Rapid Web News

Memcache has been around for some time now, developed by Brad Fitzpatrick in 2003 for Live Journal; Memcache has matured gradually over the years for being a great method of improving the performance of many types of applications by storing arbitrary chunks of data in memory via a key / object store. It has a popular adoption rate with many well-known sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Linked-In all employing Memcache in some capacity to improve performance by alleviating load on any database servers.

At Rapid Web we have been employing Memcache techniques in some of most our most intensive internal and client systems. Typical implementations usually involve storing the results of a particular function call for either duration or for a long as possible. When the same function is called a subsequent time, the function determines if the data is already cached, if this is the case the result returned comes directly from the cache. The result is only then recomputed when the data falls out of memory, which occurs when a potential expiration value has been exceeded or there is limited memory available in which case Memcache removes the least requested cache item.

Developing responsive applications is certainly a critical consideration when building new applications. Recently we developed a new type of caching manager for a Stock System. This system holds large sets of data and deals with a variety of different computations for managing stock and processing orders. We found that by caching even the most trivial aspects of system, such as – item to process counters, and all non-critical elements, it all makes a difference. This not only drastically improves the application speed, but this as a direct result radically improves the browsing experience by removing the need to recompute intensive operations on page load.

We highly recommend trying Memcache, or standard file caching methods when speed is key.

Rapid Web have recently launched a series of new websites for our client ATG Training. The sites showcase the broad range of training courses and apprenticeships that this highly-experienced training provider has to offer. These sites have all been built with Rapid Web’s own bespoke content management system to allow ATG Training to make edits and updates as necessary. A custom course booking module designed specifically for ATG’s needs has also been incorporated. Check out the new sites – ATG Training, Cycle Training and UK Apprenticeships

A boom in Internet businesses could open hundreds of thousands of jobs in Britain within five years, a Google chief has claimed.

Philipp Schindler, the London based vice-president of Google Europe, predicted that despite the economic downturn 365,000 jobs could be on the cards by 2015 as more online firms emerge and grow.

Daily Mail article

Could new Internet businesses such as e-commerce websites start a new wave of employment in the UK, generating thousands of new jobs based around these businesses?

This is what Philipp Schindler, the London based vise-president of Google Europe seems to be suggesting.

If you’re starting up an e-commerce website or would like to do so and need some advice, feel free to contact us for advice and a quote on how much it would cost to get your new e-commerce website or idea off the ground!

We recently announced one of our most recent client websites launches, Kids T-shirts. Despite only being released a few weeks ago the site is already seeing a steady increase in orders and visitor traffic. The site utilises our in house, custom developed e-commerce solution, modified to suit the needs of the client and its users.

With Halloween fast approaching the range of t shirts offered by kids t-shirts has expanded to accommodate all things spooky and scary in preparation for the Halloween festivities. Some of the most prominent and bestselling items in the new collection are the new glow in the dark t shirts. They feature many a spooky design perfect for trick or treating or any planned Halloween party.

Some of the new glow in the dark range are shown below, the first being the classic Banksy’s Grim Reaper design, followed by a series of flying cartoon bats.

We recently posted about the launch of BanksyTshirts.org. If this interested you, you may also be interested in the recent launch of another Banksy t-shirts website!

Rapid Web is happy to announce the recent launch a t-shirt website based solidly on our main and highly, flexible e-commerce system.

This website offers a full e-commerce experience for both the visitors browsing the advanced front-end shopping basket/cart system, and for the client who can utilise an in-depth, customisable administration system. This administration system allows the client to add and modify products that display on the public areas of the website and to manage the orders received through the site including orders taken via any number of payment gateway systems that can integrate with our e-commerce system.

The integrated payment systems included in this website are the SagePay payment gateway (previously known as ‘Protx’) and the ever popular PayPal, though our e-commerce system’s checkout can easily be integrated with any common or even obscure method of electronic payment.

As well as the background code that powers this website, Rapid Web also created the custom, bespoke website design for this Banksy t-shirts website. The design emphasises the details commonly associated with graphic artists such as Banksy himself. If you wish to view this custom design in its full glory, take a look at our portfolio page or the Banksy t-shirts .net website!