Sanico Software Blog

Cross-browser user permissions in Phoenix LiveView

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:56:45 +0000

You know those times when you’re on this rollercoaster of emotions when debugging something, thinking that you’ve solved it but then another problem comes up? Yeah, this was one of those times.

Context was, I was working on a Phoenix LiveView app called BESTguestbookEVER for one of our clients. It’s an upcoming custom web app for a new startup based in Adelaide, where wedding guests record a video message instead of writing in a traditional guestbook. If you’ve read my previous blog post you would know the story, but a summarised version is that I was working on the video recording feature which required obtaining video and audio permissions. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as simple as just asking for the permissions and the user granting it through browser prompts. There were some additional things I had to do to get it working.

Configuring local HTTPS for web app development

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:54:28 +0000

Recently, I was working on a Phoenix LiveView app called BESTguestbookEVER for one of our clients, which is an app where wedding guests record a video message instead of writing in a traditional guestbook. Thus, one of the key features of this web app is the video recording functionality. While implementing the recording functionality itself using web APIs was a relatively time-consuming task, what turned out to unexpectedly be a bigger headache was dealing with browser permissions, especially across different browsers. I thought it’s as simple as just asking the users for permission and then the user granting it through the browser prompts, but uh… no. As they say, the devil is in the details.

Don’t like it, then go build it

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 11:32:06 +0000

Back when I worked for the Australian Federal Government I read a book called Rework by Jason Fried and DHH. They presented ready-to-go implementable methods to work better in a team and as a business. It left a profound impact on me to this day where I arrange my business around several of those methods.

As a junior-fresh-out-of-uni working for the Australian Government, I met with my manager every week in a fixed meeting that drained my soul. Week by week nothing changed in a significant way, therefore the meeting consisted of nothing meaningful but instead it always led to a general chit chat. After I read the Rework book it presented a better method: daily write ups about what a team member worked on for a given day. This type of automatic check-in allows the whole team to receive situational awareness on what everyone else worked on, without the constant and redundant meetings.

We setup AVL for an Adelaide law firm with a SIP Address in Webex

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 10:28:43 +0000

A local law firm and client of mine reached out to request help with the setup of an Audiovisual link (AVL) for an upcoming court case in country South Australia. Courts use AVL technology around Australia to allow lawyers, witnesses, and others to participate through a video call for a court case. For me a video call sounds much more comfortable than several hours of driving to a small town far far away. I’m all for it.

Creating a Black Friday Banner in Shopify

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 05:48:43 +0000

Today I would like to share with you the process I went through to design and implement the Black Friday banner for Sticky Vinyl in 2025, a well-known Australian store that sells vinyl for arts and crafts as well as tools for it. This is part of our monthly maintenance for their Shopify e-commerce website as part of Sanico’s Shopify services. The purpose of this banner was to let customers know that there is a sale going on and how much longer the sale was going to last for. This encourages the customers to purchase products while the sale lasts.

Creating Services Pages for Luciano Concrete's website

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:47:29 +0000

Today I would like to take you on the journey of how I designed and implemented service pages for Luciano Concrete, a local Adelaide concreter in South Australia. These pages were handmade with HTML, Tailwind CSS, and JavaScript, as we do for all our client websites. They are part of the whole Luciano Concrete website assigned to me by Sav, one of our co-founders and lead devs of Sanico Software, who also mentored me throughout the whole process.

The Carrot Dangler

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An opportunist that sells a dream. A poker player that bluffs the true value of their cards. They promise the world with no follow-through.

When I first started my business many years ago, naive and young, I never heard of the concept of a Carrot Dangler. At first I believed, after a few more I doubted, and now I’m skeptical.

Ladies and gentlemen, new and old business owners a like, allow me to introduce: The Carrot Dangler.

Design is not like math nor computer science

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Back in year 10, I wanted to create a website for someone as I found web development to be enjoyable with its low barrier to entry, instant results in the browser, and the fact that it’s shareable through just a link in the browser. So I gathered a list of things I would need to learn to do so, which can be divided into two categories:

Technical skills: Frontend (HTML, CSS, and JS) and backend (at the time, PHP and MySQL)
Design skills: Graphic design and User Interface (UI) design.

So with that, I started looking for resources online to study it, which mainly came in the form of multiple-hour long YouTube tutorials, a long YouTube tutorial playlist, or a Udemy course I got. Thank you, by the way, to all those who released YouTube courses for free and continue doing so, especially freeCodeCamp and the Net Ninja; you all have been a crucial part of starting my journey into web development and programming in general.

How we hired our Junior Software developer

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Anyone can apply for a job. That’s a no-brainer. Endless hours scrolling job sites, a never ending compilation of cover letters and sitting by the phone waiting for the “you’ve got the job” call. What feels like minutes turns into eternity when you’re on the job seeking crew.

