6 must-do before hosting your Laravel web platform on AWS
My consulting clients often ask whether it is worth porting their web application to Amazon Web Services. They are expecting better performance and reliability because AWS sounds more professional, but they've also heard stories of horrifying AWS bills, even though they're not sure why.
The short answer is that by architecting your web platform the right way, you will be able to first deploy on a cheaper hosting option, while ensuring a smooth migration to AWS down the road, zero refactoring guaranteed.
The long answer is the below, an extensive checklist that will guarantee your web platform to be portable, and making the most of AWS.
1. Configuration as environment variablesThe first thing I would check in an audit is whether the app configuration is retrieved from the environment variables. The environment is wherever your app could be running. It could be your developers local machines, your testing servers, your staging servers or your production servers.
An application configuration is anything that might change between environments.
… and the config files should be initialized from environment variables.
In PHP Laravel, this is achieved by creating files into the config folder, and initialising the config files with environment variables, using the helper env().
And initialise your config files from the environmentThe environment-specific configuration should not be in the source code, but rather stored in the environment.On your test, staging and production servers, the environment is set by your deployment scripts.
On the developers local machines, and for the Laravel framework, it is stored as a .env file at the root of the project, that should never be committed to the source code repository (add it to your .gitignore file).
Configuration for your test pipelines can be stored in the .env.testing file.
Smell testAny code that tests the environment is a red flag (ifs production then … / if staging then). When local and production and staging are using different drivers (for example dev machines are storing files locally, whereas production server use a file storage service), then an abstraction layer should be used, but it should not be mixed in the code with your application business logic.Laravel offers services facades for Storage, Cache, Queue, etc ; their role is to make abstraction of how file storage, cache, background jobs queuing, etc are achieved so the logic is independent to the environment, and so your code should be.
Doing so, the same code will use a local Redis server to store the web sessions, and a managed service ElastiCache on AWS.There will be no last minute switch when deploying your code to production, and no last minute mistake.
2. Stateless codeA stateless app is an application program that does not record data generated in one session — such as information about user settings and events that occurred — for use in the next session with that user.
Of course your application won't be stateless! If you build a web platform, you will usually want your users to generate as much data as possible on your service.But its processes should be stateless, in the sense that redeploying or crashing or load balancing a user to different servers should not affect the userThis is achieved by centralising storage only in backend services, not on the application servers. By storing your sessions in a managed Redis service (like AWS ElastiCache), your user files on a file storage service (like AWS S3) and running your database on a managed AWS RDS instance, you ensure that redeploying on one application server will not interrupt your users sessions.
It also means that you can load balance your traffic on multiple application servers, and your users will always find their files. They will find them even after a deployment failed and loosing a server.
Smell-test: code using local files, local memoryA PHP application storing files on the local server it's running on is another red flag. If you were to loose that server on the next redeployment, you'd loose user data. Such an application will not be ready for scaling and will need refactoring too.
JWTFor user sessions and API OAuth tokens, you could even handle user session data without a centralised key-value store or using the database. By using Json Web Tokens instead of random OAuth tokens, an application would rely on the client (browser) to store and send back across all this information. The data is encrypted server-side to avoid tampering, and could be stored in a cookie. In that case, the servers are storing nothing (or just the black-list for revocation), and the application processes do not have to share anything or call a backend service.
3. Allow concurrencyNow that your app is stateless, an immediate benefit is that you could run multiple versions of it, on different servers. This is known as horizontal scaling, as opposite to vertical scaling which would mean keeping running your application on one single server, and to upgrade it to a more powerful one when needed.
Not all software can be horizontally scaled (for example it is a complex problem for databases or search engines), but PHP apps can be immediately horizontally scaled just by following the 6 points in this guide.
Once your application is stateless, the next step is to separate the front-end code to the background tasks. On the first hand, web processes are processes responding immediately to your users' browsers requests.
You might also have background jobs (like sending reports, generating invoices, crunching data, send email/push notifications). They should be executed outside of your web processes, even if they are written in PHP as well.
