Laravel

Laravel can be a great framework for making things happen. At Coretechs, we have a deep bench in PHP. A lot of the people on the team have worked in it—in whole or in part—for their entire careers. Laravel has a full, mature, open-source content-management system, and can be used as a standalone framework or for integrating with Javascript on the frontend (whether Vue, React, Angular, or other frontend frameworks).

Coretechs writes new Laravel applications from scratch and also takes on many projects in Laravel which other teams originally developed. Given our experience, we like to advise clients about Laravel in a balanced way.

Reasons for Choosing Laravel

Laravel is a framework for building complex web applications with database integrations, APIs, and complex business logic in PHP. If the client or team is choosing to work in PHP and the project calls for a complex backend, Laravel can be the way to go.

• Security: Laravel releases new security patches on a regular basis to address common security issues. It is a dependable framework with a long-term track record, supported by an open source ecosystem and the support of legacy business and enterprise clients.
• Versatility: Laravel can be used to create almost anything, from content management tools and social networking platforms, to e-commerce sites. We often use it at Coretechs for building websites for eCommerce, health care, financial applications, and more.
• Approachable Syntax: PHP syntax is relatively easy to learn for developers, many of whom cut their teeth on much harder languages such as C/C++ or Java. Even for newer developers, Laravel has great tools and documentation for solving problems and getting things done.
• Active Development Community: Laravel has a large, active community. There are lots of great resources and tutorials available in it that make learning and developing with Laravel a good experience. Lots of major companies also build apps in Laravel , and that tends to drive long-term development and support of the core framework.

Developers’ Take

Caveat Emptor: Buyer Beware

There are many reasons to choose Laravel as a framework, but we always try to give a balanced view. While Laravel has great libraries and support, it also has a very short release schedule. That means that there will be a fast pace for patching, or that a Laravel app can become unsupported very quickly if unmanaged. Also, while there are available admin panels for Laravel , it does not have one by default the way Python’s Django framework does. So here are some things to consider for anyone planning to spin up a new app in Laravel, or considering switching from a legacy Laravel application to a different framework.

• Short Release Schedule: Laravel does a new major version every two years, and offers only 18 months of bug fix support and two years of security support. That means two years after a major release, software written in Laravel is unsupported. This means owners of Laravel apps need to plan for a very regular schedule for patching and maintenance or deal with decreased security and compatibility as their app becomes unsupported.
• No Default Admin Panel: An admin panel is a handy way for clients, project managers, and non-developers to manage data and make new entries. It is often a great way to interact with an app’s data without having to get into the database or into the code. While there is an admin panel built and maintained by Laravel , it is not free or standard.
• Unmaintained Third Party Libraries: Third party libraries may have dependencies that go unsupported. When this happens, the process is opaque and they may fall out of support without sufficient warning, leaving a team scrambling to fix errors.
• Patching: Coretechs focuses heavily on keeping up with the latest patching schedule, but with Laravel expect to allocate more time to maintenace. It can be unclear whether Laravel updates are critical for security when compared with other frameworks such as .NET or Django.

Developers’ Take:

Why We Love Our Developers

Here at Coretechs, we are a tight-knit team that works together to bring your project to life. We would not be able to do what we do without our amazing developers. Here are some reasons why we love them and could not do what we do without them.

Our developers are the best and here’s why!

While we tend to say that we’ve been around for over 35 years and that is primarily due to our clients, we would be nothing if not for the developers who work around the clock to keep your software systems up and running. They can juggle multiple projects with ease, delve into issues head first, and give us and you ideas about how we can constantly improve your system.

They are willing to learn new technologies and strategies.

Many industries are the type where specialized training or study is required before the job is performed. Here we are always doing a little bit of “on the job training” when we ask our developers to learn a new technology or language. At this point, it becomes more like an art than a science. Our developers are commonly implementing new third-party features that require some research and understanding to do work. This is a skill that we ask of all our developers, and they rise to the challenge. 

They are problem-solvers and have a can-do attitude.

