Project - Design a Hospital Management system

1>

Healthcare is not just about doctors and nurses anymore. Healthcare consists of hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical tourism, health insurance and medical equipment. A well-tuned hospital management workflow involves lots of important decisions that should be made most efficiently and quickly. Nowadays it is hard to implement it without a distinct hospital management system. Such transitions in the healthcare industry have made the healthcare management system a necessity!

So, what is Hospital Management System (HMS)? The Hospital Management System (HMS) is integrated software that handles different directions of clinic workflows. It manages smooth healthcare performance along with administrative, medical, legal, and financial control. That is a cornerstone for the successful operation of the healthcare facility.

Figure-1.

A. How is HMS useful for Hospitals?

The usefulness of a hospital management system can be judged by the number of benefits it offers. Most of the hospitals these days are known to make use of such software. The main benefits of hospital management software are as follows.

• You can easily avail information related to patients, doctors, staff etc. All you need to do is few clicks, and you will have all the required information flashing on the screen. The system can search for info about patience from different departments in the hospital. This helps the doctor to recheck the test reports whenever required.
• The use of a well-implemented hospital management system also saves you from the risk of making errors. This is made possible through the automation of the system. You can assign several tasks to the software, and it will perform with minimum human intervention and utmost accuracy.
• Implementing the use of a hospital management system means that the processes will be automated. In other words, the process will be managed with no human intervention. This improves the efficiency of the hospital. All the tasks assigned is done with utmost accuracy.
• The load of manual work is reduced to a great extent. In other words, the system helps in reducing the number of Manpower required and it will help save a lot of money. Besides, the system will help you to save a lot on storage as well.

It is because of this reason that most of the hospitals these days have started implementing this software within their system.

B. Features of Hospital Management Software

An efficient and well-implemented hospital management software is required to have the following features.

1. Speed

Since the system automates most of the hospital processes, there is no way the system should ever slow down. All the tasks including the communication between various departments, reporting of tests etc., are all speeded up with the help of a hospital management system. Therefore speed is considered to be so crucial for an HMS.

2. Error-free

Another essential feature of a hospital management system is that it should be error-free. In other words, it should be able to perform all the tasks with utmost accuracy and with minimum human intervention. The implementation of such a system also ensures that there are fewer errors resulted from the employees. Not just that, but it can also reduce the number of workforces required to perform the tasks.

3. Easy access of data

With the help of a hospital management system, you can easily access all the required data you want. A hospital daily produces a lot of data that needs to be stored safely. The software can do this. For example, doctors can access data related to patients whenever they want without any delay.

4. Cost-effective

The system also proves to be very cost-effective for hospitals. Implementing a hospital management system means less stationary use, less storage space required and less workforce. All these ultimately cuts down on the total cost of operations.

It is essential for a hospital management system to have all these features. This ensures a smooth flow of work within the medical centre. The best thing is that an HMS can be tailored according to the need of your hospital. With the help of hospital management software development& service providers like EZOVION: Intelligent Healthcare company, you can easily design/customise the software for your hospital and clinics.

1. Paper-based patient documentation vs HMS

Patient data management is one of the most critical tasks undertaken by medical institutions. For a long time, paper-based record-keeping had been the norm, but with the advent of EMR or EHR, the data landscape is changing rapidly.

Whilst manual record keeping is considered the gold standard, in recent years, multiple medical institutions are increasingly shifting their focus to the electronic means of handling workflows.

Deploying Electronic Medical Records Software has proven benefits for various hospitals and clinics, both on a small and a larger scale. The Healthcare industry, combined with the efficiency of such software, has shown better management and handling of internal functions.

Figure-2.

EZOVION’s HMS is introduced to solve the complications coming from managing all the paper works of every patient associated with the various departments of hospitalization with confidentiality. EZOVION’s HMS provides the ability to manage all the paperwork in one place, reducing the work of staff in arranging and analysing the paperwork of the patients. HMS does many works like:

• Maintain the medical records of the patient
• Maintain the contact details of the patient
• Keep track of the appointment dates
• Save the insurance information for later reference
• Tracking the bill payments.

D.What HMS can do to your hospitals and clinics?

It can be

• Time-saving Technology
• Improved Efficiency by avoiding human errors
• Reduces scope for Error
• Data security and correct data retrieval made possible
• Cost-effective and easily manageable
• Easy access to patient data with correct patient history
• Improved patient care made possible
• Easy monitoring of supplies in inventory
• Reduces the work of documentation
• Better Audit controls and policy compliance.

E.Key Features of EZOVION EMR

• Generate Prescriptions in less than 60 seconds.
• Easy to use patient visit details (OPD/IPD) modules.
• Detailed demographic and clinical data analysis.
• Billing and account manager for your accounting needs.

It is ultimately the choice of management/hospitals/clinics. The bottom line is one must choose the solution that sails the boat for their workplace.

