How to add a drop down data set in excel

I wanted to add a dropdown data set which can be picked for a cell instead of the manual entry. This can be achieved in excel very easily. Here's how to do it:

Method 1: Using a Comma-Separated List

1. Select the cell or range of cells where you want the drop-down list to appear.
2. Go to the Data tab on the ribbon.
3. In the Data Tools group, click Data Validation.
4. In the Data Validation dialog box, go to the Settings tab.
5. In the Allow box, select List.
6. In the Source box, type the items you want to appear in the drop-down list, separated by commas (e.g., Apple, Banana, Cherry).
7. Click OK.

Method 2: Using a Range of Cells

1. Enter your list of items in a column or row in your worksheet. For example, enter the items Apple, Banana, and Cherry in cells A1 to A3.
2. Select the cell or range of cells where you want the drop-down list to appear.
3. Go to the Data tab on the ribbon.
4. In the Data Tools group, click Data Validation.
5. In the Data Validation dialog box, go to the Settings tab.
6. In the Allow box, select List.
7. In the Source box, click the range selector button and select the range of cells that contain your list of items (e.g., =$A$1:$A$3).
8. Click OK.

Method 3: Using a Named Range

1. Enter your list of items in a column or row in your worksheet. For example, enter the items Apple, Banana, and Cherry in cells A1 to A3.
2. Select the range of cells containing the list of items.
3. Go to the Formulas tab on the ribbon.
4. In the Defined Names group, click Define Name.
5. In the New Name dialog box, enter a name for your list (e.g., FruitList), and click OK.
6. Select the cell or range of cells where you want the drop-down list to appear.
7. Go to the Data tab on the ribbon.
8. In the Data Tools group, click Data Validation.
9. In the Data Validation dialog box, go to the Settings tab.
10. In the Allow box, select List.
11. In the Source box, type the name of your list preceded by an equal sign (e.g., =FruitList).
12. Click OK.

These methods will create a drop-down list in your selected cells, allowing you to choose from predefined options.

How to migrate a perticular file in laravel php artisan

 In Laravel, if you need to run the migration for a particular file, you can achieve this by using the --path option with the php artisan migrate command. This allows you to specify the path of the migration file you want to execute.

Here's how you can do it:

1. Locate the Migration File: Find the path to the migration file you want to run. The default location for migration files is the database/migrations directory.

2. Run the Migration for the Specific File: Use the php artisan migrate command with the --path option to specify the path to the migration file. The path should be relative to the base directory of your Laravel project.

Here is an example command:

php artisan migrate --path=/database/migrations/2021_06_01_000000_create_users_table.php

In this example, replace /database/migrations/2021_06_01_000000_create_users_table.php with the actual path and filename of your migration file.

Step-by-Step Example

1. Navigate to Your Project Directory: Open your terminal and navigate to the root directory of your Laravel project.

2. Run the Migration: Execute the following command, replacing the path with the path to your specific migration file.

   php artisan migrate --path=/database/migrations/your_migration_file.php

Important Considerations

• Ensure the specified migration file exists at the given path.
• If the migration has already been run before, it will not run again unless it is rolled back first. You can roll back a specific migration using the --path option with the migrate:rollback command.

Rolling Back a Specific Migration

To roll back a specific migration, you can use the --path option with the migrate:rollback command:

php artisan migrate:rollback --path=/database/migrations/your_migration_file.php

Summary

Using the --path option with php artisan migrate allows you to run a specific migration file in Laravel. This can be useful for debugging or when you only need to run a particular migration without affecting others.

Tips for Improving Website Speed

Speed of the website is very much important while developing a website. In my last blog I explained how to find the speed of your website. Now in this blog we will discuss how to improve the speed of the website. Below are some tips to improve the speed of the website 

Optimize Images: Compress images without losing quality.

Enable Caching: Use browser and server caching to reduce load times.

Minify CSS and JavaScript: Remove unnecessary characters from code to reduce file sizes.

Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): Distribute content across multiple servers to speed up delivery.

Reduce HTTP Requests: Limit the number of requests your site makes to load a page.

Optimize Server Response Time: Ensure your server responds quickly to requests.

Using these tools and implementing their recommendations can significantly improve your website’s performance.

Improving the speed of your website involves several strategies, from optimizing your code to leveraging various performance-enhancing technologies. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you increase your website’s speed:

1. Optimize Images

• Compress Images: Use tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or online services like Kraken.io to reduce image file sizes without compromising quality.
• Use Correct Formats: Use JPEG for photographs, PNG for images with transparency, and SVG for icons and vector graphics.
• Lazy Loading: Implement lazy loading to delay the loading of images until they are about to enter the viewport.

2. Enable Caching

• Browser Caching: Configure your web server to set caching headers for static resources, so browsers can cache them locally.
• Server-Side Caching: Use caching mechanisms like Memcached or Redis to store frequently accessed data in memory.

3. Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

• Minify Files: Remove unnecessary characters, whitespace, and comments from your code. Tools like UglifyJS, CSSNano, and HTMLMinifier can help with this.
• Concatenate Files: Combine multiple CSS and JavaScript files into single files to reduce the number of HTTP requests.

4. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

• CDN Services: Services like Cloudflare, Akamai, and Amazon CloudFront distribute your content across multiple servers globally, reducing the distance data needs to travel to reach the user.

5. Optimize Server Response Time

• Choose a Fast Web Host: Select a reliable hosting provider known for high performance.
• Upgrade Server Resources: Increase server resources such as CPU and RAM if you’re on a VPS or dedicated server.
• Use Fast Software: Implement server-side technologies like NGINX or LiteSpeed instead of Apache for faster response times.