You’ll probably think about how badly you want to win the lotto too. It will be a constant thought throughout this process, as you attempt to navigate a foot in the door to make your contribution to capitalism.

Intention Over Money Mindset

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When I was asked by Sav to do this blog post, I felt honoured. It’s as if I had been knighted into the secret service, only this is way cooler and less likely to put me on the FBI’s most wanted list.

The fact that Sav was willing to allow me to showcase my creativity through my profound use of my ABCs had me gobsmacked. I had so many ideas as to what I wanted to make ~~my mak~~ mark on.

Improving User Experience on Product Page - Be Careful Messing with History!

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 03:02:37 +0000

This is will be a very quick and brief post about messing with window.history.pushState compared to window.history.replaceState. Both functions have their use case and I want to share a quick reason why you should use one compared to the other and why it matters.

Quick Explanation

As you navigate a website, URL and history management is handled for you but sometimes you may want to update the history stack manually.

As stated directly from its source on mdn web docs, window.history.pushState does as follows:

Working with People and Clients You Dislike

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:21:36 +0000

Many moons ago (that makes me sound old) a business owner gave me inaccurate advice that I must work with people and clients I dislike. Folly. I shall tell the tale of how I received this poor advice and provide a critical amendment, a one word change that fixes everything.

Let us begin.

In my first years of running a business we landed a software job with a large firm here in Adelaide, for anonymity I shall refer to them as SkySafe Lifts. The managing director of SkySafe Lifts, I shall call him Bob, found us online and reached out to contract our services.

How We Land Software Contracts Internationally

Sat, 31 May 2025 01:03:18 +0000

From Germany to America, from Perth to Melbourne, people keep asking me how we land software contracts with companies all around the world. My answer: Because we are that F****** good.

Let me explain.

A long time ago I read a fantastic book called “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport. As obvious within the title of the book, it discusses the premise that when one focuses on skills and ability then other people, whether businesses or clients, will find it hard to ignore them.

Flaking, Flaking, Flaker: Never Flake in Business or Personal Life

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

No one likes a Flaker. You know the type, a person that commits to something 100% and then cancels a touch before the commitment. Or worse, they fail to show up at all and let nobody know.

Yes yes yes, we all know the type. Let me dig in here.

When we built Sanico Software we started with a few inner core principles. Principles we never stated out aloud but instead knew subconsciously. One major one, NEVER EVER FLAKE ON CLIENTS.

Please Sign this Document: Legally Unprepared Businesses

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 08:17:44 +0000

A friend of mine recently contracted for a company that asked them to sign a non-compete agreement a few days after they concluded their employment.

What on Earth? For any business owners, lawyers, or anyone with street smarts, I am sure you would react straight away and say: “Don’t sign that”.

The company of my friend failed to sign a proper sub-contractor agreement at the commencement of their employment and wanted to sign agreements after the fact. I call this amateur and unprepared.

Why UI Colors is a Game-Changing Tool Every Developer should use

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The phrase “less is more” comes to mind when I use this tool. Improving accessibility for users that suffer colour blindness has become paramount. Beyond accessibility problems, utilising colours that contrast correctly is a general must when it comes to design. The title mentions developers but I do believe anyone developing graphics could utilise this tool.

What is so good about this tool?

UI Colors has been built to work in unison with Tailwind CSS. The creator @erikdevries_nl has labeled the tool as a Tailwind CSS Color Generator.

Why you should advertise when you are busy - don't stink of desperation!

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I have dealt with many clients in the past that have said they don’t need to advertise since they are too busy.

I have also witnessed several of those clients hit unexpected dry spells that resulted in a frantic search for more business.

In my opinion, there is rarely a bad reason to prepare for the near-future, especially in a world that changes from day to day.

How can you prepare for the near-future?

My statement above may seem difficult to digest given the future is not predictable. However, in this case, I see preparations as preventative measures that help minimise exposure to a downturn in business.

Always Show Your Real Face Online

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:16:25 +0000

When a new employee starts I ask them to upload a portrait shot of their faces for every account they use internally at my company. Not a picture of their dog, not a picture of the beach, and not a picture of their favourite anime character. A picture of them.

I request them to add a portrait shot of their face because of the wise words that my professor in America said to me long ago:

How to Get More Google Reviews from Clients

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Google reviews are critical for establishing credibility and demonstrating past client/customer satisfaction. Below is a quick and simple guide showing the easiest way to request more Google reviews for your business listing.

1. Find your Google My Business Profile

You must be logged-in to the Google account that owns or is a manager of the Google business listing. Click the top right icon and either login or check which account is currently active. As seen in the image below, my Sanico Software account is currently logged in.

