LinkDrip

linkdrip

Welcome to another announcement of the Startups of the Year 2023. This announcement covers all the special categories of Startups of the Year. This year, almost 30,000 startups across the globe were nominated, with over 600,000 votes cast in the running for Startup of the Year, surpassing the last award’s votes by almost 3x! Let’s see who won! Remote, Earth With 208 votes, wins the Startups of the Year, Remote, Earth! CIC Chain US Misc In  US Misc , is the winner with 1193 votes. Reship Colony Nevis Misc The startup of the year in Nevis Misc is . Spool Canada Misc The startup of the year in Canada Misc is . My Website is Online Mexico Misc The startup of the year in Mexico Misc is . Cion Digital UK, Misc , a 3D interactive parts catalog and work instructions SaaS platform software for OEM’s, wins! Partful Germany Misc Developing services to connect people all around the world tomorrowSpace Italy Misc comes out as the winner in with 37 votes! Planny Italy Greece Misc , in the cloud computing, AI, and data industry wins! The Signal Group Spain Misc is the winner in with 52 votes! Vertiports Network Spain Finland Misc wins in with 101 votes! Ikius Finland Russia Misc The Startup of the Year in is with 22 votes! Russia RentProg Georgia Misc is the winner in ! Constant Cash Offer Georgia Sweden Misc earns 209 votes to become the Startup of the Year in ! Intergiro Sweden Romania Misc The winner in is ! Romania ReactiveDoc Czech Republic Misc wins in the ! ISIA Czech Republic Lithuania Misc The winner in is ! Lithuania SearchNode Estonia Misc The winner in is ! Estonia Nerian Network Norway Misc wins in ! Utleieappen Norway Poland Misc is the winner in ! Zencal Poland Portugal Misc The winner in is ! Portugal Accelerator App Ukraine Misc The winner in is the ! Ukraine Crypto Cossacks Club Iceland Misc wins in with 89 votes! JSON2Video Iceland Hungary Misc wins in ! SURVIOT Hungary Ireland Misc In , the Startup of the Year is ! Ireland Payzaar Guernsey Misc The Startup of the Year in is ! Guernsey Infinite Canvas Malta Misc With 86 points, becomes the Startup of the Year in ! Metaverse Architects Malta Slovenia Misc is the Startup of the Year in ! d.labs Slovenia Luxembourg Misc With 57 votes, takes home the cake in ! Greenworlder Luxembourg Bulgaria Misc wins in ! iBlueMenú Bulgaria Macedonia Misc earns 88 votes to become the Startup of the Year in ! PlaceWar Macedonia Monaco Misc is the winner in ! InnoDeep Monaco Switzerland Misc in the MarketingTech Industry wins! LinkDrip Bosnia And Herzegovina Misc is the winner in ! Robinize Bosnia And Herzegovina Belgium Misc , a global network and marketplace for requesting and providing specified, fresh content on demand, wins! Aviark France Misc , an agriculture software and analytics company dedicated to helping farmers produce more and better, wins! Perfarmer Austria Misc , an open-source password manager specifically designed for enterprises, wins! Vaulteron Turkey Misc in the Content Management System (CMS) Industry wins! Contentrain Australia Misc claims the victory with 111 votes! 👑 IMPAKT IT New Zeland Misc Odd Jobs claims victory with 11 votes! Singapore Misc The startup of the year in Singapore Misc is with 62 votes. Neliti Palestine Misc The startup of the year in Palestine Misc is . 3amal Malaysia Misc. The startup of the year in Malaysia Misc is . Oyen Pet Insurance Bahrain Misc The startup of the year in Bahrain Misc is . Bookr Pakistan Misc The startup of the year in Pakistan Misc is . Azal Kazakhstan Misc The startup of the year in Kazakhstan Misc is . Kazakhmys.academy Azerbaijan Misc The startup of the year in Azerbaijan Misc is . Menti Vietnam Misc The startup of the year in Vietnam Misc is . RaceFi Saudi Arabia Misc The startup of the year in Saudi Arabia Misc is . Shera Tokens Philippines Misc The startup of the year in Philippines Misc is . edamama Bangladesh Misc The startup of the year in Bangladesh Misc is . FormBold Thailand Misc The startup of the year in Thailand Misc is . HappyLand Israel Misc The startup of the year in Israel Misc is . Otterize United Arab Emirates Misc The startup of the year in UAE Misc is . The Scalable CFO India Misc The startup of the year in India Misc is . 5ire China Misc The startup of the year in China Misc is . Fairyland Indonesia Misc The startup of the year in Indonesia Misc is . Dijital Generasi Kreasi Nepal Misc The startup of the year in Nepal Misc is . StackMyStore South Korea Misc The startup of the year in South Korea Misc is . OLIVE Sri Lanka Misc The startup of the year in Sri Lanka Misc is . clovatel Hotel Suite of solution Japan Misc The startup of the year in Japan Misc is . Response insight Uganda Misc ENVENTURE is king of the hill!🎉 Anguilla Misc Kubiya is the Startup of the Year with 45 votes!🎉 Burkina Faso Misc It’s a win for GVente!🎉 Tunisia Misc No one did it like True Delta!🎉 Algeria Misc Workflow Dashboard wins!🎉 Mauritius Misc Cube Consumer Services takes home the cake.🎉 Namibia Misc 174 votes, and Billet steals the show.🎉 Ghana Misc SMS NOTIFY GHANA takes it with 41 votes!🎉 Morocco Misc After 16 votes, SafeExchange is the Startup of the Year.🎉 Kenya Misc RueSuites wins!🎉 Botswana Misc Procurement Institute App comes out on top with highest number of votes!🎉 South Africa Misc SHIFT wins it all with the highest number of votes!🎉 Egypt Misc Alva emerges as Startup of the Year.🎉 Tanzania Misc JUPITER looms largest with highest number of votes!🎉 Republic Of Congo Misc Julizha is the Startup of the Year!🎉 Ethiopia Misc BEATCARES came out on top!🎉 Mauritania Misc The Startup of the Year is 3meel 🎉 Nigeria Misc With top votes, BoomKit takes home the goods.🎉 BoomKit is in the Music Tech Industry. Rwanda Misc TodoBoard is Startup of the Year!🎉 TodoBoard is in the Enterprise Collaboration Industry Brazil Misc The winner in is with 48 votes! Brazil SleekFlow Chile Misc is the Startup of the Year in ! ApiChat Chile Panama Misc is the Startup of the Year in ! PurpUX Panama Argentina Misc is the winner in with 27 votes! Rubicom Argentina Venezuela Misc In , the winner is ! Venezuela conectApp Colombia Misc The winner in is ! Colombia Violet Cundinamarca, Colombia The Startup of the Year in is ! Cundinamarca Voy Yo Ecuador Misc is the winner in ! SaaS for Trustees Ecuador British Virgin Islands Misc has won with the highest number of votes! GoMining Cayman Islands Misc has won the contest with highest number of votes! Dtravel Cyprus - Europe has won the Startups of the Year from Cyprus! Latenode Puerto Rico Misc takes the winning crown! Immutable Holdings San Juan, Puerto Rico is the Startups of the year! XRCasino Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands wins the Startups of the Year! Berachain Congratulations y’all. We will contact you with details on your winnings! See the global and other regional announcements . here About HackerNoon’s Startups Of The Year Startups of The Year is HackerNoon’s Flagship community-driven event celebrating startups that survived and thrived in 2023. 30,000 startups across 4200+ cities and six continents participated in 2023 to be crowned the best startup in their city. Visit our page to learn more. FAQ Companies that blog more get 67% more leads - Jumpstart your company’s blogging journey by purchasing our . Business Blogging Package The 2023 Startups Of The Year is sponsored by: . . The winners will get a free .Tech Domain, a HackerNoon NFT, and a Tech Company News Page. TECH Domains

