Software Archives - JIG Technologies

Using Laravel with Gitlab Pipelines

Kostyantyn Shakhov — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 16:54:13 +0000

As mentioned in a previous article, Laravel is a popular PHP development platform that is well known for its clean design and the active user community. Gitlab is one of the most popular source code repository and collaborative software development platforms. This article outlines how to use Gitlab’s pipelines with Laravel projects.

First you will need to declare the main stages in the pipelines process such as: Build, Test and Deploy.

Build (Preparation and Setup)

The instructions below assume that you have docker installed an understand how it works with Gitlab. If you are unsure, take a look at our blog on setting up docker.

The steps for preparation and setup are:

Setup a Docker Container Image

GitLab CI/CD (https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/) allows to use Docker (https://www.docker.com/) engine to handle the process of testing and deploying an application so you'll have to pickup a base Docker image to use or create one. There are many Docker images available for PHP/Laravel applications. For example, the official PHP Docker image (https://hub.docker.com/_/php).

Once a container is created and a Dockerfile if placed in the root directory of your app you'll need to set up the GitLab Container Registry, build an image and place it there for later use.

To set up the Container Registry on your GitLab project repository navigate to the Registry tab or if you can't find it you may need to enable it for your project under your project’s Settings > General > Visibility, project features, permissions.

Fist you will need to sign in to the GitLab registry using your GitLab username and password. Given the Docker is installed on our machine, you will need to run the following commands:

docker login registry.gitlab.com

Then you can build and push your image to GitLab:

docker build -t registry.gitlab.com// .

docker push registry.gitlab.com//

Now you can use this image in order to build and test your application with GitLab CI/CD which requires a file called .gitlab-ci.yml created in the repository’s root starting with the following commands to use the image previously registered:

image: registry.gitlab.com//:latest

Add additional services to your GitLab pipeline.

The approach of adding multiple services to your GitLab pipeline depends on the specific needs of your project, and both the services keyword and Docker Compose (https://docs.docker.com/compose/) have their own advantages.

The services keyword is a simpler approach that allows you to easily add a limited number of services to your GitLab pipeline. It's suitable when you only need a few simple services, such as a database or cache server, and you don't need to manage them in a more complex way. The services keyword is also a built-in feature of GitLab and doesn't require you to install any additional tools or write any additional configuration files.

On the other hand, docker-compose provides more flexibility and functionality in managing multiple services. It allows you to define complex service configurations, such as multiple versions of a service, networks, volumes, and dependencies. Additionally, you can easily manage your services using docker-compose commands, which can simplify your pipeline's configuration.

Overall, if you have a more complex application architecture and need to manage multiple services, using docker-compose would be a better approach. However, if you only need to use a few simple services and want a quick and easy solution, the services keyword is a suitable option. It's important to choose the approach that best fits the needs of your project.

Here's an example of how to add a MySQL service to a GitLab CI/CD pipeline for a Laravel application using the services keyword:

services:

- mysql:latest

variables:

MYSQL_DATABASE: my_app_db

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: example

DB_HOST: mysql

DB_USERNAME: root

DB_PASSWORD: example

In this example, we use the services keyword to specify the MySQL Docker image that will be started alongside the primary image.

Next, we define some environment variables that are used to configure our Laravel application to connect to the MySQL service. We set the MYSQL_DATABASE variable to the name of the database that we want to create, and MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD to the password that we want to set for the root user. We also set the DB_HOST, DB_USERNAME, and DB_PASSWORD variables to configure Laravel's database connection.

Install application dependencies (packages required by Laravel framework) :

To install dependencies required by Laravel framework in GitLab pipeline, you can use the composer package manager. Here's an example:

script:

- apt-get update && apt-get install -y git unzip

- curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

- composer install --prefer-dist --no-ansi --no-interaction --no-progress

In this example, we first install some dependencies that are required to run composer. We then download and install composer itself. Finally, we run composer install to install the dependencies required by Laravel, using some additional flags to improve the performance of the installation.

Set up the Laravel application environment and generate an environment key:

To pass database credentials to the .env file of a Laravel application in a GitLab pipeline, you can use GitLab's CI/CD variables mentioned above to store the sensitive information and then use them in the pipeline script to update the .env file with the correct credentials.

Here's an example of how you might do this:

In your GitLab project's settings, navigate to "CI/CD" and "Variables". Here, you can add variables for your database credentials, such as DB_HOST, DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, and DB_PASSWORD.

In your .gitlab-ci.yml file, add a job to update the .env file with the database credentials. Here's an example:

build:

stage: build

script:

- cp .env.example .env

- php artisan key:generate

- sed -i "s/DB_HOST=.*/DB_HOST=${DB_HOST}/" .env

- sed -i "s/DB_DATABASE=.*/DB_DATABASE=${DB_DATABASE}/" .env

- sed -i "s/DB_USERNAME=.*/DB_USERNAME=${DB_USERNAME}/" .env

- sed -i "s/DB_PASSWORD=.*/DB_PASSWORD=${DB_PASSWORD}/" .env

In this example, we define our database credentials as CI/CD variables. In the build job, we copy the .env.example file to create a new .env file, generate a new application key, and then use sed to update the database credentials in the .env file.

Note that the sed commands in the example replace the entire line that starts with DB_HOST=, DB_DATABASE=, DB_USERNAME=, or DB_PASSWORD= with the corresponding value from the CI/CD variables. If your .env file has a different format, you may need to adjust the sed commands accordingly.

Set up the Database and run Migrations:

In a GitLab pipeline, it's recommended to create the database and run migrations before running the tests and deploying the application. This ensures that the database schema is up-to-date with the codebase and that the tests are running against the latest database schema.

The steps involved in creating the database and running migrations may vary depending on the specific requirements of your application and the tools you're using. However, typically, this would involve running the following commands in your pipeline:

Create the database (if it doesn't already exist):

mysql -u -p -e "CREATE DATABASE "

Note: Replace , , and with the appropriate values for your database.

2) Run the migrations:

php artisan migrate --force

You can add these commands to your pipeline's before_script section, so they are run before any other commands in the pipeline.

Setup GitLab Cache and Artifacts (https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/caching/#cache-vs-artifacts).

