Web Analytics

Web analytics allow you to track how many people visited your site, how long they stayed, and what all they did there. If you work in an industry that is even remotely integrated with the web, then you’ve inevitably heard people talking about web analytics.

Want to know how people get to your site? Use analytics. Want to figure out where, in the process of exploring your site, they lose interest and leave? Analytics can help you figure it out. Want to know where you people get stuck in your sales funnel? Once again, analytics can help shine light on that.

In other words, the way you should use web analytics is not to count site visitors (101, wowser!) but to gather actionable data to help you make informed marketing, design, and content decisions for your site.

Lets Dig More
As you might imagine, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of web analytics options out there . Some popular ones are Google Analytics, Omniture, Chartbeat, and Kissmetrics. Since Google Analytics is free, it’s a great place to start. Below is a breakdown of the basic features of Google Analytics to get you started.

Visits: Visits are exactly what you think they are, visits to your website. When a person comes to your website they are assigned a particular code that is used to track them. Tracking visits over time is a good way to gauge whether your marketing strategy is working. Do you have more visits this week than last week? How many pages does your average user look at when they visit your site? Are there certain devices that are used to access your site more frequently than others?

Behavior: Want to know if your latest advertising campaign is achieving your goal of getting new users to your site? The Behavior feature makes it easy to figure out whether you are attracting new visitors or if most everyone is a repeat-visitor. You can look at what the percentage of new vs. existing users is over time and see how it changes. You can also track how often users visit your site, and how much time they tend to spend on it.

Visitor Flow: This feature allows you to track how people maneuver through your site. Are they coming in through the home page or via a particular article? What are they doing once they get to the site? Is there a particular section of your site where they all tend to end up?

Traffic Sources: Google Analytics tracks traffic from a range of sources, including search engines, social media, display advertising, and email marketing. Want to know if that content partnership that you struck with Forbes is performing? Are people tweeting about you? Use Traffic Sources to find out.

Content: The content section provides detailed information on how users are viewing and interacting with content on your site. This is where you can see things like total page views; bounce rates (the percentage of visitors coming to your site who only visit a single page); site speed (how long it takes a page to load on various browsers), and also track what pages are doing the best. You can also generate a report that shows how users interact with the links on a single page, which can help you better understand the visitor flow patterns you are seeing.

Now Try This
Sign up for a Google Analytics account
Add the Google Analytics script to your website. Read how to do this on a regular site, on WordPress, and on Tumblr.
Give Google Analytics a day to start tracking data.
Wait until tomorrow, and then starting using all of this new data to make informed changes to your site that will make your users happy, drive traffic, and increase your revenues!

October 30, 2012 0

XUL (XML User Interface Language)

XUL is a web programming language that you can use to build Firefox plugins. XUL was created by the Mozilla project, an open source collaboration that also created, and maintains, the Firefox browser. XUL is to Firefox what HTML is to webpages, meaning that you use XUL to build interface elements for the Firefox browser. Want a window to popup that asks the user to pick between three answers: Yes, No, Maybe?

In HTML you might write:

<div id="popup"><form><input type="radio" value="Yes" name="answer" />
 <label>Yes</label>
 <input type="radio" value="No" name="answer" />
 <label>No</label>
 <input type="radio" value="Maybe" name="answer" />
 <label>Maybe</label>
 <input type="submit" value="Submit" name="submit" /></form></div>

In XUL you would write:

<!--?xml version="1.0"?-->
<!--?xml-stylesheet href="chrome://global/skin/" type="text/css"?-->

 <button id="yes"></button>
 <button id="no"></button>
 <button id="maybe"></button>

XUL, like HTML, relies on a combination of markup, CSS, and JavaScript to do its magic, and is relatively easy to pick up for anyone familiar with frontend web development. XUL powers all the wonderful Firefox plugins that we love. Add-ons like Firebug, Adblock, or Amazon Wishlist. Have an idea for a cool Firefox plugin for your site? Check out Mozilla’s XUL School (that’s zool school) or Gina Trapani’s great blog post on how to get started.