Startups of the Year 2023: Remote/Misc Winners

If you have not heard about a drip campaign, then you are probably wondering what it is and why you need one. The following article will discuss the main features of a drip campaign and how to use it to increase your conversion rate. Read on to discover how this marketing strategy works and why you need one. Hopefully, you'll gain enough knowledge to create your own successful drip campaign. And remember, your success depends on your marketing strategy, so make sure you're using it correctly! Drip Campaign A Drip Campaign can increase the chances that your prospects will open your emails and invest in your brand's ongoing relationship. This technique can boost your email open rate and convert more prospects into buyers. Drip campaigns are easy to create and measure. You can track metrics like the number of unsubscribes or the number of follow-up emails sent. Your drip emails should be useful and not annoying. Here are some tips to help you set up your drip campaigns. An abandoned cart email can remind users of the products they have in their shopping cart. If you can offer a discount code, this email can boost sales. Research shows that 72% of users return to purchase within 24 hours, so your abandoned cart emails should be compelling. You can also use a Drip Campaign after a sale to ask customers to review your product or service, or offer them a discount code for future purchases. By following up with your customers in a consistent, timely manner, you can increase your sales and build a loyal customer base. What Is Drip Marketing? Drip marketing is an automated email campaign that is sent to customers based on a specific trigger. This trigger can be any action (or inaction) that triggers a certain email. For example, if a customer had abandoned their cart, the email would not be addressed to a newly subscribed customer. In addition, drip campaigns can be customized to send targeted messages to a variety of demographics, from bargain hunters to brand loyalists. Drip marketing works by exposing consumers to the same message over a prolonged period of time. By sending out several emails to a group of people at the same time, marketers anticipate that some of them will make a purchase. This method is much easier to implement than manually calling every consumer who shows interest in a product. Drip marketing also works by cultivating trust between a company and its customers. And it works for virtually any type of business, from e-commerce websites to brick-and-mortar stores. When used properly, drip marketing campaigns can boost conversion rates and engagement. There are several benefits to drip campaigns that can be customized for any industry. If done correctly, drip campaigns can significantly boost your business over a year. With the right design, drip campaigns can improve your business' consistency and can boost conversions. They're also highly effective for reducing unsubscribes. So, how do you create a drip campaign that works for your business? Why Use Drip Campaigns? The first step in developing a drip campaign is segmenting your email list. Make sure you segment your email lists properly to get the maximum response. Then, craft your messages with relevant information for each segment. You should be consistent in your tone and message and ensure that each email matches your brand. Finally, measure your campaign's effectiveness to see if it's generating the desired results. It depends on your audience and other factors, so make sure to track your campaign's performance. A well-designed drip campaign can turn a visitor into a buyer. It keeps customers engaged by delivering relevant content at the right time. It helps you reinforce your company value by creating a relationship with your customers. It can be highly targeted, since it remembers previous actions. You can send emails to your subscribers with relevant information, such as product training details and special offers. This personalized approach also enables you to tailor your messages to your prospects' individual preferences and interests. How Drip Campaigns Are Used A drip campaign is an strategy that is often based on automation to create a predictable flow of communication with a target audience. This approach is aimed at creating regular growth, and it is highly effective because it requires less work from the sender than a conventional email marketing campaign. This method of email marketing is also much more effective than other methods, such as retargeting, which requires constant manual effort. Moreover, drip campaigns are effective because they automate themselves, meaning that you can focus on other aspects of your business that may not be as urgent. email marketing The first step in creating a drip campaign is to target your email list based on what each customer has done in your website. You can do this by creating groups based on frequency, clicks, and user behavior. A well-designed drip campaign is easier to execute when you have specific goals. You can set goals based on the SMART method, which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. How To Set Up A Drip Campaign Drip campaigns are useful if you want to create an automated response to a customer's action. You can follow up with an offer for a video overview, eBook, or product demonstration based on the actions of the customer. Drip campaigns can be set up to deliver emails at specific intervals. If the customer reaches the decision-making phase, you can send them faster responses. When your customer responds to your offers, your drip campaign will end. When creating a drip campaign, be sure to include a few emails that tie together nicely. While you don't want your subscribers to get annoyed with your emails, make sure that each email is a welcome one. It also helps if you add a link in the email to encourage the reader to follow you on social media. You may also want to include a link to follow you on Instagram, so that your subscribers know that you are active on social media. Drip Campaign Example In order to convert your into a paying customer, use a Drip campaign. Drip emails are an effective way to nurture your list. The first two emails should contain important information and useful tips for your subscriber, such as how to use your product. Afterwards, follow-up with a promotional offer, a review of your product, and a call to action. In this way, you will develop a relationship with your subscribers and increase the chances of generating a sale. lead Once you've crafted your first email, you can start defining your target audience. Knowing your audience will help you craft more personalized emails and learn about their behaviors and triggers. Next, segment your email list and define your goals. A well-defined goal will guide your drip campaign design. Clearly define your objectives before you begin creating your first email. Remember, your subscribers will only read emails that are relevant to them. Don't forget to include any other goals you have in mind for your list. Drip Campaign Misconceptions Many business owners are skeptical about drip campaigns, but there are a few common misconceptions about the process. There is a lot of money involved, but drip marketing is worth the cost. It will also give you the ability to track your campaign's success. You can also use it to track your sales. Drip campaigns are smart ways to engage your audience. They are a smart way to build a rapport with prospects while building brand recall. Conclusion Regardless of your marketing strategy, drip campaigns are a great way to build relationships with your prospects. This technique is also known as lead nurturing. It is used to offer relevant information to a lead, and to help them decide to make a purchase. Other types of drip campaigns include educational drips, re-engagement drips, and promotional drips. The latter type targets leads of competing brands and is a great way to win back cold leads. Training drips include how-to articles for new customers. A drip campaign is a continuous series of emails that target a specific group of people, usually at a time that is convenient for the recipient. For example, if the prospect opens a cold email and clicks through to your website, the drip campaign will automatically send them a thank-you email, encouraging them to sign up for a free trial, or take a survey. This keeps your brand in front of your prospects until they decide to make a purchase.