Conclusion

The Hospital Management System (HMS) integrated software handles different directions of clinic workflows. It manages smooth healthcare performance along with administrative, medical, legal, and financial control. It is a cornerstone for the successful operation of the healthcare facility. The traditional and the modern way of storing data have their consequences and benefits, by using customised solutions available with EZOVION, the hospitals/clinics can pick and choose the options that they wish to embed and leave the rest to EZOVION HMS to do its job.

Hospital management system was introduced with the cause for helping hospitals speed up their processes.

What is Hospital Management System (HMS):

Hospital management system is a computer system that helps manage the information related to health care and aids in the job completion of health care providers effectively. They manage the data related to all departments of healthcare such as,

• Clinical
• Financial
• Laboratory
• Inpatient
• Outpatient
• Operation theater
• Materials
• Nursing
• Pharmaceutical
• Radiology
• Pathology etc.

Figure-3.

HMS came into the picture of hospital management as early as 1960 and have ever since been evolving and synchronizing with the technologies while modernizing healthcare facilities. In today’s world, the management of healthcare starts from the hands of the patients through their mobile phones and facilitates the needs of the patient.

Why is HMS important for a hospital?

HMS was introduced to solve the complications coming from managing all the paper works of every patient associated with the various departments of hospitalization with confidentiality. HMS provides the ability to manage all the paperwork in one place, reducing the work of staff in arranging and analyzing the paperwork of the patients. HMS does many works like:

• Maintain the medical records of the patient
• Maintain the contact details of the patient
• Keep track of the appointment dates
• Save the insurance information for later reference
• Tracking the bill payments.

The advantages of HMS can be pinpointed to the following:

• Time-saving Technology
• Improved Efficiency by avoiding human errors
• Reduces scope for Error
• Data security and correct data retrieval made possible
• Cost effective and easily manageable
• Easy access to patient data with correct patient history
• Improved patient care made possible
• Easy monitoring of supplies in inventory
• Reduces the work of documentation
• Better Audit controls and policy compliance.

Features of Hospital Management System:

Appointment Management

For hospitals having their own site, appointment widgets will be integrated onto the site. Patients visiting the hospital’s website can book online appointments with ease.

Billing Management

Integrated Billing with treatments, Lab and Radiology. Alerts will be sent on Discount Authorisation. Automatic due capture, Option to bill before and after consultation.

Prescription Management

Manage commonly and recently used medicines. Option to show medicines available in the pharmacy. SMS prescriptions to Patients.

Discharge Summary

Template based Discharge Summary. ICD10 integration. Option to prevent discharge summary till IP bill is closed.

Operation Theatre Management

Automatic notification can be sent to customers on test results. Lab notifications like email, SMS of the test reports sent from the Automated Lab notification module.

Pharmacy Management

Comprehensive Pharmacy Management handles stock, Prescription Integration, Ward Request, Stock Management, Stock Moment and intelligent reports.

Lab Management

Comprehensive Lab Management handles complete order management, Custom Reports, Smart Notifications, Credit Settlement, detailed MIS Reports, Analytics and App for Phlebotomist.

Master Information Systems

Lets you access entire MIS data from your palm.

Manage Multiple Locations

Any number of branches can be added and managed using a single account

Benefits of Hospital Management System:

We have so far clarified on the importance of HMS, it is your responsibility to pick out the right kind of HMS for your needs and purposes. Here we give more information on the benefits of various HMS and the impact it creates on hospital systems.

Easy Patient data retrieval:

HMS makes it possible to access all the data related to a patient via a system by the means of a few simple clicks. Information like patient history, current illness, doctors involved, tests reports taken, billing information and many more can be made visible to the user. These data will help to connect the dots about the patient, like specific diagnosis, related treatment, and medication.

The Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or Electronic Health Record (EHR):

This electronic-based medical record system can be viewed as a patient’s health chart. It retrieves information based on the patient’s name or medical record number or the physician’s record number.

Increased Data security:

The patient data can be kept a hundred percent safe by using HMS in your hospital. It can be made accessible by only a limited amount of authorized personnel. With HMS, all the data is stored on a server or cloud and kept safe by just securing the login information safe.

Improve Visibility and Transparency:

Hospital Management System (HMS) improves the visibility and transparency in the complete management process and in all records.

Streamline Accurate Reporting:

It helps in streamlining the accurate reporting with the help of updated and accurate records.

Improved Quality Control:

Hospital Management System improves the quality control on the products and services of the hospital.

Improved Management Visibility:

It also improves the management visibility of hospital, all information, and data regarding the patient, doctor and medicine could be seen by any department easily.

Ease to Access System Facilities:

Hospital Management System makes it easy to get access to the management system facilities for the authorized users and keep it safe from unauthorized users.

Cost Effective:

HMS not only saves time in the hospital but also is cost-effective in decreasing the number of people working on the system of manual entry of data and paperwork. The implementation of His will decrease the human intervention into the system thereby avoiding human-caused errors.

Every hospital has different needs, analyze what is best for your requirement and install the apt HMS system.

Front-End Development: The Complete Guide.

What Is Front-End Development?

