugins for SEO management and so far Rank Math has topped my list. It is extremely easy to configure and provides so many amazing features. You can easily install and start using it in under 5 mins. It does not waste your time by asking you to give unnecessary information. If you are looking for an SEO plugin and also want to have the best services with minimal work then you should definitely try Rank Math.

Have you used the Rank Math or any similar plugin? Which service did you use and how was your experience? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Peace!

NOTE: Our team at TheDevCouple has published a series of articles about MyThemeShop. They offer incredible products and services. Check out these reviews:

• Schema Theme Review
• Scheme Lite Theme Review
• WP Review Pro Plugin

The post Rank Math Plugin For Your SEO Needs appeared first on TheDevCouple.

Like many other open-source software, it can also easily be extended using plugins. Plugins are a major part of WordPress since they can provide a specific feature to your website without you writing any code or spending hours of your resources. There are many WordPress based companies that write plugins and then later make a version of them free so that people can use it.

But there is still one major drawback that we have not discussed yet. WordPress is extremely easy to work with and it deals with all of your website needs. Everything said the setting of WordPress for the first time can be difficult for some people. The process is not complicated but it still involves many simple steps that many of us forget.

While staying ahead of the market needs, WP Engine developed a Command Line Interface (CLI), WP Engine DevKit,  that can take care of everything. One installed and configured, it can install, build, test, and deploy WordPress sites for you on a local server with just one command. And it is also free so you can use it without spending a buck.

Today, we are going to discuss WP Engine DevKit. We will also take a dive into how to install, configure, and then use this CLI for installing WordPress. So without any further ado, let’s jump in!

WP Engine

When we talk about the Managed WordPress Hosting then WP Engine is always in the conversation. Founded by Jason Cohan back in 2010 when the concept of the Managed WordPress hosting was still new, it has grown into immense success. The company is taking care of the needs of millions of websites and employs 500+ employees.

WP Engine offers a wide variety of products. They have a top-notch hosting service that is secure, reliable, and most importantly blazing fast. They also provide WordPress’s first Digital Experience Platform to help its customers with WordPress. Their Smart Plugin Manager makes sure that your website’s plugins are up to date and thus making your site secure.

Now they have introduced a CLI that helps people to install a WordPress environment on their laptop with a single command. 

NOTE: Find some incredible reviews about WP Engine and its services here.

WP Engine DevKit

The CLI is developed by Chris Weigman and Jason Stallings to improve our WordPress experience. Currently, it is only available for Linux and macOS. The DevKit is a WordPress local development environment that includes SSH Gateway access, push and pull deployment to WP Engine, CLI commands for the Genesis framework, and also other tools.

Since it is developed by WP Engine, it has tight integration with it and if you have a premium WordPress account then it will work best for you. But it can still be used with other software like Local by Flywheel, Vagrant, XAMPP, etc. 

Similar to Docker Engine, DevKit CLI is the interface to DevKit. So when we build the GUI it will 100% complement the CLI, and the two can be used interchangeably. This will enable us to build other interfaces in the future too.

— Jason Stalling

Installation And Configurations

Now let’s see the CLI in action. For this, you need to install it first and then configure it. To do both, follow the steps below.

→ Step #1

You need the Homebrew package manager to install this CLI. To install it first from here. Once installed type the following command on your terminal to install the CLI. Also, I am using the Hyper terminal with Shades Of Purple theme.

brew install wpengine/wpe-cli/wpe-cli

The installation is a one-step process as you can see if you have Homebrew already installed beforehand. 

→ Step #2

The next step is the configurations. You need to configure your CLI to your needs. It will not bother you again every time you run the CLI. Type the following in your terminal and press Enter key.

wpe setup

It will prompt the CLI to ask you a couple of questions. Answer them one by one and you are gold!

Working

WP Engine DevKit CLI makes setting up your WordPress local development environment super easy. With just a few commands you can set up WordPress locally and whatnot. So If you have followed the above setups carefully then you have by now successfully installed and configured your DevKit CLI. 

Let’s create a new WordPress project now. 

→ Step #1

To create a new WordPress project from scratch, type the following command in your terminal, and press Enter. 

wpe project new example

This command will create a new subdirectory for the project, install WordPress, and set up a new docker based development environment.

→ Step #2

Now you need to change your current working directory to your project and then when you are inside your project, type the following command in the terminal.

wpe start

This will start your WordPress project. And you will see that WordPress is running in your browser locally. 

→ Step #3

Now let’s log into the WordPress dashboard. For that, type /wp-admin in the URL and then give your login credentials. WP Engine DevKit shows you these credentials when you create your project.

Features

WP Engine DevKit provides a lot of features to its users. If you are a WP Engine customer then you get access to all of them. You can still use it if you are not their customer but in this case, you can’t enjoy all of the DevKit features.

Now let’s discuss some of these features one by one and see what each of them does.