Picture Your DRIP MARKETING On Top: Read This And Make It So

I've worked with Blockchain & Web3 startups consistently since 2017. I've seen teams come and go, businesses flourish only to fail, and bull and bear markets prop up, or kill great ideas respectively. I believe we're finally reaching a more mature stage of growth for Blockchain & Web3. You'll notice that most of these startups abstract complexity so they can offer the end user simplicity. In my opinion, that's really the key to scaling disruptive tech. These 5 startups grabbed my attention as potential leaders in Web3 in the coming years, and they're just 5 of many teams I am watching closely and rooting for. 1. Crucible Network If you aren't familiar with the concept of The Metaverse, you might want to check out before you read any further. As a long time gamer (and a good one FYI) I've always been interested in the Ready Player One future and how it would be ushered in (without the evil IOI crew in the driving seat). this In the past few years, and particularly in 2020, we have seen a meteoric rise in game sales, user acquisition, and ground-breaking technology. While technology continues to outpace itself, some of the infrastructure it's built on remains clunky and unable to scale in parallel. With the rise of photorealism, world-building tools, and fast-paced improvements to virtual and augmented reality, there is a need for better identity management and network interoperability for the user. Most of the current networks and systems are siloed. You need countless passwords and usernames, items and skins don't move with you through games, and data breaches are still a big problem. This is where Crucible comes in. Crucible Network creates and tools for game developers portable identity for gamers. The Emergence SDK is their attempt at bringing Indie, Mid-Tier and AAA game developers together with the leading blockchain and tokenization game developers to create a Sandbox, Open Metaverse. Emergence Offers the potential of the following for the first time: Single Sign-on, Password-less access to games. Transportable avatars Multi-world tradeables and collectibles Game to cryptocurrency conversion Secure cross-game, cross-platform player communications Crucible is all about User Sovereignty and building Sovereign Systems. The Emergence SDK is just the beginning, and gaming is only the first step to building The Open Metaverse - but we'll leave that for another time... To learn more about Crucible, check them out . Game Developer? sign up for Emergence . here here 2. Biconomy Interacting with Blockchain applications can be expensive (we're looking at you Ethereum), not just for developers, but also users. Gas is a concept I imagine most readers are familiar with, but if you're not - think of it like a payment fee that isn't static and varies based on network demand, and you're charged it you interact with a public blockchain. every time It makes interacting with dApps expensive and is a big barrier to adoption. Biconomy offer scalable relayer infrastructure for blockchain transactions enabling you to build applications easily and reduce the friction between your applications built on the blockchain and your end-users. In essence, Biconomy allows the developers to absorb the friction and costs involved in deploying and running dApps. allow users to interact with public blockchains at no cost, drastically increasing user retention and acquisition for dapps utilising the very simple yet elegant infrastructure Biconomy has created. You can check out the live demo , which allows you to rate books on-chain without spending gas fees. Meta Transactions here Biconomy is Blockchain Agnostic, meaning it supports the leading chains. It offers a Developer Dashboard to monitor your dApps and gas fee consumption and can be integrated into existing systems and dApps that have already been deployed to make matters even easier. Cases where relayer infrastructure like Biconomy shines is Games, Finance and DeFi, and of course Enterprise applications. Nobody wants to pay to use an app. Biconomy is quickly gaining traction, having ushered in support from Origin, Matic, Fortmatic, Torus, Frontier, Dapp Pocket, Sapien, and many more. To learn more about Biconomy, check them out . here 3. Swash. In recent years, data is a big talking point. A few companies are working toward principals of Data Sovereignty - but not many have got a working product yet. With Brave Browser recently hitting 15 million users, there is a clear demand for earning while you browse - and protecting your data at the same time. is a browser extension that can capture, anonymise, and sell your data on a decentralised marketplace, and you’re in control of what to share. The monetisation is done by pooling your data with others, masking private and sensitive data, and adding it to the marketplace.  This method means it's both safe for the user but also cost-effective for the buyers who can get the data they need affordably. Swash Streamr This is the widget that you'll see in your browser. Slick UX and pretty self-explanatory. As I just installed Swash, my earnings are frozen for 48 hours but there are lots of features to allow you to see what data is being collected before it is sent off. It took me less than 2 minutes to set Swash up. Considerably faster than I was expecting. If you're a crypto user you know these things can be really painful, but this was a breeze. You're paid in DATA tokens based on how much data you want to share as seen below. I opted for Search, Spotify, Twitter & YouTube. Platforms I use the most. At least for crypto users, data monetization is exceptionally interesting as a talking point - and following the success of Brave, we can hope to see similar patterns for Swash. The difficulty with Swash is that it represents a double-sided marketplace for data. On the plus side, users are paid regardless, but customer acquisition is still important for Swash to be a successful . It will eventually become essential that they are able to offer a stable pricing credit if they wish to scale. Tokens make a subscription SaaS model very tricky and generally will put most buyers off.  - perhaps is a solution here. business ZIP To learn more about Swash, check them out . It currently supports Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. here 4. LinkDrop Rather self-explanatory, LinkDrop allows you to send Digital Assets by hyperlink. Simple, yet genius, this is an increasingly common feature in a number of cryptocurrency wallets - but LinkDrop aims to make this a "Service not a feature" through a SaaS portal that allows the creation of more complex campaigns. LinkDrop already has amassed a Unicorn friendly client base that includes Binance, Coinbase, Decentraland, 0x, CryptoKitties, Opera, and MakerDAO. When I spoke to the team, I learned that of these leads were inbound, showing an extremely apparent demand for simple on-boarding processes into Web3 apps. all The beauty of LinkDrop is that it can onboard first time users into Web3 products very easily. When I tried the app, I was directed through a setup process than took less than 2 minutes - (a theme that emerges in this article - take note!). The challenge LinkDrop will face is in creating a compelling SaaS model with competitive pricing that scales for big and small Web3 businesses and offers the right analytics for very large campaigns. There are already wallet projects that are offering Linkdrops, such as - to send digital assets and onboard new users, so the key is in the service rather than the feature. UniFyre As long as the Dashboard is user friendly, with good analytics (the beta seems so) - I can see no barriers to growth for the team. To learn more about LinkDrop, check them out . here 5. GanTree Setting up Node Infrastructure for Blockchain Networks sucks. It's complicated, clunky, and comes with risks. Despite that, it is necessary to creating fairly distributed networks that can scale. "GanTree gives you the leverage you need to deploy, manage and monitor your own node infrastructure."  - an all in one solution for Node management. By abstracting the complexity from node deployment and management, GanTree can drastically improve the process for distribution at scale. creating GanTree is primarily targeted at: as it will save cost and time through features like continuous deployment. Teams who are building substrate-based blockchains who want to own their infrastructure without being DevOps wizards. This might be or even Node operators Exchanges Venture Funds. performing routine development for clients. Professional services companies while productising nodes, can also fulfill their SLAs with real-time alerts and monitoring. Infrastructure-as-a-Service companies, GanTree is taking a grassroots scaling approach - initially targeting builders in the Substrate ecosystem.  I also see an opportunity to scale by offering GanTree to investment firms and centralised exchanges. There is also potential here to usher in new institutional investors as they streamline early node setup for Substrate chains. The team themselves are well known in the space - over the last 2 years they've , , and won prizes at 5 global hackathons main track winners at ETH Berlin and ETH New York 2019 Stood up technical teams for 2 ventures. They've received the endorsement from Blocknative, Abridged, and Web3 Foundation, too. Clearly not a team to overlook as Web3 approaches a more mature period of growth. To learn more about GanTree, check them out . Feel free to also send them pictures of cranes. here That's all for this time, but If you enjoyed this, do let me know and I'll do a part 2. I'll keep my eyes open for other teams, but if you think I should know about others - let me know... One thing is clear - there is no shortage of talent in the world of Web3.

