In addition to the cool new backgrounds that Vicki created, the return of updates to your sigs, we've just added...are you ready...CHOOSE YOUR FONT AND FONT COLORS!!! AAAAHHHHHH!!! Just released today, I've managed to get all the "bugs" (not really, working between two different environments can get a little tricky) and things should be running smoothly once again.
I'll be setting up a development environment in our office that will mirror what is out there on production so no more of this switching between two operating systems, deploying code, make sure its working, yada, yada. I did fix a bug when deploying the any game sig code so if you saw an error before, you wont see it again.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
More Page Optimization Fun
We've been working on many subtle put important page rendering improvements here at Guild Launch. We have fast servers, fast databases and multiple fast connections to the Internet in our datacenter. So, we've been working on squeezing everything we can out of the user's perception of rendering times.
To that end, in Version 6.1 of Guild Launch we've done the following:
The WoWHead and WarDB scripts can be very slow to load and WarDB is down at times. So, we've moved them to being the very last thing that loads on the page. They still load in time for you to interact with the hovers, but they load just after all the images and the page has loaded. This change provides a considerable boost in perceived page rendering since you no longer have to wait if those particular files are loading slowly. If WarDB is down the page will still load before the browser waits on the file. This is a wonderfully good thing, especially on pages in which you don't interact with the functionality they provide.
In Version 6.2 we'll be optimizing page loads even further. Then in Version 6.3 we'll be adding some more caching control options to make your browsers cache work better for you.
Our servers and databases already create 80-90% of pages on Guild Launch in under 2/10s of a second, and a great deal in under 1/10th of a second. In many cases the page rendering performance improvements are just improvements in how you perceive the page loading, but as they say 'Perception is Reality'. The idea of these performance optimizations is to get those quickly created pages down your internet tubes and rendered in your browser faster. We hope you enjoy the result!
-Stephen
To that end, in Version 6.1 of Guild Launch we've done the following:
- We moved many of the static image, JavaScript and CSS static files to separate domain names.
- We moved the WoWHead and WarDB item hover scripts to being loaded after the page loads.
The WoWHead and WarDB scripts can be very slow to load and WarDB is down at times. So, we've moved them to being the very last thing that loads on the page. They still load in time for you to interact with the hovers, but they load just after all the images and the page has loaded. This change provides a considerable boost in perceived page rendering since you no longer have to wait if those particular files are loading slowly. If WarDB is down the page will still load before the browser waits on the file. This is a wonderfully good thing, especially on pages in which you don't interact with the functionality they provide.
In Version 6.2 we'll be optimizing page loads even further. Then in Version 6.3 we'll be adding some more caching control options to make your browsers cache work better for you.
Our servers and databases already create 80-90% of pages on Guild Launch in under 2/10s of a second, and a great deal in under 1/10th of a second. In many cases the page rendering performance improvements are just improvements in how you perceive the page loading, but as they say 'Perception is Reality'. The idea of these performance optimizations is to get those quickly created pages down your internet tubes and rendered in your browser faster. We hope you enjoy the result!
-Stephen
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
SIGS SIGS SIGS!!!
Learned a lot of stuff from sigs, namely the flakiness of the armory. Finishing up some other cool stuff for sigs and working out the bugs in development.
What is the appeal of a Template?
As I begin to get back to creating new and exciting templates, I took a moment yesterday with Stephen to do a little research on the templates that are most used here at Guild Launch. I was surprised by the results and could not help but wonder what about certain templates appeals to you (you being our awesome users)? Is it the simplicity? colors? theme? ease of customization? As the designer of the templates you love to use, I would love to know what the draw is. Can I get a little insight please?
According to the search results the "Redux Red" template is one of the favorite templates used. I decided that people must like it because of it's simplicity and color. I would have guessed ease of modification but very few people modified it besides the uploading of a header.
The Wrath of the Lich King Template, a heavy theme driven template and guess what? It is the all time favorite template amongst our users. My thoughts are that I created it using nothing but WoW elements. It is not easily customizable unless you are experienced with CSS and other then a header change I haven't seen much customization. So what is it with this one?
I am on a quest to discover what is it about certain templates you, our users want to see more of. Simple? Game Themed? Or, just darn cool?
According to the search results the "Redux Red" template is one of the favorite templates used. I decided that people must like it because of it's simplicity and color. I would have guessed ease of modification but very few people modified it besides the uploading of a header.
The Wrath of the Lich King Template, a heavy theme driven template and guess what? It is the all time favorite template amongst our users. My thoughts are that I created it using nothing but WoW elements. It is not easily customizable unless you are experienced with CSS and other then a header change I haven't seen much customization. So what is it with this one?I am on a quest to discover what is it about certain templates you, our users want to see more of. Simple? Game Themed? Or, just darn cool?
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Page Load Performance Optimizations
Guild Launch has excellent page load speeds. That being said, in recent releases we've been laying the groundwork for further page load optimizations. We are doing this as a proactive measure to deliver you the best Guild Hosting possible and make your experience with Guild Launch the best we can.
At it's core the time it takes a web page to load is connected to the time it takes for the server to create the page. Here at Guild Launch our page creations times are very fast at 80% less than or equal to 1/10th of a second, the heavy use of Rapid Raid reporting and lists which calculate a fair amount of data skew this somewhat. Our external monitoring shows that average page loads from various places in the U.S. range from .4 seconds to .7 seconds with some outliers probably due to internet load times more than our servers. These page creation times and load times are primarily due to having multiple very fast database servers and a farm of web machines working to serve you all web pages. Not to mention the smaller server farm for SigLaunch.com.