These jobs are to be executed by worker processes, so to not block web requests.
In the Laravel framework, use the Queue facade and a message queue server like Redis, to dispatch these blocking tasks to a separate pool of servers. When you migrate to AWS, you can use the managed message queue service SQS.
Warning: if you're using AWS SQS to schedule critical tasks, you need to be aware of the duplicate message edge case as described by Buffer.com in this post.
4. Logs as streams, not filesJust like user generated files should not be stored locally on your app server, logs should not be stored locally either. They should be centralised as well, and streamed to a backend service, where you'll find all logs from all your application servers in one place (even from the servers you lost or took down).
Laravel's Log facade only stores logs in files by default, so you would need a custom configuration to stream them to PHP's standard error output instead. If you're running your PHP application inside Docker, you can then make use of the AWS CloudWatch driver and stream your logs to one centralised place.
Smell testAny log written into a local file on a production server.
5. Horizontal scaling, without refactoringIf you've followed the above points, congratulations! Your web application is ready for scaling, no refactoring required.
By separating the configuration from the code, the application becomes portable from a cheaper hosting provider to AWS.Dispatching the blocking tasks to background workers processes allows us to offload the front-end and scale it independently to the workers processes.By running our application as stateless processes, we can load-balance our users traffic to different servers, and store the data in backend-services.
These are the pre-requisites to horizontal scaling. It is already cost-efficient since you can scale with smaller less expensive servers.
The next step is to host your backend services in a cost-efficient way too.
6. Leverage AWS Managed ServicesWe've been only talking about the application servers (where your HTTP servers respond to web requests by executing your PHP code) so far, so what about the backend services, the database, the search engine and so on?
That's where you can make the most of AWS. All these backend services exist as managed services on AWS, ie a pay-as-you-go billing and no server for you to maintain.You want to use these services as much as possible, for the database (AWS RDS, DocumentDB), file storage (S3), session storage (ElastiCache), logs aggregation (CloudWatch), cache engine, search engine (AWS Managed ElasticSearch) and load-balancing.
ConclusionSo what's with the cost-efficiency?Managed services cost much less in practice than running your own servers. There are more secure and scale in a few clicks. Storing your user files on AWS S3 costs about $0.02 per GB per month after 15GB transfer per month, and is free before that.Hosting your search engine on AWS ElasticSearch managed service is free for the smaller instance.And so on and so forth.
More importantly they will take much less time to setup, virtually zero time for maintenance and get you to sleep better at night.
Source: 6 must-do before hosting your Laravel web platform on AWS
Campaigner Web Hosting
Email is one of the most powerful tools out there for promoting your business. There are numerous email marketing tools from which to choose, so you will want to spend some time comparing features and prices (and reading our reviews) before you commit. Luckily, some (such as Campaigner, which begins at $19.95 per month) offer free trials. You can sign up for 30 days at no cost, though you'll still need to enter a credit card, which is a bit annoying. GetResponse does not require a credit card. However, Campaigner's 30-day trial offers full access to its features for up to 1,000 contacts, so that's what was used to test the service for this review. Campaigner is PCMag's Editors' Choice for advanced email marketing services. If you have more basic needs, then check out MailChimp, our Editors' Choice for basic email marketing tools.
Editors' Note: J2 Global, the company that owns Campaigner, also owns Ziff Davis and PCMag.com.
I calculated how much it would cost a small business with 2,500 contacts in its marketing database to get started with Campaigner. The price tag would be $29.95 per month, which is a little higher than GetResponse's $25 per month offering. Like iContact, Campaigner lets you send an unlimited number of messages per month.
Campaigner also boasts a handful of cool features including customer relationship management (CRM) and Salesforce.com contact uploads, auto-responders, email workflows, 24/7 live chat with support, and reporting capabilities (which include which email platform your contacts are using). You can also create email auto-responders that will send emails to your contacts based on their behavior (such as clicking a link in a newsletter) or for special promotions and events.