Container-Based Local Development Environment

When you create a local WordPress development environment with DevKit, it uses docker by default to set it up. This is extremely useful since by using docker these environments are being created in containers. Containers are isolated from one another and bundle their own software, libraries, and configuration files.

Since containers are isolated, they do not share any resource or file of any kind among them whatsoever. This comes handy when dealing with security and multiple projects at the same time. And WP Engine DevKit makes it possible for you.

SSH Gateway Access

This is a feature that you can make use of if you are a WP Engine customer. SSH stands for Secure Shell and is the authentication method two devices use to communicate with each other. On WP Engine Platform, SSH gateway access means the ability for you to connect from your local machine to a container where your site’s content is hosted. You can do all this from your terminal with the DevKit.

Push And Pull Deployments To WP Engine

You can push and pull your website on WP Engine from the command line using the DevKit. This is quite a useful feature since you can sync your local and production development environment through the DevKit. Any changes you have made in the local environment can be sent to the WP Engine easily.

Preview Your Local Site Via Ngrok

You can test your local WordPress website and all of its features using Ngrok. Ngrok provides a realtime Web user interface so that you can introspect all of your HTTP traffic running over your tunnels. DevKit allows you to do all this from the terminal.

PHP Version Selector

WordPress is built using PHP. The latest PHP version is 7.4.5 that was released in April 2020. PHP version selector allows you to change your PHP version to some other version you want.

Email Testing Client

DevKit also provides you with an email testing client feature. There can be a time that your WordPress website triggers an email. In the development environment, you need to know that emails are being appropriately triggered. Mail Hog is one of those tools that let you do this. And WP Engine DevKit comes with built-in MailHog support to capture all outgoing emails.

MySQL

You can also interact with your hosted MySQL database using DevKit. You can do that via SSH and command line using the following command.

wpe ssh mysql

This command connects you to your hosted environment via SSH and brings up a MySQL prompt in the terminal.

WP CLI

WP-CLI comes with integrated WP CLI. With WP CLI, you can perform common maintenance tasks across individual sites or all sites you manage. This saves a lot of time by reducing repetitive tasks.

Genesis Framework WP CLI

With Genesis 2.10, you get new WP CLI commands that help automate tasks such as checking for updates to the framework or completing a database update after an update has already occurred. The WP Engine DevKit allows you to access those commands in your local development environment.

xdebug

Xdebug is an extension for debugging your PHP code. This debugger allows you to step through code at breakpoints you determine to see what’s happening in your code as it processes. With the DevKit, you can start xdebug directly from your command line.

Webgrind

Webgrind is a frontend viewer for xdebug output. It allows you to get a large scale overview of application performance. Since it is included in the DevKit, no additional configurations are required. You can launch it with the following command.

wpe alpha tools webgrind

Wrapping Up

The folks at WP Engine carefully analyzed the market need and developed this WP Engine DevKit.The DevKit is extremely handy, time saver, and full of amazing features. It allows you to do many repetitive and time-consuming tasks from your terminal.

The DevKit provides many necessary features that are required in WordPress development. It allows you to focus more on your development rather than spending your time on repetitive tasks. You should definitely try it out if you want to make WordPress development smooth then it already is for you.

Have you used the WP Engine DevKit or any similar tool? Which tool did you use and how was your experience? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Peace!

The post WP Engine DevKit – Best WordPress Automation Tool appeared first on TheDevCouple.

With the Internet, different languages came along. People started using HyperText Markup Language commonly known as HTML to build websites. Then there came Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Then everything went to servers and we started building full-stack applications.

These full-stack applications had a separate client-side and entirely different backend architecture. We rented servers to host these applications and that became the common practice. Over time, many new technologies were introduced for both frontend and backend development but the core architecture stayed the same.

In 2014, Amazon launched Amazon Web Service (AWS) Lambda, a platform based on AWS’s cloud service. This platform provided the basis for serverless architecture where instead of writing a complete application, we write autonomous functions. 

Today, we are going to discuss how serverless architecture is changing the world and what are some of the services that are available to host these applications. So without any further ado, let’s jump in!

Serverless – A Modern Development Architecture

Usually, the name gives off everything but in this case, it is the opposite. Serverless architecture does not mean that there are no servers. Servers are definitely involved but you do not have to deal with them. It is the job of serverless hosting providers like NorthStack. We will get to it in a bit.

Serverless is an incredible approach. Instead of writing huge application code, you write them in small, autonomous functions. These functions are then hosted on the serverless hosting services. These services take care of everything and you do not have to manage your application server whatsoever. 

FaaS vs. PaaS

Serverless architecture is also called FaaS, i.e., Function as a Service. It is quite different from the traditional PaaS (Platform as a Service) model that we are aware of and works with while developing applications. Let’s take a look at how it is different. 

There is one major difference between PaaS and FaaS. With PaaS, your application is deployed on the server as a single unit which is the traditional way. We use some kind of web framework to make it develop these applications. When you have to scale the application, it needs to be done on the entire application level. 