Working in a Remote Software Team: My Journey as a Software Engineer Intern

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine starting your very first job as a software engineering intern and finding yourself not in those bustling tech offices or recreating those ‘day in a life as a software engineer’ videos you see online but in the comfort of your own home. The realm of remote work has become your reality.

As a working student who transitioned from a traditional office environment to a remote software engineering role, this shift felt like exploring unknown waters, bringing in new knowledge, processes and challenges. In this post, I’ll share my personal journey of adapting to remote work and how practical strategies helped me grow, not just professionally but as an individual.

How We Used Devbox to Onboard New Devs Rapidly

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 23:09:15 +0000

From their first day my two Software Engineering interns contributed code to our software project with a complete programming environment setup through the use of one command, all thanks to my current favourite piece of software, Devbox.

Every so often a software application amazes me, Devbox 100% hit the sweet spot.

For any software devs out there we all know the pain to setup up a development environment and onboard new employees. Simple in theory, a mess in practice.

Someone Copied My Website - What can I do?

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

You’re not alone. As your website increases in popularity, so does the target on your back. A very common issue I have recently seen is scammers copying a website, making it look identical and tricking customers into fake purchases. Below are a few steps you can take to fight this issue.

Please note: Basecamp has been used purely as an example domain and this is not a reflection on their company. Separate to this, Basecamp actually provide an excellent service that we utilise ourselves.

10 Million Funding vs An Organically Grown Company

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 21:43:16 +0000

All over LinkedIn and the general internet I see posts about how companies receive millions in funding. New companies with no product, no clients, and no business experience. Instead they possess a handful of hope and a bank full of millions of dollars to burn through.

These hopeful business owners, in particular in the software industry, aspire to create a unicorn software business. They dream to create a piece of software that people use globally. A subscription based SaaS model where customers pay monthly for sub-par services while business owners sit on a beach in Mexico lapping up the sun.

How to Fix Website Performance with Google PageSpeed Insights tool

Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Google provides an excellent tool to assess your websites key metrics and identify core issues. More specifically, PageSpeed Insights provides a report assessing the performance of your website loaded on both mobile and desktop devices.

For quick reference, I have linked the docs here if you are interested in the technical aspects of PageSpeed Insights.

Below are a few steps on using the tool and improving your websites poor speeds, poor accessibility and poor vitals.

Shopify: How to Edit Shopify Products in Bulk

Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Managing a large range of products can be tedious work. It can become time consuming navigating through each product and editing them individually.

This is a quick guide on how you can bulk edit your products faster which is built into Shopify.

Step 1: Navigate to the Products tab from the Shopify Dashboard

From here, select the products you are wanting to edit. In this case, I have clicked the check box that selects all available products. However, if you want to edit specific products, check the boxes next to the products names you want to edit.

LinkedIn Spam: Is anyone else getting spammed?

Tue, 14 May 2024 22:20:38 +0000

Does anyone else on LinkedIn get their inbox filled with a boat load of spam? I want to know the people that would reply to a message like the one below.

Hi Sav, In the tsunami of identical messages bombarding you, here is a flamingo swimming in a yard of pigeons. But seriously…

If I could show you a way to help the conversion rates for the team, would you be open to learning more?

Don't Communicate with Unedited AI Responses

Thu, 09 May 2024 22:59:06 +0000

This is a personal opinion and perspective from a software engineer. Given, maybe doing this to unsuspecting and less tech savvy individuals may work, but this is a big no in my books.

If God (or whoever your believe in) makes everyone powerful, in reality, no one is powerful. Tools like ChatGPT, Bard, Perplexity, Jasper etc. are great for particular situations but they should not become replacements for general communication between humans.

The Forgotten CISCO Box: A Lack of Pride in Your Work

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 22:18:36 +0000

No long intro, instead a question.

If you look at the server rack below would you say the previous IT contractor took pride in their work?

100% you would say no. If in doubt, I will shortly show a clean version but first I want to show you something else.

Can you see it? Yeah, right there at the bottom, the CISCO box. The good old CISCO 870 Series. Let’s get a zoom on that:

The Past is not Predictive of the Future

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It is hard not to predict the future from the past. The whole basis of our judgement often comes from our past experiences. Even public resources explain in gambling, say the roulette table, that just because red was rolled 10 times straight doesn’t mean blacks chances has increased - the events are independent. However, majority of people think that a number or colour may appear since it hasn’t appeared yet - this even has a definition named The Gamblers Fallacy.

It All Adds Up: Content That Grows and Leads to More Clients Organically

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Everything you do adds up.