Take that a step further with email workflows, which let you communicate with your subscribers based on specified triggers. These can include a form submission or profile change, or can be employed to target highly engaged customers, draw inactive users, or reach out to those who have recently made or are ready to make a purchase. Other features include the ability to embed real-time display ads in newsletters, target your subscribers based on their locality, or find out where your subscribers live based on geolocation.
Pricing and FeaturesCampaigner offers plans designed to appeal to subscriber bases of all sizes. As mentioned, the cheapest plan is $19.95 per month, and that lets you contact up to 1,000 subscribers. Campaigner's own marketing materials highlight the company's options you can cancel at any time; there are no discounted annual plans but you're also not locked into a contract, which is handy.
Registration is straightforward. Once you verify your email address, you set a password and then provide the usual personal information and a credit card number. You can also invite additional users to your account if multiple people will be creating campaigns. The dashboard is attractive with bright action buttons, and I found it more appealing and easier to use than GetResponse's user interface (UI).
Creating a Subscriber ListThere are a few ways to add contacts to Campaigner. You can copy and paste information into the service's UI, upload a file (CSV, VCF, XLS, XLSX), or import Gmail or Yahoo contacts. After your contacts have been loaded into the system, you receive a message in your Campaigner inbox. Unlike GetResponse, Campaigner accepted all of my disposable Mailinator addresses, which was helpful for my test but not so great for subscribers who wouldn't email such addresses. I also imported some contacts from my Gmail account which, of course, required giving
Campaigner automatically creates user segments based on when they were added to your account or when their profile was last updated. You can create additional segments based on email actions, form submissions, and any custom fields you have created.
You can also create auto-responders, which lets you send emails based on similar events. There are templates available (including the "win-back" template) that are designed to draw in inactive contacts that haven't opened an email or clicked in a while—in order to win them back.
Setting Up a CampaignYou have two tools at your disposal when it comes time to create a Campaigner newsletter: Smart Email Builder, which offers lots of templates and layouts to get you started, and Full Email Editor, which accepts HTML code. I went with the
Newsletters default to showing your full contact information in the footer, but you can change that. You can also create auto-reply messages and conduct A/B tests, changing not just the design of the newsletter but also the From address and subject line.
Once you're satisfied with your newsletter, you can send it right away or schedule it for later. I tried the scheduling option and it worked just fine. You can also choose to send it on a recurring schedule: daily, weekly, monthly, or annually. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an option to send campaigns at a specific local time based on a recipient's location, like you can do with GetResponse.
Tracking CampaignsOnce you have sent a newsletter, you can track its success by using the Reports tab. For each campaign, you can see the open and click rate as well as the number of replies and unsubscribes. A pie chart shows the ratio of desktop users to mobile users. You can also integrate Campaigner with Google Analytics for enhanced tracking.
The report has a handy Refresh button so you can see real-time results. When I opened emails and clicked the links, they were registered in my Campaigner report almost immediately. You can also export these reports; once the export is complete, you can find the file in your message center.
Customer SupportCampaigner is very easy to use but, if you do need help, it's available in many forms. If you're working on a specific task and click the Help button, you're automatically directed to the relevant Help section. Campaigner also has a Status page that alerts you to outages and other issues. So, if you're ever having trouble sending a campaign, that's the place to go. Phone and email support are available 24/7, which is optimal.
In addition, Campaigner sends out emails when you sign up with links to webinars that help you get started. I even received a phone call offering help. Most questions you might have can be found in Campaigner's thorough documentation, which includes an in-depth overview of CAN-SPAM regulation.
A Fine Email Marketing ToolCampaigner offers a lot of helpful features, and its UI makes it easy to access basic and advanced features. Phone support is available 24/7, unlike GetResponse, which only offers it from 9AM to 5PM on weekdays. The free trial includes a full range of features, but it requires a credit card to sign up; GetResponse does not require one for its trial.
However, I would absolutely recommend giving Campaigner as it will likely meet most people's needs. Campaigner's rich features help stands out in a crowded market, making it PCMag's Editors' Choice for advanced email marketing tools.