5 Web3 Startups That Deserve Your Attention

How to Write Your Own Typesafe React Router in 500 Lines

কিভাবে 500 লাইনে আপনার নিজের টাইপসেফ রিঅ্যাক্ট রাউটার লিখবেন

So schreiben Sie Ihren eigenen typsicheren React-Router in 500 Zeilen

Cómo escribir su propio enrutador Typesafe React en 500 líneas

Comment écrire votre propre routeur Typesafe React en 500 lignes

500 पंक्तियों में अपना खुद का टाइपसेफ रिएक्ट राउटर कैसे लिखें

独自のタイプセーフな React Router を 500 行で書く方法

500줄로 나만의 Typesafe React Router를 작성하는 방법

Como escrever seu próprio roteador Typesafe React em 500 linhas

Как написать свой собственный Typesafe React Router в 500 строк

Kendi Typesafe React Router'ınızı 500 Satırda Nasıl Yazabilirsiniz?

Cách viết Bộ định tuyến React Typesafe của riêng bạn trong 500 dòng

如何用 500 行代码编写自己的类型安全 React 路由器

Chatbots integrated into news querying serve various crucial purposes. They offer a convenient and conversational approach for users to access news, eliminating the need to navigate websites or apps. Users can simply ask a chatbot for news on a specific topic or event, making information more accessible, especially for those who find traditional methods challenging. Personalization is a key feature of chatbots in the news industry. By learning from users’ past queries and interactions, chatbots can present more relevant and personalized news articles, enhancing the overall user experience. This tailoring of content ensures that users receive information aligned with their preferences. Time efficiency is another significant advantage. Chatbots quickly sift through vast amounts of information, presenting users with the most relevant news articles. This time-saving aspect is particularly beneficial for users who would otherwise have to manually search and filter through numerous sources. Moreover, chatbots contribute to interactive news consumption. They engage users in a conversation, answering follow-up questions and providing additional context or related information. This interactive approach adds depth to the news-reading experience, surpassing the passive nature of traditional methods. Information overload is a common issue in the digital age, and chatbots help mitigate it by filtering out noise. They deliver news that is most relevant to the user’s interests and needs, streamlining the consumption process and enhancing user satisfaction. Visually impaired users benefit significantly from chatbots, especially when integrated with voice technology. This combination provides an invaluable audio-based method for accessing news, promoting inclusivity in news consumption. Integration into commonly used platforms, such as messaging apps, enhances user convenience. Users can receive news updates in the same environment where they communicate with others, streamlining their digital experience. Automated updates and alerts are a proactive feature of chatbots. Programmed to send timely news updates or alerts about breaking news, chatbots ensure that users stay informed in real time, contributing to a more connected and aware user base. Language and regional customization further extend the accessibility of news. Chatbots can be designed to deliver news in multiple languages and tailor content to regional or local interests, catering to diverse demographics and preferences. In summary, chatbots in the news industry elevate user experience through convenient, personalized, and interactive access to news. They address various challenges in traditional news consumption methods while catering to a diverse range of user needs and preferences. In this article, we’ll design an RAG pipeline using OpenAI, Langchain, and Qdrant DB and encase it in an user interface via Streamlit. What Is RAG “RAG” stands for “Retrieval-Augmented Generation.” It’s a technique used in natural language processing and machine learning, particularly in the development of advanced language models like chatbots.In a RAG setup, when a query is input (like a question or a prompt), the retrieval system first searches through its database to find relevant information or documents. This information is then passed on to the generative model, which synthesizes it to create a coherent and contextually appropriate response. Visual of a RAG pipeline A Brief Note on the Components : LangChain is an open-source framework designed to simplify the creation of applications using large language models (LLMs). LangChain’s use-cases largely overlap with those of language models in general, including document analysis and summarization, chatbots, and code analysis. LangChain enables developers to connect LLMs to other data sources, interact with their environment, and build complex applications. It is written in Python and JavaScript and supports a variety of language models, including GPT-3, LLAMA, Hugging Face Jurassic-1 Jumbo, and more. Langchain Qdrant is an open-source vector similarity search engine and vector database written in Rust. It provides a production-ready service with a convenient API to store, search, and manage points — vectors with an additional payload. Qdrant is tailored to extended filtering support, making it useful for various neural network or semantic-based matching, faceted search, and other applications. Qdrant: Setting Up the Environment & Code First, in your directory, create a requirements.txt file with the following content: langchain

streamlit

requests

opeanai

qdrant-client

tiktoken Then run the command to install these dependencies: pip install -r requirements.txt Now create a file name app.py and paste the following code in it, the comments explain their functionality: #importing the needed libraries

import streamlit as st

import requests

from langchain.text_splitter import RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter

from langchain.embeddings.openai import OpenAIEmbeddings

from langchain.vectorstores import Qdrant

from langchain.chat_models import ChatOpenAI

from langchain.chains import RetrievalQA

import os #function to fetch text data from the links of news websites
def fetch_article_content(url):

headers = { 

    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.110 Safari/537.3' 

} 

try: 

    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers) 

    response.raise_for_status() 

    return response.text 

except requests.RequestException as e: 

    st.error(f"Error fetching {url}: {e}") 

    return "" #function to collate all the text from the news website into a single string
def process_links(links):

all_contents = "" 

for link in enumerate(links): 

    content = fetch_article_content(link.strip()) 

    all_contents += content + "\\n\\n" 

return all_contents #function to chunk the articles beofore creating vector embeddings
def get_text_chunks_langchain(text):

text_splitter = RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter(chunk_size=1000, chunk_overlap=100) 

texts = text_splitter.split_text(text) 

return texts #creating the streamlit app
def main():

st.title('News Article Fetcher') 

# Initialize state variables 

if 'articles_fetched' not in st.session_state: 

    st.session_state.articles_fetched = False 

if 'chat_history' not in st.session_state: 

    st.session_state.chat_history = "" 



# Model selection 

model_choice = st.radio("Choose your model", \["GPT 3.5", "GPT 4"\], key= "model_choice") 

model = "gpt-3.5-turbo-1106" if st.session_state.model_choice == "GPT 3.5" else "gpt-4-1106-preview" 



#API_KEY 

API_KEY = st.text_input("Enter your OpenAI API key", type="password", key= "API_KEY") 



# Ensure API_KEY is set before proceeding 

if not API_KEY: 

    st.warning("Please enter your OpenAI API key.") 

    st.stop() 



#asking user to upload a text file with links to news articles (1 link per line) 

uploaded_file = st.file_uploader("Upload a file with links", type="txt") 



# Read the file into a list of links 

if uploaded_file: 

    stringio = uploaded_file.getvalue().decode("utf-8") 

    links = stringio.splitlines() 



# Fetch the articles' content 

if st.button("Fetch Articles") and uploaded_file: 

    progress_bar = st.progress(0) 

    with st.spinner('Fetching articles...'): 

        article_contents = process_links(links) 

        progress_bar.progress(0.25)  # Update progress to 25% 



        #Process the article contents 

        texts = get_text_chunks_langchain(article_contents) 

        progress_bar.progress(0.5)  # Update progress to 50% 



        #storing the chunked articles as embeddings in Qdrant 

        os.environ\["OPENAI_API_KEY"\] =  st.session_state.API_KEY 

        embeddings = OpenAIEmbeddings() 

        vector_store = Qdrant.from_texts(texts, embeddings, location=":memory:",) 

        retriever = vector_store.as_retriever() 

        progress_bar.progress(0.75)  # Update progress to 75% 



        #Creating a QA chain against the vectorstore 

        llm = ChatOpenAI(model_name= model) 

        if 'qa' not in st.session_state: 

            st.session_state.qa = RetrievalQA.from_llm(llm= llm, retriever= retriever) 

        progress_bar.progress(1) 



        st.success('Articles fetched successfully!') 