That blog post you wrote. That website page you added. That Instagram Reel you made. That YouTube video you published. That client you made happy. It all adds up.

In an airport in Rome, Italy I ran into an ex-coworker from IBM that upon discovery I ran my own software business asked immediately: “How did you find your clients?”

Well… that was a complex question to answer in a short span of time as we awaited our baggage at the airport.

I Don’t Want to Write This Blog Post

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There you have it, folks. I don’t want to write this blog post.

Is that too blunt? Too rude? Too… lazy?

Perhaps, it’s all of the above. But, what’s the one thing that it definitely is? Honest.

A round of applause for me. Just kidding, please don’t do that. Not yet, at least.

Let us track a little further back. Sav (The ‘Sa’ in Sanico) reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in writing a reflective piece for their blog about some contract work I did for them, which included some IT Maintenance work, such as Hardware Installation - my fancy way of saying ‘I set up computers’.

How to Write a Blog Post: Guidelines for my clients and the general public

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As a web developer I create blogs for many of my clients and constantly send out a list of guidelines to help them on their journey to successfully write blog posts. The guidelines consist of tips, advice, and criteria. In these guidelines I consolidated all of my learnings into a single referenceable source of information for myself, my clients, and the general public.

I sourced the tips, advice, and criteria from renowned sources such as the Google SEO team and my own expertise after 4 years of writing various blogs. I follow the same set of guidelines when I write my own blog posts.

Shopify Store Owners: Authenticate and Add a DMARC Policy to Your Domain

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Since January 2024 Shopify sent out a flurry of emails to warn store owners to authenticate and add a DMARC record to continue sending branded emails from their domain, as per the screenshot cover picture of this blog post. I received an inundated amount of requests for help from my clients and people around the world from a reel on Instagram and YouTube that I posted.

Many Shopify store owners saw the warning but due to the technical barrier they failed to fix the problem themselves. I wrote this post to help explain the problem in more detail and discuss some paths to help resolve the problem.

Buttondown: A Founder Leading by Example with Superior Customer Service

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I recently spoke to the founder of an innovative email service company called Buttondown Email. No, I don’t know the founder. No, this was not an interview for my blog. This was a sales enquiry. I contacted the sales staff as I required a custom premium feature and to my suprise the founder of the company, Justin Duke, responded to me. What the heck!!!!

This guy runs a decent sized technology company and personally responds to sales requests. It felt like the equivalent of me walking into a local McDonalds and being served a burger at the cash register by the CEO. Unheard of.

Mobile First: Why should I design my website for mobile first?

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Website Tip #10: Create a mobile first website.

To any business that reads this blog post I encourage you to stop reading, go view your own website on a mobile phone, and then come back to this post.

Alright, now answer the following questions:

Did my website load fast on mobile? [yes/no]
Did my website look good on mobile? [yes/no]
Did my website work well on mobile? [yes/no]

If you answered no to at least one of the above questions then let me tell you 2 critical things:

How to add hidden fields in Tina CMS

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

For those that use TinaCMS I will show you how to add hidden fields to the metadata of your content files.

I utilise several default fields within the YAML of my content markdown files and I wanted to add them with TinaCMS when a user creates a new entry to a collection. After I read the well written TinaCMS docs I noticed that no option existed to add default values and hide them from the user interface of TinaCMS.

The 4 most beautiful websites I've come across recently

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I will show you 4 beautiful websites that recently caught my attention.

Every now and again as I surf the web I come across a few websites that make me say: “dammmnnnnn that’s nice”.

Just like a car enthusiast when they see a classic and rare car go past, as a web developer well designed websites catch my eye.

Without any further ado, here are the 4 websites.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of the organisations mentioned, I earn no commissions, I added no affiliate link, and I am not endorsing any of the websites or their services. I like beautiful websites and that’s all.

One of the Most Unique Websites I Have Created: By Fabiano - SA Local Winemaker

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Myself and my brother Dom created one of the most particular and unique websites for a local wine label called By Fabiano.

Fabiano, a local SA winemaker and his business partner Alex wanted to create a custom ecommerce storefront for their unique new wine label called By Fabiano.

Based in Mclaren Vale South Australia they produce a high quality wine with roots to their Italian heritage as described by this excerpt from their website:

The Fake SEO Salesman: A Warning to Other Small Businesses

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Once upon a time a fake, cunning, and wretched SEO salesman approached one of my clients. He ran a questionable report, with a questionable analysis, and with a questionable video of him explaining SEO concepts.

My client signed up for $500 a month for this service as she honestly wanted to improve her website. This bloke charmed her with his magic and promised her the thing everyone wants but can’t have without payment, a spot at the top of Google. Oh yes, he promised.