Front-end development primarily focuses on user experience. Using the related coding and design techniques, you as front-end developers build the elements of an application that are directly accessed by end-users with a goal of rendering the entire interface elegant, easy to use, fast, and secure, fostering user engagement and interaction.

Thanks to the latest design and technology trends geared for the front end, you can build increasingly more sophisticated designs and interaction patterns. Simultaneously, however, more complexity results, so much so that front-end development has become a specialized field that requires deep expertise.

The major trend in front-end development in recent years is the growth of applications for mobile and smart devices, with users accessing applications from a growing number of devices with different screen sizes and interaction options. As a result, front-end developers must ensure their application delivers a consistent, high-quality user experience for all devices and usage scenarios. That’s a daunting challenge.

This article covers the following topics:

• Front-End Development Versus Back-End Development
• Programming Languages for Front-End Development
• Front-End Development Frameworks
• Responsive Web Development
• Types of Web Applications
• Types of Content in Web Applications
• Best Practices for Enhancing Application Performance
• Front-End Security Best Practices
• Automation of Media and UGC in Front-End Development With Cloudinary

Front-End Development Versus Back-End Development

Hardware, computer programs, and websites comprise many components: code, databases, user interfaces (UI). Those that interact with users are in the front end; those that operate the technology are situated in the back end, also called the data-access layer. The back end provides the resources to support the front end.

Here are the key differences between software development in the front end and back end:

• Back-end developmentis the process of building the components for running the application behind the scenes. Examples are components for data storage, infrastructure, integration with external systems, and code written in one or more programming languages. Users cannot access the back end.
• Front-end developmentis the process of building components that interact with users. Examples are the user interface, buttons, user-entered data, websites, and user experience (UX) features. The front end aims at meeting user requirements and delivering a positive user experience.

Programming Languages for Front-End Development

Below are the most common programming languages for developing the front end.

HTML

The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) programming language, which defines the structure and meaning of web content, is a building block for front-end development. Through HTML, browsers display text or load elements, rendering webpages, which contain hyperlinks and links to other webpages, for users.

CSS

Cascading style sheets (CSS) is the standard language that specifies how to display HTML content: fonts, foreground and background colors, etc. With CSS, you can control the design layout and its components for various devices like desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Examples of the components are the header, body, footer, content, asides, and sections.

For more details, see Working With CSS Images.

JavaScript

JavaScript (JS) extends the functionality of websites beyond HTML and CSS. Through JS:

• Webpages can refresh themselves dynamically and respond to user actions without page reloads or other changes.
• You can model animated UI components, such as pop-ups, image sliders, and extensive navigation menus.

Front-End Development Frameworks

Front-end frameworks accord you ready-made code and components, such as prewritten standard functions packaged as libraries, with no need to build common functionality and components from scratch.

Angular

With Angular, a popular, open-source JavaScript framework initially created by Google, you can deliver highly dynamic results through the HTML syntax. Angular adopts an efficient modular approach and follows the MVC architecture, which divides the website structure into three parts: model, view, and controller (MVC). In particular, Angular facilitates cleaner code through TypeScript and leverages the dependency-injection design pattern.

React

Introduced in 2011 by Meta and now supported by a large community, React is an open-source, declarative JavaScript framework whose component-based approach enables code reuse. React facilitates more efficient updates of views with the virtual Document Object Model (VDOM), a lightweight JavaScript representation of the DOM, enhancing performance. You can use React to develop single-page applications (SPAs).

jQuery

Widely used and supported by many user-created plugins, jQuery is an open-source JavaScript library that simplifies the development of web applications. For example, jQuery edits CSS properties by incorporating JavaScript functionalities and applies effects, such as fade-in and fade-out, to website elements. With jQuery, you can also simplify the processes of implementing HTML DOM changes, event handling, and Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax).

Vue.Js

Written in JavaScript, Vue.js is a core library that focuses on the view layer only, enabling the development of distinct web interfaces and single-page applications. You can integrate this library with other tools and libraries for the desired output.

Bootstrap

A popular, open-source framework for developing responsive and mobile-first websites, Bootstrap offers CSS-based and JavaScript-based templates that include components like navigation bars, progress bars, thumbnails, and dropdowns, all of which you can incorporate into webpages.

Bootstrap implements responsive images through built-in code that automatically resizes them according to the current screen size. Also, with the JQuery plugins in Bootstrap, you can build and deliver interactive solutions for modal popups, image carousels, and transitions.

Semantic UI

A well-documented development framework for creating responsive layouts with HTML, Semantic UI relies on the semantic language to facilitate development and offers components for various features. You can integrate Semantic UI with many third-party applications and tools.

Svelte

Svelte is a compiler that converts declarative components into highly optimized vanilla JavaScript that surgically updates the DOM during the build phase of the development process. That’s a different approach from that in frameworks like Vue and React, which work in users’ browsers while the applications are running.

Preact

Preact offers a thin VDOM abstraction, registers real event handlers, builds on stable platform features, and integrates with other libraries. You can use Preact directly in browsers without transpilations.

Preact is so light that developer code is the largest part of the application. As a result, there’s less JavaScript to download, parse, and execute, freeing you up for other tasks.