October 29, 2012 0

Extracting Text From Pdf

I recently used Apache pdfbox to extract the text information from pdf file. It is simple and yet effective tool, lets see more about it in detail…….

Apache pdfbox
Apache pdfbox library is an open source java tool for working with pdf documents. Though we can create, manipulate, merge pdf documents and so on.., we will see the typical and most common requirement which is extraction of text from pdf.

I assume you already have the pdfbox jar deployed, if not get it from here

Following is the simple piece of Code where we are providing the path of the pdf file and using the pdfbox jar for extracting the textual information..

 package com.src.lucene;

 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;

 import org.pdfbox.*;
 import org.pdfbox.cos.COSDocument;
 import org.pdfbox.pdfparser.PDFParser;
 import org.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDDocument;
 import org.pdfbox.util.PDFTextStripper;

 import lombok.*;

 public class pdfclass {

 /**
 * @param args
 * @throws IOException
 */

 public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
 // TODO Auto-generated method stub

 try {
 try {
 FileInputStream fin = new FileInputStream(new File("D:/Sample.pdf"));

 PDFParser parser = new PDFParser(fin);
 try {
 parser.parse();
 } catch (Exception e) {
 // TODO Auto-generated catch block
 e.printStackTrace();
 }
 COSDocument cd = parser.getDocument();
 PDFTextStripper stripper = new PDFTextStripper();
 stripper.setStartPage(3);
 String text = stripper.getText(new PDDocument(cd));
 System.out.println(""+text);
 } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
 // TODO Auto-generated catch block
 e.printStackTrace();
 }
 } catch (Exception e) {
 // TODO Auto-generated catch block
 e.printStackTrace();
 }
 }