        st.session_state.articles_fetched = True 



#once articles are fetched, take input for user query 



if 'articles_fetched' in st.session_state and st.session_state.articles_fetched: 



    query = st.text_input("Enter your query here:", key="query") 



    if query: 

        # Process the query using your QA model (assuming it's already set up) 

        with st.spinner('Analyzing query...'): 

            qa = st.session_state.qa 

            response = qa.run(st.session_state.query)   

        # Update chat history 

        st.session_state.chat_history += f"> {st.session_state.query}\\n{response}\\n\\n" 



    # Display conversation history 

    st.text_area("Conversation:", st.session_state.chat_history, height=1000, key="conversation_area") 

    # JavaScript to scroll to the bottom of the text area 

    st.markdown( 

        f"<script>document.getElementById('conversation_area').scrollTop = document.getElementById('conversation_area').scrollHeight;</script>", 

        unsafe_allow_html=True 

    ) if name == "main":

main() Then save the app.py and run the following command in your terminal: streamlit run app.py This launches your application at localhost with port number 8051. Conclusion In conclusion, the integration of chatbots into news querying not only addresses the challenges of traditional news consumption but also significantly enhances user experience by providing a convenient, personalized, and interactive access to information. The discussed RAG pipeline, incorporating OpenAI, Langchain, and Qdrant DB, coupled with a Streamlit-based user interface, exemplifies the cutting-edge technological advancements in natural language processing and machine learning. This comprehensive solution not only streamlines the process of fetching and analyzing news articles but also showcases the potential of AI-driven systems in delivering tailored content, mitigating information overload, and ensuring inclusivity for visually impaired users. The outlined code implementation serves as a practical guide for developers interested in building advanced chatbot applications for news retrieval, demonstrating the fusion of language models, vector similarity search engines, and efficient UI design. Ultimately, this innovative approach represents a paradigm shift in news consumption, offering a glimpse into the future of user-centric and technology-driven information access. References https://api.python.langchain.com/en/latest/api_reference.html https://python.langchain.com/docs/integrations/vectorstores/qdrant

Querying News Articles Via a Streamlit App Using OpenAI, Langchain, and Qdrant DB

Oracles provide a secure and reliable way for smart contracts to access real-time market data, which is essential for various DeFi applications. API3 has developed an oracle node that is operated by the API Provider, removing the intermediary node layer, or middleman. This change in oracle architecture creates a scalable and transparent solution that enables first-party oracles to be aggregated according to user requirements. DeFi protocols looking to utilize first-party oracles do so by integrating dAPIs to their smart contracts. With developers in mind, dAPIs have been designed with a simple integration process that abstracts away the technical implementation of accessing data feeds. The API3 Market provides the ability to manage these data feeds while giving users access to a range of first-party data feeds. In the future, additional data feed services, such as capturing (OEV) will be accessible once a dAPI has been integrated. Oracle Extracted Value This tutorial will demonstrate how easy it is for developers to switch from Chainlink data feeds to API3’s first-party oracles. Choosing the Contract To demonstrate how easy it is to port over from Chainlink to API3, we are going to port over the DeFi options contract from this C . hainlink tutorial We don’t need to go over the entire contract because we will only be modifying a small section of the contract to port it over, but in summary, the contract enables users to create, buy, exercise, and cancel options within the contract using Ethereum (ETH) and Chainlink (LINK) tokens. It makes use of Chainlink’s aggregator interface for obtaining price feeds while exercising options. For more of an in-depth explanation, you can check out the . full guide Now let’s look at the code we want to modify: pragma solidity ^0.8.17;

import "https://github.com/smartcontractkit/chainlink/blob/develop/evm-contracts/src/v0.6/interfaces/LinkTokenInterface.sol";
import "https://github.com/smartcontractkit/chainlink/blob/master/evm-contracts/src/v0.6/interfaces/AggregatorV3Interface.sol";

contract chainlinkOptions {
    //Pricefeed interfaces
    AggregatorV3Interface internal ethFeed;
    AggregatorV3Interface internal linkFeed;
    //Interface for LINK token functions
    LinkTokenInterface internal LINK;
    uint ethPrice;
    uint linkPrice;
    //Precomputing hash of strings
    bytes32 ethHash = keccak256(abi.encodePacked("ETH"));
    bytes32 linkHash = keccak256(abi.encodePacked("LINK"));
    address payable contractAddr;
    
    //Options stored in arrays of structs
    struct option {
        uint strike; //Price in USD (18 decimal places) option allows buyer to purchase tokens at
        uint premium; //Fee in contract token that option writer charges
        uint expiry; //Unix timestamp of expiration time
        uint amount; //Amount of tokens the option contract is for
        bool exercised; //Has option been exercised
        bool canceled; //Has option been canceled
        uint id; //Unique ID of option, also array index
        uint latestCost; //Helper to show last updated cost to exercise
        address payable writer; //Issuer of option
        address payable buyer; //Buyer of option
    }
    option[] public ethOpts;
    option[] public linkOpts;

    //Kovan feeds: https://docs.chain.link/docs/reference-contracts
    constructor() public {
        //ETH/USD Kovan feed
        ethFeed = AggregatorV3Interface(0x9326BFA02ADD2366b30bacB125260Af641031331);
        //LINK/USD Kovan feed
        linkFeed = AggregatorV3Interface(0x396c5E36DD0a0F5a5D33dae44368D4193f69a1F0);
        //LINK token address on Kovan
        LINK = LinkTokenInterface(0xa36085F69e2889c224210F603D836748e7dC0088);
        contractAddr = payable(address(this));
    }

    //Returns the latest ETH price
    function getEthPrice() public view returns (uint) {
        (
            uint80 roundID, 
            int price,
            uint startedAt,
            uint timeStamp,
            uint80 answeredInRound
        ) = ethFeed.latestRoundData();
        // If the round is not complete yet, timestamp is 0
        require(timeStamp > 0, "Round not complete");
        //Price should never be negative thus cast int to unit is ok
        //Price is 8 decimal places and will require 1e10 correction later to 18 places
        return uint(price);
    }
    
    //Returns the latest LINK price
    function getLinkPrice() public view returns (uint) {
        (
            uint80 roundID, 
            int price,
            uint startedAt,
            uint timeStamp,
            uint80 answeredInRound
        ) = linkFeed.latestRoundData();
        // If the round is not complete yet, timestamp is 0
        require(timeStamp > 0, "Round not complete");
        //Price should never be negative thus cast int to unit is ok
        //Price is 8 decimal places and will require 1e10 correction later to 18 places
        return uint(price);
    }
    
    //Updates prices to latest
    function updatePrices() internal {
        ethPrice = getEthPrice();
        linkPrice = getLinkPrice();
    }
    