Ember.js

Ember.js is an open-source JavaScript framework for developing large client-side web applications with structured and organized code according to the MVC model. This framework uses route as a model and a handlebar template for views, as well as employs controllers to edit the data in the model.

Responsive Web Development

Here’s a frequently asked question: “What Is responsive web development?” RWD, also known as responsive design, is a web-design approach that emphasizes user experience. The objective is to ensure consistent rendering of webpages on various devices, screens and windows of different shapes and sizes, etc. Such an approach has become important given the rise of mobile devices, with most web traffic coming from mobile-device users. Real-world implementations of RWD abound, which most users, who focus on only the convenience and appeal of websites, rarely notice.

Following are several techniques with which to make websites responsive to various conditions:

• Flexible grids.Grids are a standard design tool for building websites. Responsive websites require a flexible grid that can load in different ways, depending on the screen or window size.
• Similar to flexible grids, breakpoints are dots on a page that identify cut-off points so that information can move on the screen. Most websites have numerous breakpoints, but a minimum should be three to correspond to the three most common device types.
• Effective designs usually place the most important images and information higher up on the webpage, ensuring that visitors see them first. This visual hierarchy is especially crucial for responsive websites because smaller screens display less of a page at a given time. Prioritizing the important elements keeps mobile-device users engaged.
• Flexible images.Images are often harder to fit into different screen sizes than plain text. Web designers use various techniques to ensure that web pages display images appropriately on different screens. For example, the display might crop parts of an image for a better fit. In the case of multiple image versions for a site, select the version to render based on the device type or screen size.
• Responsive media queries. These are coding commands that set the maximum and minimum dimensions for media assets and that specify their orientation. As a result, all media assets on a webpage load at the appropriate size.
• Mouse and touchscreen-friendly elements.Desktop users are adept with their mouse device, but some actions are less intuitive on mobile devices. Responsive websites must accommodate smartphones by ensuring that every action is easily accessible through a touchscreen. Links must be large and obvious on small screens, and scrolling must be easy across device types. Be sure to test the user experience to ensure that all the elements work well on different devices.

For more details, see How to Create Images for Responsive Web Design.

Types of Web Applications

Web applications are divided into six types.

Static Web Applications

Based on HTML and CSS, static web applications contain no dynamic elements and are primarily for displaying content and data only, allowing no interactions between users and servers. Hence, these applications, the common ones being portfolio sites and official company sites, are relatively easy and simple to build, modify, and manage. Note that despite being static, these applications can include videos, GIFs, and animated banners.

Dynamic Web Applications

Dynamic web applications offer interactions between the server and user, i.e., the user makes a request, which the server accepts and then generates content in real time. These applications, which often hold databases or forums and which constantly update or modify the content, usually perform updates through a content management system (CMS). You can build these applications with various web languages, but PHP and ASP are the best for structuring content.

E-Commerce Web Applications

E-commerce web applications, which are online stores that promote and sell products or services, typically offer a rich set of features that facilitate purchase transactions. As a rule, these are interactive applications through which users can interact with the server and which you can integrate with other systems to better manage interactions and inventory.

For more details, see Select the Right E-commerce Platform for Your Needs.e-commerce platforms.

Single-Page Applications

Single-page applications (SPAs) display updated content by loading a single document with a JavaScript API, e.g., XMLHttpRequest and Fetch. Consequently, since users need not load new webpages from the server, higher performance and a dynamic user experience follow. However, because SPAs are more complex than other web applications, more effort is required to monitor the performance, maintain the state, and implement navigation capabilities.

Progressive Web Applications

Progressive web applications (PWAs), which are websites that function as mobile applications through mobile-native features, require no software purchases or downloads from app stores by users. To locate and access PWAs on their browser, users can start with a search-engine query.

With PWAs, you can develop mobile-native applications for mobile operating systems. As with YouTube videos, devices progressively download PWA content, delivering a more smooth user experience than that from traditional websites through responsive design.

Ultimately, PWAs offer mobile browsers many benefits of native applications with a goal of blurring the distinction between mobile-web and mobile-native applications.

For more detail, see Progressive Web Apps: Architecture and Examples.

SaaS Applications

Given that the software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model enables hosting of applications, independent software vendors (ISVs) can contract with a cloud provider for that service. Cloud providers can also serve as ISVs.

SaaS applications typically adopt a multitenant approach, running a single application instance on host servers. That instance serves each cloud tenant or customer while the application runs on a single version and configuration slated for all tenants or customers. Thus, multiple customers run on the same cloud instance through a common infrastructure and platform even though their data remains segregated.

As a result of that setup, cloud providers can apply changes for all customers through a single, shared instance, more efficiently performing maintenance tasks, fixing bugs, and delivering updates .

For more details, see The Evolution of SaaS Architecture.

Types of Content in Web Applications

Given the importance of content in the digital economy, many web and mobile applications, such as those in the media and news sector, provide content as an integral part of their functionality. Content is also essential in social media and applications geared for messaging, task management, and sharing of text, imagery, or video among users.