6. Reduce HTTP Requests

• Limit External Resources: Reduce the number of external scripts, fonts, and stylesheets.
• Inline Small CSS and JavaScript: For very small CSS and JavaScript files, inline them directly into the HTML to reduce the number of requests.

7. Enable Gzip Compression

• Compress Files: Enable Gzip compression on your server to reduce the size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files sent to the browser.

8. Leverage Browser Caching

• Set Expiry Dates: Use HTTP headers to set expiry dates or max-age for static resources, so browsers cache them and don’t reload on every visit.

9. Optimize Database Queries

• Database Indexing: Ensure that your database is properly indexed to speed up queries.
• Use Efficient Queries: Optimize your SQL queries to reduce load times, and avoid retrieving unnecessary data.

10. Reduce Plugins and Third-Party Scripts

• Limit Plugins: Deactivate and delete any unnecessary plugins, especially those that load a lot of scripts and styles.
• Asynchronous Loading: Load third-party scripts asynchronously to prevent them from blocking the rendering of the page.

11. Implement AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

• Use AMP: For content-heavy pages, implement AMP to create fast-loading versions of your pages for mobile users.

12. Use Modern Web Technologies

• HTTP/2: Upgrade to HTTP/2 for improved performance, as it allows multiplexing multiple requests over a single connection.
• Prefetching and Preloading: Use link prefetching and preloading to load resources in advance.

13. Monitor Performance Regularly

• Regular Testing: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, Pingdom, and WebPageTest to regularly check your website’s performance.
• Continuous Optimization: Keep your site optimized by regularly reviewing and updating your performance strategies based on test results.

Conclusion

Implementing these strategies can significantly improve your website's loading speed, resulting in a better user experience and potentially higher search engine rankings. Regular monitoring and continuous optimization are key to maintaining high performance as your site evolves.

How to check the speed of your website

Checking the speed of your website is essential for ensuring a good user experience and optimizing your site for search engines. Here are several tools and methods to help you check and analyze your website’s speed:

1. Google PageSpeed Insights:

Google PageSpeed Insights is a free tool that analyzes the content of a web page and provides suggestions to make that page faster. It provides both mobile and desktop results.

How to Use:

  1. Go to [Google PageSpeed Insights] (https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/).
  2. Enter your website URL and click "Analyze".
  3. Review the performance score and suggestions for improvement.

2. GTmetrix:

GTmetrix provides detailed reports on your website's performance, including page load time, total page size, and the number of requests.

 

How to Use:

  1. Go to [GTmetrix](https://gtmetrix.com/).

  2. Enter your website URL and click "Test your site".

  3. Review the detailed performance report, including PageSpeed and YSlow scores.

 

3. Pingdom Website Speed Test:

Pingdom's tool allows you to test the speed of your website from different locations around the world and provides a performance grade and suggestions for improvement.

 

How to Use:

  1. Go to [Pingdom Website Speed Test](https://tools.pingdom.com/).

  2. Enter your website URL, select a test location, and click "Start Test".

  3. Analyze the performance summary and recommendations

4. WebPageTest:

WebPageTest offers advanced testing options, including multi-step transactions, video capture, content blocking, and more. It provides a detailed performance review.

 

How to Use:

  1. Go to [WebPageTest](https://www.webpagetest.org/).

  2. Enter your website URL and select test settings (e.g., location, browser).

  3. Click "Start Test" and review the comprehensive performance analysis.

5. Lighthouse: 

Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. It has audits for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, SEO, and more.

 

How to Use:

  1. Open Chrome browser.

  2. Go to your website and open DevTools (Ctrl+Shift+I or Cmd+Option+I).

  3. Go to the "Lighthouse" tab.

  4. Click "Generate report".

 

6. Chrome DevTools: 

Chrome DevTools provides in-depth performance analysis directly within the Chrome browser.

 How to Use:

  1. Open Chrome browser.

  2. Visit your website.

  3. Open DevTools (Ctrl+Shift+I or Cmd+Option+I).

  4. Go to the "Network" tab and reload the page to see the loading times and network requests.

  5. Go to the "Performance" tab and record a page load to get a detailed breakdown of the performance metrics.

 

7. Cloudflare: 

If you use Cloudflare, it provides its own analytics and performance metrics that can help you understand and improve your site speed.

 How to Use:

  1. Log in to your Cloudflare account.

  2. Select your site.

  3. Navigate to the "Speed" tab to see performance metrics and suggestions. 

How to make php artisan to run on different port

When we want to run two servers on the same machine we may need to have two different ports.  We can change the default port for the Artisan development server by two ways.

        1. Changing the port number in env file.

        2. Through port argument to php artisan command.

1. .Env file change: 

        you can add the parameter SERVER_PORT to the .env file in the root directory of your project. Then, you can use the command php artisan serve to start the server with the new port. The default port is 8000, but serve will scan up to port 8009 for available ports

2. Passing argument to the command

        We can pass the --port argiment to php artisan serve command and run it to start the localhost server on the specified port

        php artisan serve --port:8080

       

Artisan Serve Improvements

In previous releases of Laravel, Artisan's serve command would serve your application on port  8000. If another serve command process was already listening on this port, an attempt to serve a second application via serve would fail. Beginning in Laravel 5.8, serve will now scan for available ports up to port 8009, allowing you to serve multiple applications at once.