With FaaS, this is not the case. We write our applications in small functions. These functions are then deployed on the FaaS provider and can be scaled automatically as function call frequency increases or decreases. This way, our whole application does not need to be deployed again. Instead, we can easily scale these autonomous functions.

Cost Efficiency With Serverless Architecture

When we develop and deploy our applications on PaaS, we often buy extra resources. It is because we do not want our application to crash in case of high surges of traffic. Through this, we end up paying more for the services we sometimes do not even use. 

Serverless has changed this entirely. With FaaS, you never pay extra. You only pay for the resources your application consumes. There is a meter running on different resources which your app is using. At the end of the month, you are charged according to these meters.

The FaaS model is a very cost-effective way of paying for computer resources. You only pay for the times that your functions get called, rather than paying to have your application always on and waiting for requests. Also, instead of paying extra every month, you only pay when your application resources are automatically scaled during high traffic surges.  

NorthStack Serverless Architecture

One of the frontrunners in serverless hosting, NorthStack is a child company of Pagely and was founded in 2018. NorthStack is a managed application hosting built on a modern AWS stack. It is a containerized hosting service that integrates serverless functions, serverless components, and AWS Aurora serverless database service. Previously, we have written an extensive review of NorthStack that you can read here.

NorthStack offers five types of serverless hosting. You can use it to host your WordPress applications. It provides unlimited scalability that allows all the resources of your WordPress site, for instance, memory, CPU, RAM to automatically scale when needed. You can also host Headless WP, static sites, Node.js, and Laravel applications.

Since NorthStack is a serverless hosting, they follow the “pay as you go” method. They monitor your serverless application resource usage and then, in the end, sends you the bill. 

Features Of NorthStack

NorthStack is full of amazing features that we can use to improve your serverless experience. Some of these features include

• Elastic Autoscaling – Scale resources according to need
• 100% AWS Stack – NorthStack uses AWS stack that is a collection of AWS resources in a single unit.
• Flexible Version Control – You can easily version control your application with NorthStack without worrying about any server issue.
• SSL/Let’s Encrypt – Free SSL certificate with Let’s Encrypt allows your site to have HTTPs protocol.
• Automated S3 Backups – With Amazon Simple Storage Solution (S3), you can backup your data on a massive scale.
• HTTP/2 – You can make use of HTTP/2 protocol 
• PHP v7.X & Node v8.X – NorthStack makes sure that you are updated with the latest technologies.
• WP CLI – You can easily integrate WP CLI with Northstack serverless hosting.

Benefits Of Serverless

Now after discussing what serverless architecture is, the comparison between FaaS and PaaS, serverless cost efficiency, and a serverless hosting vendor, let’s take a look at what kind of benefits serverless provides.

As the cost efficiency of the server is already one of the biggest benefits of using this architecture model, it is not just limited to it.

No Server Management

As I told you in the start that serverless does not mean that the sites are not going to run on any servers. But there is almost next to none of your involvement in its maintenance. Thus, the term serverless. 

These servers are maintained by serverless vendors. So with this, you can focus on your application code and expand them without being constrained by server capacity.

Inherently Scalable

In the serverless applications, we write autonomous functions instead of writing applications as a whole. We deploy these functions on the serverless hosting. These hostings then allow us to scale these individual functions without any further cost. 

You can scale these functions unlimitedly. But you will only pay for the resources these functions will use to run. The sudden increase of traffic will also scale the resources automatically so your application does not face any downtime.

Quick Deployment & Updates

With serverless infrastructure, you do not need to upload code to the server or do any kind of backend configuration in order to get a new release working. They can either upload the code all at once or individual functions separately. Because of this, you can also quickly update, patch or add a new feature in your application.

Where To Use Serverless Architecture?

Not every application right now is built for this architecture. If you have a large application in mind that will have a lot of working parts, for instance, an e-commerce site then you should for now, adopt the traditional way. 

If you have a small, light-weight application in mind that you want to easily expand or update then serverless is what you are looking for. Also, if your application sees inconsistent usage then because of the server cost management, the serverless architecture will be a better approach.

The serverless application also greatly reduces the latency time of your application because it is not hosted on some origin server. So if you want your application closer to the end-user then you should explore this way of developing applications.

Wrapping Up

Serverless is still a new architecture and needs a lot of work. Its concept is quite revolutionary. The Function as a Service model is much better than the traditional one. It is cost-effective, provides you more control over your application, allows you to work only with your code without worrying about changing server configurations for new features.

But being a new way of developing, it also comes with a lot of security concerns. If you are not dealing with the server then the vendors are managing all of it. So it can become a problem when dealing with sensitive user data. Also, since there are no particular servers assigned to a company, the vendors are running code of several customers on a single server which can be a huge security risk.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to a serverless architecture. Now it is up to you to decide what kind of way of development you want to adopt. 

Have you worked with the serverless architecture? How was your experience? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Peace!

(NOTE: Our next article is about an all-new feature of NorthStack. It’s called the NorthStack Client. To learn more about read here.)