Every single one of our developers is solving problems in their work. We are not just blindly coding something with copy/paste. These developers are thinking through logic and issues and providing real-life solutions that are used by our customers every day.

If we do not understand the problem, we go back for further investigation to find a better solution. If that solution is a temporary “band-aid,” we are coming up with a backup plan that can be implemented long term. The point here is that our developers are creative problem solvers, and we love them for that!

They are willing and able to adapt. 

All of our clients have different setups. Understanding how someone else designed and implemented a setup can be a big ask. But our developers do it with a “can-do attitude.” 

Not only do the developers learn the various setups, but they are flexible to jump from system to system within a short time to put out any fires. If we have an urgent issue, our developers can quickly put down what they are working on to pitch in and help with whatever the problem is. 

They genuinely care about their projects and our client’s success.

Our developers have direct access to speak with the clients. We do this because we want you to know the developer working on your project, and we want them to know you. The developers care about helping our clients grow their business and provide solutions for them that will work and contribute to their success. If our developers can listen to you, talk about your business, and what is needed, they can put themselves directly in your shoes when they are creating it and therefore provide you what you want. They want to know your business better. 

They are dedicated to the team environment. 

Our developers do have individually assigned projects and smaller tasks; however, there are many times one cannot get back to a project for a conflict. That is when the teamwork kicks in, and our developers step up to the plate to pitch in. That sometimes looks like passing on the torch to finish out a project or just stepping in for a day. It also means teaming up to bounce ideas off one another. We form many different team combinations throughout the day at Coretechs, and dedication to working together is a key ingredient to our success for you.

“Our development team is one of the first groups of co-workers I talk to outside of work hours. They are friendly, knowledgeable, personable, and bring their own ideas to projects, more than just building what is written on a project plan in front of them.”

Jon A., Project Manager

Custom Software Development

What’s special about custom software?

Custom software development is the creation of software built precisely for your company and personalized to meet the specific demands of your business. It can grow with your business and sometimes even power that growth.

Eventually, you’d likely see more customer engagement, enhancement of your processes, and opportunities to better understand your full potential. We make custom websites and apps to adapt to and meet the needs of your business. Conversely, “off the shelf” software requires your company to adapt to its abilities.

Some advantages of custom software:

• You only pay for the functionalities and capabilities your business actually needs and will actively use. Packaged software tends to have a lot of features that are unnecessary and are rarely or never used. 
• Custom software helps automate a lot of your business processes by reducing tedious tasks for your employees. In the long run, this lowers the risk of human error and allows them more time for projects with higher meaning or importance.
• During the process of building custom software, you may discover opportunities to optimize your operations. Finding these possibilities will ultimately lead to higher productivity for your company.
• Packaged software is readily available, but it cannot be tailored to meet your business’s distinct needs. Custom software fills in the gaps to suit your needs that packaged software can’t. You can have many different unique features and integrations made for your business and its processes.

Some things to consider:

• Building custom software from the ground up can be a lengthy process and takes more time than buying something pre-built and packaged.
• Custom software is an investment and generally costs more initially than “off the shelf” software. However, the return on investment is higher than that of packaged software. Custom software typically has a higher ROI because we tailor it to meet your specific business goals.

Our Custom Software Development Process

As a custom software company, our number one goal is to create unique and effective software solutions for our clients and deliver them on time and within budget.

Our proven approach:

• We put a dedicated project manager on every client’s project. This way, there’s a single point of contact throughout the development process.
• Our project managers and developers will listen to what’s needed and make it happen. They’ll keep you updated during the entire process, from the first contact to production.
• Our team will even let you know when there may be an alternative approach that can create even better results. We always make any web application’s longevity, scalability, and security a priority and inform you of changes we think will improve your software’s performance.
• Our rapid prototyping process lets you see your project as it grows from concept to reality. We’ll also keep you in the loop at all times, and we take every concern or request into account.
• Finally, after the development process is complete, we offer monthly maintenance and security checks. We make a point of only charging for the time we work on these checks and do not implement a monthly maintenance fee.

Many of our clients have been working with us for 10 or 20 years to refine their custom software needs as their businesses develop and grow. If we can help you create your vision or update your current software, contact us today!