GitLab provides a caching mechanism that can be used to speed up your pipeline by caching files and dependencies between pipeline runs. You can also use artifacts to pass data between jobs in the pipeline. For example:

cache:

paths:

- vendor

In this example, we add the vendor directory to the paths section of the cache configuration. This will cache the vendor directory between pipeline runs.

In the build job, we run the same build steps as before, but we don't install dependencies using composer because we can use the cached vendor directory.

By caching the vendor directory, you can significantly speed up your pipeline and avoid the need to reinstall dependencies on each pipeline run.

A GitLab pipeline executes several jobs, stage by stage, with the help of automated code. A continuous integration pipeline involves building something from the scratch and testing the same in a development environment.

Test (Syntax and Security Checks)

One of the advantages of using a pipeline is the ability to run a series of tests before code is deployed to the main codeline. Examples include tests for things like unit code functionality, syntax and security.

There are a lot of syntax checkers out there, some of the ones we like are:

PHP-CS-Fixer (https://github.com/PHP-CS-Fixer/PHP-CS-Fixer)

You can install it using Composer and it has a .php_cs config file that you can commit to your repository. Run php-cs-fixer fix to check and fix all issues in your repository.

StyleCI (https://github.com/PHP-CS-Fixer/PHP-CS-Fixer)

Laravel Framework uses StyleCI to automatically check for code style issues on new commits and pull requests. It can notify you when it finds issues, automatically send fixes through pull requests, and automatically commit fixes. However, it is free only for open-source projects.

PHP Code Sniffer (https://github.com/squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer)

PHP Code sniffer (phpcs) is a style checker which ships with various popular PHP styles such as PEAR, PSR2 etc. It can check for indentation, missing comments, naming conventions, etc. and also includes phpcbf, a program that can automatically fix some problems.

PHP Mess Detector (https://phpmd.org/)

PHP Mess Detector (phpmd) checks for code smells: awkward, overcomplicated or unused code and ships with several built-in rules than can be enabled or disabled.

To illustrate an example of how to setup a syntax checker in the pipeline will we use PHP-CS-Fixer:

php-cs-:

stage: test

dependencies:

- composer

script:

- ./vendor/bin/php-cs-fixer fix --config=.php_cs.php --verbose --diff --dry-run

There are also many examples of security checkers available. Some of the ones we like are:

Local PHP Security Checker (https://github.com/fabpot/local-php-security-checker)

It is a Go based command line tool that checks if your PHP application depends on PHP packages with known security vulnerabilities. Published by Fabien Potencier (fabpot) a founder of the Symfony project. It uses the Security Advisories Database behind the scenes (https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories). This directory is updated daily with the latest CVEs and is a great place to start checking.

SAST Analyzer based on phpcs-security-audit (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security-products/analyzers/phpcs-security-audit)

This analyzer is a wrapper around phpcs-security-audit, a set of PHP CodeSniffer rules that finds vulnerabilities and weaknesses related to security in PHP code.

To illustrate an example of how to setup a security checker in the pipeline we will use Fabpot’s local-php-security-checker. This can be integrated into your container and run within your CI environment using the following steps:

# Releases https://github.com/fabpot/local-php-security-checker/releases

ARG URL="https://github.com/fabpot/local-php-security-checker/releases/download/v2.0.6/local-php-security-checker_2.0.6_linux_amd64"

RUN apk add --no-cache wget

RUN wget -O local-php-security-checker $URL

RUN chmod +x ./local-php-security-checker

RUN mv ./local-php-security-checker /usr/local/bin/

script:

- local-php-security-checker

Test (Unit Tests)

Unit Testing is the process of checking small pieces of code to speed your testing strategies. These unit tests are automated to reduce time for overall testing and improve the reliability of the system. As code is added to new systems it’s possible to break previously created tasks. Adding these unit tests to the build process allows programmers to catch errors before they make it into the main codeline.

Examples of unit test frameworks are:

PHPStan (https://phpstan.org/)

PHPStan is PHP Static Analysis Tool which focuses on finding errors in your code without actually running it. It catches whole classes of bugs even before you write tests for the code.

PHPUnit (https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/phpunit)

PHPUnit is a unit testing framework for the PHP programming language. Laravel uses PHPUnit for tests by default.

We will use both Larastan (a PHPStan wrapper for Laravel - https://github.com/nunomaduro/larastan) to perform static analysis on the projects and PHPUnit to run the Unit Tests:

phpunit:

stage: test

script:

- phpunit --coverage-text –colors=never

- vendor/bin/phpstan

Deploy (Deployment)

Deployment is when the code is push into the main codeine and out to a staging or production server. For convenience we'll only work with the staging job for now since it will be very similar to the production job.

First, we will need to initialize an SSH connection by doing the following:

Create a new SSH key pair locally on our machine.
Give the public key to our server.
Give the private key to GitLab using secret variables.
Use that private key in our pipelines.

Once it’s done, we can deploy the application to the staging host.

There are a few deployment tools available to manage the process:

Laravel Envoy (https://laravel.com/docs/9.x/envoy)

Laravel Envoy is a tool for executing common tasks you run on your remote servers. Using Blade style syntax, you can easily setup tasks for deployment, Artisan commands, and more.

Deployer (https://github.com/deployphp/deployer)

Deployer is a PHP package that provides automatic server provisioning, zero downtime deployments, rolling back to a previous release, and ready-to-use recipes for the major frameworks and some PHP applications.

We will use Deployer:

First, we need to install Deployer:

composer require deployer/deployer:^7.0

Next, we will initialize Deployer and choose the Laravel project recipe which will auto-generate a deploy.yaml or deploy.php configuration file:

dep init

Now you can look through the deploy file and change all the needed params to the configuration of your application.

We have already installed Deployer, installed SSL certificates to the staging server, and made the deployment script, so finally it is time to pull it all together and make the first deployment to staging:

dep deploy

You should see a new folder structure in your host, where it has releases folder. Deployer syncs your code to your server, runs your tasks and then creates a symlink which links the current to the enabled release.

If anything goes wrong, you can always roll back to the previously deployed version:

dep rollback

The post Using Laravel with Gitlab Pipelines appeared first on JIG Technologies.

Setting Up Docker

Kostyantyn Shakhov — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 17:47:39 +0000

How To Set Up Docker

This article has been written as a quick set of instructions on how to set up Docker. We’ve included setup steps for both Windows and Linux below.