 }

October 29, 2012 0

50 Common Interview Questions And Answers

Review these typical interview questions and think about how you would answer them. Read the questions listed; you will also find some strategy suggestions with it.
1. Tell me about yourself:
The most often asked question in interviews. You need to have a short statement prepared in your mind. Be careful that it does not sound rehearsed. Limit it to work-related items unless instructed otherwise. Talk about things you have done and jobs you have held that relate to the position you are interviewing for. Start with the item farthest back and work up to the present.
2. Why did you leave your last job?
Stay positive regardless of the circumstances. Never refer to a major problem with management and never speak ill of supervisors, co-workers or the organization. If you do, you will be the one looking bad. Keep smiling and talk about leaving for a positive reason such as an opportunity, a chance to do something special or other forward-looking reasons.
3. What experience do you have in this field?
Speak about specifics that relate to the position you are applying for. If you do not have specific experience, get as close as you can.
4. Do you consider yourself successful?
You should always answer yes and briefly explain why. A good explanation is that you have set goals, and you have met some and are on track to achieve the others.
5. What do co-workers say about you?
Be prepared with a quote or two from co-workers. Either a specific statement or a paraphrase will work. Jill Clark, a co-worker at Smith Company, always said I was the hardest workers she had ever known. It is as powerful as Jill having said it at the interview herself.
6. What do you know about this organization?
This question is one reason to do some research on the organization before the interview. Find out where they have been and where they are going. What are the current issues and who are the major players?
7. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
Try to include improvement activities that relate to the job. A wide variety of activities can be mentioned as positive self-improvement. Have some good ones handy to mention.
8. Are you applying for other jobs?
Be honest but do not spend a lot of time in this area. Keep the focus on this job and what you can do for this organization. Anything else is a distraction.
9. Why do you want to work for this organization?
This may take some thought and certainly, should be based on the research you have done on the organization. Sincerity is extremely important here and will easily be sensed. Relate it to your long-term career goals.
10. Do you know anyone who works for us?
Be aware of the policy on relatives working for the organization. This can affect your answer even though they asked about friends not relatives. Be careful to mention a friend only if they are well thought of.
11. What kind of salary do you need?
A loaded question. A nasty little game that you will probably lose if you answer first. So, do not answer it. Instead, say something like, That’s a tough question. Can you tell me the range for this position? In most cases, the interviewer, taken off guard, will tell you. If not, say that it can depend on the details of the job. Then give a wide range.
12. Are you a team player?
You are, of course, a team player. Be sure to have examples ready. Specifics that show you often perform for the good of the team rather than for yourself are good evidence of your team attitude. Do not brag, just say it in a matter-of-fact tone. This is a key point.
13. How long would you expect to work for us if hired?
Specifics here are not good. Something like this should work: I’d like it to be a long time. Or As long as we both feel I’m doing a good job.
14. Have you ever had to fire anyone? How did you feel about that?
This is serious. Do not make light of it or in any way seem like you like to fire people. At the same time, you will do it when it is the right thing to do. When it comes to the organization versus the individual who has created a harmful situation, you will protect the organization. Remember firing is not the same as layoff or reduction in force.
15. What is your philosophy towards work?
The interviewer is not looking for a long or flowery dissertation here. Do you have strong feelings that the job gets done? Yes. That’s the type of answer that works best here. Short and positive, showing a benefit to the organization.
16. If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?
Answer yes if you would. But since you need to work, this is the type of work you prefer. Do not say yes if you do not mean it.
17. Have you ever been asked to leave a position?
If you have not, say no. If you have, be honest, brief and avoid saying negative things about the people or organization involved.
18. Explain how you would be an asset to this organization
You should be anxious for this question. It gives you a chance to highlight your best points as they relate to the position being discussed. Give a little advance thought to this relationship.
19. Why should we hire you?
Point out how your assets meet what the organization needs. Do not mention any other candidates to make a comparison.
20. Tell me about a suggestion you have made
Have a good one ready. Be sure and use a suggestion that was accepted and was then considered successful. One related to the type of work applied for is a real plus.
21. What irritates you about co-workers?
This is a trap question. Think real hard but fail to come up with anything that irritates you. A short statement that you seem to get along with folks is great.
22. What is your greatest strength?
Numerous answers are good, just stay positive. A few good examples: Your ability to prioritize, Your problem-solving skills, Your ability to work under pressure, Your ability to focus on projects, Your professional expertise, Your leadership skills, Your positive attitude .
23. Tell me about your dream job.
Stay away from a specific job. You cannot win. If you say the job you are contending for is it, you strain credibility. If you say another job is it, you plant the suspicion that you will be dissatisfied with this position if hired. The best is to stay genetic and say something like: A job where I love the work, like the people, can contribute and can’t wait to get to work.
24. Why do you think you would do well at this job?
Give several reasons and include skills, experience and interest.
25. What are you looking for in a job?
See answer # 23
26. What kind of person would you refuse to work with?
Do not be trivial. It would take disloyalty to the organization, violence or lawbreaking to get you to object. Minor objections will label you as a whiner.
27. What is more important to you: the money or the work?
Money is always important, but the work is the most important. There is no better answer.
28. What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?
There are numerous good possibilities:
Loyalty, Energy, Positive attitude, Leadership, Team player, Expertise, Initiative, Patience, Hard work, Creativity, Problem solver
29. Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor
Biggest trap of all. This is a test to see if you will speak ill of your boss. If you fall for it and tell about a problem with a former boss, you may well below the interview right there. Stay positive and develop a poor memory about any trouble with a supervisor.
30. What has disappointed you about a job?
Don’t get trivial or negative. Safe areas are few but can include: Not enough of a challenge. You were laid off in a reduction Company did not win a contract, which would have given you more responsibility.
31. Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.
You may say that you thrive under certain types of pressure. Give an example that relates to the type of position applied for.
32. Do your skills match this job or another job more closely?
Probably this one. Do not give fuel to the suspicion that you may want another job more than this one.
33. What motivates you to do your best on the job?
This is a personal trait that only you can say, but good examples are: Challenge, Achievement, Recognition
34. Are you willing to work overtime? Nights? Weekends?
This is up to you. Be totally honest.
35. How would you know you were successful on this job?
Several ways are good measures:You set high standards for yourself and meet them. Your outcomes are a success.Your boss tell you that you are successful
36. Would you be willing to relocate if required?
You should be clear on this with your family prior to the interview if you think there is a chance it may come up. Do not say yes just to get the job if the real answer is no. This can create a lot of problems later on in your career. Be honest at this point and save yourself
future grief.
37. Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?
This is a straight loyalty and dedication question. Do not worry about the deep ethical and philosophical implications. Just say yes.
38. Describe your management style.
Try to avoid labels. Some of the more common labels, like progressive, salesman or consensus, can have several meanings or descriptions depending on which management expert you listen to. The situational style is safe, because it says you will manage according to the situation, instead of one size fits all.
39. What have you learned from mistakes on the job?
Here you have to come up with something or you strain credibility. Make it small, well intentioned mistake with a positive lesson learned. An example would be working too far ahead of colleagues on a project and thus throwing coordination off.
40. Do you have any blind spots?
Trick question. If you know about blind spots, they are no longer blind spots. Do not reveal any personal areas of concern here. Let them do their own discovery on your bad points. Do not hand it to them.
41. If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?
Be careful to mention traits that are needed and that you have.
42. Do you think you are overqualified for this position?
Regardless of your qualifications, state that you are very well qualified for the position.
43. How do you propose to compensate for your lack of experience?
First, if you have experience that the interviewer does not know about, bring that up: Then, point out (if true) that you are a hard working quick learner.
44. What qualities do you look for in a boss?
Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense of humor, fair, loyal to subordinates and holder of high standards. All bosses think they have these traits.
45. Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.
Pick a specific incident. Concentrate on your problem solving technique and not the dispute you settled.
46. What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?
Be honest. If you are comfortable in different roles, point that out.
47. Describe your work ethic.
Emphasize benefits to the organization. Things like, determination to get the job done and work hard but enjoy your work are good.
48. What has been your biggest professional disappointment?
Be sure that you refer to something that was beyond your control. Show acceptance and no negative feelings.
49. Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.
Talk about having fun by accomplishing something for the organization.
50. Do you have any questions for me?
Always have some questions prepared. Questions prepared where you will be an asset to the organization are good. How soon will I be able to be productive? and What type of projects will I be able to assist on? are examples.