Photo by Christin Hume

Common Custom Software Errors

Creating custom software is a natural problem-solving process. At Coretechs we create tools that solve the unique problems of each business we help, but the problem-solving doesn’t stop there. 

Custom code can often come with errors. We find bugs all the time as we develop new features, run through testing scenarios, and even as we review legacy code we’ve inherited from other teams. 

Recognizing errors and bugs isn’t the hard part; fixing them is where we spend most of our time. Although clients rarely see the majority of errors we address, we believe that’s how it should be. We thoroughly inspect code and test the user experience before your technology is live to avoid production errors and deliver an easy launch process.

Version Conflicts

The first type of error we commonly see comes from version conflict. In a version conflict, an updated library or framework might be built on a newer version of the code base, and therefore will not work with older versions of the code. 

To prepare for this, we use analyzers to help us determine what parts of the code might need to be addressed. These handy tools help our developers anticipate where they will spend the majority of their time in an upgrade. After a developer updates a system, our team of testers will use the system and document any issues. Sometimes, the errors will be specific enough to pinpoint which line of code is no longer working, but other times a dev will need to dig in to find the culprit. 

Here is an example of what our developers see when a function has been deprecated. In this example, the code before the update worked but as a consequence of the framework being updated to the new version, the function no longer performs the intended task. The developer will need to update the function to work with the new parameters set forth by the update.

API Errors

An API is a digital method of transporting information from one place to another. Like a street, an API might be a one way or two ways, transferring data back and forth between a browser and a server. The API could be a custom feature or it could be a third-party service which already exists, like Sendgrid. 

Many of the API integrations we implement are between a client’s products and a third-party service. The third-party will provide the API and we will integrate it’s features into the client product. 
One of the more common errors we see when working on this type of project is a 401 unauthorized error which means that a permission is missing. Third-party services typically require validation to know who is using their API, how often it is used, and if it is within licensing rights.

HTTP / Server Errors

Another common error is the server error.  There are a handful of different server errors and they all have their own status code. You might even see these when you try to access a popular website – usually they are something like 404, 504, 500, etc. These errors can occur on any website. They are not caused by version conflicts or API issues. 

Server errors usually occur when something “unexpected” happens. For example, if a user uploads an unusually large file or enters an unsupported character in a numbers-only field, you might get a server error.

The software functions execute a process or information intake, but does not understand and cannot process the unexpected information. So, the function runs continuously over and over until the server stops the process and disallows it to continue. The function will need to be updated to handle the input variations or the server time will need to be extended to solve for this issue.

Custom-built never means perfect and it never means error free, but our goal is to take care of them before they reach your hands. If you have errors on your website or you’re considering a change to your custom software, or if you’re just thinking about your options, we recommend adding extra cushion to your timeline and budget for error-correction and long-term support. Contact us if we can support you today!

Confessions of a Coretechs Developer

Our developers build your software and create tailored solutions to solve your toughest problems. Today we’re highlighting things they want to tell you but can’t – these are their confessions.

Picking an arbitrary deadline before consulting a developer sets unrealistic expectations.

When we start a new project, we have several standard questions like: 

• What do you already have? 
• Which code languages are being used?
• Do you have an urgent deadline? 

When we ask about your deadline, we’re asking so we can allocate resources and set expectations for milestones. But when a client sets a random deadline, it can take a project from fun to failure in a second. 

Many times, project managers and clients ask for features or products as fast as they can get it and that sets an unrealistic time frame that results in rushing a project and possibly delivering buggy code. When we have time to plan and think through a project, we’re able to come up with scalable and sustainable solutions that keep your business ahead of the curve. Sure, it might take longer for the project to go live, but it also allows us to have more conversations with the rest of the team and client to make sure we’re going in the right direction. If you don’t have an urgent deadline, let your team recommend a timeline and delivery date.

We love your products because we think the technology behind them is cool.