Windows setup

Install Docker Desktop:

Download and install Docker Desktop from the Docker website. You can download it from the following link: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop

Configure Docker:

Once Docker Desktop is installed, open it and configure it as per your system requirements

1. Open Docker Desktop:

Once Docker Desktop is installed, open it.

2. Go to Settings:

Click on the Docker icon in the system tray and then click on "Settings".

3. Configure Resources:

In the "Settings" window, click on "Resources" from the left-hand side menu. Here, you can configure the CPU, memory, and disk space that Docker can use.

4. Configure Shared Drives:

If you want to access files on your local machine from Docker containers, you need to configure shared drives. Click on "Shared Drives" from the left-hand side menu, and then select the drive(s) you want to share.

5. Configure Proxies:

If you are behind a corporate firewall or proxy, you may need to configure Docker to work with it. Click on "Proxies" from the left-hand side menu, and then configure the proxy settings as per your requirements.

6. Save Changes:

After configuring Docker as per your system requirements, click on "Apply & Restart" to save the changes.

After the above is completed, skip down the General Gitlab Setup Section below

Ubuntu Linux Setup

1. Update the package index:

sudo apt-get update

2. Install the necessary packages to allow apt to use a repository over HTTPS:

sudo apt-get install \ apt-transport-https \ ca-certificates \ curl \ gnupg-agent \ software-properties-common

3. Add Docker's official GPG key:

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add –

4. Add the Docker repository to your system:

sudo add-apt-repository \ "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \ $(lsb_release -cs) \ stable"

5. Update the package index again:

sudo apt-get update

6. Install Docker:

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

7. Verify that Docker is installed and running:

sudo docker run hello-world

This command will download a test image and run a container using it. If everything is working correctly, you should see a message indicating that Docker is installed and running properly.

Click Here After the above is completed to skip down to the General Gitlab Setup Section below.

Genal GitLab Setup

1. Create a GitLab Repository:

Create a new repository on GitLab that you want to use with Docker.

2. Clone the Repository:

Clone the repository to your local machine using a Git client or using the command line.

3. Create a Dockerfile:

Create a new file in the repository and name it Dockerfile. The Dockerfile contains instructions for building a Docker image.

4. Build the Docker Image:

Run the following command in the command prompt to build the Docker image:

docker build -t .

Replace with the name of the image you want to create. The "." at the end of the command specifies that the build context is the current directory.

5. Tag the Docker image with the GitLab registry URL:
For example, if your GitLab registry is hosted at gitlab.example.com, you would tag the image like this:

docker tag //: Replace with the name of your Docker image, with the URL of your GitLab registry, with the name of your GitLab project, and with the tag you want to use for the image.

6. Run the Docker Image:
Once the image is built, you can run it using the following command:

docker run

Replace with the name of the image you created in step 6.

7. Push the Docker Image to GitLab:

After you have tested the Docker image locally, you can push it to GitLab using the following commands:

docker push //

Replace with the URL of your GitLab registry, with the name of your GitLab project, with the name of your Docker image.

The post Setting Up Docker appeared first on JIG Technologies.

How A Custom Software Development Company Works

Kelly Noussis — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 18:08:45 +0000

CUSTOM SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

1. Introduction
2. What a Software Development Company Does
3. What are the different stages of the software development life cycle, from planning and design to implementation and maintenance.
4. What Software Companies Have Offices in Canada?
5. Which Company is Best for Custom Software Development? What you should look out for.
6. Tips for Businesses Seeking a Software Development Company

Introduction:

Finding the right custom software development partner is important for businesses so they can achieve their goals and objectives through custom software solutions.

Through customization of business software, an organization can target the specific and unique requirements of their business or industry and improve efficiency, productivity and profitability. Even within the same industries, no two businesses are alike and therefore building software solutions that answer to your specific tech flow can be a complete game changer. Working with a custom software development partner gives business access to specialized expertise and knowledge as well as the latest trends. The collaborative process between developers and their business partners is a process of close collaboration, understanding and informed feedback.

Any solution that provides a business with the upper hand gives them a competitive advantage by enabling them to stand out in their industry or in their community. Streamlining operations, providing better customer service experiences, increasing participation from community members or constituents, will differentiate your organization in your market.

Custom software solutions can also help businesses and organization stay ahead of regulatory compliance and security compliance which is particularly important in healthcare, finance, government and nonprofit industries.

What a Software Development Company Does:

Software development companies create custom software solutions for businesses and organizations that help them improve their business processes. This can include software targeting their marketing departments, accounting, fulfillment, donor portals, volunteer portals or all of these things and more at once. Software development companies like us, provide our expertise, technology and software development services to design, develop and deploy software applications that meet the requirements of specific businesses or industries.

Our team of software developers, project managers, designer and quality assurance professionals work collaboratively with the business or organization stakeholder/board to understand their requirements, preferences and goals. We facilitate this process and leverage our expertise and industry knowledge to ensure we provide the best, most affordable tech solutions to our partners.

It is important that software developers conduct detailed analysis of their partners requirements, including their workflow, data needs, security and compliance requirements and any other specific needs or challenges they may face. Based on this analysis developers will create a software design plan that outlines things like scope, functionality, and the required technology stack to build the application or process.

Once this information is collected and the requirements understood, the software development company will begin the development. This is a systematic process that uses methodologies distinct to the software development company, an iterative process that is done in collaboration with the business or organization. Working closely together ensures that the software will meet the requirements of business.

Once the custom software application is completed development, the software development company will deploy and maintain the software, providing ongoing technical support and maintenance services to ensure that the software continues to function effectively and meet the business's need.

What are the different stages of the software development life cycle, from planning and design to implementation and maintenance.

Discovery Phase
Here the project is defined at a high level. This includes a project charter, an evaluation of the clients’ needs and some preliminary discussion regarding possible technology and design options. This is meant to set expectations, scope, and project organization so that the execution runs smoothly.

The first step of this process is to develop a project charter to analyze and properly scope the project. This is a necessary and important step in the process as it sets the tone for strategic direction. It ensures that both parties understand what is to be accomplished and where the project will go in a formal, written document that has received the necessary sign-offs.