    -----------------------
    -----------------------
    
    
} The contract initializes the AggregatorV3Interfaces via the constructor for both the Eth and Link datafeeds; these can later be used to fetch the price. The two functions and use the AggregatorV3Interface to fetch the price and return it. The struct defines how options are stored when they are created, along with the and array to store the created options. getEthPrice() getLinkPrice() options ethOpts linkOpts Porting it Over Porting over the contract to use API3’s dAPIs in this options contract can be done in 3 easy steps: Fetching the proxy address of the “ETH/USD” and “LINK/USD” dAPIs from the API3 Market Import the proxy interface from API3 repo and set the proxy addresses in the constructor Replace the and the logic with a function call to the proxy interface getEthPrice() getLinkPrice() .read() And that's it. You do not need to hold any special type of token to be able to read from the oracle, it is completely free to read. Over 100+ dAPIs are currently available on the api3 market and work on a self-funded basis i.e you can top up the gas wallets to start reading from the oracle. If the dAPI is already funded you just need to copy the proxy address as seen below: Here’s the same DeFi options contract updated to use API3 dAPIs pragma solidity ^0.8.17;

import "@api3/contracts/v0.8/interfaces/IProxy.sol";

contract Api3Options {
    //Pricefeed proxies
    address public ethProxy;
    address public linkProxy;
    uint ethPrice;
    uint linkPrice;
    //Precomputing hash of strings
    bytes32 ethHash = keccak256(abi.encodePacked("ETH"));
    bytes32 linkHash = keccak256(abi.encodePacked("LINK"));
    address payable contractAddr;
    
    //Options stored in arrays of structs
    struct option {
        uint strike; //Price in USD (18 decimal places) option allows buyer to purchase tokens at
        uint premium; //Fee in contract token that option writer charges
        uint expiry; //Unix timestamp of expiration time
        uint amount; //Amount of tokens the option contract is for
        bool exercised; //Has option been exercised
        bool canceled; //Has option been canceled
        uint id; //Unique ID of option, also array index
        uint latestCost; //Helper to show last updated cost to exercise
        address payable writer; //Issuer of option
        address payable buyer; //Buyer of option
    }
    option[] public ethOpts;
    option[] public linkOpts;

    //Kovan feeds: https://docs.chain.link/docs/reference-contracts
    constructor(address _ethProxy, address _linkProxy) public {
        //ETH/USD Proxy on Goerli
        ethProxy = _ethProxy
        //LINK/USD Proxy on Goerli
        linkProxy = _linkProxy
        contractAddr = payable(address(this));
    }

    //Returns the latest ETH price
    function getEthPrice() public view returns (uint) {
        (int224 value,uint32 timestamp) = IProxy(ethProxy).read();
        // if the data feed is being updated with a one day-heartbeat
        // interval, you may want to check for that.
        require(
            timestamp + 1 days > block.timestamp,
            "Timestamp older than one day"
        );
        //Price should never be negative thus cast int to unit is ok
        //Price is 18 decimal places
        return uint(uint224(value));
    }
    
    //Returns the latest LINK price
    function getLinkPrice() public view returns (uint) {
        (int224 value,uint32 timestamp) = IProxy(linkProxy).read();
        // if the data feed is being updated with a one day-heartbeat
        // interval, you may want to check for that.
        require(
            timestamp + 1 days > block.timestamp,
            "Timestamp older than one day"
        );
        //Price should never be negative thus cast int to unit is ok
        //Price is 18 decimal places
        return uint(uint224(value));
    }
    
    //Updates prices to latest
    function updatePrices() internal {
        ethPrice = getEthPrice();
        linkPrice = getLinkPrice();
    }
    
    -----------------------
    -----------------------
    
    
} As you can see, we only needed to call on the interface to start reading from the datafeed. We ended up with lesser lines of code and a much simpler reading interface. You can try running the contract yourself on . (Note: The remix version only allows you to open and close options in ETH for simplicity). .read() IProxy(ethProxy) REMIX Why use dAPIs ? dAPIs have been designed to abstract away the technical implementation of data feeds. Once a dAPI has been imported to oracle contracts, the API3 DAO can redirect the dAPI mapping upon user requests. This means that data feeds can be upgraded from self-funded to managed dAPIs, or directed to read alternate reference data with zero technical implementation. Any update to data feeds, or a lack thereof, can create opportunities for OEV, such as arbitrage and liquidations. During each of these interactions value is leaking from the dApp users to both searchers and validators. Once a dAPI has been integrated, DeFi protocols will be able to capture Oracle Extractable Value without any further technical implementation. Additionally, switching from Chainlink to API3 data feeds means no major alterations to smart contracts. This mitigates the need for audits while keeping battle-tested code intact.

How to Migrate to dAPIs - A Developers Guide on Switching Your Oracle 

This article will not guide you through the process of setting up a virtual environment and installing FastAPI to build a to-do application. Instead, it will offer a new perspective, If you have experience with using FastAPI, for creating backend systems. In the past, you may have performed database queries within your API view or business domain module. However, it is recommended to stop this practice. The repository pattern is a better option as it promotes writing cleaner code and avoids potential issues. In this article, I will explain the reasons for using this design pattern and the advantages it brings. Introduction A repository pattern is an interface where data access logic is stored. To put it simply, the beautiful idea behind using a repository pattern is to decouple the data access layer (database) from the service access layer (domain) of the application. CRUD (create, read, update, delete, etc) operations are done through methods without having to worry about database connections, commands, etc. We will be building a simple URL shortener for the sake of this article. You will find the complete code of the project on my GitHub; you must watch closely to see how incredibly awesome RP (repository pattern) is. In our models, we have the following code: # Stdlib Imports
from datetime import datetime

# SQLAlchemy Imports
from sqlalchemy import Column, String, Integer, DateTime

# Own Imports
from config.database import Base, DATABASE_ENGINE


async def create_tables():
    Link.metadata.create_all(bind=DATABASE_ENGINE)


class Link(Base):
    __tablename__ = "links"

    id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, index=True)
    original = Column(String)
    shortened = Column(String(4))
    date_created = Column(DateTime, default=datetime.now)
    date_modified = Column(DateTime, onupdate=datetime.now)

    def __str__(cls) -> str:
        """
        `__str__` is a special method that returns a string representation of an object.

        :param cls: The class object
        :return: The shortened version of the original link
        """
        return cls.shortened.__str__() For the sake of the readers that are new to FastAPI, I will quickly go over  what and does. The async method is responsible for creating the database tables of the defined links class. We are defining the necessary fields (columns) we want to have in our links table. create_tables Link create_tables Next would be the module called , this is where we are going to create the interface where our data access logic is stored. We have the following code: repository.py # Stdlib Imports
from typing import List

# SQLAlchemy Imports
from sqlalchemy.orm import Session

# Own Imports
from config.deps import get_db
from shortener.models import Link


class LinkRepository:
    """Repository responsible for performing operations (CRUD, etc) on links table."""

    def __init__(self) -> None:
        self.db: Session = get_db().__next__()

    async def create(self, original: str, shortened: str) -> Link:
        """
        This method is responsible for creating a new link object.

        :param original: original url link
        :param shortened: shortened url link

        :return: the link object
        """

        link = Link(original=original, shortened=shortened)

        self.db.add(link)
        self.db.commit()
        self.db.refresh(link)

        return link

    async def get(self, skip: int, end: int) -> List[Link]:
        """
        This method retrieves a list of links objects.

        :param skip: The number of links to skip
        :type skip: int

        :param end: The number of links to retrieve
        :type end: int

        :return: A list of link objects
        """

        links = self.db.query(Link).offset(skip).limit(end).all()
        return links

    async def get_code(self, code: str) -> Link:
        """
        This method retrieves a link object that matches the code.