We LOVE what we do. We follow developer chat boards in our free time, we read about the “hottest” and “latest” upcoming languages, and we use your products because we think the way they work is COOL. Our team often tries out the latest technology and softwares not just to know about them, but to figure out which of your projects would benefit from them! We love to experiment with new technology, so any excuse we can find to play with and use your product – we’ll take it.

We know that you think your product is magic, but really your developer is a creative genius.

You’ve got problems and we’ve got answers that are written in a super special secret language; that sounds like magic to most people. Although there are times we literally impress ourselves, our solutions don’t come from spell books – they come from dedication, study, and ongoing development (pun intended). 

Our magic comes from the ability to problem solve. Sometimes that means we test for hours before we create the right fix to a persistent bug. Other times, that means that we put our heads together and debate the right way to structure a database. The magic is in the solution, which takes not only a creative approach but a willingness to try something new.

More developers on a project does not equal faster development.

Many of our successful projects have one lead developer who knows the “big” picture. That developer can break down tasks and give them to additional developers to help move the project to the next milestone. 

Sometimes, when a project isn’t moving as quickly as a client wants, they want us to add more developers to the project – we HATE that. We don’t dislike working with more developers – we love having the ability to bounce ideas of one another and collaborate. But adding more developers to a project means more coordination and planning. 

Code for a project involves lots of moving pieces and when developers are working together our code often intersects. If we aren’t properly communicating, it is very easy to overwrite another developer’s code or remove something a co-worker spent time creating. If you think accidentally deleting your own work is bad wait until you’ve accidentally deleted your colleague’s work. Before you ask for more developers on a project, consider extending your time frame. 

You might think your code should do “something”, but we spend a lot of time with code, and we know better.

Not all of our projects are started from scratch. Many of the projects we work on already have an existing code base. The code has been written by other developers, sometimes it is in beta mode, but often is already being used by actual users. 

When we start looking at existing code we’re like mechanics looking under the hood of your car. We expect it to be neat and tidy and to do exactly what the client says it does, but most of the time there are surprises that the customer doesn’t know exist. Clients usually tell us what their code does, what language it is, and as much as they can about their project. But when we see the code, it’s a lot louder than the customer description, and boy does it yell. 

Lots of our code is “Open Source”. We do not reinvent the wheel for your project.

Open source code is code written by someone else that is allowed to be shared and used by other developers. Remember our confession that we follow developer chats and check out new technology in our free time? This is where we find and learn about different open-source code. 

We choose open-source code so that we can develop faster and more efficiently for our client’s to keep projects on time and on budget. It allows us to spend more time solving problems and creating custom solutions for your unique problems than on setting up familiar problems that face all businesses. 

Our developers truly care about your project and have your best interests in mind! Trust that we are recommending the best solutions for your problems when we create your software and web applications.

Coretechs Developers Sound Off: Is CSS Real Development?

A customer once told our team that they did not expect to pay for our time doing CSS updates because it was not “real development.” Little did the client know that they hit a hot debate topic. This is a very sensitive topic for the developers because it can be very polarizing.

For our first sound-off, we’re asking our team: Is CSS “real” development?

What is CSS?

Some of you might already be lost so let’s quickly cover, what is CSS? CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a programming tool used to present the visual elements of a website. If you take away the CSS on a webpage, it will look drastically different and quite frankly, terrible. 

Think of your website like a cake. The cake has the base of the flour and sugar and butter to make up the delicious cake but the top part – the part that makes us want to eat the cake – is the frosting. 

Does that frosting have some fancy sugar flowers? How about an edible picture? How about a fancy cake that is so detailed it looks like a real life car? The CSS is the frosting on the cake. It can be simple, it can be intricate but a cake without frosting – your cake isn’t very appetizing. 

So now that we know what CSS is, let’s take the question to our developers and find out what they think about it.

Is CSS real development?

Both developers bring up “functionality”. They go on to explain that functionality is when data interacts with your website to create a change in behavior. Let’s use a cake website as an example. You can design your own cake and order it through an online order form. When you submit the order form, it functions in multiple ways: 

1. The order form will intake the information and save it,
2. The form will process the credit card information to charge the customer, and 
3. It will send out the appropriate notices to the customer and cake makers. 