This phase begins with a kick-off meeting and is finalized shortly thereafter with a Project Charter document.

• Deliverable: Project Charter

Requirements and Design Phase
In this stage, the initial design, business and functional requirements are flushed out in detail. This includes deliverables such as the creative exploration, information architecture (sitemap), technology design and confirmation of the target audience’s goals being met.

As well, overall system architectures, and application development environments will be engineered during this phase to ensure business objectives are being met. The software developer would augment the documentation provided with further details to ensure a clear understanding from both sides.

The first step of this process is the creative exploration. This is where the software developer leads an initiative to gather information about brand, look, tone, manner and target audiences with their objectives. This provides the clear, creative direction and guidelines to ensure the needs of all target audiences are met. For this project this may be an optional step.

The sitemap and creative exploration process will allow several design concepts will be created. The design concepts will illustrate workflow, layout, functionality, and structure of content. This is where the business or organization has the fun of reviewing some great designs and picking their favourite aspects of each. Feedback from the business about the overall impression will provide direction for the next phase.

The requirements phase will also include technology architecture development. The software developer will advise on the most appropriate technology to use and identify the platforms this will run on. Many companies provide a technology solution before the business requirements are fully understood, thereby resulting in a solution that is less than optimal.

An experienced software development company does not steer the business into a specific technology, but instead understands the business and implements the best technology for the task at hand.

To ensure the functional requirements are fully understood storyboards are used. These case and activity diagrams help flesh out the details. In addition, the software developer will create a data model to support the application before development starts to ensure the system is fully modelled.

• Deliverable: Storyboards, Data Model, Activity Diagram, Use Cases, Sitemap, Technology Architecture, Test Platform List

Development Phase

The development phase is where the website or application is built and/or configured. This includes the graduated implementation of features. During this process, the client has the means to verify and give feedback on the progress being made.

Communication through weekly status reports, web-based task tracking and change request logs are used to keep the client well informed.
The application or software will be put through Quality Assurance cycles to test against design specifications and functional cases and procedures generated for the project. The client will contribute to the Quality Assurance by participating in the user acceptance segment of the test plan.

Deployment Phase
Deployment is done in a controlled and organized fashion with the facilitation of a staging environment that is identical to production. Nothing will be deployed until it has been fully approved by the client on the staging site. This is done to ensure that application acts in a reliable fashion. This phase is where documentation and training will be provided if part of the project.

Maintenance Phase
During this phase the software developer will run a post-launch review to ensure that the client is satisfied with the results. As well, the software developers will be able to provide all services necessary including updating, supporting and extending the application as may be required and to ensure continued satisfaction.

Each stage is critical for the successful development and deployment of a software application. A structured approach to software development by the software development company can ensure the success their business partners sought.

What Software Companies Have Offices in Canada?

The software development industry in Canada is a growing and dynamic sector that plays a vital role in the country's economy. Canada has a highly skilled workforce, a strong research and development infrastructure, and a business-friendly environment, making it an attractive destination for software development companies.

From startups to large enterprises, the software development industry has a broad range of players, including companies specializing in mobile app development, web development, enterprise software, gaming, and AI and machine learning.

Some of the largest software development companies in Canada include CGI Group, OpenText, and BlackBerry, which have a significant presence in the country and employ thousands of workers.

Canada has a thriving startup ecosystem, with numerous technology incubators and accelerators that support emerging software development companies. These incubators and accelerators provide mentorship, funding, and other resources to help startups grow and succeed.

In recent years, the Canadian government has taken steps to support the software development industry, including investing in research and development, offering tax incentives to businesses, and providing funding to support innovation.
The software development industry in Canada is also known for its high quality and innovation, with many companies specializing in cutting-edge technologies such as AI, blockchain, and cybersecurity.

Which Company is Best for Custom Software Development? What you should look out for.

Technical expertise: The software development company should have the technical expertise and experience in developing custom software solutions that meet the specific needs of the business. The company should have a team of skilled developers, designers, and project managers who are proficient in the latest technologies and development methodologies.

Industry experience: The software development company should have experience in the industry that the business operates in. This will ensure that the software solution developed by the company is aligned with the business's goals and objectives.

Communication and collaboration: The software development company should have a collaborative approach to working with clients. They should be able to communicate effectively and understand the business's needs and requirements to ensure that the software solution meets their needs.

Development methodology: The software development company should have a well-defined development methodology, such as Agile or Scrum, to ensure that the development process is iterative and collaborative. This will allow the business to have input throughout the development process and ensure that the final product meets their needs.

Quality assurance: The software development company should have a robust quality assurance process in place to ensure that the software solution is of high quality and functions as expected. This includes rigorous testing and debugging to identify and resolve any issues before deployment.

Support and maintenance: The software development company should provide ongoing support and maintenance services to ensure that the software solution remains up-to-date and continues to meet the business's needs. This includes bug fixes, updates, and technical support.

Cost and timeline: The software development company should provide a clear and transparent pricing model and timeline for the development process. This will ensure that the business understands the cost and timeline involved in developing the custom software solution and can plan accordingly.

By considering these tips and criteria, businesses can select a reliable and experienced software development company that can provide them with a custom software solution that meets their specific needs and requirements.

Tips for Businesses Seeking a Software Development Company

Researching and choosing a custom software development company requires careful consideration and evaluation of various factors. Here are some steps to follow when conducting research to choose the right software development partner:

Define your requirements: Before starting your research, define your software development requirements, including the project scope, budget, and timeline. This will help you to narrow down your search and focus on companies that have experience in your industry and can meet your specific needs.

Look for referrals and recommendations: Seek referrals and recommendations from other businesses in your industry, industry groups, or online forums. This will help you to gather valuable insights and feedback on the software development companies that they have worked with and their experience.

Review company websites and portfolios: Visit the websites and portfolios of potential software development companies to get an understanding of their technical capabilities, services, and industry experience. This will help you to identify companies that have experience in your industry and can meet your specific requirements.

Check online reviews and ratings: Check online reviews and ratings on platforms such as Clutch, Google, or Glassdoor to get an understanding of the reputation of the software development companies you are considering. This will help you to identify companies with positive reviews and ratings and avoid those with negative feedback.