The post NorthStack Serverless Architecture – A New Way Of Developing Applications appeared first on TheDevCouple.

But if you don’t stay on top of your updates, you can risk the security of your website. Sometimes it also happens the site crashes and costs you hours of rework due to a faulty plugin update. Thus making sure that your site is updated and at the same time not crashes due to a plugin update can be challenging. 

WP Engine realized that and developed just the thing we need. Their Smart Plugin Manager allows you to do all the things discussed above. And the good part is that you do not even need to do anything manually. Their Smart Plugin Manager takes care of everything for you.

Today, we are going to discuss this Smart Plugin Manager and take a dive into how this plugin works, how you can use it, etc. So without any further ado, let’s jump in!

WP Engine – Taking Care Of All Your Hosting Needs

WP Engine, one of the leading hosting companies in the Managed WordPress hosting ecosystem, was founded by Jason Cohan a decade ago. Since then, WP Engine has grown into a huge success and has employed more than 500+ employees. It offers a great number of services but most important of them all is its hosting.

WP Engine offers a blazing-fast hosting performance, 24/7 support, an Agency Partnership Program that provides WordPress infrastructure to more than 5000 agencies. These are just some of the many services they have. And they are WordPress experts, so they keep on introducing new WordPress related services. 

They have now introduced a plugin that can take care of all of your WordPress plugins. It is none other than WP Engine Smart Plugin Manager.

WP Engine Smart Plugin Manager

WP Engine ensures that it is the frontrunner in the WordPress ecosystem. The sites that are running WordPress can sometimes break down due to a plugin or when a plugin updates. This is a huge drawback of WordPress and if we don’t have a backup, we can lose our complete website. 

So, WP Engine realized that and developed the Smart Plugin Manager that can take care of this for you. This plugin works like a charm by not letting your site break due to a plugin. There is a lot more to it. Let’s first shed some light on what happens under the hood of this Smart Plugin Manager.

Under The Hood Working

We think that Smart Plugin Manager only updates our plugin but there is a lot that happens behind the curtains. The plugin runs on your website at a specific time daily. It checks for updates. 

If there are plugin updates available, Smart Plugin Manager does not go ahead and updates the plugin. Instead, it first creates a backup of your website. This is extremely helpful because if your website crashes after the update, it can always go back to its working state.

Once the backup is done, the Smart Plugin Manager takes a snapshot of your website. Then it updates the plugin. The next thing it does is it takes another snapshot of your website.

The second snapshot is for the comparison. The Smart Plugin Manager does a visual verification between the two snapshots. If everything seems alright then it goes ahead and lets you know that the plugin is updated. But if your website crashes, it rolls back to the latest backup and still reports you that this plugin can crash your website if updated manually.

Now let’s take a look at how you can enable the Smart Plugin Manager for your website and use it.

Enabling Smart Plugin Manager 

You need to have a website on WP Engine if you want to use the Smart Plugin Manager. Follow the steps below for enabling this WP Engine plugin on your website and you are gold.

→ Step #1

The first thing you need to do is log in to your WP Engine account. Once you have signed in, you will see a dashboard. Click on the Tools in the left sidebar.

→ Step #2

Now click on the Smart Plugin Manager. This will open a new screen for you. If you have already purchased the license, click on Select environments.

→ Step #3

When you click on the Select environment, a popup will be opened. Select the website you want the Smart Plugin Manager to turn on. 

→ Step #4

Now click on Confirm on the next screen. This screen will show you the Update schedule, Notification Emails, Auto roll-back, and Maintenance options. 

That’s it. Now the Smart Plugin Manager is running on your website. WP Engine will then show you on what Environment the plugin is running. It will also show you the type of environment it is and the name of the website. 

Smart Plugin Manager Settings

Like other WordPress plugins, it would only be fair that you also get some options to customize the Smart Plugin Manager to your need. WP Engine knows that and gives you all the options you need to use this plugin according to your likings. These options are there to make your experience even more rewarding.

You need to follow a couple of steps to open those options and there are even two ways of going to the same place, i.e., WP Engine Smart Plugin Manager Settings. I am going to show you the first way because the second way also eventually leads to it.

→ Step #1

Open your WP Engine dashboard first by logging in to your WP Engine account. Once you have signed in, you will see a dashboard. Click on the tools from the left sidebar. And then click on the Smart Plugin Manager.

→ Step #2

You will see the environment where your Smart Plugin Manager is currently active. Click on the three vertical dots on the right and then click on Edit settings.

→ Step #3

Clicking on Edit settings will open a popup for you. Change the settings you like and then click on Save. That’s it!

Options

Now let’s discuss each of the Smart Plugin Manager settings in detail.

Update Schedule

There can be a scenario when you do not want your plugins to update daily. You want them to update only on weekends so your clients do not face any kind of lag during weekdays. Also, you can also wish to check for updates in a specific timezone. 