Without these functions, the form would simply display on the page without performing any purpose.  Think of the word “function” as the base of your cake. Just like you shouldn’t eat raw eggs and flour, when you put it in the oven you make it an edible dessert. 

Backend developers tend to agree – without the foundation of the form saving, processing the payment and notifying the correct parties, we have no cake.

Front-End Developers Say

When CSS was first introduced in the 90s, it did very little. That is why the websites then were very simple and to the point – they were predominantly used for information. These days, we use CSS to do A LOT more than just make a website pretty! 

CSS is used by front-end developers to create and drive the actions that customers take on websites. Good CSS is a powerful tool that works with User Experience psychology to encourage users to take actions and deliver results. 

Not only will your cake website look good to an interested audience, but it can convince customers to order the cake with extra add-ons, faster service, and a delivery fee.

Is CSS Required for a Website?

This time you decide – here’s Carlo’s Bakery, a real-life cake ordering website. Use the slider below to see the website before and after CSS.

Do you see how much the CSS impacts the site? Here are some of the ways a developer might adjust CSS to make the site more usable: 

• The pictures are placed with purpose
• The font, color, and weights are used to direct your attention 
• Placement and style of buttons like “Start Your Order” are meant to help you take action
• Pop-ups are placed to help you chat with a consultant. 

Users digest the content so quickly, it can be difficult to fathom that the smallest detail was well thought out, planned and executed. But take all of that away and see what you have left: plain content that does not make sense to the user.

Implementing CSS takes skill and knowledge of user behaviors. We use CSS in every single project. We don’t use .Net or Python in all our projects, but CSS is like frosting for our eyes! 

In the end, our team does not care how you classify CSS work. We know its value and the important role it will play when selling your service or products to your customers. How a website is presented matters to our clients and it matters to us. 

We know how to build cool functionality but if it looks gross, who wants to use it? 

Written By: Susan Boteler
Fave Cake: Pink Champagne Cake

An Update on Web Accessibility

The Department of Justice published guidance on website accessibility required by the ADA, or Americans with Disabilities Act, on March 18th, 2022. The DOJ guidance explains existing web accessibility standards at a high level, rather than providing new details or clarifying content, and covers different ADA topics including the importance of website accessibility, common accessibility obstacles, and how and when to make web content accessible.

This guidance is important because it gives businesses like yours a general outline of how to make your website accessible and ways to monitor accessibility. It is believed that around 20% of internet users have a disability, and inaccessible websites not only restrict your audience, but can also create legal issues. Companies of all sizes have been subject to lawsuits due to non-compliance with accessibility rights that fall under the ADA.

So should you make changes?

Based on the ADA guidance, it is recommended that businesses consider implementing various measures to ensure and validate their web content’s accessibility. Measures include things such as:

1. An automated accessibility checker
2. Manual review to replicate the user experience
3. A way for the public to report accessibility problems

The Guidance suggests that none of these methods alone will notify you of all accessibility concerns, but that businesses like yours have flexibility to determine an appropriate accessibility review process for your web content that makes the most sense for you and your customers. 

Although the ADA recommends automated accessibility checkers, we do not recommend out of the box solutions like Accessibe to solve the requirements outlined in the guidance. 

Some of our recommended updates to improve your website accessibility without the help of online layovers:

• Use alt tags on your images, so they are labeled for screen readers
• Make sure colors have enough contrast to ensure all elements are visible
• Allow font-size changing for small screens and low-visibility users
• Provide transcripts for video and audio files for deaf and hard of hearing users
• Include captions in videos for deaf and hard of hearing users

To ensure your website is an inclusive environment for your customers, including those with disabilities, we recommend a website evaluation. In an evaluation with Coretechs, we will review your website against WCAG 2.1 standards and provide a list of recommended updates to improve your website accessibility. If you need assistance reviewing or updating your website, give us a call today.

The Most Undervalued Development Resource: Time

At Coretechs we take our deadlines seriously. Deadlines push us forward and are necessary to help our clients get where they need to be. However, we have found that the constantly undervalued resource to make these deadlines work is the thing we need the most – TIME.