        :param code: The shortened code of the link
        :type code: str

        :return: The link object
        """

        link = self.db.query(Link).filter_by(shortened=code).first()
        return link


link_repository = LinkRepository() To begin using our repository class; we need to initialize it. def __init__(self) -> None:
    self.db: Session = get_db().__next__() The purpose of this method is to initialize an instance of the class by creating a database session and storing it in an instance variable . By doing this, the database session will be created and stored in the instance of the class when the class is instantiated and will be available for use throughout the lifetime of the instance. self.db is a function that is responsible for creating a database session, yielding it, and rolling back the transaction If an exception occurs during the database operation, the function will catch the exception and call the method to rollback the transaction. This ensures that any changes made to the database during the transaction are undone in case of an error; and the block of the function will close the session using the method, regardless of whether an exception was raised or not. get_db db.rollback() finally db.close() The code for this function is as follows: # Own Imports
from config.database import SessionLocal


def get_db():
    """
    This function creates a database session,
    yield it to the get_db function, rollback the transaction
    if there's an exception and then finally closes the session.

    Yields:
        db: scoped database session
    """

    db = SessionLocal()
    try:
        yield db
    except Exception:
        db.rollback()
    finally:
        db.close() The method is responsible for creating a new object with the given original URL link and shortened code. After which it stores it in the variable. Then, the method adds the link to the database by calling . create Link link self.db.add(link) Next, the method commits the changes to the database by calling . The method is then called with the object as an argument to refresh the state of the link in the database. Finally, the method returns the object to the caller. self.db.commit() refresh link link The method is responsible for retrieving a list of objects from the database. The method creates a query to retrieve objects from the database using the statement. The method is then called on the query to specify the number of links to skip, and the method is called to specify the number of links to retrieve. Finally, the method is called on the query to retrieve all the links that match the criteria. get Link Link self.db.query(Link) offset limit all The is responsible for retrieving a single object. The method creates a query to retrieve a object from the database using the statement. The method is then called on the query to specify the criteria for retrieving the link, in this case, the shortened code. Finally, the method is called on the query to retrieve the first link that matches the criteria. get_code Link Link self.db.query(Link) filter_by first In summary, the methods provide a convenient and asynchronous way of doing a certain thing in the database, be it; creating and storing new objects in the database, or to retrieve a list of objects from the database or to retrieve a single object while ensuring that the database session is properly managed and the transaction is committed if there are no exceptions. Link Link Link Now that you understand what is going on, let’s move on to our services access layer; this is where the domain logic is stored. We have the following code: # Stdlib Imports
import random
import string

# FastAPI Imports
from fastapi.responses import RedirectResponse

# Own Imports
from shortener.repository import link_repository, Link


async def shorten_link() -> str:
    """
    This function returns a random string of 4 characters.

    :return: A string of 4 random letters.
    """
    
    shrt_str = "".join(random.choice(string.ascii_letters) for i in range(4))
    return shrt_str


async def create_shortened_link(original: str) -> Link:
    """
    This function creates a shortened link for the given original link.

    :param original: str - the original link that we want to shorten
    :type original: str

    :return: A Link object
    """

    shortened_link = await shorten_link()
    link = await link_repository.create(original, shortened_link)
    return link


async def redirect_to_original_link(code: str) -> str:
    """
    This function takes a code and returns the original link.

    :param code: str - the code that was generated by the shortener
    :type code: str

    :return: redirect to original link
    """
    
    link = await link_repository.get_code(code)
    return RedirectResponse(link.original) If you take a look at the functions and , we are accessing the and methods in our repository interface. We have eliminated writing database queries in our service layer, making our code clean and quick to debug. create_shortened_link redirect_to_original_link create get_code Advantages of Using Repository Pattern Using repository design patterns offers several advantages, including: Facilitating the testing of your application's logic Reducing the occurrence of duplicated database operations Central management of the database layer, enabling the implementation of access policies with ease The ability to define strong annotations for domain entities. Final Thoughts In this article, we explained the benefits of using the repository design pattern in software development. The repository pattern separates the data access layer from the service access layer in an application. This leads to a cleaner and more organized code base, and reduces duplicated database operations. We used a simple URL shortener as an example to illustrate the implementation of the repository pattern. The code demonstrates how to create a database table and how to store data access logic in a repository class. Find the complete code to this example . here

Adopting the Repository Pattern for Enhanced Backend Development With FastAPI

What you always have as a Kubernetes cluster is usually always the bare minimum. Be it a cluster you set up yourself in a cluster of RasberryPi’s or using Amazon EKS or any other form you set up your Kubernetes cluster, it is NEVER production-ready. The keyword here is production-ready. What do we mean when we say production-ready. In very simple terms, it means it is ready to face the world. It is ready to face the good the bad and the ugly traffic that will come to it and still stand strong despite whatever comes to it. Putting this in perspective, it is quite important to find a bench-mark to work with in determining if our cluster is production-ready. The following checklist is my best recommendation to follow to know if your cluster is production-ready, . https://learnk8s.io/production-best-practices In this article, I am looking at tools to have that will make your cluster production-ready. I shall be using the 5 pillars of the to categorize the different types of tools/services that you must have in the cluster to dim it fit for production. Take note, that this list is bare-minimum, the number of services you can deploy in your cluster is endless, but you do not want to deploy so much. AWS Well-Architected Framework The Categories The categories for the different tools are as follows: Reliability and Availability Security Network, Monitoring & Observability Backup/Recovery Cost Optimization Cluster Visualization Reliability and Availability These two terms are actually mean different things; reliability means that a system is doing what is designed to do effectively, while availability is when a system is accessible by the user. These two are very necessary for your applications in your Kubernetes cluster. There are tools that can help your applications to be highly available. Tools Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) Karpenter (https://github.com/aws/karpenter). Cluster-Autoscaler ( ). https://github.com/kubernetes/autoscaler/tree/master/cluster-autoscaler Goldilocks ( ). https://github.com/FairwindsOps/goldilocks While HPA is for scaling pods based on CPU and Memory metrics, Karpenter and Cluster-Autoscaler scale nodes are based on the pod capacity of the nodes. Goldilocks helps you recommend the appropriate CPU and Memory metrics for your pods based on how much has been consumed over a period of time. Security The security of your cluster is a very essential part of running workloads in the Kubernetes cluster. Security in Kubernetes is of two folds. First is the security from an external attack on your API server which is usually secured with certificates, but an extra later of putting the API server in a private network reduces the surface area of attack because it is not exposed to the public internet. The other security operations have to do with scanning your cluster for proper configurations to ensure the pods running follow proper security standards. Here are some security tools that can help scan container-based workloads and Kubernetes clusters. Tools Snyk ( ) https://snyk.io Kubelinter ( ) https://github.com/stackrox/kube-linter Kubehunter ( ) https://github.com/aquasecurity/kube-hunter Checkov ( ) https://checkov.io Kube-Scan ( ) https://github.com/octarinesec/kube-scan Network, Monitoring & Observability What is a Kubernetes cluster without its network? The network is used to send and receive traffic within the cluster and outside the cluster. It is important to be able to sketch a flow of traffic within the cluster. It makes it easy to identify bottlenecks like; slow or unresponsive microservices. This is where a comes into play. service mesh ServiceMesh Tools Istio ( ) https://istio.io Linkrd ( ) https://linkrd.io AWS AppMesh (https://aws.amazon.com/app-mesh) Consul ( ) https://www.consul.io/ Monitoring & Observability The availability and Mean Time to Recover (MTTR), of your system is high proportionate to the depth of monitoring and observability in the system. Monitoring helps to collect logs and metrics of worker nodes and pods/applications running within the cluster. To know more about logs and metrics get my book on . There are many monitoring tools out there. But I will pick about three of them that stand out in different scenarios. Observability on the other end is a combination of Application Performance Management (APM), bug tracing and application tracing, with the focus on knowing what is going on within the application. Amazon CloudWatch Monitoring Tools/Services Prometheus (prometheus.io) — for collecting metrics. Grafana (grafana.net) — for data visualization of data from different sources. Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights. Netdata ( ). https://netdata.cloud Observability Tools Amazon X-Ray ( ). https://aws.amazon.com/xray/ Datadog (https://datadog.com). AWS CloudMap ( ). https://aws.amazon.com/cloud-map/ Jaegar ( ). https://www.jaegertracing.io/ Backup/Recovery Backing up all components of your cluster can be a lifesaver in times of disaster or during a migration process. Deployments, Pods, Secrets, ConfigMaps, ClusterRole, ClusterRoleBinding, and all other resources in Kubernetes. The backup of the cluster is stored as a zip file in any of the popular object storage services such as , , . This data can also be retrieved at any time or to an identical cluster with a single command and all resources backed up will be automatically restored. It can also be configured to run a periodic backup of the cluster resources. Amazon S3 Azure Blob Storage Google Cloud Storage Tool(s) ( ) Velero https://velero.io Cost Optimization Most times the cost which is tangible for a Kubernetes cluster in a cloud environment is usually the cost of the Master Node (Control Plane) and the worker nodes and other underlying infrastructure with which they are running on. These costs are clearly displayed in the Billing dashboard of the cloud provider. They can be optimized by choosing better pricing option for the nodes within the cluster. But you can granularly check cost from pod consumption and cascade that cost to numerical dollar value. This can give very interesting insights on application that are costing more to run. Tool(s) Kubecost ( ) https://www.kubecost.com/ Cluster Visualization By deafult, Kubernetes has a dashboard. But most times this dashboard is barely used and it has very limited features which forces most Kubernetes Administrators to learn commands to get what they want. But sometimes, it can be time consumting, trying to find the right command to check for certain resources and perform a comparison or get quick feedback on the behavior of pods or services within the cluster. Some tools actually make managing Kubernetes cluster more fun. kubectl Tool(s) Lens ( ) https://k8slens.dev/ Rancher ( ) https://rancher.com Conclusion There is no perfect Kubernetes cluster, the tools mentioned here are suggestions of tools that you should have in your cluster to get the best out of it. At least one tools from the five sections mentioned is needed to have proper visibility and governance of your Kubernetes cluster. Also published . here