Source: Campaigner Web Hosting
Trump expected to sign bill undoing Obama-era Internet privacy rules
A bill whose critics say could put people's private browser histories up for sale and hand Internet providers a lucrative victory awaits President Trump's signature after swift passage through the House and Senate.
The controversial resolution, which would overturn a host of Internet privacy protections enacted near the end of the Obama administration, would mean broadband providers can collect data on user's online activities. But backers say the regulatory rollback of rules that had not yet taken effect merely puts Internet providers on the same level as search engines like Google.
"Congressional action to repeal the [Federal Communications Commission's] misguided rules marks an important step toward restoring consumer privacy protections that apply consistently to all Internet companies," the Internet and Television Association, a telecommunications trade group, said in a statement.
Republican lawmakers argue that the rules -- which were created under Obama's appointee to the FCC, Tom Wheeler, and slated to go in effect later this year – unfairly targeted broadband providers and put them at a disadvantage when competing with internet companies like Google, Amazon and Netflix. Those web giants are not regulated by the FCC, but in recent years have begun competing with telecom companies' consumers looking into online streaming services.
Pai wants to give jurisdiction over regulating consumer privacy to the FTC, not the FCC. The first "not" in the sentence should be deleted.
"Last year, the Federal Communications Commission pushed through, on a party-line vote, privacy regulations designed to benefit one group of favored companies over another group of disfavored companies," Pai said in a press release. "Appropriately, Congress has passed a resolution to reject this approach of picking winners and losers before it takes effect."
The resolution, which was introduced by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., aims to overturn a 2015 classification of broadband providers as a utility-like service that makes them subject to major regulatory oversight. The new measure also overturns the net neutrality rules prohibiting broadband providers from blocking, slowing down or charging extra for downloads of websites and apps.
Supporters of the resolution argue that the Obama-era regulations limit customer choices in their providers and jeopardize data security. They also point out that the rollback of the regulations, which have yet to be implemented, will not change any privacy protections for web users.
"The FCC's midnight regulation has the potential to limit consumer choice, stifle innovation, and jeopardize data security by destabilizing the internet ecosystem," Flake said in a statement. "Passing my resolution is the first step toward restoring a consumer-friendly approach to internet privacy regulation that empowers consumers to make informed choices on if and how their data can be shared. It will not change or lessen existing consumer privacy protections."
Net-neutrality supporters, along with many Democrats, lambasted Flake's assertions, arguing that government oversight of the companies was needed as consumers had few options for high-speed internet service and that broadband companies already have a wide-reaching view of their customers' browsing habits.
Without the protections put down under the Obama administration, supporters of the regulations say that broadband companies will have access to sensitive information about their users.
Your broadband provider knows deeply personal information about you and your family – where you are, what you want to know, every site you visit, and more.
- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
"Apparently [House Republicans] see no problem with cable and phone companies snooping on your private medical and financial information, your religious activities or your sex life," Craig Aaron, president and CEO of net-neutrality group Free Press Action Fund, said in a press release. "They voted to take away the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of Americans just so a few giant companies could pad their already considerable profits."
Democrats also say that the rollback of regulations gives service providers free rein to sell data to advertisers.
"Your broadband provider knows deeply personal information about you and your family – where you are, what you want to know, every site you visit, and more," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said before Tuesday's vote. "They can even track you when you're surfing in a private browsing mode. You deserve to be able to insist that those intimate details be kept private and secure."
Despite the resistance of Democrats – and 15 House Republicans – to the resolution, President Trump appears poised to sign the legislation into law.
While Press Secretary Sean Spicer was coy during Wednesday's daily briefing on Trump's intention, the White House issued a statement earlier this week saying it "strongly supports" the House's passage of the resolution and that Trump's "advisers would recommend that he sign the bill into law."
The reversal of the Obama-era privacy protections appears to be a trend that is likely to continue.
A report from 2014 by the Pew Research Center found that the majority of net-neutrality experts agreed that the current expectations of digital privacy may be completely gone by 2025.
