Everything about Web and Network Monitoring

This Week in Website Performance

website-performance-weekly-monitorusThis Week in Website Performance is a weekly feature of the Monitor.Us blog. It summarizes recent articles about website performance. Why? Because your friends at Monitor.Us care.


The Chronology of a Click, Part II

Author: Warren Gaebel.

This article continues the series, “The Chronology of a Click.” Part II describes what happens from the time the user clicks on a link to the time the request leaves the user’s computer. It is interspersed with performance tips, showing how those tips relate to the material being presented. The entire series is a good way to learn about all the things that happen behind the scenes while the user is waiting for his request to be fulfilled, and how those details affect performance.


Top Performance Mistakes when moving from Test to Production: Excessive Logging

Author: Andreas Grabner.

This article is the first in a series of articles about performance problems that stem from the transfer to production process. This one describes the difference in logging between test and production. This series might be worth following.


Improving ASP.NET Performance Part 14: Exception Management

Author: Ard-Jan Barnas.

This article describes some best practices for exceptions in ASP.net. Well-explained and relevant.


Memoizing JavaScript Snippets in Local Storage

Author: Warren Gaebel

This article shows us how to cache JavaScript in localStorage rather than relying on the caching mechanism built into browsers and proxies. Browsers consider HTTP caching headers to be suggestions. They cache what they want, not what the developer wants. Also, browsers often delete cached items earlier than we would like. Examples: Some users configure their browsers to delete all temporary storage upon exit. Some set the cache size so low that almost everything is deleted almost immediately.

Note: Memoization does not have an R in it. It means “the process of converting something into a memo.” Its root word is memorandum (memo), not memory.


Improving ASP.NET Performance Part 12: View State Management

Author: Ard-Jan Barnas

This article presents three important performance tips for ASP.NET’s view state management: turn view state off if you’re not using it, minimize the number of objects stored in view state, and measure the size of the view state.


Latency: The New Web Performance Bottleneck

Author: Ilya Grigorik

This well-written article reminds us of the impact latency has on our website’s performance, even moreso than bandwidth. Last-mile latency (from the end user to the Internet through your ISP’s network) can be the biggest part of the problem. Mobile latency is also mentioned. The comments touch on other good performance tips, so don’t skip them.


New Monitoring Locations

Author: Zhirayr

Paid Monitor announces new uptime monitoring locations in 15 countries, including three new countries: Russia, Switzerland, and Hong Kong.


HTTP Pipelining – Not So Fast…(Nor Slow!)

Author: Guy Podjarny

This article examines HTTP pipelining to see if it helps (or hinders) website performance and tries to explain why tests show it makes no significant difference. From Wikipedia: “The speedup is less apparent on broadband connections, as the limitation of HTTP 1.1 still applies: the server must send its responses in the same order that the requests were received.” Both Wikipedia and the article suggest that SPDY may make a difference.


MySQL performance tips

Author: Gerrit.

This very short article is a list of 9 MySql performance tips. Nothing new, but all the tips are valid.


example: Async WITH ControlJS

Author: Steve Souders

Steve Souders continues his performance comparisons for ControlJS with async, menu, and document.write. This work looks like it may be some measurements for an upcoming article, so maybe it wasn’t intended for publication. But if Google can find it, I can tell you about it! More information about ControlJS.


Getting the Best MySQL Performance in Your Products: Part II, Beyond the Basics

Author: Alexander Rubin & Rebecca Hansen.

This is an announcement for an upcoming one-hour webinar on Friday, August 17. I don’t usually put announcements in This Week in Website Performance, but this one deals with subjects that are near and dear to our hearts – MySql monitoring, caching, tuning, benchmarks, query performance optimization, and monitoring with the new performance schema. Plus it’s from a reputable source. Pre-registration required. No mention of price; does this mean it’s free?


YUI Communication Layer

Author: Eugene Kashida.

This 20 minute presentation shows how Yahoo Axis uses YUI Communication Layer to simplify communication between web pages. Performance data is near the end of the video.


The best CDN for jQuery in 2012

Author: Royal Pingdom

This article compares reliability and performance of three popular CDNs: Google, Microsoft, and Media Temple. It has nothing to do with jQuery, except that the three CDNs all host jQuery.js.


Creating a web performance test using Fiddler

Author: Alexander Vanwynsberghe

This short article shows how to export Fiddler events to a Visual Studio Web Test. [Fiddler logs all HTTP/S traffic entering and leaving your computer, and lets you “fiddle” with the data.]


Lightning Demos – HTTP Archive

Author: Steve Souders.

This six minute video is a demo of HTTP Archive. HTTP Archive samples the web on an ongoing basis and provides its data and analyses at HttpArchive.org. Raw data is downloadable.


Performance of MySQL Semi-Synchronous Replication Over High Latency Connections

Author: Aaron Brown.

This article advises not to use MySql’s semi-synchronous replication over high-latency networks. Test results are included to show why.


Top Features Of A Scalable Database

Author: Douglas Wilson.

This brief article presents three features that are an absolute must for scalable database management systems: lightweight processes that are easily instantiated on multiple processors or cores, a user agent that can present data from multiple databases as if it were in a single database, and a user agent that can transparently retrieve data from both master and slave databases.


Front-End Optimization Architecture – Decisions and Implications (Part 1)

Author: Guy Podjarny.

This article discusses the when, where, and how of front-end optimization (FEO) tools, which helps the reader evaluate them. This is part one of a two part article.


Journey Through The JavaScript MVC Jungle

Author: Addy Osmani

This article defines MV*, then establishes points of comparison for those who are evaluating the different MV* frameworks. It ends by presenting the pros and cons for several frameworks, as contributed by people who are actually using them.

This article may be of interest to you if you are using or considering any of the following: Agility, AngularJS, AngularJS + RequireJS (using AMD), Backbone, Backbone + RequireJS (using AMD), Batman, Broke, CanJS, Closure, Cujo, Dijon, Dojo, DUEL, Ember, Ember + RequireJS (using AMD), Ext, ExtJS, Fidel, Fun, Google Web Toolkit, JavaScriptMVC, jQuery, Knockback, KnockoutJS, Maria, Meteor, o_O, Olives, PlastronJS, rAppid, RequireJS, Sammy, SocketStream + jQuery, Soma, Spine, Stapes, TroopJS, and YUI. [Now you know why the article is so long!]

Post Tagged with

About Warren Gaebel

Warren wrote his first computer program in 1970 (yes, it was Fortran).  He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo and his Bachelor of Computer Science degree at the University of Windsor.  After a few years at IBM, he worked on a Master of Mathematics (Computer Science) degree at the University of Waterloo.  He decided to stay home to take care of his newborn son rather than complete that degree.  That decision cost him his career, but he would gladly make the same decision again. Warren is now retired, but he finds it hard to do nothing, so he writes web performance articles for the Monitor.Us blog.  Life is good!