Since Smart Plugin Manager gives you the ability to securely update your plugins, you can also customize it to your schedule. You can set it to check for updates and update the plugins only on the weekends. You can also set the timezone. Thus giving you more power over your updates.

Notification Email

You can also add more emails to your Smart Plugin Manager for notification purposes. All of your added emails will get notifications when there is a successful update of a faulty one. This can come really handy if you have multiple emails and you want to get notified in all of them.

Auto Rollback

This allows you to roll back to the previous plugin version if there is a faulty update that has made the site crash. For default, it is turned on. You can also turn it off but you should never do that to stay extra safe.

Maintenance Mode

To stay safe, Smart Plugin Manager will temporarily block your website’s traffic while updating the plugins. Your visitors will see an Undergoing Maintenance page. You can always turn it off if you do not want this to happen.

Managed Plugins

This is where all of your plugins are listed that the Smart Plugin Manager is managing for you. If you do not want a specific plugin to be handled by the Smart plugin Manager then you can just uncheck it from here and it will do the trick.

Hidden Content

The Smart Plugin Manager may consider an update to have failed if your website looks different after the update. So Hide Content option allows you to hide banners, ads, or any other content that visually changes by listing their CSS selectors. 

Sitemap Override

The Smart Plugin Manager tests 20 pages of your website when it updates the plugin. If you wish to change the pages you want to the Smart Plugin Managers to check then you can provide a custom sitemap to it. And with your sitemap, it will only check those of your website pages.

Wrapping Up

WP Engine has really outdone itself this time. They always stay ahead with the market need and develop the product that they know is the need of the hour. Their hosting is state of the art, their Agency Partnership Program is helping more than 5000 businesses and now the Smart Plugin Manager is there to take care of our plugins and our site.

This plugin is super useful for users like me who have many websites hosted on WP Engine. It has enabled me to not care about my site’s security since it is already providing me with high end hosting and now with the Smart Plugin Manager my plugins can update without me actually updating them one by one.

Have you used the WP Engine Smart Plugin Manager or any similar plugin? Which service did you use and how was your experience? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Peace!

The post WP Engine Smart Plugin Manager – One Plugin For All Your Plugin Updates appeared first on TheDevCouple.

Have you ever come across a problem where you would need to get complete information about any domain? If yes, then you are in the right place. Today, I am going to discuss a service which has made getting any domain information a piece of cake. I am going to show you how you can use it and also share my two cents with you. So without any further ado, let’s dive in.

Host.io

Host.io, a child company of IPInfo, is founded by a former Facebook engineer – Ben Dowling. He is also the force behind IPInfo which is a highly reliable, lightning-fast API service. We have written two extensive reviews on IPInfo which you can find here.

Host.io collects data on every known domain name, from every TLD, and updates the data every month. The data includes Domain Name Service (DNS) records & website data for each of the domains.

It provides two types of services. One involves browsing through the website and getting the result & the other is the blazing fast API. I am going to talk about both of these services in detail. 

Integrated Website Search

Host.io lets you see backlinks, redirects, server details, IP addresses, and hosting provider details of any domain using their website. I am going to list the steps below which you have to perform to get this data.

→ Step #1

The very first step is to open the Host.io website. There you will see a search box.

→ Step #2

You must have a domain you want to look up. In my case, I am going to search for TheDevCouple.com. Once you will hit enter, you will be directed to a different web page that will have all the information about the domain.

If you have followed these steps, you would now have the following data on your screen.

• Web: This is where you can see the top-level information about your domain. It contains your domain’s icon, URL, IP Address, ASN, Country, title, and a lot of other useful stuff. You can also see if a website is copyrighted or not right from here.
• DNS: You can view all of your website’s DNS records from here. These records are not limited to A, CNAME. They also include MX & TXT records.
• Co-Hosted: This is the area where you can see how many domains are co-hosted on your website’s IP. For me, there are 745 other domains hosted on IP 104.31.84.160.
• Backlinks: The next thing which you will see are all the Backlinks of your domain. They are the links that include a link to your domain on their homepage. You can see all the places where your website has been listed right from here.
• ♺ Redirects: Last but not the least, you will have a redirect area.  This area lists all of the domains that are redirecting to your website. 

There is one downside of using the website for getting all this information, i.e., you will not see all of the data. For instance, there were 745 other domains hosted on IP 104.31.84.160 but I could only see 48 of them.

Comprehensive Domain Data API

Other than the integrated website domain search, the main feature which places host.io above its competitors is its blazing fast API. This API can get a list of outbound links, backlinks, and other hosting details of any given domain within seconds. Since the API’s data is backed by Google Cloud, it can easily scale up to your needs. Hence making it extremely fast & reliable.

I am now going to demonstrate the usage of Host.io API using JavaScript. Just follow the steps below and you will be good to go.

→ Step #1

First of all, you need to create an account on Host.io. You can also sign in using your GitHub or Google account. Once you are done, you will be directed to a dashboard. 

