I am migrating the javascript of my site to YUI3 and am considering using the YUI files hosted on Yahoo's cdn.
As my site attracts a high amount of traffic I wondered whether anybody had experience of using the cdn and whether there were any problems they experienced or lessons they learnt.
Ideally I would love to offload the bandwidth to Yahoo but am a little concerned that I add a little risk by not being in control.
Any opinon appreciated.
It is totally rock solid, at least in my experience. The underlying platform is the same cdn that we (flickr) use, as well as all other Yahoo sites.
Related
Just wondering what pro web developers use to publish their sites. Also I would like to know what big sites have used, such as Amazon, Walmart, etc.
Thank you for your time.
It's a difficult question to answer, I guess. The tools used by a developer depends on the customer requirements. It may be one of the following:
Static site with graphics and/or flash (simple business site)
Dynamic site with front-end html/CSS and database driven backend using php, perl, .net, Java, etc.
A large site that may use ecom along with content management system (CMS). There you may need CMS (such as Joomla) along with compatible plug-ins and customization.
For very popular sites such as Amazon, speed and bandwidth are very critical. Usually, though they start small (say, using PHP/MySQL, or ready-made CMS), they change according to their own requirements sooner or later using custom coding (Java is very popular). This is only my guess!
For co-ordination and publishing, GIT is very popular.
hope this helps.
Is there a benefit to implementing micro-formats (or itemscope) in the html for a web app? So far it only looks like it is useful for seo and my web app is behind a login screen, so I will not have to worry about that. Are there any plugins or browsers which automatically process the information.
Or as unor proposed, is there a benefit in adding structured data to non-public sites?
If you generalize the question like unor proposed:
Is there a benefit in adding structured data to non-public sites?
It has got a definit advantage! For someone with visual disability it is easier to navigate through sites if micro-formats are implemented. If there is a possibility that someone with a screen reader will use the application it worth the effort. Not to mention that it is a one-time task with a long term positive effect. I think it is a good thing to proactively thrive to serve all kind of user.
Answer to the original question: browsers do not have to process those information, but some advanced technology could use it in the browser like preload. There was a research at my University about which pages to reload and those were using this feature. (Eg: in free time of the processor the browser plugin preloaded home to enhance the browsing experience.)
In order to try and get to a resolution about web page compression, I'd like to pose the question to you 'gurus' here in the hope that I can arrive at some kind of clear answer.
The website in question: http://yoginiyogabahrain.com
I recently developed this site and am hosting it with Hostmonster in Utah.
My reasons for constructing it as a one page scrollable site was based around the amount of content that does not get updated - literally everything outside of the 'schedule' which is updated once a month. I realise that the 'departments' could have been displayed on separate pages, but felt that the content didn't warrant whole pages devoted to their own containers which also requires further server requests.
I have minimised the HTML, CSS and JS components of the site in accordance with the guidelines and recommendations from Google Page Speed and Yahoo YSlow. I have also applied server and browser caching directives to the .htaccess file to complete further recommendations.
Currently Pingdom Tools rates the site at 98/100 which pleases me. Google and Yahoo are hammering the site on the lack of GZIP compression and, in the case of Yahoo, the lack of CDN usage. I'm not so much worried about the CDN as this site simply doesn't warrant a CDN. But the compression bothers me in that it was initially being applied.
For about a week, the site was being GZipped and then it stopped. I contacted Hostmonster about this and they said that if it was determined that there were not enough resources to serve a compressed version of the site, it would not do so. But that doesn't answer the question about whether it would do so if the resources detrmined it could. To date, the site has no longer been compressed.
Having done a lot of online research to find an answer about whether this is such a major issue, I have come across a plethora of differing opinions. Some say we should be compressing, and some say it's not worth the strain on resources to do so.
If Hostmonster have determined that the site doesn't warrant being compressed, why do Google and Yahoo nail it for the lack of compression? Why does Pingdom Tools not even take that aspect into account?
Forgive the lengthy post, but I wanted to be as clear as possible about what I'm trying to establish.
So in summary, is the lack of compression on this a major issue or would it be necessary to perhaps look at a hosting provider who will apply compression without question on a shared hosting plan?
Many thanks!
I have this question. If I am designing a web site which is expected to have high-traffic, then what are the things I should keep in mind?
Thanks
Be careful about your database management.
Build your database tables, and links between tables keeping in mind that you do not want to search / load useless things.
Once the site is working, I would optimise it as much as possible. Tools like YSlow or WebPageTest make it easy to analyse a page and pinpoint bottlenecks and places for improvements.
Also for a high volume site, I think that you definitely want to use a content delivery network. There are lots of options, including Amazon CloudFront and CloudFlare. Using a CDN will reduce the load on your server by 60-80%, it will make the site faster and it will cost you hardly anything.
Unless there is a specific reason why it's not a good fit for your site, you can't go wrong!
Good luck!
Can anyone recommend resources to learn how to develop websites, as opposed to web applications?
I am looking to develop a website for a consulting company to be precise. I would be more interested in best practices for creating the layout of a website (user appeal, eye candy, not an eye sore)
Thanks
-M
It really depends upon the language you want to use, your current skill sets, who's going to maintain the site, what OS the site will be hosted on etc etc.
I suspect you need to narrow down your question.
What do you mean by web site rather than web application? Are you talking about the dynamic nature of the content or somethign else?
update
If you're looking for discussions on design of websites (visual design, UX etc) then I'm a great fan of Smashing Magazine.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
It doesn't often speak about MS technologies (ASP.NET etc) but it's a great place to see discussions and papers on "what makes a great website". Some recent examples:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/15/optimizing-conversion-rates-its-all-about-usability/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/14/non-profit-website-design-examples-and-best-practices/
Subscribe to their RSS feed and see what those colouring-in people get up to.
Here's your first port of call.
Unless you're artistically inclined, I recommend purchasing or contracting the template design to someone who is skilled in this area.
For $60 a year, you can have unlimited downloads and unlimited use of all the templates at the following site:
http://www.dreamtemplate.com/
There are many more here:
http://www.templatemonster.com/website-templates.php
http://www.w3schools.com/
for purely informational sites, html, and css will probably be plenty, though I think I would reccomend using wordpress if you're just trying to put content on the internet
If you speak German or French, http://www.selfhtml.org is quite a good resource.
Otherwise, I would recommend http://www.w3schools.com/ or http://htmldog.com/. Both are very good as they really go deeply into the matter and tell about standards from the beginning.
sitepoint.com
Their best content is packaged in their books, but their articles are good, too. Covers design best-practices and web standards, but also has good tips on the business of web design and managing clients.
You may want to look at the alistapart website.
simply the best I have seen for this.
I would also - since I have just been reminded of it use
http://www.webmonkey.com/
http://w3schools.com/
http://www.w3schools.com/ is a good start.