October 24, 2012 0

LAST DAY AT MY FIRST ORGANIZATION!

As this day going to be last day at my first organization, i would like to share few things……..

My Experience….
Its been a wonderful experience to work in Razorsight India office. I joined Razorsight as an intern back in February 2010. It was like from college to corporate very fast and direct. I did my final year project here and soon in August 2010 i joined Razorsight as a Software Engineer.
Initially everything was completely new as i didn’t had any idea how the industry works?, corporate norms as such, but slowly i understood the work, process…
Now when i look back what amazes me a lot is that i am carrying tremendous amount of knowledge from here and a vision on how i am going to use it in near future….as a saying goes…
“LIFE CAN ONLY BE UNDERSTOOD BACKWARDS; BUT IT MUST BE LIVED FORWARDS”

What i did here?

I did designing, coding and debugging applications in java.
For a major part played with a java code using eclipse, SAX parser, xml and regular expressions.
I found my interest in blogging and have blogged a few tech stuff…

People i met and worked with…
Now here lies something interesting and challenging part, as we will not or we can’t work alone , as we are a part of business and as we work in a organization, we have to work and interact with different people, by which we not just do the business to happen we in fact can learn a lot of stuffs.
I would like to mention and thank few from whom i have learnt and who influenced me in my work.

1. Charlie Thomas

Razorsight’s CEO whose leadership skills one has to look for…

2. Jayanthi Jonathan

My first HR Manager, whose management, leadership and communication skills influenced me a lot.

3. Vasudha Mangalam

Director of Razorsight whose management skills are something to learn from.

Overall my stint here will be always a memorable and treasure-able as this was my first organization.