Below we’ll show you a couple of the typical conversations we have with clients in order to determine if we have enough time and resources to make the requested deadline.

5 Tips On How to Maximize Your Development Time

1. Before you approach a software company, it is important to list out the “must have” items that you need for your deadline.

Obviously, the longer the list and the more detailed and intricate your process is, the more time will be needed to develop your software. Many customers are creating systems that process some kind of order and are time-sensitive for sales, but we understand that there can be many use cases. Identifying the most common use cases and developing a system to handle those first is the key to getting the product from a development state to being used by real people. Think simple for your processes, and make sure you are covering your most common use cases first!

2. Maintain a flexible mindset.

If you are looking to create something based on a specific look, it is very helpful to come in with a design or mockup. If you want the finished result to be an exact replica of that mockup/design, expect the development time to take longer than you think. Shorten the time by providing a design and saying, “this is the look and feel we want.” Keeping a flexible mindset that allows for adaptations to your initial plan will make it easier to hit your deadlines.  

You can also be flexible with how features are launched. It is difficult to launch sites that have many, many intricate features. If you focus on the core feature, then make that available to the public and build from there in phases, your users can provide real-life feedback, and we can adjust additional features to meet your needs.

3. If you are bringing an existing system to a new development team, expect there to be a learning curve of 3 – 4 months.

Just because our developers are talented and very good at their craft does not mean that they can make sense of an engineered system in an hour. The size of the system that already exists will dictate how long it takes for them to learn it, test it and see how it works. Build a learning curve into your time frame. 

4. Plan for a “soft launch.”

We define soft launch by letting selected real-life users try out your system or website before releasing it to the full audience. Soft launches are a sure-fire fast way to get feedback that will help you understand the outstanding needs of your project and move development along quickly to get it over the final finish line. 

5. Explain your business to our development team.

At Coretechs, we don’t just code systems and then leaving you high and dry! It is helpful for us to understand your mindset of what is important to you and your business within your industry. Part of our work on your project is creating long-term success for your business! 

If your deadline is a specific date, we want to know why. Is that because it is a specific event where you need to show off your project? Do you need to compete with another resource on that  timeline?  We want your business to grow and the best way we know how to do that is to know you and your business better.

Easily Integrate Your Business Practices With Your Own Software

As a business owner, how many times have you caught yourself thinking, “if only it worked that way instead of this” or “I wish this process could be more streamlined” while using your software?

Yet you likely remember when this software was installed. You were so excited that you had invested in a software application that was specifically designed for your industry, so therefore it had to work for your business, right? You anticipated the promise of better productivity and efficiency for your team and increased profits.

Then, you got your hands on it and started learning how to use the software. When was that first moment you noticed that it had you do something its way, which was a lot different from your way? How different was it? How long would it take for you to get everyone to change how they had always done that task? And was this new process better?

You’ve likely run into that same problem over and over again, but you toughed your way through it every time.

Was it worth it? In our last blog post, we touched briefly on the value of being able to integrate your business with custom software, and today we delve deeper into why this is so important.

Software, Your Way

Have you been able to gauge the improvement in your business since you started using that packaged software? Has there been a significant improvement in your business?

This returns us to those wishful thoughts. You find yourself wishing you could have software designed to support and automate the ways that already work well for you and your company, and you had or currently have an excellent system within your business model. Everyone knew what to do and how to do it. Yes, some of it could be done faster if it were automated. A lot of it is repetitive, and you could probably reduce errors significantly with the right software. But even industry-specific packaged software solutions require you to adapt your workflow to fit into their system.

At the end of the day, no one understands your business better than you do. Even within the same industry, every company operates differently. If only you could afford to have a unique software solution designed to automate your current system and optimize your processes.

But who says you can’t?

Worried About Cost? Think About the Big Picture.

The most common concern about custom software is the cost.

Custom software, like any custom product, takes time and effort to build, and that effort obviously costs money. However, when considering a custom solution, although it can be challenging, try looking beyond the initial cost and focus on the overall benefit. 