We Transferred 496 Products from Wix to Shopify

Sun, 05 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote a program to transfer 496 ecommerce products from Wix to Shopify.

We performed this transfer for Rachel, the owner and operator of Essence & Soul on King William Road in Adelaide, South Australia.

She previously utilised a Wix store to sell her catalogue of over 496 products but we recommended she move to Shopify as we flat out refuse to build ecommerce stores with use of Wix due to its inferiority.

Just Run an Ad: The Neglect of Website Conversions

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The good old solution. Just run an ad, get the business.

What folly.

“Just run an ad”: the dream that social media companies want to sell businesses to get their greasy fingers on their money.

Oh you haven’t heard? An ad a day keeps the doctor away.

Says the fake doctors called social media companies that bully and pester you until you buy their ads.

Before you get your pitch forks and knifes out I want to clarify that I am not against ads, value exists in them as I explain towards the end. Instead I want to highlight that I see many companies just run an ad and outright neglect their website conversions.

The Cost of Software Maintenance: The Qualitative Cost of Old Software

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The start of any new project normally weighs up questions such as “What’s the expected ROI (return on investment) of this project?” or “If we provide this feature, what’s the increase in cost going to be?”. These are excellent questions. But how do you answer these when it comes to maintenance? What do you do when you have a piece of software that works, but has not been worked on in years?

We built a website for one of the most popular strawberry farms in South Australia: Harvest the Fleurieu

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

View the published website

We recently published a new custom Shopify ecommerce website for the very popular and well known strawberry farm Harvest the Fleurieu in South Australia. Allis reached out to us on Instagram after she saw us complete a website for another awesome South Aussie called Within the Candle Chaos Co.

I am not sure why but the pronunciation of Fleurieu always sends me to a world of confusion, I think it’s the mix of characters that throws me off. However, no stress, on confirmation from Allis I am happy to share the correct pronunciation is: flu-re-o.

Does anyone write real blog posts anymore?

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

EDIT: 31/10/2023

The competition is now closed, out of all the entries no one successfully guessed the sentence which was quite interesting.

I have a screenshot of the sentence at the end of the blog post for any curious cats out there.

Feel free to read the post and see if you can guess the sentence without looking at the screenshot below, good luck!

Thank you again to everyone that entered the competition.

How can I get better results with X’s algorithm? Explaining an algorithm for humans and not robots.

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I hear the word algorithm a lot. The Instagram algorithm, the Facebook algorithm, the Youtube algorithm or even Google’s ranking algorithm. There is a lot of misinformation regarding algorithms, especially since many people consider it black magic. I want to shed some light on algorithms from the perspective of a software engineer.

What is an algorithm?

Good question. Let’s start out by stating that it is not witchcraft. An algorithm is a process that performs operations based on a set of overarching rules.

Software Tales: Speaking Up as an Intern

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Many years ago when I interned for a large software organisation I spoke up about bad code.

On my first days as an intern I received my assigned project. I pulled the project from GitHub and opened the file, a monstrosity of over 2000 lines of poorly written, undocumented, uncommented, and untested code of an ExpressJS application. I spent literally 2 months in an attempt to refactor the code to allow me to add new features.

The Scoff of Superiority

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In the software industry I meet many people who deem themselves as technical wizards, those who live and breathe software for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They know and understand things about software that others know nothing about. Most of these technical wizards, in my experience, lack people skills so when people enter their dungeon to ask a technical question they give what I call, the scoff of superiority.

The scoff, you know, that exhalation of breath. The shock that you don’t know the answer and they do. A breath of air that slaps your face with the regret that you even asked the question to begin with. The scoff where you feel inferior for that moment of time and the scoffer feeds off the ego boost that they know the answer.

That Business Has Already Been Done

Tue, 12 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I hear this one a lot, the complaint that to start a business you must do something new or different. BS.

One person I know told me of their concept for a business but reeled back on it when they discovered someone already created a similar business. So what? Who said there wasn’t room for another business to do the same thing? Who said it had to be different to succeed?

Ideas are Cheap, Implementations Cost

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Software costs both time and money to write and create. It’s not some magic fairy dust that you wave a wand and earn a butt ton of money. You just wake up with an idea in the morning and earn a billion dollars by nightfall. No. An idea sometimes serves as a start point but an idea alone won’t put food on the dinner table tonight.

A friend of mine tells the story of their original idea to customise a car to add a stereo system, people love music so why not add it to a car to enhance the driving experience. An idea that we all live with today, thanks to my friend. Actually no, he never implemented the idea. Instead he thought and spoke about it a lot but never advanced to the implementation stage. Now in hindsight he swears even today if he went through with the idea and built it then he would be a millionaire.