Other than the welcome message, you will see your Host.io authentication token. This might be the most important thing on your dashboard. Just copy this token for now.

→ Step #2

The next step is to write a simple program to make the API call to Host.io. Below is the simple program you can use to make the call. After writing the following piece of code run the program in your terminal by writing node yourfilename.js. I have also included the response you will get in the gist below. Make sure you have added your token!

// importing axios to make HTTP requests

const axios = require('axios');

// function to get data from the Host.io API

const testing = () => {
    const response = axios
        .get('https://host.io/api/full/thedevcouple.com?token=$TOKEN')
        .then(({ data }) => console.log(data))
        .catch((err) => console.log(err));
};

// calling the function

testing();

// response

{ domain: 'thedevcouple.com',
  web:
   { domain: 'thedevcouple.com',
     url: 'https://thedevcouple.com/',
     ip: '104.31.84.160',
     date: '2020-04-25T21:34:59.749Z',
     length: 194638,
     server: 'cloudflare',
     encoding: 'utf8',
     copyright: 'Copyright ©',
     googleanalytics: 'UA-77386340',
     title: 'TheDevCouple — Ahmad Awais & Maedah Batool ',
     description:
      'Learn development from a tech couple. The perspective of a Full Stack Developer & Open Sourcerer (Ahmad Awais) & a Dev Content Strategist (Maedah Batool). Both contribute to Node.js, WordPress Core, JavaScript, Open Source and several other things.',
     email: '[email protected]',
     links:
      [ 'wptakeaway.club',
        'ahmda.ws',
        'twitter.com',
        'github.com',
        'ahmadawais.com',
        'maedahbatool.com',
        'vscode.pro' ] },
  dns:
   { domain: 'thedevcouple.com',
     a: [ '104.31.84.160', '104.31.85.160' ],
     aaaa: [ '2606:4700:3033::681f:55a0', '2606:4700:3037::681f:54a0' ],
     ns: [ 'alexis.ns.cloudflare.com.', 'rosa.ns.cloudflare.com.' ] },
  ipinfo:
   { '104.31.84.160':
      { city: 'San Francisco',
        region: 'California',
        country: 'US',
        loc: '37.7621,-122.3971',
        postal: '94107',
        timezone: 'America/Los_Angeles',
        asn: [Object] },
     '104.31.85.160':
      { city: 'San Francisco',
        region: 'California',
        country: 'US',
        loc: '37.7621,-122.3971',
        postal: '94107',
        timezone: 'America/Los_Angeles',
        asn: [Object] },
     '2606:4700:3033::681f:55a0':
      { city: 'San Francisco',
        region: 'California',
        country: 'US',
        loc: '37.7621,-122.3971',
        postal: '94107',
        timezone: 'America/Los_Angeles',
        asn: [Object] },
     '2606:4700:3037::681f:54a0':
      { city: 'San Francisco',
        region: 'California',
        country: 'US',
        loc: '37.7621,-122.3971',
        postal: '94107',
        timezone: 'America/Los_Angeles',
        asn: [Object] } },
  related:
   { ip: [ 
       { value: '104.31.84.160', count: 745 },
       { value: '104.31.85.160', count: 730 },
       { value: '2606:4700:3033::681f:55a0', count: 0 },
       { value: '2606:4700:3037::681f:54a0', count: 0 } 
     ],
     asn: [ 
        { value: 'AS13335', count: 31771172 }
     ],
     ns: [ 
        { value: 'cloudflare.com', count: 19192587 } 
     ],
     googleanalytics: [ [Object] ],
     email: [ 
        { value: 'UA-77386340', count: 1 } 
     ],
     backlinks: [ 
        { value: 'thedevcouple.com', count: 2 } 
     ],
     redirects: [ 
        { value: 'thedevcouple.com', count: 1 } 
     ]
   }

That’s all! Once you are done, you will see a response from the API. 

API Features

Using the Host.io API, you can quickly get all the information regarding a domain within seconds. Most of the response we received was the same when we used Host.io integrated website search. Though there was still some new information we got from the API.

So now let’s discuss this new information that came to light when I made the API call. There are two new objects. One is IPInfo and the other one is related. You can see them in the gist above.

• IPInfo: This particular object gets the data from the IPInfo API service. The object keys are IP addresses & its values are the information about the IP. Every IP address in this object contains IP’s geolocation information. This information is not limited to only the city, region, and country of the IP. It also contains its geographic coordinates, time zone, postal code, and ASN.
• Related: After the IPInfo object, you will have a related object. This object contains the IP addresses of your domain. They are the addresses that are used as keys in the IPInfo object. Here you can see information like ASN, NS, Google Analytics of your domain, email, backlinks & finally redirects. 

Since you are making an API call to get all this information, you can then use that anywhere in your application. Simple!

API Endpoints

Host.io provides you different API endpoints according to your need. I like this particular feature since it saves me a lot of time. I don’t have to scrape through unnecessary data. I can use different endpoints to get what I need.