While developing web applications, you must do the following vis-à-vis content:

• Incorporate mechanisms that enable dynamic serving of content in various formats.
• Add elements that facilitate moderation, curation, or rating of content to beef up its quality.
• Optimize the content, especially rich media, for fast and accurate page loads.
• Display user-generated content (UGC), if any, in a captivating manner and offer users a convenient way in which to share that content.

Adding User Generated Content (UGC) to Applications

Contributed at no charge by users and not generated or purchased by application owners, UGC can make applications much more attractive to users. That’s because it’s authentic and created by fellow site visitors or even by social connections.

Before adding UGC to an application, carefully consider these aspects:

• • Input mechanisms.You must offer users secure input forms or other mechanisms to prevent attacks like code injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). To foster contributions, ensure that those mechanisms are highly intuitive.
• Storage and data management.UGC images and videos can take up large data volumes. Even textual content at large scale requires a robust database infrastructure. So, plan for the type and scale of content and use techniques like compression, conversion to suitable formats, and application of rate limits.
• Be sure to optimize UGC-originated rich media for a sharp and attractive display with techniques like cropping, resizing, and parameter adjustments. Also, optimize the media file size to ensure high performance.
• Introduce features like rating, curation, and voting (whether by users or site editors) to control the quality of UGC. Also critical is a way in which to screen and moderate inappropriate content, which is a major problem in most industries. .

For more details, see the following pages on Cloudinary:

• User-Generated Content: Marketing Opportunity of the Century and It’s Only the Beginning
• Take Your UGC to the Next Level

Adding Imagery and Video to Applications

Images and videos have become ubiquitous in both web and mobile applications. When correctly leveraged, visual content enhances user experience and is readily consumed by users.

Before adding to your application a large number of images and videos, which necessitate ongoing management and maintenance, think about how to meet the following requirements:

• Continual updates.Considerable manual efforts are necessary to adjust all your images and videos to the format, size, and aspect ratio required by the application, especially in the case of a huge volume of media that needs frequent updates. Responsive applications that call for multiple image versions for different screen sizes further aggregate this problem.
• Video encoding and processing.Before serving videos to users, you must encode them in formats that are supported by the various user devices. A fine balance exists between ensuring adequate video quality and high performance at different connection speeds.
• Video storage.Video files are large and can quickly overwhelm an organization’s servers. Cloud storage is a good solution because, besides offering large scale, it enables video streaming to users directly from cloud servers, reducing the load on application servers.
• Video players.To serve video to users, applications must include a video player. A simple way to do that is with the HTML5 video tag. Many players that offer advanced capabilities are available, some open source and some commercial. Be sure to carefully test them with other elements of your application.

For more details, see the following:

• Ultimate HTML5 Video-Player Showdown: 12 Players Compared
• A Guide on Live Streaming and Tips for Making It a Success

In addition, this Cloudinary page describes how the Cloudinary Media API can help you manage, optimize, and deliver rich media.

Adding Marketing Content to Applications

Many organizations create applications to meet marketing goals. For example, a clothing chain would share with its users an application on which to browse new product offers, make purchases, and join loyalty programs.

Here are the key factors to consider vis-à-vis development of applications with marketing content:

• Conversion elements.Since they are measured by the conversions they generate, marketing-oriented applications must contain features that encourage users to perform actions that help advance the company’s marketing goals.
• Brand equity.Aimed for sharing a brand’s values, marketing content must be carefully crafted and presented to ensure delivery of the right message.
• Usability and value.Ultimately, marketing applications must be user friendly, useful, and compelling. Balance that requirement with marketing objectives to boost user engagement.

For more details, see Twelve Types of Marketing Videos and 10 Ways to Make Them Great.

Best Practices for Enhancing Application Performance

Performance, a critical consideration in application design, is becoming increasingly important as a means of winning user satisfaction. Following are best practices for improving application performance.

Reduction of Load Time

Load time is the amount of time it takes for websites to render the related files and download them to a user’s computer. For mobile applications, load time is how long they take to initially load or display new screens or interface elements.

Load time can be affected by latency, file size, and the number of files. Keeping files as small as possible and reducing the number of HTTP requests are common techniques for shortening load times.

Smoothness and Interactivity

Besides loading fast, applications must also be stable and easy to use. That is, they must scroll smoothly; their buttons must respond correctly to clicks; and their dynamic elements must move smoothly and react immediately to user actions.

Improve smoothness by minimizing UI updates during user interactions with your application. For example, using CSS animations instead of JavaScript can minimize UI redraws due to DOM changes. Frameworks like React Native enhance interactivity by dynamically reloading a page to display the various parts of the interface instead of having to reload the page.

Perceived Performance

Even though a key measurement of user experience is an objective analysis of site speed, studies show that awareness of website speed counts more than objective statistics. Perceptions of performance are subjective and difficult to assess, however. As a solution, for operations that take a long time, display to the user a useful hint or an entertaining joke during the operation, or a clear message that points out how long the operation will take. The user can then choose to turn to other tasks or stay engaged.

