Modern Tools for Web Developers

08/10/20 • 39 min

Plesk Official Podcast

TOOLS

Code editor: VSCode
General
- Code Sniffers to make sure your code is clean and proper.
- Github:
  - Testing tools
  - Deploying
  - Peer Review
Local Development environment:
Know and Love the Command Line:
New library: waiting at least two years before adopting.
- If you’re picking up a code library, follow the coding standards set forth by the library.

Choosing Your Learning Battles

Use as little stuff as possible.
Using purpose-built tools can improve things greatly.
How do you know what tools to get and try?
- Follow people who are smarter than you on Social
- @rzen’s list
- Codepen.io
- Css-tricks.com
- Frontendmasters.com
Books
- A Book Apart
- Clean Code
Find Brian:

TOOLS

Code editor: VSCode
General
- Code Sniffers to make sure your code is clean and proper.
- Github:
  - Testing tools
  - Deploying
  - Peer Review
Local Development environment:
Know and Love the Command Line:
New library: waiting at least two years before adopting.
- If you’re picking up a code library, follow the coding standards set forth by the library.

Choosing Your Learning Battles

Use as little stuff as possible.
Using purpose-built tools can improve things greatly.
How do you know what tools to get and try?
- Follow people who are smarter than you on Social
- @rzen’s list
- Codepen.io
- Css-tricks.com
- Frontendmasters.com
Books
- A Book Apart
- Clean Code
Find Brian:

Previous Episode

Working with Self-Hosting Email

1. What should someone consider when choosing an email hosting provider?

It's probably going to be a central part of infrastructure, so keep that in mind. You'll use it for a long time.
Features you need. Maybe you need to share your calendar, for example.
Interoperability and vendor lock-in. You can move on if you want to.

2. What are the benefits of self-hosting over using a service like Gmail?

One word: Control. You maintain control over your solution.
If you self-host, you have more control over the product.

3. As a hosting provider, what are some of the pitfalls of hosting email?

Reputation management. Other services that receive email have to fight a lot of spam.
Track the reputation of domains and IP addresses.
Properly configure domains for MX records.

4. Are there any common ways email hosting is misconfigured?

Set up SPF, DKIM, DMARK.
- SPF makes sure email is coming from a verifies recipient (DNS).
- DKIM: Domain Keys Identified Mail. Essentially a signature (Mail Server).
- DMARK: Ties SPF and DKIM together by publishing policy and protocol. (DNS Record).
What features in Plesk help with email hosting?
- SPF, DMARK, DKIM are built-in.
- Other UIs for important measures like rate and message size limits.
- Email Security extension with anti-spam.

Next Episode

The Importance of Digital Presence with Jens Meggers

1. Why is digital presence more important than ever before?

We saw industries digitize over the last 10 years. Video meetings, retail stores, digital price tags, and much more. This got accelerated with pandemic. Hyper demand, and it’s not just major companies driving digitization - bakeries, craft shops, and smaller businesses need to get online too.

Customers thought, “Get me to the results faster.” It’s not just website, it’s workflow. And during the pandemic it needed to be good, fast, and cheap.

2. Do you see a future where this goes back to how it was before? Or is this the ‘new normal’ for online behavior?

We have set the standard on digitization and business digitization, and it’s here to stay - Standing in line for hours to get groceries will be unacceptable!

But it really comes down to this: we have more advanced digital experiences

3. How has e-commerce changed since March 2020? (beginning of Covid 19 pandemic)

It’s incredible. We saw big growth rates everywhere; not just the likes of Amazon, but for someone who’s never been in a digital business making money online. A lot of people are moving to transact and make money online. It is the highest priority for a lot of people

4. How does WebPros support its customers in such times?

By supplying the technology that creates digital experiences (not just a shopping cart or web page). They're seeing more demand that ever before because they provide server automation, publish websites, and offer e-commerce, with least amount of effort possible.

Their vision is to create a digital presence for anyone. Anything you can do in physical world they want to do online, and they have the tools to do it.

4. Why is now the best time to start a business or to shift it towards online it?

"It’s always a good time to start a business if you have a good idea."

5. What is the future of e-commerce for small and medium businesses and how WebPros can support them in this relation

It's really important for these businesses - it’s how they’ll make their money. Some will transact online and exchange in real world, but many will start to do everything in the digital world.

It's a huge commodity and everything is getting easier.