Try weighing the return on your investment vs. the initial cost. Custom software built around your workflow will save you immense amounts of your and your team’s time. So although it’s a large investment up front, we’re confident you’ll see the multiplying effect that custom software has on businesses within the first few years.

We Can Build a System that Works for You

This blog post is not to say that all packaged software sucks because that’s not true! Packaged solutions help many businesses, but that’s part of the problem. Those products are built with many, many businesses in mind.

You are the expert on your business, and we’re here to tell you that a system that works for you instead of you having to carve a path around it is a possibility!

So, how exactly do you acquire a system that matches your business inside and out? That’s where we come in!Our team has 35+ years of experience collaborating with businesses like yours and using that knowledge to build a system solution that works for you. Contact us today to get started!

All About Python

Have you noticed that everyone is talking about Python lately? That’s because it has rapidly grown into one of the most popular coding languages in the world for many reasons. It is versatile and can be used in many different types of projects and across industries.

In this blog post, we’ll dig into why we like Python, how our developers use it, and why it should be a contender for your next project.

Python’s Beginnings

Python was first brought to life in the 90’s by Dutch programmer Guido van Rossum. Rossum was a massive fan of a British comedy series called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” He named the programming language he created “Python” as a tribute to this show.

So you keep hearing about how popular Python is amongst developers and people looking to build custom software for their business and are probably wondering what’s so great about it. Let’s get into why we think this is the case!

Why do Coretechs Developers like Python?

Python is easy to learn and use.

Python has a simple syntax, meaning it’s easy to read, write and understand. This makes it a highly productive programming language – it can be easily written and deployed much faster than others like .Net or Java. It has very few gotchas or caveats.

This is beneficial because many clients like to be involved at least a little with their software.

Python has vast community support.

Python has been around for about 30 years, which is a long time for its community to grow and produce support for programmers of different levels in different ways. If a programming language lacks developer support and/or documentation, that’s a red flag and a sign of trouble. This is because if a developer gets stuck, it is common practice to refer to documentation about the language and ask around the language’s community for support.

With Python there is plenty of documentation, guides, and video tutorials for Python that are available for developers of any skill level to use and get the support they need to enhance their project. Getting timely help from other developers in the community or from documentation also means that your project gets done more efficiently.

Python has many frameworks and libraries.

Although they are not always needed for all projects, Python has great frameworks for developers to use, Django being the most popular. Frameworks help speed up your development since they are like the scaffolding of the house that is your project.

Python also has great libraries available to developers like HTTP for Humans for requests. This is important because libraries are collections of pre-written code that your developers can utilize to make the development process faster and easier. Think of them like the instructions for the furniture in the house or like a cheat sheet. Your developer saves time on your project using these because he does not need to write all of the code, he can use “out of the box” solutions that save everyone time.

Python is versatile.

Python can be used for a variety of different projects, from simple scripting to web development to AI/Machine learning. Businesses like Pinterest, Netflix, and Spotify have different business models but all use Python to power their applications. For example, a data scientist might use Python to help them analyze and manipulate data, and a developer might use Python to build your next website. 

The possibilities are pretty much endless. Python is also a very popular tool for data analytics tracking, which helps transform and improve the workflows and processes of businesses like yours.

How We Have Used Python

At Coretechs we have taken on many new or existing Python projects. For a digital marketing client, we created a custom analytics solution that allows the client to combine a dozen different data sources to give their customers a better understanding of their performance in Python Django. This solution leverages the MVC framework and includes custom APIs to allow connections between data providers and the customer’s websites.

For another client, we created a custom legal system to help provide calculations of payment schedules. The portal provides different timeline features and payment outcomes that will fit the individual needs of each customer. This system was built using Python Django.

These are just a few examples of the many ways we have used Python in the past. We can create almost anything you have in mind!

Our team is well-versed in full stack development using Python. We can take your project from start to finish, from wireframes to the framework, building on Django, Flask, or another framework. Contact us today to start bringing your Python project to life!