A smart UX strategy often translates to more satisfied users and lower abandonment of websites or mobile apps—even if certain operations or pages take a while to complete or load.

Performance Measurements

Be sure to measure and continually monitor the actual and perceived speed of your application. That is, optimize your application and monitor its performance on an ongoing basis. Adopting metrics that depict success or failure and the tools to measure them helps optimize performance.

Here are the back-end metrics that offer clues on application-performance issues:

• Application scale
• Number of DOM nodes
• Number of resource requests
• Request latency
• JavaScript performance
• CPU and memory load on servers

Additionally, these end-to-end metrics help quantify the actual user experience:

• Page load times
• Core Web Vitals (CWV) metrics
• Latency for critical operations, such as purchase transactions

Be sure to check out application performance management (APM) solutions that offer more complex end-to-end performance measurements and use synthetic requests to simulate the user experience.

Image and Video Optimization

Oftentimes, images and videos take up most of the data on websites or web applications. Since most users in many industries access applications on mobile phones, file size and performance are important considerations. Even on fast connections, every second in page load counts. Therefore, optimizing images and videos to reduce page weight, load times, and network resource loads is a must-do.

You can optimize images in these three ways:

• Compress images.Compressing images reduces their file size by lowering the level of detail. Look up the various file formats, some of which offer lossless compression without noticeable quality loss. Lossy compression usually results in higher compression ratios but with visible degradation in image quality.
• Adopt the vector file format. Vector file formats like SVF encode the structure of images without fully rendering them, greatly reducing the file size. Replacing raster images with vector images accelerates page loads without compromising quality.
• Cache images. Possibly the most efficient optimization technique, catching images stores them in the user’s browser cache or a proxy server nearby. If your site contains static images that are shared across multiple pages or viewed by multiple users in the same location, caching those images is a wise step to take.

Here are a few ways in which to optimize videos:

• • Switch to progressive video formats.Progressive formats like H.264, VP9, and AV1, which offer high compression efficiency, are widely supported by client devices.
• Adopt video formats with adaptive bitrates. Formats like HLS and MPEG-DASH can adapt their quality to the bandwidth available to the user, delivering reasonable video quality even over slow connections.
• Deliver media through content delivery networks (CDNs).With CDNs, you can instantly stream video to users, reducing download and buffering time. Also, since CDNs store video files in physical locations close to users, significantly higher performance results for static video files.

For more details, see the following:

• Image Optimization for Websites: Beautiful Pages That Load Quickly
• Top Five Web-Video Formats of 2021
• Video Optimization, Part 1: Cloudinary and the HTML5 Video Player

Lazy Loading

Lazy loading means delaying the loading of a resource or object, e.g., displaying a placeholder of an image not yet in the user’s viewport and loading the image when the user scrolls down and reaches it. That way, you not only shorten the initial load time, but also conserve bandwidth and system resources on both the client and the server.

To recap, lazy loading offers three benefits:

• Reduction of initial load time
• Conservation of bandwidth
• Conservation of system resources on both the client and the server

For more details, see Lazy Loading: Choosing the Best Option.

Front-End Security Best Practices

Consider the steps below to secure the front end.

Use HTTPS Only

Web applications served over regular HTTP are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MitM) and downgrade attacks. In contrast, HTTPS offers greater security by means of encryption, preventing hackers from snooping data.

Here’s what takes place behind the scenes:

• The HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) header prevents the browser from loading websites with HTTP.
• The browser automatically converts all HTTP-based access attempts to HTTPS requests.
• If a browser redirects the initial HTTP-based connection to HTTPS, it might create an opening for a MitM attack—a risk that’s mitigated by the Strict Transport Security (STS) header.

Accordingly, ensure that browsers can serve your application over HTTPS only.

Note: HTTPS requires valid TLS certificates for encryption. The private key must be adequately secure on the server.

Secure the Browser With CSP

Content Security Policy (CSP), a browser standard that detects and mitigates several types of code-injection attacks, ranging from clickjacking to XSS, is the key to securing front-end applications. By limiting the source domains from which the browser loads external resources, CSP prevents it from executing malicious inline code.

To enable CSP, set the content-security-policy header to a set of directives, delimited by semicolons.

For more details, see Browser Security: Threats, Solutions, and User Education.

Authenticate With OAuth and OIDC

OAuth is a REST API standard for delegated authorization. To secure client access, leverage the OAuth framework, which runs over HTTPS, authorizing APIs, devices, and servers with access tokens instead of credentials.

Thanks to the OAuth operations below, applications can obtain specified access scopes of user data without a password:

• OAuth decouples authentication and authorization, supporting various device types and use cases, including browser-based, server-to-server, and mobile applications.
• Clients can verify end-user identities according to the authentication performed by the authorization server through OpenID Connect (OIDC), an identity layer that sits on OAuth. Additionally, you can retrieve the basic information in end-user profiles in a REST-based, interoperable manner.

Given OIDC’s extensible specifications, participants can add features like identity-data encryption, search for OpenID providers, and session management.