"As privacy is becoming increasingly monetized, the incentive to truly protect it is withering away, and with so much of policy run by lobbyists, privacy will be a very expensive commodity come 2025," said Alf Rehn, the chair of management and organization at Finland's Abo Akademi University. "Privacy will be a luxury, not a right — something that the well-to-do can afford, but which most have learnt to live without."
Source: Trump expected to sign bill undoing Obama-era Internet privacy rules
Avoid These Amateur Mistakes When Choosing a Web Host
When you first decide to create a blog, you're driven by your passion to start something new. You're anxious to get your ideas out there for the world to see. In order for you to get started, however, you'll need to locate the best web hosting service. Many new bloggers make the mistake of rushing to make a choice, and only later end up finding out the hard way.
Choosing the right web hosting service for your blog is just as important as choosing your niche or your content. If your readers aren't able to find your site, or use it effectively, they aren't going to visit your blog, and you won't be successful. Therefore, you want to try and avoid all the armature mistakes that other bloggers have made listed below:
They say the best things in life are free, but if you're going to be a successful blogger, opting for a free web host is the worst thing you can do. While free packages provide you with the platform to create your blog and get it published, it limits your ability to create a unique blog and it also makes it harder for your readers to find you.
Most free web hosting packages come with a domain name that has a long extension www.yourbusinessname.thewebhostcompanyname.com. Longer extensions as you know make it harder for your readers to remember your site. It's also not as professional looking as a domain name without the long extension.
Other common occurrences with free web host accounts include:
Just because it was the first result on your search engine does not mean that it is the best company to purchase a web hosting package from. Many customers make the mistake of assuming if Google put it at the top of search engine page results, then it must be the most reliable service provider. In turn, they end up choosing a web host that is less than stellar and their blog is hurt as a result. Reviews provide you with insight on how the web host has worked for other businesses.
Another good reference is an expert roundup post featured on Blogging.org where 80+ different site owners shared their recommended hosting platform.
Advertisements for web hosting is meant to draw your attention. Therefore, you will see companies advertise that they can do this, or that for a low rate, but there is always some fine print. For example, a company may advertise that you will receive unlimited bandwidth upon signing up, but if you read further, there are limitations to your "unlimited package". Maybe you reach a certain bandwidth and the company starts slowing down your speed over time. Whatever the case is, you need to know this upfront.
In addition to looking at web host and reading through their restrictions, you will also want to make sure you aren't locked into a long term contract or will have to pay a big fee if you decide to cancel early. These are just a few of the things you should be looking for when reading through the terms and conditions on a potential web host. For even more points of interest, be sure to read through my web hosting 101 tutorial.
Not Testing Customer ServiceWhile you may be skilled at creating your own blog, there could come a time when you need to reach out to your web host's customer service department. Quality customer service is vital to the success of your blog. Therefore, you don't want to select a web hosting company that does not provide high-quality customer service. Imagine, having an issue with your blog and needing assistance but having to wait for hours on hold. Or what happens if you contact customer service and they have no clue how to resolve your issue? You've paid money for your blog to run at all times, but now you're losing money because customer service is not available or not skilled enough to fix the problem.
Sure, you're excited about the possibility of putting your ideas online for everyone to see. Starting a blog can be a ton of fun and very rewarding when done right. Just remember, we live in a digital world where the average attention span of a reader is a few seconds at best. If you want to grab their attention and keep them coming back, you must start by having the best web host. Avoid the above mistakes at all costs and setup a blog that your readers will have no issues visiting over and over again.
GET INSTANT ACCESS TO My Exact Blogging Strategy!Want to know how I continually make six-figures a year blogging from the comfort of my home? Then you need this free course!
Disclosure: In full disclosure, it is safe to assume that the site owner is benefiting financially or otherwise from everything you click on, read, or look at while on my website. This is not to say that is the case with all content, as all publications on the site are original and written to provide value and references to our audience.Source: Avoid These Amateur Mistakes When Choosing a Web Host
Domain hosting
re: purchasing WordPress.COM upgrades
WordPress.com provides free blogs and hosts them free of charge. There are no bandwidth charges. All WordPress.com blogs come with 3000 megabytes (~3 GBs) of space for storing uploaded files and images. Free features are listed here https://en.wordpress.com/features/
We have 4 different plans: free, personal, premium and business. All hosting is free regardless of which plan you choose. You can view all wordpress.com plan features here https://wordpress.com/pricing/ Add a plan for each of your sites here: http://store.wordpress.com/plans/.
