Dev Partners · Brain Dump
Real talk on software, business efficiency, and the stuff that actually drives growth. No content marketing fluff. Just things we have found useful, interesting, or worth writing down.
If you've got a custom app sitting inside your Shopify admin, there's a change this week worth knowing about. On 22 October Shopify moved Polaris 2.0 to its stable release channels. Polaris is the set of building blocks Shopify apps use to look and behave like part of the admin, and version 2.0 is the one that matches Shopify's redesigned admin.
If your business runs its own GitLab server, it needs upgrading today. On 21 October GitLab released a patch for a flaw rated 10 out of 10 for severity, and it affects self-managed Community and Enterprise editions going all the way back to version 7.0, which came out in 2014.
If your business runs anything on PHP, and an awful lot of the web does, there's a job that needs doing today rather than "when we get round to it". On 21 October the PHP project released fixes for two critical vulnerabilities that can let an attacker run their own code on your server without logging in.
If we look after your servers, the short version is this: every live PHP site we host is now on a patched version of PHP, and you don't need to do anything. It took most of the night, and there's a lot of coffee missing from the office.
Shopify published a post yesterday asking every app developer to work on security this week. Not this quarter. This week. It's marked "action required", and it's about as blunt as Shopify's developer changelog gets.
For years the deal with security updates has been simple. A bug is found, a fix comes out, you install it, job done. New research published yesterday suggests that deal is wearing thin, and it's worth five minutes of your time if you run any software of your own.
Here's a small Shopify change that tells you a lot about where online shopping is heading. Since 16 October, AI shopping agents that build carts and checkouts on Shopify stores can also pass on the buyer's privacy and marketing choices. That includes whether they want your emails and texts.
Almost a third of the busier development teams using Vercel's AI Gateway changed their main AI provider in September. Not their prompts, not their settings. The company whose model does most of their work. If your business has an app with AI built into it, that's a good prompt to ask a simple question: could we switch if we needed to?
PostgreSQL 19 is running late, and part of the reason is that AI-assisted code review found more problems than the developers had time to fix. If you're thinking of pointing an AI reviewer at your own codebase, that's worth a few minutes of your time, because the same thing will happen to you. Just on a smaller scale.
19 clients. A few of their words.
A well-rounded team, ensuring a full suite of expertise & resource is always available. CDS Global have seen the successful completion of major projects over the years where Dev Partners' ability to grasp the underlying business needs to provide a future-proof solution has been invaluable.
We have worked with Jason & his team to develop our Shopify store, and the experience was outstanding from start to finish. The design is clean, modern, and perfectly aligned with our brand identity, while the build is fast, responsive, and easy to manage on the backend. They clearly understood our vision and delivered a store we're genuinely proud of. Highly recommend to any brand looking for a top-quality Shopify partner.
After ongoing issues and delays with our previous developers, we brought in Rob & Jason at Dev Partners to take over all our websites and bespoke software. What a breath of fresh air, fully focused, excellent pre-launch designs and clear communication throughout. Highly recommended.
BPC Energy Ltd turned to Dev Partners for a complete turnkey solution, and they exceeded our expectations. The team handled everything from project management to development and support with real care and attention. They understood what we were aiming for, stayed on top of every detail, and always delivered on schedule with excellent quality.
Working with Dev Partners to redesign and modernise our WMS system: the whole process has been thoroughly professional from the outset and a delight to work with. Cannot recommend enough.
Great agency. Have used Dev Partners for several years and they have built 20+ sites for us, in addition to taking on our legacy websites, upgrading and maintaining. Easy to work with and some great practical ideas to improve our digital offerings.
Jones Hire have been working with Dev Partners on several projects, which have been very successful. They linked our catering database to a new improved website so clients can easily place and update orders, created a custom warehouse picking app to fulfil all our challenging requirements, and are currently developing a custom transport app to streamline our loading and delivery process.
We have been trying to reinvent our website for over 5 years, trying to make it convert and failing each time. Spoke to Rob at Dev Partners, the team helped create our new site and the improvement was instant.
We have been working with Rob and the team for about 10 years now. Dev Partners helped us build a completely bespoke CRM from scratch which manages our daily business and is always well maintained. We have been able to use the system and roll it out in our new franchise branches.
We collaborated with Dev Partners on the front end of a fairly complex telemarketing platform. Rob and Jason took the time to properly understand the moving parts, asked the right questions, and delivered a clean, intuitive interface that's made the system far easier for our team to use.
I have been working with the team at Dev Partners for the last 3 years and we have always been impressed with the speed in which they act on things for us, along with the honest open communication. The team are a valuable and vital part of our supply chain.
We've had a program for our business in the electronic security sector that Dev Partners developed and keep up to date. They've never let us down, always there when needed. Thanks Rob and the team.
Dev Partners have been working with us for just over 2 years. They have significantly upgraded and redesigned our existing web platforms, and always deliver a first class service.
Dev Partners helped us build an event website. The team were very knowledgeable, easy to work with and quick to deliver a high quality product.
Working with Dev Partners has been an exceptional experience. Their team is highly skilled, professional, and committed to delivering results. What truly sets them apart is their communication and transparency; we always felt informed, supported, and confident.
We've worked with Dev Partners a few times to support us on bespoke web build tasks. They're very easy to work with, approachable, and explain the detail in a way that's understandable. A great partner for technical issues at sensible prices.
Excellent customer service backed up with solid experience. As a media business we have had five websites built by Dev Partners. I would certainly recommend them.
Found Dev Partners and they were great, nothing too much trouble. They managed to help us with integrating our old existing system with Shopify.
I've worked with Rob and his team off and on for many years and have always found them to be professional, knowledgeable, and best of all, they listen to their clients and deliver what is required.
We have worked with Dev Partners for 7 years and can highly recommend them for their expertise and excellent customer service.