Evaluate the company's technical skills and expertise: Schedule a call or meeting with the software development company to discuss your requirements and evaluate their technical skills and expertise. This will help you to assess their ability to understand your requirements and provide you with a custom software solution that meets your specific needs.

Check for quality assurance and support: Check the company's quality assurance and support process to ensure that they have a rigorous testing and debugging process and provide ongoing support and maintenance after deployment.

Consider cost and timeline: Consider the cost and timeline of the software development process and ensure that it aligns with your budget and timeline. This will help you to select a software development company that can provide you with a custom software solution within your budget and timeline.

By following these steps, you can conduct thorough research and choose the right software development partner that can provide you with a custom software solution that meets your specific needs and requirements.

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Laravel Security Best Practices

Kostyantyn Shakhov — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 14:34:14 +0000

LARAVEL SECURITY BEST PRACTICES

Laravel is a popular PHP development platform that is well known for its clean design and the active user community. Laravel is fairly secure by default because whenever a loophole is discovered, the maintenance team addresses it quickly. But, like any other software platform it’s only as secure as the implementation.

Laravel being a development framework, will not secure your servers or operating system. It will only help secure the application being built. The focus of this article is to provide the security best practices for the implementation of a Laravel framework. In this article, we will cover some of the best practices when it comes to securing your Laravel application.

Laravel Authentication System

Many web applications provide a way for their users to authenticate with the application and "login". Laravel provides tools to implement authentication quickly, securely, and easily. Through the use of ‘guards’ and ‘providers’ as its tools, login security is built right in. Guards define how users are authenticated for each request. For example, Laravel ships with a session guard which maintains state using session storage and cookies. Providers assists in bringing the users session back from the data storage. Using these tools will help ensure secure logins.

To further easy the implementation of a login framework, there are also Laravel Starter Kits with much of the login framework built and ready to go.

Protection against XSS, SQL Injection, and CSRF

Cross Site Scripting (XSS)

During XSS attacks, the attacker enters JavaScript into your website typically through a text form for a blog or some other input. This script on the page, whenever new visitors will access the affected page, the script will be executed with malicious impact.

Laravel's Blade templating engine offers native support of echo statements {{ }} that automatically escape variables using the htmlspecialchars PHP function to protect against XSS attacks so any commands are outputted as HTML instead of executing on the page.

SQL Injection

Laravel’s Eloquent ORM (object relational mapping) uses PDO (PHP Data Objects) binding that protects from SQL injections. Similar to the XSS example above, this feature will alter the strings that get inserted into the database ensuring the intent of your SQL queries can not be modified externally.

As an example, a search form pull records based upon users’ email address from a database. While normally the form would get an email address, but if the user typed in something like “sample@example.com' or 1=1”, the SQL query is modified to:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE email ='sample@example.com' or 1=1

This would allow for all the users to be retrieved by SQL injection.

When the PDO parameter binding is in place, the input is in quotes and the query will look like:

SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = 'sample@example.com or 1=1'

Since no records will match with either the email or the “1=1”, the query will not return anything.

Laravel provides other ways of talking to databases, such as raw SQL queries. But both Eloquent ORM and the Query Builder provide automatic protection against SQL injections by adding param binding by default.

Cross-Site-Request-Forgery (CSRF)

For the purpose of protecting the system from third parties trying to generate faulty requests externally, Laravel Security utilizes CSRF tokens.

Whenever a request comes from a submitted form or through an AJAX call, this platform creates and then combines an appropriate token into it. In Blade, you can use the directive @csrf to generate this token.

When this occurs, the Laravel Security Scanner tries to figure out if the saved request during a user’s session is the same second time around.

In case the token is not a match, the security features invalidate the request automatically and cancel the command.

Protecting Cookies, Password Vulnerabilities, Laravel Encryption and Hashing

Like many secured sources of data one would want to keep passwords and potentially data in cookies private. Thus there is data in these systems that can be stored in a way to make it unreadable if obtained by an unwanted hacker. The two systems which are part of the Laravel framework for this are hashing and encryption.

Both hashing and encryption take the plain text data and convert it into a form that is not easily transformed back into its original form. The default hash mechanism in Laravel, uses Argon2 and Bcrypt. This hashing function protects the sensitive data and all passwords properly. The Laravel encryption services provide an additional level of security over hashing by the use of a message authentication code (MAC). The MAC provides an additional check so that that their underlying value can not be modified or tampered with once encrypted.

With these mechanisms passwords and cookies can store private information that is not easily obtained even if captured by another.

Prevent DOS (Denial of Service) Attack

DOS attacks are continue to become more prevalent. These are attached where hackers will send a high volume of requests to disrupt service or use brute force attacks to get into the server with many combinations. These types of attacks can be divided into two popular categories:

DOS Attacks That Send a Lot of Requests

These attacks would send a lot of web requests that try to keep the connection open for as long as possible. The server memory eventually gets full, resulting in our server going down. One example of this is a slow loris attack.

Laravel has a built in Rate Limiter to help us handle these attacks by IP. This helps lessen the impact of these types of attacks. However, it’s often used in conjunction with tools like Fail2Ban to stop requests earlier at the server's firewall level to lessen the load at the application level.

Another example is when a lot of requests are sent to a form trying many combinations to hack into or disrupt the server. To help avoid malicious requests from bots, you can set a hidden input. The bots would fill the input (a normal user should not fill a hidden input), and then you can use the prohibited validation rule from Laravel validator:

// this input should never comes in the request 'honey_pot_field' => ['prohibited'],

DOS Attacks That Send Large Files to Consume the Server Memory

Another variety of a DOS attack could be in a public form to submit a file. Having many large files submitted can exhaust the server memory.

To handle this attack, you can use the Laravel API security validator to validate the file from the request. Here is an example:

// file max size is 512 kilobytes.. 'photo' => ['mimes:jpg,bmp,png', 'file', 'max:512']

Conclusion

While Laravel has some security features built in, they need to be used and implemented to make the system secure. This introduction to the security aspects of Laravel allows you to get a better understanding of what’s available. We hope this provides a useful guide to making your Laravel systems a little bit more secure.

The post Laravel Security Best Practices appeared first on JIG Technologies.

Why is Laravel Used?

Shawn Bedard — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 15:37:22 +0000

Why is Laravel Used?

Why We Use Laravel?