You can see all of these endpoints here. I am going to discuss each of them now.

Web 

If you are only interested in getting the metadata of your domain then this endpoint is for you. It provides you all of the metadata scrapped from the domain’s homepage. The root endpoint stays the same. 

curl "https://host.io/api/web/riza.it?token=$TOKEN"

Once you will hit this endpoint, you will get a JSON based response. I have added a sample response below. You can see how it only contains the domain’s web data.

{
    "domain": "riza.it",

    # Position in host.io 10M domains ranking, https://host.io/rankings
    "rank": 335896,
    
    # URL we scraped the data from
    "url": "https://www.riza.it/",
    
    # Actual IP we scraped the data from
    "ip": "18.194.122.79",
    
    # Date we scraped the data
    "date": "2019-12-25T21:04:38.794Z",
    
    # Length of the HTML content we scraped
    "length": 144173,
    
    # Server header
    "server": "nginx/1.10.3 (Ubuntu)",
    
    # X-Powered-By header
    "powered_by": "e-one",
    
    # Encoding of the scraped data
    "encoding": "utf8",
    
    # Scraped copyright notice
    "copyright": "© 2019 Edizioni Riza S.p.a.",
    
    # Google AdSense publisher ID
    "adsense": "pub-9532382665277637",
    
    # Google analytics tracking ID
    "googleanalytics": "UA-2336519",
    
    # HTML title
    "title": "Riza - La via del benessere",
    
    # HTML meta description
    "description": "Benessere naturale, alimentazione, psicologia e medicina naturale. Riza aiuta a interpretare in chiave moderna la qualità della vita e del benessere",
    
    # Scraped email
    "email": "[email protected]",

    # Domains of links on the homepage
    "links": [
      "youtube.com",
      "iubenda.com",
      "facebook.com",
      "twitter.com"
    ]
}

DNS

The next endpoint we have is the DNS endpoint. It provides information like A, AAAA, MX, NS records of your domain. 

curl "https://host.io/api/dns/facebook.com?token=$TOKEN"

You will receive a response like this when you hit this endpoint.

{
"domain": "facebook.com",
"a": [
"157.240.3.35"
],
"aaaa": [
"2a03:2880:f101:83:face:b00c:0:25de"
],
"mx": [
"10 smtpin.vvv.facebook.com."
],
"ns": [
"a.ns.facebook.com.",
"b.ns.facebook.com."
]
}

Related

You can use this endpoint to get only the related object we discussed above. This related object contains information like your domain’s IP addresses, redirects, backlinks, and ASN. You can hit this endpoint using the following line of code.

curl "https://host.io/api/related/google.com?token=$TOKEN"

The response you will get will look something like this.

{
"ip": [
{
"value": "172.217.14.238",
"count": 293
},
{
"value": "216.58.193.68",
"count": 71
}
],
"redirects": [
{
"value": "google.com",
"count": 629989
}
],
"backlinks": [
{
"value": "google.com",
"count": 17314912
}
],
"asn": [
{
"value": "AS15169",
"count": 16219992
}
]
}

Full

I used this API endpoint above when we discussed the steps of using Host.io API. Using this, you can get all the information about your domain in one request. This information includes the domain’s web data, IPInfo, DNS, and related information.

curl "https://host.io/api/full/google.com?token=$TOKEN"

I have already added the response you will get in the gist above. Scroll up to the Step #2 of using Host.io API.

Performance

When using an API, in the end, it all comes down to the speed. Host.io prides themselves in their lightning-fast API. So, it would be only fair if I show you how fast this API actually is, and then you can decide for yourself. 

I am using Postman for testing purposes. I have run several tests using different domains and the following are stats I received. All the values are an average taken after multiple attempts.

These results are pretty impressive for an API that just saw the light of the day a year ago. Thus proving that Host.io API lives up to its claim.

Pricing

Host.io is different from other services when it comes to pricing. When you sign up, they get you started with 1000 API credits. These credits are free. 

Host.io does not offer plans to its customers. Their pricing entirely relies upon the needs of their consumers. For instance, once you have used the initial 1000 credits, you can then buy more credits. 

For $10, you can get 1000 API credits. One more thing I would like to mention is that you can only buy credits in multiples of 10. You can’t get 1300 API credits for $13. Although, you can get 2000 credits for $20.

Documentation

This is the area Host.io should improve. Compared to IPInfo, Host.io documentation is not what I expected. Since detailed documentation is essential for a product to succeed, Host.io should work in this area. 

Their documentation lacks explanation. They should add more details about the response we get once we hit their API. This will also help the users to not go to other websites to get information about the response Host.io API is providing them. Hence also improving the Host.io website’s traffic.

User Interface Inconsistencies

I found some user interface inconsistencies when I was testing Host.io. When you log in and go to the dashboard, you will see that the navigation bar is covering the body’s area. This should not happen. Host.io should fix it right away to improve their user experience since it is quite distracting.