However, we can get even faster. So, we've embarked on four initiatives:
Many times the perception of page loads is more important than the reality. Using Ajax makes the application feel more snappy, it also reduces the reload of the template and related information and lets the servers focus on delivering just the content needed. Ajax is a major win from the user interaction side of things, which is critically important. Ajax does not necessarily improve page load times when you are just browsing around the site however, so we have additional options.
Use More Server Side Compression
Our web servers have the ability to compress JavaScript and CSS. We had a problem with it a while back, but recent upgrades mean that those problems should be solved. As of Sunday March 15th we are now compressing more of this content. The benefit should be subtle but noticeable for our U.S. users and may be quite noticeable for our European and Oceanic users.
Use More Domains
In the 6.1 release we will begin serving most static content from seperate domains from the GuildLaunch.com site. This will allow your browser to more fully use your available bandwidth and will enable more parallel downloads. This should speed up page loads for our U.S. users appreciably, and again have an even more noticeable impact for our European and Oceanic users.
Utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Once we have the content on a seperate domain we will be able to begin using a Content Delivery Network. We're still laying out the plan and timeline for this, but it is absolutely a goal of ours for 2009, hopefully early 2009. A CDN will allow us to actually move our static content closer to our users by having a server in regions of the U.S. and possibly a server in Europe that serves this content. The net effect is less latency for the 20-20 static items that make up a given webpage while allowing our primary servers to focus on generating and serving the dynamic part of the content equation. A CDN will have an impact for our users worldwide.
I hope you've enjoyed the roadmap for our page load time optimization. Our goal here is to improve upon our already fantastic site performance and to make it even better. We will keep you all updated as these initiatives progress.
-Stephen
At it's core the time it takes a web page to load is connected to the time it takes for the server to create the page. Here at Guild Launch our page creations times are very fast at 80% less than or equal to 1/10th of a second, the heavy use of Rapid Raid reporting and lists which calculate a fair amount of data skew this somewhat. Our external monitoring shows that average page loads from various places in the U.S. range from .4 seconds to .7 seconds with some outliers probably due to internet load times more than our servers. These page creation times and load times are primarily due to having multiple very fast database servers and a farm of web machines working to serve you all web pages. Not to mention the smaller server farm for SigLaunch.com.
However, we can get even faster. So, we've embarked on four initiatives:
- Use more Ajax
- Use more server side compression
- Use More Domains
- Utilize a Content Delivery Network
Many times the perception of page loads is more important than the reality. Using Ajax makes the application feel more snappy, it also reduces the reload of the template and related information and lets the servers focus on delivering just the content needed. Ajax is a major win from the user interaction side of things, which is critically important. Ajax does not necessarily improve page load times when you are just browsing around the site however, so we have additional options.
Use More Server Side Compression
Our web servers have the ability to compress JavaScript and CSS. We had a problem with it a while back, but recent upgrades mean that those problems should be solved. As of Sunday March 15th we are now compressing more of this content. The benefit should be subtle but noticeable for our U.S. users and may be quite noticeable for our European and Oceanic users.
Use More Domains
In the 6.1 release we will begin serving most static content from seperate domains from the GuildLaunch.com site. This will allow your browser to more fully use your available bandwidth and will enable more parallel downloads. This should speed up page loads for our U.S. users appreciably, and again have an even more noticeable impact for our European and Oceanic users.
Utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Once we have the content on a seperate domain we will be able to begin using a Content Delivery Network. We're still laying out the plan and timeline for this, but it is absolutely a goal of ours for 2009, hopefully early 2009. A CDN will allow us to actually move our static content closer to our users by having a server in regions of the U.S. and possibly a server in Europe that serves this content. The net effect is less latency for the 20-20 static items that make up a given webpage while allowing our primary servers to focus on generating and serving the dynamic part of the content equation. A CDN will have an impact for our users worldwide.
I hope you've enjoyed the roadmap for our page load time optimization. Our goal here is to improve upon our already fantastic site performance and to make it even better. We will keep you all updated as these initiatives progress.
-Stephen
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Eve Online - Apocrypha = Awesome
Eve Online has made a major upgrade with the Apocrypha expansion. An awesome free expansion that nearly doubles the game world size. If you've ever played Eve and aren't playing anymore, this is an awesome time to give it a go again.
They've revamped the starter tutorial, they've added new "wormhole space" that is completely uncharted, they've revamped the scanning system, and they've added a *SKILL QUEUE*. The skill queue is simply awesome. You can queue up 24 hours worth of skill training and don't have to worry about waking up early or staying up late to train.
So, since I'm posting this at 1:00am... I'm spending my time staying up late to play the game.
We'll be releasing an Apocrypha template over at Guild Launch soon. Woot!
-Stephen
They've revamped the starter tutorial, they've added new "wormhole space" that is completely uncharted, they've revamped the scanning system, and they've added a *SKILL QUEUE*. The skill queue is simply awesome. You can queue up 24 hours worth of skill training and don't have to worry about waking up early or staying up late to train.
So, since I'm posting this at 1:00am... I'm spending my time staying up late to play the game.
We'll be releasing an Apocrypha template over at Guild Launch soon. Woot!
-Stephen
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Alliances, Alliances, Friends & Foes
So, we've been reviewing Guild Alliance functionality the last few days and working out a plan to integrate Alliance functionality into Guild Launch. I realize this sounds easy, but when it comes to actually providing functionality for Alliances and not just a "list of guilds we like" this results in a tremendous amount of steam coming from our brains. Fortunately, we've got an awesome team and lots of water.....
So, expect some kick ass Alliance functionality in one of the next releases.
And, as a special bonus tease... a character will be able to join multiple guilds after we release this functionality.
Enjoy!
Stephen
So, expect some kick ass Alliance functionality in one of the next releases.
And, as a special bonus tease... a character will be able to join multiple guilds after we release this functionality.
Enjoy!
Stephen
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