Warning to Software Companies: Audit Your Software

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In one software audit a few months ago I worked with a small business here in Australia that hired software developers from a developing country. Within the first three hours of my analysis of the codebase I noticed I lacked the majority of the code necessary to execute the application. Not only that, I uncovered that the software developers hosted a significant part of the code on the internet, visible and accessible to the public. This decision is extremely poor practice and whether malice intent, incompetence, an honest mistake or just laziness, it breached the trust of the owner of the company.

Your Shopify website went website down? 7 troubleshooting steps to fix Shopify website issues.

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Did your Shopify store go down? You’ve tried everything but you still fail to connect to your online store? No stress, we help fix, maintain, and create Shopify stores on a daily basis. Problems with Shopify stores happen regularly, you are not alone, I promise. Today I will share 7 troubleshooting steps to help fix your Shopify store and bring it back online. The steps range in technical ability from basic to advanced. If they fail to fix your problems then you may always reach out to an expert like myself to help but in my experience usually one of these troubleshooting steps fixes the problem.

Why did my emails go down?: A dire need for help with emails.

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Emails: something almost everyone uses.

Love them or hate them they reign king of modern day communication. Tons of apps exist for communication such as iMessage, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Reddit, Google Meets, and many more. From phone calls, text messages, status updates to forum posts and yet email, in my opinion, sits at the top.

As a website developer many clients of mine asked if I am able to help them with their emails. Some wanted custom emails but lacked the knowledge on how to set it up themselves, others pleaded for my help because their emails failed to send and receive.

I love you Software.

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Yes you read it right. I love Software. Software is my passion, something that I lose myself in. Call me a weird geek but I love me some zero’s and one’s. When I write Software I come to life, I feel exhilarated. Whether I program in the morning, afternoon or the middle of the night, time loses meaning. I write Software for work, for pleasure, and for a challenge. Whether paid or unpaid, I am writing Software.

How Shopify support can help your website grow

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Shopify is a superior ecommerce platform that helps small businesses sell their products online. It has an ongoing cost to use but this cost is offset easily if you have a thriving store. If you are not a developer, you are required to use one of the several free template themes on offer which has its goods and bads. The major good is that you can have a passable website that allows selling online. However, the bad is that you may face issues changing, updating and even selling anything on this website. Getting Shopify support from a local expert should not be underestimated in solving these bad problems.

What is ChatGPT and is ChatGPT safe?

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

You may have heard of ChatGPT but if you haven’t, ChatGPT is an interactive generative pre-trained transformer built on advanced language models… WOAH, let’s make that a bit easier to understand. It is essentially an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that can provide human-like responses to any question you may have. For example, the image below shows the response if I asked ChatGPT to “write a product description for a montessori toy that is colourful and for kids”.

Integrating with Xero: Why so many people require Xero to talk with other software platforms.

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A majority of the businesses that I work with ask me if I am able to integrate their systems with Xero, the software they use for accounting. Most businesses manage several software systems for their daily operations such as a CRM, ecommerce website, inventory system, appointing booking system and much more. However, the software platforms fail to communicate with one another which leads to wasted company resources and inconsistent, incorrect and duplicated data.

I am a Jack of All Trades Technologist

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

When my brother and I founded Sanico Software we started to freelance website design jobs. We began with websites because we knew a market existed for handcrafted, well designed, and well engineered websites. We immediately boomed with business and decided to double down harder on websites. However, the small businesses that we worked with began to ask for more than just websites:

“Can you manage my domain?”
“Can you set up my computer network in my home office?”
“Can you filter my emails?”
“Can you customise this off the shelf software?”
“Can you transfer my Facebook business page that I sold to another business?”
“Can you go to Sydney and Melbourne to set up the IT infrastructure in our new offices?”
“Can you audit the software that someone built for me overseas?”
“Can you connect our inventory system to Xero?”

Now, a quick pause here, I label myself primarily as a Software Engineer, even if I graduated as a Computer Scientist from UniSA. I say Software Engineer because I construct and architect software products, although many well respected people disagree with the use of this term, I stay out of the political and social debates. Long story short, I am a Software Engineer.

We customised simPRO quotes, invoices, and job cards for a local Adelaide business.

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We recently worked with an Adelaide based electrician contractor that works on significant projects around South Australia to help customise their quotes, invoices, and job cards in simPRO. I heard several clients mention this software simPRO since I work with other local tradies in Adelaide such as SIMAC Air Conditioning and RP Connections. However, I never directly worked with the software myself.

simPRO allows businesses, in particular tradies, to manage their jobs much easier. For example, to generate quotes with costs of materials and labour, management of client information, inventory management of materials, and much more. simPRO works great except the quotes, invoices, and jobs cards generated by the system show in a default output, not specific to how a business necessarily desires. It also shows information that a business might want to keep private from quotes, invoices, and job cards.