I wish fellow Razorsightians all the very best…………

October 15, 2012 0

Linkedin Communication Platform

October 12, 2012 0

Maximizing Eclipse Performance

As we all know Eclipse is a powerful Java IDE. Working with Eclipse on medium-to-large code bases can be frustrating, though. On all but the most powerful workstations, the performance of Eclipse seems to progressively degrade as the number of source files grows in projects. The following tips will help to maximize Eclipse performance.

1. Set The Memory Heap
Setting the minimum and maximum heap memory for the JVM gives Eclipse a larger slice of the system’s memory pie. By default, the JVM gets a minimal amount of memory, so tell the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) exactly how much memory we want it to have.

On Microsoft Windows, UNIX, and Linux, you can edit the “Java” command line to include the minimum and maximum we want. For instance, -Xms64m -Xmx200m.

On Mac OS X, you will need to edit the Eclipse application’s plist file.
To do so, open %ECLIPSE_INSTALLATIONDIR%/Eclipse.app/Contents/Info.plist and edit the Xms
and Xmx settings.

2. Disable Automatic Folding
Disable automatic folding by unchecking everything on the
Window> Preferences> Java>Editor> Folding tab.

3. Disable Automatic Code Insight
Disable automatic code insight by unchecking Enable auto activation from the
Window>Preferences> Java> Editor> Code Assist tab. We can still get code insight by simply
pressing control-space.

4. Close Projects
Close all the projects that you are not actively working in. The fewer projects you have open, the fewer files Eclipse has to handle as you update code.

October 10, 2012 0

JavaOne Content Available For Free

You can get the JavaOne content for free……….

1. Go to the JavaOne playlist on the YouTube Java channel for
highlights of the JavaOne Keynotes.

2. Go to the Oracle Media Network JavaOne 2012 channel to view the
keynotes in full (Community Keynote coming soon).

3. To view slides paired with audio of each session, go to the
JavaOne content catalog (JavaOne homepage, click on JavaOne
Technical Sessions) and select a session. If a video is available,
you’ll see “Media” in the right column. Look under “Presentation
Download” to get the slides. Sessions are being made available
as quickly as possible.

October 9, 2012 0

101 Ways To Participate…… And Make The Future Java

Just found this cool stuff and thought of reblogging………..

