It’s all in the cache

Slowly but surely JournalHome.com is growing and I amspending more and more time trying to keep the server happy, (not take too longto display your weblogs).

Part of the problem is that a lot of similar data isdisplayed over and over again.

A good example would be the statistics on the left hand sideof the home page.

Those don’t change that often and tend to place a fair amountof strain on the database.

So, I decided to place them all in the cache.

Does it mean anything to you? Well not really, this onlyreally affects the home page, (and a few small ones), but seen that the homepage is loaded all the time this was in turn causing some problems with theblogs themselves, especially in the evening and in the morning, (US time).

So, as always, I will keep an eye on the way it is workingand make small changes if I find anything.

If you find anything odd/different, feel free to let meknow, and I will be happy to look at it.

FFMG

10:39 AM - 10/10/2006 - post comment

Dear FFMG

It would be awful if you suspended the left side statistics as i think it motivates people to blog more and to be competitive, I beg to differ on statistics not changing, i know I blog quite often, and Dawnie, Silver melusine etc blog quite alot, however there are some that are stagnant I sincerely hope you can resolve this without doing away with the statistic template, that and the homepage its like a community type enviorment setting and creates sort of a closeness with JournalHome bloggers wich attracted me to it in the begining I hope you see this message
Sincerely,
your friend,
Heather

Heather - 5:58 PM - 10/10/2006

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Everything is still here, only smarter.

Heather,

I have no plans to remove any statistics, or for that matter for changing too much in the homepage.
I am well aware that most regular users like the way the "˜landing’ page displays a brief summary of what has been happening since their last visit.

The caching of the data is only really used to speed up the way the information is displayed.
In the past the code behind the home page would recalculate the number of users and how many comments were posted, I think you will agree that this should only really be done when the information actually changes.
That is what I mean by caching some of the data. So, for example, when a new user signs up then the page is updated, when there is a new entry the home page is also updated, the same happens for new comments and so on.

Basically the caching is to prevent having to do the same work over and over when the information hasn’t really changed.
But as soon as the info has changed then the page is updated.

I hope that helps a little :), let me know if I was not clear or something.

FFMG

JournalHome - 9:05 AM - 10/11/2006

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