For more details, see the following:

• Demystifying OAuth Flows

Leverage a CDN

Content delivery network (CDNs), a transparent mechanism for delivering web content, shorten physical distances, accelerate rendering, and improve site performance through virtualization by means of reverse proxy technology. CDNs reside in front of back-end servers.

Given their location at the edge of the network perimeter, CDNs act as a virtual security fence by blocking distributed denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which must be addressed before they reach the core network infrastructure.

For more details, see The Essential CDN Guide.

Automation of Management of Media and UGC in Front-End Development With Cloudinary

Since rich media determines whether your site or application’s user experience is engaging, be sure to automate the process of managing media assets and creating multiple versions for delivery. Don’t let those tasks be a burden on developers and creative professionals.

Cloudinary offers an intuitive user interface, replete with APIs and widgets, with which you can store, transform, optimize, and deliver images, videos, and other rich media. Below are the key capabilities.

• Hosting of imagery and video: Storage on AWS and Google Cloud with enterprise-class backup, revision history, and disaster-recovery features.
• Support for all media formats: Images (including 3D ones), videos, GIFs, PDFs, PSDs, AVIFs, and all other types.
• Machine learning-based algorithms: Metadata tagging, background removal, content-aware cropping, video previews, and other media-management features.
• Real-time image enhancements: Creation of banners on the fly from the same image along with overlays of logos, text, badges, or watermarks, as desired.
• Expeditious page loads: Automated serving of images and videos—all optimized for high quality and proper format—in browsers or viewports.
• Automated and efficient delivery: Delivery at high speeds through single, multiple, or regional CDNs.

A code Snippet is a programming term that refers to a small portion of re-usable source code, machine code, or text.

Snippets help programmers reduce the time it takes to type in repetitive information while coding. Code Snippets are a feature on most text editors, code editors, and IDEs.

In this tutorial, we're going to learn how to write our own custom snippets.

Prerequisites

For this tutorial, I'll assume that you can write a decent amount of code in the language you want to create a code snippet for.

And with that confirmed...

Why Code Snippets are Useful

When I first started learning how to code, the first code snippet I ever used was Ctrl + ! and enter to get an HTML5 document template. (I doubt anyone knows how to write that by heart.) It was cool and I felt like a code ninja.

(PS: if you don't want to read the back story and just wanna dive right into the tutorial, then jump right into it.)

As I started exploring more into coding, I learned about VSCode extensions that made coding faster – code snippets in particular – and I then went on a downloading spree.

All was going fine and well until I started frequently using frameworks and libraries in my projects. This involved me trying to remember how to link my documents to their packages and also use personalized CSS resets and variables.

Plus I was always forgetting to link my stylesheets to my HTML pages, making me spend an unreasonable amount of time trying to figure out why my pages were not being styled correctly. (I still forget to do so now and then.)

That got me thinking about having my personalized HTML and CSS templates which would have all the base code I always used in my projects.

At first, I just created the templates and saved them on my system so I could copy the code any time I started a new project. But that also was getting stressful, and I wanted to just type in a few letters, press enter, and boom have my templates showing on my screen. And that was when I learned about VsCode Code Snippets.

I didn't know it was called code snippets at that time, so I spent over 2 weeks trying to find a tool that could help me do this and I almost gave up. Until I randomly stumbled on Brad Travesty's video on one of my daily evening wanderings on the streets of YouTube without actively searching for it.

It was a lifesaver, and every once in a while I add new custom snippets to my collection. You can check out my personalized HTML and CSS templates here.

You've likely often wished that you had a custom snippet of a particular piece of code you use all the time but didn't know how to create or find it. Well, wish no more for I'm about to show you how to easily create your own.

How to Create Custom Code Snippets

Creating your own custom snippet is quite easy. And with the help of another tool called Snippet Generator (which I will show you how to use shortly), it becomes even easier.

Step 1: Check if your editor lets you create custom snippets

You can check the docs on your code editor to find out if the feature is available and how to access it.

I am using VsCode for this tutorial. You can download it here.

To access this setting, you can either click on the settings icon on the sidebar and then click on user snippets or open up the command palette using Cntr + shift + p on Windows or CMD + shift + p on Mac, typing in "snippet" and clicking on Preferences: Configure User Snippets.

This will give you a drop-down with different language selections to choose from.

Figure-4.

Step 2: Decide your Snippet Scope

You can either create a global snippet that you can use across all languages or create a local snippet scoped to a particular language.

So from the drop-down, you can see New Global Snippet File and then a bunch of languages in alphabetical order.

Scroll to the language you want to write your snippet for and click on it (or select New Global Snippet File if you want to use your snippets in multiple languages).

If you selected a particular language, HTML for example, the file will automatically open. But if you chose Global snippet, you'll be prompted to type in the name of the snippet file before it opens.

For this one, I'll be using a Global Snippet.

Figure-5.

Step 3: Understand the Syntax

The Syntax for code snippet is quite easy actually. It is written in JSON format and each file can contain an unlimited number of snippets.

Figure-6.

