Rapid Web News

Utilising Memcache to radically speed up your applications performance

Adam — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:54:14 +0000

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.

What are the differences between MyISAM and InnoDB?

ATG Training – new websites launched

Kirsty — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:05:00 +0000

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

New Internet businesses to generate thousands of jobs according to Google

Jordan Hall — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:12:05 +0000

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!

Kids T-shirts – New Halloween Collection

Adam — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:17:48 +0000

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.

Why not take a look at new range today by visiting the Kids T-shirts website.

(More) Banksy T-shirts!

Jordan Hall — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:36:20 +0000

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!

Grab a t-shirt for your child from the recently launched ‘Kids t-shirts’ website

Jordan Hall — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:13:56 +0000

Rapid Web is happy to announce our latest client’s website launch, a brand new Kids t-shirts website!

If you want a t-shirt for your child, or maybe your young one wants to pick our a t-shirt of their choice – this brand new kids t-shirts website may be the place to look.

This websites for young t-shirt buyers, is powered by our primary e-commerce system. This e-commerce website system can be highly enhanced and modified to fit the bespoke and ever changing requirements of our clients. For example, this system integrates a custom and unique product page specifically designed for the sale of the particular products which suit a kids t-shirt website. The basket/checkout system has also been customised and simplified using AJAX technologies to provide a more user-friendly flow to the ‘product to basket’ functionality, which helps increase immediate conversions and sales.

The design of this website has also been created uniquely by Rapid Web for the kids t-shirts website. It focuses on a bright, bold and colourful design that is designed to appeal to the targeted kids and parents audience. This unique styling and design have been applying to associated WordPress installation which allows the client to post regular kids t-shirt news and announce the launch of new kids t-shirts and related products and designs.

If you’re interested in a bespoke e-commerce website and/or WordPress powered news/blog system, please feel free to contact us directly for a quote!

Something Geeky e-commerce website

Jordan Hall — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:12:46 +0000

Several of us in the Rapid Web office are into some quite geeky hobbies, myself especially. Rapid Web is proud to announce the recent launch of Something Geeky, a brand new e-commerce website which sells geek t-shirts and other general geeky products.

This e-commerce website is based on our custom in-house e-commerce system, which allows our clients to administrate their products and site options via a secure, custom and bespoke administration suite. This e-commerce system can be customised with new functionality as desired by the client in question. For example, the Something Geeky site shows custom hover effects on product selection, an AJAX powered ‘add to basket’ functionality, heavily customised product pages and a tight integration with a custom themed WordPress installation for covering information about geeky news and new geek t-shirt product releases.

The main site and the WordPress installation are covering by a fully custom ‘Something Geeky’ theme and website design which is fully unique to the needs of the client. This design and layout is custom designed to appeal primarily to the geek/gaming audience that the products listing on the website currently target.

Something Geeky is a custom e-commerce solution, WordPress installation and full website design and theme bespoke to the needs of the client. If you’re interested in a new website that covers any of these area, feel free to contact us right here!

Banksy T-shirts.org – a customised e-commerce solution

Jordan Hall — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:28:55 +0000

We’re very happy to announce to recent launch of Banky T-shirts.org, a website that sells t-shirts from the graphic artist Banksy, and donates £1 of each Banksy t-shirt to a charity of your choice!

This website uses our in-house e-commerce system to power the online e-commerce shopping experience and the WordPress blogging system to power the Banksy News section.

This Banksy t-shirt website is a great example of how our in-house e-commerce system can be heavily customised, added-on to and made bespoke for the needs of the particular system. In this case, the charity choice during the basket and checkout stages is a custom piece of functionality that has been integrated into our system. This is shown on the front-end of the system as part of the customer experience, as well as in the administration to keep record of required charity donations based on each Banksy t-shirt which is sold.

If you want, please go ahead and browse one or more of these awesome Banksy t-shirts!

Get a mobile website and increase your audience

Jordan Hall — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:40:48 +0000

So many people have smart phones now. Almost everyone in our office has one, be it an Android powered device, a Blackberry or an iPhone.

With one of the biggest features of smart phones being their near anywhere web browsing, the mobile website market is every increasing. Going to a website on a phone which has not be optimised for mobile devices can be a huge pain to navigate well and could easily turn off your visitor (and potential customers), while an optimised website can make the experience a pleasant and swift experience.

In terms of mobile websites, there are two main types.

Optimisation of an existing website

This mainly involves ensuring the website displays well on mobile devices, and tends to revolve around changing the styling for mobile devices which not performing any major functionality changes.

Development of a full mobile site

Such development creates a bespoke, fantastically user-friendly experience, designed specifically for smart phone users. Such developments can be specifically designed for touch interfaces and can focus on quickly getting mobile users the information they require and directing their attention to the areas of your site that will let them enquiry or purchase the product/service your company is offering.

Without a doubt a fully fledged and specifically designed mobile site is the optimal solution for you and the best experience for your customers.

If you’re increasing in optimising your website for mobile phones or indeed, creating a bespoke mobile experience for your site, please feel free to get in touch!

Preventing namespace clashes in PHP

Jordan Hall — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:09:07 +0000

The PHP scope resolution operator in PHP is a useful feature when you need to access methods or variables within a static context. It can often be useful in reducing namespace conflicts. Especially when using custom code with off the shelf systems to avoid conflicting function redefinitions.

There have been a few cases where previously defined function errors have cropped up when adding a pre made system to a custom developed application. This is has been most prominent with Word press or any system which has generically named functions. It’s often unavoidable to prevent function clashes as it requires knowing any other external system definitions which of course isn’t always possible.

Keeping generic function names in a class is a possible option to reduce the problem; however this brings about the requirement of instantiating a class before being able to use the function. Another way to get around this issue is to use the scope resolution operator to statically call functions or even properties. In PHP this can be achieved using the scope resolution operator, otherwise known as the double colon operator.

Example:

class foobar {

public static function call_me() {}

Usage:

foobar::call_me();

The scope resolution operator should be used wisely. It is often best practice to only use static methods when they are stateless in nature, i.e. basic helper functions that do not modify any external state beyond their own contained execution.

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