There are hundreds of backend frameworks out there. So, why have we decided to use Laravel amongst all the choices. In this article we’ll go over why we chose to move forward with this framework as our primary platform for web applications.

Who Uses Laravel Framework?

There is power in numbers, especially when it comes to open-source software. It’s not uncommon for less popular frameworks to lose popularity and eventually lose support. This leaves applications at risk and potentially unsecure.

Laravel is the most popular backend framework in the world today. It’s not only the most popular PHP framework, it’s the most popular framework of all technologies. This popularity ensures that there will be great support from the community for a long time to come. As well, many developers know and love it, so we’ll always be able to source great talent for our projects.

How Easy is Laravel?

When compared to other frameworks, Laravel is easy to learn. Laravel has an expressive and elegant syntax, but it’s simple and quick to understand even for new developers. Since it is based upon the very common model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern many will be familiar with its structure right away.

What Laravel is Used For?

Modules and Templates

Laravel offers a wide range of libraries, tools, and templates. With its popularity new components are being created every day. There is even a built-in templating system called Blade. This is a lightweight template engine, which allows developers to create a web page easily using dynamic content seeding. This intuitive tool also provides multiple widgets for a robust and stable structure.

Is Laravel Trending?

Related to popularity is trend. Is this a framework gaining popularity or losing it? Laravel was not always so popular, but it has gained more popularity in the past few years. While there has been some concern about PHP being a dying technology for many years, the language continues to defy predictions as it still runs over 77% of sites today.

What Laravel Can Do?

Automation

Laravel comes with an assortment of utilities to assist in the production and deployment of applications. One example is the automation tool Artisan. This is Laravel’s powerful built-in command line tool used for automating repetitive tasks and managing database migration. This tool also provides the opportunity to create custom commands and perform tests in the development environment.

Why Laravel is Used?

Security

With all the breaches as of late, security is a topic of keen interest. Security in the development framework is no exception. While nothing is 100% secure, Laravel has strong security built in. Its CSRF token can thwart many online threats, protecting the web application. The framework’s security ecosystem also includes strong community support and tutorials to help developers build applications that are more secure.

Is Laravel Good for Testing?

Ensuring programs are reliable is important and the framework is a large part of that. A framework to support good testing goes a long way towards ensuring reliability. Laravel uses PHPUnit to integrate testing quickly and seamlessly into any web development process. This makes it easy to identify and correct any issues before they become a costly problem. The system automatically sets the testing environment, but developers can easily define other testing configuration values as necessary.

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IT Planning and Assessments for Your Nonprofit

Kelly Noussis — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 18:31:16 +0000

IT Planning and Assessment For Your Nonprofit

How IT Planning and Assessments can help your organization meet its mission goals and bring you peace of mind

Nonprofits build strong communities. They are core to our economic stability and facilitate healthy forward momentum for those who use their services.

Technology is a nonprofit’s greatest ally. The tools provided by healthy and secure technology environment are essential in achieving important mission goals. Not only does technology ensure fast, secure and transparent operations in your organization, but it also helps to reach wider audiences of donors, volunteers and constituents.

Having an IT Plan and Assessment is important for several reasons:

It allows you to approach IT in a strategic and proactive way
It allows you to become a smart and savvy IT decision maker
Give you the understanding to save cases and invest in beneficial IT
Ensure your organization is using its existing technology in smarter ways
Implements a roadmap for building on your technology foundation in a direction that benefits your organization in the most cost-effective way
Provides security in case of emergencies or unexpected failures

These are a lot of things to consider for the person who gets assigned the task of managing IT in your organization.

A typical business might have roles such as Chief Information Officers, Chief Technical Officers and so on. There might be rolls for people who specifically deal with data governance and data security.

Most nonprofits do not have budgets to include this fantastic array of specialists to manage all the things.

A typical nonprofit might have people assigned to certain rolls, “IT Manager” or “System Administrator” but may not have the adequate skills or support to perform these roles simply due to time and resources.

Without the necessary support, technology can be accumulated with extra cost and little benefit. Quick fixes sometimes come in the way of 3^rd party services and technology, cloud applications and subscriptions-based apps which may solve the problem temporarily but are rarely kept track of and can lead to needless spending. Further to that, with only one or two people at the helm of this great big technology machine, it is very difficult to ensure policies, procedures and maintain communication that is integral for security.

JIG's IT Planning and Assessment Strategy

Getting to Know You

We learn everything there is to know about how your organization works. We want to know how you work, when you work and who you work for.

Getting to Know Your Community

The more we know about who you are working for, who you are helping and what their needs are, the more we can start to envision and structure solutions and plans for you.

What are Your Constraints?

A successful plan hinges on realistic and consistent estimates for allowable resources.

What Do You Already Have?

A thorough audit of your software, hardware, servers, and the state of the devices that are attached to your network or system will ensure you get the most bang for your buck. It establishes how information (sensitive and otherwise) is being shared and protected. Security in nonprofit industries is an area of major concern.

What Are Your Options?

Researching affordable technology that has the greatest reach within your organization. Finding the tools and equipment that are scalable and secure. Whether that’s CRMs, donation portals or data storage, there is something out there that fits everyone.

Who Will Use This Technology?

Training is important and removes technology barriers that would otherwise create inequality in your organization. Whether it’s volunteers, staff, stakeholders, constituents, everyone requires accessible interaction with your services and technology.

How Will This All Fall Into Place?

Depending on your unique needs and the urgency required, a timeline and schedule will be developed to implement all these phases in comfortable roll-out that makes sure nobody is left behind. The lifecycle is designed to move your organization in an upward direction at your own pace and within budget.

Are We Ready?

Things are finalized, prepared. Policy and procedure documents have the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed.

Off We Go!

We put the plan into action.

A firm IT plan will remove the confusion and uncertainty about the technology goals of your organization. It will reduce stress, uncontrolled costs, provide transparency and most importantly in many cases, security.

Technology is your greatest ally in this mission to build a better world and we want to make sure we can help provide you with that peace of mind.

The post IT Planning and Assessments for Your Nonprofit appeared first on JIG Technologies.

Fear Machine Learning

Zach Bedard — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 20:29:13 +0000

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have brought us to the point where systems are using a combination of algorithms, analysis, and experience to learn and program themselves without human intervention.