There are 3 ways to add a custom domain to your blog. Please note that an active WordPress.com plan is required to add a custom domain to your site. https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/#getting-startedDetails:There are no trial upgrades, no monthly payment plans, no bulk deal upgrades, and no multiple year upgrades.We are billed annually and we must pay for all upgrades in full at the time of purchase after selecting a plan.Also note that purchase orders are not accepted.Each upgrade bundle applies to a single blog only and is for a single year only when it is due to be renewed. (The only exceptions are one time upgrades for premium themes and guided transfers.)
WordPress.com does not accept domain transfers but mapping an existing domain is possible. http://support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/map-existing-domain/ The domain or mapping of any existing domain URL is included in the pricing for a personal upgrade, a premium and a business upgrade. The WordPress.COM upgrade for mapping a domain must be renewed annually.
WordPress.com does not provide an email service for blogs on their sub domains or on custom domains. Please see these support docshttps://en.support.wordpress.com/add-email/https://en.support.wordpress.com/email-forwarding/
How domain mapping worksRegistering an underlying .wordpress.com URL first is required for domain mapping. What domain mapping does is providing a seamless redirect to the very same content under the new domain URL when a person clicks the old URL .wordpress.com to the original content. It can take up to 72 hours for domain propagation to take place throughout the internet but it doesn't usually take that long. https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/
The Business upgrade which is the only plan that includes Google analytics also includes access to all premium themes. The Business plan also has other inclusions you can read about at:Footer Credit Options https://en.support.wordpress.com/footer-credits/SEO Tools https://en.support.wordpress.com/seo-tools/However, note that there is no e-commerce capability under any plan here https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/small-business-website-1?replies=2#post-2804631.When you upgrade from Personal to Premium or from Premium to Business you pay the difference between the two plans https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/domain-mapping-almost-impossible-to-understand-how-it-works?replies=4#post-2874012
Before you upgradeMake sure you read the comparison very closely do you know exactly what the restrictions and limitations on WordPress.COM blogging are: http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
Also read Important Notes Before Upgrading http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/#important-notes-before-upgrading
How to upgradeYou must be logged in as Admin http://en.support.wordpress.com/user-roles/#administrator under the exact same username account that registered the blog to access the blog's dashboard, select a plan and purchase upgrades at > Dashboard> Store > My Upgradeshttps://en.support.wordpress.com/my-upgrades/
Your billing history will be at Dashboard > Store > Billing Historyhttps://en.support.wordpress.com/billing-history/
Your only options for payment are found here Payment Methods http://en.support.wordpress.com/payment/
refunds and cancelling upgradesWordPress.com provides a 30-day refund on all upgrades except Domain Registrations, Domain Renewals, and Guided Transfers. The refund period for Domain Registrations and Renewals is 48 hours.
Note: It takes from 1 - 2 weeks for the refund to be received.
You have to be logged in as Admin http://en.support.wordpress.com/user-roles/#administrator under the exact same username account that registered the blog to access the blog's dashboard, cancel any upgrades, claim a refund for any qualified upgrades, and disable auto-renew. Dashboard > Store > My Upgrades. You can also disable auto-renew there. http://en.support.wordpress.com/my-upgrades/#canceling-upgrades
If you have any unanswered questions type modlook into the sidebar tags on this thread for a Staff follow-up. How do I get a Moderator/Staff reply for my question? https://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-help-in-the-forums/#how-do-i-get-a-moderatorstaff-reply-for-my-question Also subscribe to this thread so you are notified when they respond and be patient while waiting. To subscribe look in the sidebar of this thread, find the subscribe to topics link and click it.
Source: Domain hosting