Kubernetes Cluster Must-Haves To Be Production Ready

In this blog post, we will try to explain software testing from a very simple perspective and look in particular into end to end testing of web applications. We will also explore cypress which is a very popular tool used in end to end testing of web applications. First, what is the problem ? According to Dan Galorath, a recognized expert in project management of software projects, “A US government report has showed that 81% of the budget spent on IT projects is in danger of failing”. So why, despite all the engineering effort in the software engineering processes, the final objective of an IT project, which is to deliver on time a software product that answers all the client requirements, is often missed? What is Software testing ? Software testing is, simply, the act of verifying that some software does confirm to the expected outcomes. The academic definition of software testing, is according to the IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering “Testing is the process of exercising a system by manual or automatic means to verify that it satisfies specified requirements or to identify differences between actual and expected results” IEEE 610.12-1990 What is testing made of ? The testing activity is basically only about executing the software and verifying that it confirms to the original requirements with the intent of identifying some potential bugs or to measure some aspects of its quality. Practically, testing is done by executing a set of test cases on the software under test. A test case is defined, according to the as follows: "A set of test inputs, execution conditions, and expected results developed for a particular objective, such as to exercise a particular program path or to verify compliance with a specific requirement". IEEE 610-1990 If, for some particular feature, the output of the software equals the expected outcome, the test case made for that purpose passes. Otherwise, the test case fails. As an example, if we want to test that some button effectively redirect to some other website, if the redirection is effectively done, the test case testing this flow should pass. How testing is done ? Testing can be done either manually or by the use of some tool that helps in automating some phases of the testing process What is end to end testing ? Depending on the use case, different levels of testing can be performed on the software under test. Testing can be performed on the smallest code unit to verify that some function behaves as expected as well as on the complete software to test its behavior from the client perspective. One form of testing performed to ensure that the complete behavioral flow of the software is respected is called end to end testing. In the case of web applications, end to end testing is usually performed to simulate some real world scenario of some random user using the different parts of the application Cypress Cypress is a testing framework for testing web applications. Cypress is usually used for end to end testing of web applications but can also be used for unit testing and integration testing. With Cypress, you just have to write the test cases and the tool will make sure to execute those tests against your web application Installing Cypress You can refer to Cypress to see specific details on how to install Cypress in your specific environment. If you are using npm, you can install cypress only by : official documentation npm i cypress --save-dev Getting started with cypress for a React app For the steps described below, you'll need node and npm installed on your machine. Start by creating a react app in your local folder npx create-react-app app-name Move to the created folder and start the react app by cd app-name && npm start Your created app should be available on localhost:3000. Install cypress in your project by npm i cypress --save-dev You can start using cypress by node_modules/.bin/cypress open Move to the package.json file and add the following line ... }, "scripts" : { "cypress" : "cypress open" By this, you can now start cypress by npm run cypress When you installed cypress, a folder named cypress was created in your local directory. The test files in cypress do usually have the extension .spec.js Move to the integration folder inside the created cypress folder and create your first test file touch first-cypress-test.spec.js cd cypress/integration Paste the following code into your test file });
}); describe( "First test" , () => { it( "Test that the page can be visited" , () => { cy.visit( "http://localhost:3000" ); This code just checks that your React app can be visited. Start then cypress inside your project folder by npm run cypress Your react app should also be started. When you run cypress, a window containing all your test files should open Click on your created test file "first-cypress-test.spec.js" to execute it. It will run that test file in a new window in your browser Add more tests You can, as an example, test the redirection to the react website by adding the following code in your test file .click() });
  }); it( "Test the redirection" , () => { cy.visit( "http://localhost:3000" ); cy.contains( "a" , "Learn React" ) .should( "have.attr" , "href" , "https://reactjs.org" ) .then( ( link ) => { cy.request(link.prop( "href" )).its( "status" ).should( "eq" , 200 ); when you execute that test file, it will give the following output Usual flow when testing a web application The usual flow of testing web applications is the following : Visit a web page Query an element Interact with that element Assert that the response got from the element is what was expected Most used functions when writing test cases with cypress You can refer to this to see the most used functions when you'll be writing test cases with cypress great cheat sheet Real test cases of  a production app You can refer to this made by cypress to demonstrate the usage of cypress methods. You can, as an example, look at in their github repo to see examples of test cases real world payment app this location Final words The testing activity is simply the activity done to prevent problems or bugs to happen in the software at some later point in time. It is a crucial activity to the long term success of an application. When tests are written for some software, the chances of some side effects happening when some change is introduced decreases which helps maintaining the software in the long run. If some piece of code is not tested, then there are chances that it may break for some  particular input. End to end testing is the testing activity done to test the complete behavioral flow of an application from start to finish. For testing some feature in a web application, cypress is a great tool that any junior web developer can quickly grasp. However, in this blog post, we only made a quick introduction into this tool. If you want to dive deep into it, their is the biggest asset. official documentation If this post was helpful to you in any way, please don't hesitate to share it. You can also follow if you would like to see more content related to web programming. my Twitter account

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