Did you know a domain name misconfiguration can cause your website and emails to go down?

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

When someone starts a business they go straight on the internet and buy a domain name. Usually they buy both the general .com version and the regional version such as .com.au in Australia. They purchase the domain for a multitude of reasons but the major one of course, to prevent its purchase by someone else. Once they establish their business overtime they use the domain for their website, to set up emails, and so on. The problems begin here.

The 4 drawbacks of working from home

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As a software engineer I am not required to work from a particular location, in other words, no office required. I started my first software business with my brother called Infinity Mural back in 2019 that then morphed into Sanico Software. Since we just started as a new business we wanted to start with low overheads so we took the obvious choice and decided to work from home.

We saved a ton of money as we required no rental of an office or co-working space, no money spent on fuel or car maintenance, and best of all, we recouped the wasted commute time to drive to an office. Win, win, win!

Do I buy .com, .com.au or .au? How do I choose the right domain for me?

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Website Tip #9: Choose a domain that suits your target audience.

I noticed many of my clients in Adelaide ask me whether to use .com, .com.au or .au for their website. The answer, as always, it depends. From an SEO perspective you must take into consideration your target audience.

If the target audience of your website resides in Australia then use .com.au or the new .au for your website. Instead, if your target audience is international without localised versions then use .com or another Generic Top Level Domain.

I made The Naked Soap Company website

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I attended the Collective Markets earlier this year located in Civic Park, right across from SA’s well known Tea Tree Plaza. This is where I came in contact with The Naked Soap Company, a small business dedicated to hand making eco-friendly soaps and skin-care products.

Elise is the owner of the company and runs the business with her family. I had the privilege of meeting Michelle (Elise’s sister) at the market stall and mentioned I help locals like herself develop their websites.

I went to the Bowerbird market to support local Australian small businesses

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

On the 27th of November 2022 I went to the Bowerbird market on a beautiful Sunday afternoon to support some local Australian creators. The Bowerbird is a well known market showcasing Australian designers and makers held at the Adelaide Showground in my home town of Adelaide, South Australia.

I love to go to the markets and support locals because I get the chance to meet small business owners face to face. No instagram, no Facebook, no technology, no phone call, literally face to face with the owners. They are usually warm, friendly, kind, and passionate people, definitely worth meeting in person.

Why is the title of my ecommerce product important for SEO?

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Website Tip #8: Write descriptive, clear, and concise titles for your products on your ecommerce website to rank higher on Google.

I wrote this tip because I noticed many ecommerce websites in my hometown of Adelaide fail to write good product titles. I thought what a shame. What a missed opportunity. Many people pay an SEO specialist like myself to improve a website while many just miss factors like this that they possess the ability to modify themselves.

Get more people on your website by sharing

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Website Tip #7: This tip may seem pretty straightforward but I constantly see missed opportunities for businesses sharing their website with new customers. Picture your website like a castle in the middle of the woods. Sounds random but stay with me here. You have gone to the effort to get your website published online and it now exists in the middle of nowhere. How does anyone know where your castle is? You could tell your friends and family which would create a magical path directly to your castle. However, this is a pathway just for friends and family. Unless they share it with other people this path will barely be used. You need to create more pathways and let people know.

Why should I avoid putting text in images?

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Website Tip #6: Avoid putting important text in images as it makes it difficult for Google to understand. User’s can’t easily copy text and accessibility readers lack the ability to read the text aloud for people with a disability. Although this tip is subtle it is something that helps boost the SEO of a website.

When Google or other search engines index your website they ingest a variety of information, one critical piece of information is the text. Google rips all of the text from a website, interprets it, and understands its relevance which then allows it to recommend the webpage to people searching on Google. This is called the organic search ranking.

We landed our biggest job ever with Jobs Statewide

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Dom and myself recently landed our biggest client ever with an Adelaide based company called Jobs Statewide. They came to us with a critical and short deadline handed to them by the Government. They needed to set up their new offices in Sydney and Melbourne and they wanted us to handle the set up of their IT infrastructure in each of their new offices.

After negotiating a deal we hit the ground running on a trip to get their tech up and running with an sensitive deadline. We started with a super early flight from Adelaide airport and once landing in Sydney and Melbourne we went straight to the first offices.

Google removed their timer so I made one

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

By god this is sort of controversial. Google provides many free services that I use daily but there was one tool that ruled them all… the TIMER! Figure 1 shows the timer in all its former glory, so simple, so elegant and now so non-existent. That’s right, when I searched up the classic word “timer” into Google last week my heart wretched at its disappearance.