For instance:

[bctt tweet=”38% of consumers believe that AI will improve customer service;”]
AI is seen as the second biggest upcoming marketing trend;
And, according to Adobe, 47% of companies using advanced digital practices have a defined AI strategy.

The biggest indicator of the AI trend may come from Monster, which reports that the three most in-demand skills on the hiring platform are machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing.

Machine Learning Trends Specific to IT

Managed IT services providers (MSPs) will be radically changed by AI skills like machine learning.

Services like business continuity and disaster recovery will be transformed by the adoption of this technology. After all, disaster – whether it be from a natural disaster, file corruption, or viruses and malware – can strike at strike at any moment.

Even your relationship with your MSP may change. Already, MSPs offer consulting services that can transform your business. Soon, those services will be further powered by these trends.

So, these trends are coming, but should you fear them? Continue reading to learn the answer.

The post Fear Machine Learning appeared first on JIG Technologies.

Custom Software vs Off The Shelf: The Pros & Cons

Zach Bedard — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 17:07:59 +0000

Should You Use an Off The Shelf Software Solution or a Custom One?

You want to be competitive and grow your business. How you manage and process data are essential factors for reaching both objectives. That’s where software comes in.

Choosing the right software to integrate into your business can be a dizzying process. There are thousands of options out there, each one promising to deliver expediency, efficiency and growth.

But there is no need to be daunted by the options. When taking the right approach, the decision will be clear.

Step 1: Define which type of software meets your business needs.

The best first step when determining your requirements is to define what your business needs and how you can give it the upper hand.

Business should always lead technology and not the other way around. Without this up-front preparation, technology will lead the business instead of the other way around.

Here are some areas you can examine to develop a picture:

Clearly define what advantages and differentiating qualities set your business apart from others.
Determine what processes can further leverage those differences and how software might assist.
Interview staff and key stakeholders to get an idea of what they’re thoughts are about the software they use
Brainstorm and ask people with knowledge to share their thoughts about software solutions in your business area.

Learn more about the impact of software on business performanc

Step 2: Define what’s needed to propel forward

Once the needs are defined in step 1, developing the flows, processes and systems needs fall into place. These should be written down and agreed to.

Some questions to guide defining those needs in addition to the above are:

Are our processes seamless and do they flow easily from one department to the next?
Are you moving fast enough to surpass your competitors?
Are you transparent enough for your clients?
Can you save money by automating certain processes?
Are you struggling with more than one type of software?

Step 3: Research your off-the-shelf software options

Armed with the knowledge of what the business needs and wants one can determine what software or collection of software to power the business on.

There are typically two options to look at:

Off the shelf pre-built software
Custom build

Off The Shelf vs Custom Software

Off the shelf software is pre-built systems the typically can’t be altered significantly. These can include software like MS Word, Salesforce or QuickBooks. Those systems tend to do what they do well and are specific purpose drive.

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These systems can feature rich, which if needed are great. If not, they can be over complicated for what the true business need is.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Off The Shelf Software

Advantages of Off The Shelf (OTS) Software:

Lower up-front cost
Contains many features, often more than you need
Support is often included or can be added with a maintenance contract
User communities and forums for support
Upgrades may be provided for free or at a reduced cost
Faster to deploy
If it’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) there is no hardware or software to install

Disadvantages of Off The Shelf (OTS) Software:

Slow to adapt or change to industry needs
May have user, transaction or other fees that can make scaling costly
Your feature request may get ignored if it doesn’t benefit the larger customer base
May require you to change your process to fit the software
May use different terminology than your business and required adjustment to a new language
Higher customization fees (proprietary software vendors often charge very high hourly fees unless they provide an open API)

Custom Software Development

Often the needs of your business are unique and off-the-shelf software doesn’t meet the needs of your business. In this case, custom software development makes a lot of sense.

More often than not, custom software developers are happy to provide you with a rough estimate for a custom build. Read our ‘finding the right fit’ article for tips in determining the right software developer for you.

Check Our Custom Software Development Case Studies

Pros of Custom Software Development:

You can start with the minimum necessary requirements and add on later. Less can be better.
Can be tailored to your exact business needs and processes
Changes can be made quickly
Matches your business language
Typically unlimited users and transaction at no extra cost
A unique solution that can potentially give a business advantage.

Cons of Custom Software Development:

High initial cost
All changes and feature requests will be billable
May incur additional costs ramping up new developers

There is a common conception that custom is always more expensive than off the shelf. While this might be the case for many consumer systems, there are many enterprise systems like SAP that run in the millions to setup and deploy.

Often customers will employ these systems and only use 5% of the functionality, when they can get all of what they need for a fraction of the price through custom development.

Hybrid Software Solutions

The hybrid solution typically involves taking an existing piece of software with access to source code and tailoring it for your unique business needs.

This would be an application with most of the features needed by the business but requires incremental changes to meet specific demands. In this way, a business can pull in the best of both worlds – having a system customized completely for their needs while leveraging functionality that has already been created.

The options in software are unlimited. This can be overwhelming and confusing. But once the needs of the business are clear, making the right chose in software also becomes easier and clear. Business before technology, not the other way around.

The post Custom Software vs Off The Shelf: The Pros & Cons appeared first on JIG Technologies.

5 Ways Software Can Slow Down Your Workflow

Zach Bedard — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 17:05:28 +0000

We all depend on software to get things done. This is especially true for businesses, with some relying on upwards of 91 cloud service applications per department – and with most of those not even certified as being “enterprise ready”. So even though a business may rely on these applications to handle day-to-day business operations, they can easily do more harm than good – and ultimately severely slow down your workflow processes.

And with only 37% of CIOs believing that most of their applications are business critical, it’s not hard to imagine that a large number of businesses are using too many applications that don’t serve their business needs. The bottom line: improperly acquired, deployed, and managed software can lead to significant workflow problems.

So why is this the case? How does software intended to improve workflow automation and bolster digital transformation end up having the reverse effect? Let’s take a look at five ways software can interfere with your business processes.

1. The Software is Outdated

Outdated software is rampant. A survey of over 100 million AVG users found that 52% of the most commonly-used programs aren’t being kept up to date.