Let's see what's going on in this code:

Snippet Name

The Snippet Name is the name of the snippet. It is also what will be displayed via IntelliSense if no description is provided.

Scope

This determines what languages are allowed to use the snippet. Enter the name of the language(s) separated by a comma. If you leave it empty or omit it, the snippet can be accessed by any language. This part is included in Global Snippets only, as Local Snippets files are already locally scoped.

Prefix

This describes one or more trigger words that will prompt IntelliSense to display the snippet.

Body

This can be a string if it is one-line code or an array of strings if it is multi-line code.

Description

This describes the snippet and what it does. If this is omitted, the name of the snippet will be used instead.

Snippet example 1:

Figure-7.

From the above example, our snippet name is Print to console, and it can only be used in a JavaScript and TypeScript file. If you were to type log in a JavaScript or TypeScript file, IntelliSense would show it along with the description Log output to console. Once you select it and click enter, you'd see console.log() on the screen.

Figure-8.

Step 4: Add Tab Stops

Tabstops allow you to move the editor cursor inside a snippet. $1, $2, ..., $n specify cursor locations it should move into sequentially when you hit the tab key. $0 represents the final position the cursor should stop.

Snippet example 2:

Figure-9.

In this example, when you type nfn, our Named Function snippet shows up. Once you select it, you'll see your snippet on the screen. You'll also see that the cursor is now before the parenthesis as opposed to being at the end of the code.

Type in the name of the function, "GetUsers" for example, and then hit the tab button. You will notice that the cursor has now moved into the parenthesis.

You can type in the parameter if it has one or and hit the tab key again to move the cursor to the next tab stop which is between the curly brackets where our function body will go.

Figure-10.

Note: When you are writing multi-line code, you cannot use a tab to indent your code in the JSON syntax. You can only use 2 spaces to indent your code, or whatever number of spacing indentation you use to write your code.

Step 5: Use Placeholders

These are Tab Stops with values. They help the user easily identify or understand what they are supposed to type at that particular tab stop.

The placeholder will be automatically highlighted so you can immediately type in what you want to replace it with.

Snippet example 3:

Figure-11. and figure-12.

Step 6: Create Choices

Placeholders can have choices as values. This means that instead of typing in your value, you can choose from a dropdown selection.

To create one, you write the values which are separated by a comma between two pipe-characters, for example, ${1|one, two, three|}.

Snippet example 4:

Fiogure-13 And figure-14.

Here, once you type in arrmth, select it from IntelliSense and hit enter. The first tab stop will be a dropdown of array choices to select from. The next tab stop is the parameter and the last stop is the function code.

Snippet Generators

As your snippets begin to grow in lines and size, it becomes difficult to type and create them within your code editor. This is where a snippet generator comes in.

A snippet generator will take in your regular code and turn it into a code snippet.

I will be using Snippet Generator for this tutorial. With this particular snippet generator, you can write code snippets for VsCode, Sublime Text, and Atom.

Figure-15.

How to Use the Snippet Generator

In the description input, enter the name of the code snippet which will be used as the name and description of the snippet.

In the tab trigger input, enter the prefix of your code snippet.

In the your snippet.. input, enter your code in its natural form as you would without writing it as an array of strings.

After this, you can then add in Tabstops, Placeholders, and Choices as explained above.

Snippet example 5:
Figure-16.

Snippet example 6:

Figure-17.

Final Snippet Code

Figure-18.

Recap

Let's do a recap. We have learned that:

• a code snippet is a small portion of re-usable source code, machine code, or text which helps programmers reduce the time it takes to type in repetitive codes while programming.
• a code snippet file can contain an unlimited number of snippets.
• you can have a locally scoped snippet used within only one language file or a globally scoped snippet used within two or more language files.
• code snippets are written in JSON syntax.
• you can add tabstops, placeholders, and choices to your code snippets.
• you can also use a snippet generator to generate your snippets.

Taking screenshots during testing is often considered a good practice. Adding a screenshot to the test reports provides complete clarity and visibility of the application such as if the application is working smoothly or something in the application needs to be fixed. It also makes the report meaningful and presentable.

While carrying out manual testing one can take a screenshot by using “PrtScr” command or by using any screenshot capturing application. However, incase of automation testing, the process of taking screenshot and including it in the report is quite different.

Read this blog to understand how to take a screenshot during automation testing and adding it it to the report.

A brief about TestNG

TestNG is a powerful and easy-to-use testing framework. It is designed in such a manner that it covers various categories of tests such as Unit, Integration, System etc. The official definition of TestNG is :

TestNG is a testing framework inspired from JUnit and NUnit, but introducing some new functionalities that make it more powerful and easier to use.

A task to take screenshot

1. Access http://google.com
2. Search for cars
3. Verify if there is any link containing the word “car”
4. Take screenshot

Follow the below code to take screenshots

Figure-19. and figure-20, And Figure-21.

TestNG Reports

TestNG provides certain predefined listeners. These listeners are by default added to any test execution. Hence, different HTML and XML reports are generated for any test execution. The report is generated by default under the folder named test-output. You can view the report by opening index.html.