Join or create a JUG
Come to the meetings
Help promoting your JUG: twitter, facebook, etc
Find someone that can give a talk
Get your company to sponsor (a meeting, an event)
Organize an activity (meetings, hackathons, dojos, etc)
Answer questions on a mailing list (or simply join!)
Volunteer for a small, one time tasks (creating a web page, helping with an activity)
Come early to an event, and help to carry the piano
Moderate a list or add things to the wiki
Participate in the organization meetings or mailing lists
Take pictures of an event or meeting and publish them online
Write a blog about an event or meeting, to help promote the group
Help record and post a session online
Present your JavaOne experience when you get back
Repeat the best talk you saw at JavaOne at a JUG meeting
Send this list of ideas to other Java developers in your area so they can help out too!
Present a step-by-step tutorial
Present GreenFoot and Alice to school students
Present BlueJ and Alice to university students
Teach those tools to teachers and professors
Write a step-by-step tutorial on your blog or to a magazine
Create a page that lists resources
Give a talk about your favorite Java feature or technology
Learn a new Java API and present to your co-workers
Then, present in a JUG meeting, and then, present it in an event in your area, and submit it to JavaOne!
Create a study group to get certified or to learn some new Java technology
Teach a non-Java developer how to download the basic tools and where to find more information
Download and use an open source project
Improve the documentation
Write an article or a blog post about the project
Write an FAQ
Join and participate on the mailing list
Describe a bug in detail and submit a bug report
Fix a bug and submit it to the project
Give a talk about it at a JUG meeting
Teach your co-workers how to use the project
Sign up to Adopt a JSR
Test regular builds of the Reference Implementation (RI)
Report bugs in the RI
Submit Feature Requests to the spec
Triage issues on the issue tracker
Run a hack day to discuss the API
Moderate mailing lists and forums
Create an FAQ or Wiki
Evangelize a specification on Twitter, G+, Hacker News, etc
Give a lightning talk
Help build the RI
Help build the Technical Compatibility Kit (TCK)
Create a Podcast
Learn Latin – e.g. legal language, translate to English
Sign up to Adopt OpenJDK
Run a Bugathon
Fix javac compiler warnings
Build virtual images
Add tests to Java
Submit Javadoc patches
Give a webbing
Teach someone to build OpenJDK
Hold a brown bag session at work
Fix the oldest known bug
Overhaul Javadoc to use HTML
Load the OpenJDK into different IDEs
Run a build farm node
Test your code on a nightly build
Learn how to read Java byte code
Visit JCP.org
Follow jcp_org on Twitter
Friend JCP on Facebook
Read JCP Blog
Register for JCP.org site
Create a JSR Watch List
Review JSRs in progress
Comment on JSRs in progress, write and track bug reports, use cases, etc
Review JSRs in Maintenance
Comment on JSRs in Maintenance
Implement Final JSRs
Review the Transparency of JSRs in progress and provide feedback to the PMO and Spec Lead/community
Become a JCP Member or associate with a current JCP member
Nominate to serve on an Expert Group (EG)
Serve on an EG
Submit a JSR proposal and become Spec Lead
Take a Spec Lead role in an Inactive or Dormant JSR
Nominate for an Executive Committee (EC) seat
Vote in the EC elections
Vote in EC Special Elections
Review EC Meeting Summaries
Attend Spec Lead calls
Write blogs, articles on your experiences
Join the EC project on java.net
Join JCP.Next on java.net/JSR 358
Participate on the JCP forums and join JSR projects on java.net
Suggest agenda items for open EC meetings
Attend public EC teleconference (2x per year)
Attend open EC meetings at JavaOne
Nominate for JCP Annual Awards
Attend annual JavaOne and JCP Annual Awards Ceremony
Attend JCP related BOF sessions and give your feedback to Program Office
Invite JCP program office members to your JUG or meetup
Invite JSR Spec Leads to your JUG or meetup
And always – hold a party!

October 5, 2012 0

How to load a properties file in java

Lets see how to access properties file through java coding. This can be done in a very simple and easy way.A properties file can be accessed with the ResourceBundle class which is in the java.util package.

At first the properties file which has to be loaded will be having some sample values as key-value structures. Here how it looks

TCTALK.properties


NAME= TECHTALK
QUOTE= WANNA CHECK ABOUT TECKTALK

PropertyReader class will load the properties file from the system by using the bundle name wherein the fully qualified package name along with properties file name is given.

getvalue() method takes the string key and returns back the corresponding value from the properties file.If it can’t find the properties file or can’t get the value it will throw MissingResourceException.

PropertyReader.java


package com.properties.app.util;
import java.util.MissingResourceException;
import java.util.ResourceBundle;
public class PropertyReader
{
    private static final String
    Bundle_name="com.properties.app.resource.TCTALK";
    private static final ResourceBundle
    Resource_Bundle=ResourceBundle.getBundle(Bundle_name);
   public static String getValue(String key)
   {
       try
       {
            return Resource_Bundle.getString(key);
       }
       catch(MissingResourceException ex)
       {
           return "";
       }
      catch(Exception ex)
      {
           return "NOT FOUND";
      }
   }
}

PropertyReadermain.java

package com.properties.app.main;
import com.properties.app.util.PropertyReader;
public class PropertyReadermain
{
     /*** @param args*/
     public static void main(String[] args)
     {
       // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        System.out.println("Testing Property Reader....");
        System.out.println("Invoking key.......");
        System.out.println("Name="+PropertyReader.getValue("NAME"));
        System.out.println("Quotation="+PropertyReader.getValue("QUOTE"));
     }
}

October 4, 2012 0