This is problematic for several reasons. For one, non-updated software can cause system and network incompatibilities that prevent it from working properly. Older applications can suffer from serious lags, crashes, and overall performance deterioration. In turn, this leads to lost time and productivity caused by system resets/restores and potential data loss.

Most software vendors will typically end their support for outdated software. Your IT personnel won’t have access to updates and critical patches, and may have to resort to spending time manually configuring these applications to work with your existing technology.

But perhaps more importantly, older software can leave you open to serious security threats. Java, for instance, contains hundreds of known security vulnerabilities within its code, and legacy Java-based programs that no longer issue updates can leave the user exposed.

2. The Software Isn’t Aligned With Your Needs

In 1999, candy and chocolate giant Hershey’s implemented a new supply chain and distribution software system with disastrous results. Because they had selected a vendor and software suite without properly determining whether or not it would suit their needs, problems and glitches eventually cost the company approximately $100 million in losses.

With so many software options available, it’s easy to get sidetracked by factors such as price, brand, or features. Did you select the product because it was cheaper? Did it offer added features that, while useful, don’t actually add any value?

To ensure that your software choice doesn’t impact your workflow management, start with a careful analysis of your business goals and select the option that best supports the processes to get you there.

Make Sure Your Software Solution is the Right One for Your Business

3. The Software Lacks Training Resources

Even though an application may be the ideal solution for handling specific tasks, it won’t be of much use if it isn’t used. This is particularly the case with software that has a high learning curve. If it doesn’t provide access to sufficient user support and training resources, you may find that your employees will either resort to bypassing it completely or see their efficiency drop thanks to improper usage.

4. The Software Doesn’t Bridge Process Gaps

Applications are typically designed to handle specific tasks. While this isn’t a problem in itself, it can lead to issues where users have to constantly jump between separate applications to do their work. These gaps not only have a negative impact on process management, they can also reduce efficiency and increase the likelihood of human errors.

That’s why it’s important to look at your existing workflows and identify software solutions that support as many of them as possible, from end-to-end.

5. The Software Doesn’t Provide Value

Finally, does your software provide demonstrable value to your organization by improving user efficiency? With new software options coming out all the time, it’s easy to keep using software that no longer serves your need but stays in place because of user and organizational familiarity.

You may have been using Software X for the past five years, but shifting business priorities are starting to render it unnecessary. That’s why it’s critically important that you evaluate your software inventory regularly and determine whether it’s still the best choice for your day-to-day operations, or if it should be replaced.

Ensure Your Software Supports Your Workflows and Processes

Relying on software that’s outdated, inefficient, or no longer supports your business needs can have an adverse affect on your business workflows and processes. Whether you opt for commercial or custom-developed software, make sure that it aligns with your business goals and doesn’t cause bottlenecks in your operational efficiency.

Not sure if your software is right for your business? Or are you looking to learn more about how you can modernize your software to improve your business? Contact us today to learn how JIG Technologies can help with all your software needs.

The post 5 Ways Software Can Slow Down Your Workflow appeared first on JIG Technologies.

Dodging the Technology Traps that stalls growing business

Zach Bedard — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 17:03:56 +0000

We live in a world where the ever increasing accumulation of information has both helped businesses to thrive and succeed, but has also presented them with what often seems like insurmountable Information Technology traps.

Q: What should an organization do when information islands isolate each department from another? Or, when huge amounts of data are stored with no index or easy way to access it?

These are problems that thriving businesses often have to face, but rarely have the time to resolve. Information Technology shouldn’t stand in the way of a business’s growth, or muddy the view of its assets, it should be the hand that clears the way to success.

Information ISLANDS

Let’s start with some examples.

The client of a mortgage company is having a hard time convincing client services that they’ve been making extra payments because accounts receivable has no way of sharing that information with them.

Or, Radiology has no efficient way of sharing information with Emergency so a worried parent is left wondering about the peanut stuck in her son’s nose.

Or, in the case of warehouse management, there’s one system to take orders, another to track inventory, another to do billing and yet another to do specialized functions like decision support.

Special systems are designed to provide solutions for every department, but they are all done independently of each other, thus creating information islands. These islands create a communication and data gap that demands time and money to reconcile.

Many companies try and resolve this problem by reinventing their technology systems, but this often results in a loss of their initial IT investments. Furthermore, these solutions have hidden costs, such as the loss of productivity as staff adjust to new workflows, or end-user trial and error that eats into company time.

A better solution, and frequently overlooked one, is to develop an initial business strategy. Working with key business leads and qualified Technical Information Architects. A small investment of time and money can result in future savings that are multiple that of the initial investment. Even in the case where separate systems have been developed in isolation over many years, developing a strategic plan will help lessen the cost of future IT reinvention.

Communication barriers between departments dissolve, data is used more efficiently and no department is left in the dark. It is never too late to take a strategic approach!

Information blobs

With the cost of storing information being so inexpensive these days, it’s easy to accumulate and save unmanageably large quantities of data but it’s another thing altogether to make it useful to your business or organization. An information blob is a large storage of data that has no index to help group and manage that information easily.

Some examples include the fileshare dumping ground. This can be the online google drive or local network folder that the entire staff have open access to. Over time each person creates their own folder with their own files. So, if Bob wants the report that Debbie wrote he has to ask her where it is because there is no way to find it a system with thousands of folders and tens of thousands of files.

Another example is the database with lack of structure. Let’s say you have a list of donor records and you want to find all the Canadian donors. If the citizenship field is freeform, then the data entry folk will enter in different values for Canada such as CAD, Cdn, Canada, CD etc. Trying to find all the Canadian donors because a difficult task as one needs to guess all the combinations typed in to represent Canada.

Avoiding the information blob problem requires a conscious effort to organize the data in a way that is useful to the organization. What sort of information or insights does the business really need from this data? And to understand that, we need to know what kinds of questions should be asked of the system.

Once these questions are answered, the path has been cleared for a Technical Architect to be brought in and design a system that will meet all needs.

Technology is great, and having the ability to store information is fantastic! But without strategic planning the information becomes inaccessible and ultimately, useless.

It Never Hurts To Ask

If some of these symptoms seem familiar to you, or if you think your business or organization might be headed towards one of these traps, do not hesitate to contact us, your friendly, neighborhood Technical Architects.

Business comes before technology and not the other way around.

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