Wrapping Up

From my experience, I can say Host.io is one of the best domain services I have tested so far. If you are building an application that relies on information about different domains then you should definitely give it a shot. It provides a blazing fast API which is backed by Google Cloud.

The only two things which bugged me were the lack of documentation and irregularities in the user interface. Once they are fixed, it will make the product complete.

Have you used Host.io or any similar service to drill user’s information? Which service did you use and how was your experience? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Peace!

The post Host.io Review – One Place for All Domain Information appeared first on TheDevCouple.

One of the prominent names in these serverless hosting vendors is NorthStack. NorthStack is a child company of a premium Managed WordPress hosting company called Pagely. The entire architecture of NorthStack was developed to make hosting your serverless application experience a breeze. 

Previously we have written an extensive review on NorthStack, about the features it provides. If you are interested in reading it then you click here.

Today, we are going to discuss NorthStack Client – a CLI to run NorthStack APIs. We will also take a look at how you can install it and then use it. So without any further ado, let’s get started.

NorthStack

NorthStack was founded by Joshua Strebel back in 2018 when the concept of Serverless hosting was still new. Northstack is a managed application hosting that is based on AWS stack. It uses a containerized environment that integrates serverless functions, serverless components, and lastly AWS Aurora database. 

Since NorthStack is one of the first serverless hostings out there, it still provides many different features to its customers. These features include a free SSL/Let’s Encrypt certificate to make your application secure, the latest versions of both PHP and Node, WP CLI to improve your WordPress development workflow, etc.

NorthStack pay as you go is one of its top-selling points. With this, you do not pay extra in order to make your site up in case of high traffic surges. NorthStack monitors your resources and only bill you for the amount your serverless application has consumed. 

NorthStack Client

This is another new feature of NorthStack that you can use when working with serverless applications with it. It is a command-line interface (CLI) that allows you to work with the NorthStack API. It’s called NorthStack Client. Once everything is set, you can easily create any number of serverless applications and deploy them on the NorthStack. 

Installing The CLI

Let’s discuss this in steps to get a clear view of how you can easily install NorthStack Client.

→ Step #1

The first thing you need to do is to clone the NorthStack Client GitHub repository. For that, you need to open up your terminal and copy-paste the following command there. I am using HyperTerminal with the Shades Of Purple theme. If you like it then you can check it out here.

git clone https://github.com/northstack/northstack-client.git

→ Step #2

Now you need to change your current working directory to northstack-client in the terminal. For this, you type the following command in the terminal.“`

cd northstack-client

→ Step #3

Following the above steps will create a local NorthStack client on your computer. Now let’s install the CLI. For this, you need to run the following command in the terminal.

./bin/install.sh

→ Step #4

Now you need to check whether NorthStack is successfully installed on your computer or not. You can easily do that. Run the following command in the terminal.

northstack

Working With The CLI

If you have properly followed the steps I shared with you above then by now you have installed the CLI. Now let’s discuss how you can work with it.

Sign Up

You need to have a NorthStack account to use the CLI. You can easily sign up on the site with the CLI. For this, type the following command in your terminal.

northstack signup

Once you have run the above command, the CLI will ask you a series of questions like your organization name, username, password, etc. You need to answer all of them. 

Once you have gone through this entire process, you would have signed up on the NorthStack. 

Login

Once you have signed up, now you need to log into the CLI to interact with NorthStack. For that run the following command on the terminal. 

northstack auth:login

After running the command, you would need to give your username and password. 

Create A Serverless Application

Now it is finally the time to create a serverless application with NorthStack Client. The steps are quite easy. What you need to do is write the northstack app:create with your application name and then the primary domain name which your application will use.

northstack app:create “PagelyExample” “pagelyexample.com”

This will create a serverless app for you. You will also get backend credentials of your application that you can use to see the WordPress dashboard.

Deploy Your Serverless Application

Once you have created your application and have added additional features, etc, you would then need it on NorthStack. Since NorthStack Client is a way for you to improve your serverless workflow with NorthStack serverless hosting, you also get the option to deploy your serverless applications.

When you create a serverless application with NorthStack Client, it also provides you three different environments, i.e., Test, Development, and Production. You can deploy any of these environments to your hosting.

To do this, enter the following in your terminal and your application will be deployed to the server in the development environment.

northstack app:deploy PagelyExample dev

Wrapping Up

NorthStack is a serverless hosting that provides so many amazing features. It can host WordPress, headless WordPress, static sites, Node.js, and Laravel applications. It uses the FaaS (Function as a Service) model and only bills you according to the resources your application consumes.

Now with NorthStack Client, they have yet again set the bar high. This CLI allows you to easily create a serverless application template from your terminal. You can also deploy it on NorthStack hosting. This can highly improve your workflow while doing serverless development. So if you are looking for a tool like this then your search is over!

Have you used the NorthStack Client or any similar tool? Which tool did you use and how was your experience? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Peace!

The post NorthStack Client – A CLI To Help You With Serverless Development appeared first on TheDevCouple.