Figure 1: The free timer tool provided by Google when using their search engine.

Do not forget to add a favicon to your website

Fri, 15 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Website Tip #5: Do not forget to add a favicon to your website. I say forget because it seems people usually forget to add the poor little favicon to their website and in doing so they miss out on an opportunity to increase brand recognition and verify the legitimacy of a website. I created this web tip because I am so surprised at the sheer number of websites that I see that forget this little impactful addition. No more, after you read this tip I hope it inspires you to add the favicon to your website.

Improve your website by testing its speed

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Website Tip #4: Speed is an important SEO factor that needs to be considered by the website owner. I mean, how often do you access a website and wait a million years for it to load? I don’t know about you, but this happens to me more often than not and it really grinds my gears. I have a theory behind why many websites load slow and will share how you can test your own website speed for future fixes.

Get a ranking boost on Google with HTTPS on your website

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Website Tip #3: You might not know it but using HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) on your website is actually a page experience factor Google uses to rank a website. Many people think black magic, voodoo or casting spells helps a website rank better on Google, when in reality Google publishes a wide range of informative documentation to help websites rank better. Many misconceptions exist and people chase unusual tactics to rank better while they miss basic factors such as HTTPS.

Do not be intrusive with popups on your website

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Website Tip #2: A very common strategy websites use is acquiring newsletter signups via email addresses. However, the mistake many websites make is in the form of large popup windows. What do I mean by large? It is large enough to disallow a user from accessing content on the page as seen in figure 1. These pesky popup windows sound good to prompt users but can actually have negative effects on the website’s search engine optimisation (SEO).

Image file names are important for Google

Mon, 30 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Website Tip #1: You might not have expected it but the file name of an image actually helps Google understand your picture so that it indexes both the picture and your website better. Before I explain further I want to start with a few examples that will demonstrate the difference more clearly:

Example of bad image names:

image39_9394.png
IMG_39382.png
download_image_50053.png

Example of good image names:

dog-in-a-garden.png
cat-playing-with-a-ball.png
me-and-my-friends-at-the-park.png

If you read the two lists, the difference is obvious. Without seeing the picture I understand that dog-in-a-garden.png will likely contain a picture of a dog in a garden. If I look at image39_9394.png I have no idea what it represents. If I find it difficult to understand then Google will also find it very difficult. When Google discovers an image it looks at many factors to understand what it represents. Google, as discussed in their official documentation, uses the file name as one of these factors.

Is social media an alternative to websites?

Mon, 23 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Anyone can create a social media account. You can be in adolescence, a baby boomer or even a business. The fact is, if you have access to the internet then you can create an account. Applications such as Facebook and Instagram provide platforms at the initial cost of $0 and this is enticing from a business perspective.

As any business owner that is just starting, they quickly become aware that the bills can add up in multiple areas. Therefore, staying cost aware and spending money wisely becomes very important. Many businesses research different ways to market their business and an extremely common response is to get active on socials!

Case Study of Pup Hub Cafe

Sun, 15 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We, Dom and myself, built a custom ecommerce website for Pup Hub Cafe, a local pet food company founded by Jo Rugless and based in Adelaide, Australia. Jo Rugless and her company Pup Hub Cafe sell homemade pet food with use of local ingredients from South Australia. I will discuss how we met Jo, our approach to build the website and some of the key things that we implemented.

The Origins of the Job

We met Jo at a local market in Adelaide where we saw her very unique homemade pet food. After selling at the market for the last few years she really wanted to grow her business online through ecommerce. A way to increase professionality, spread brand awareness and add an additional channel to sell her pet food.

How do I know what career I want?

Thu, 05 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I have been told that I am lucky I love software. However, many do not realise that I have invested much time and energy to feel these emotions. Software has been a growing passion of mine but the love did not start grand. I happened to program for the first time in a year 12 subject. They pushed the students to use a basic website-building program and I hated it, so I found an alternative by programming the website from scratch. The school subject was based on design skills and I left with the skill of basic programming - an unintended benefit. Did I know I wanted to program for my career? No… but I did know how cool it was to solve problems with code.

Welcome to Sanico's Blog

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to Sanico’s Blog. We decided to create this blog because we want to share insightful information with local Adelaide businesses to help them leverage websites to create a stronger online presence and increase their discoverability on search engines such as Google in an organic manner.

First an introduction of who we are! We are Sav and Dom Tripodi, two brothers from Adelaide, South Australia. We have been an inseparable brothership team even before the days of Sanico Software where we now work together professionally. We have lived together all our lives, both went to the same school, both graduated in software bachelor degrees, both got girlfriends from the same party and both have similar jokes. Ok… maybe we spend way too much time together!