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User avatar
Martin
Experienced
Posts: 651
Joined: 30 Jan 2011, 23:24

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

13 Jan 2015, 15:17

mjau-mjau wrote:Love it!
Thank you! :-)
mjau-mjau wrote: Btw: If you are partially finished editing your gallery, then why not try to set preload: true in your settings? It will make the gallery blazing fast to navigate
Wauw... I'm deeply impressed.
I did some testing in changing preload from 'false' to 'true' and back again and the difference is HUGE.

Do I understand it correctly that when one changes it to 'true' that the server is starting to compress and only after a while (one, two minutes?) the compressed website data object has been created and the effects can be noticed?

Something I don't understand is that it's working with my website-provider because the 'check'-page says that my server cannot compress data (mod_deflate and mod_gzip cannot be detected).
Am I missing something?
 
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mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

13 Jan 2015, 23:56

Martin wrote:Wauw... I'm deeply impressed.
I did some testing in changing preload from 'false' to 'true' and back again and the difference is HUGE.
Since it basically preloads the entire website (data, not images), the effect for the visitor will be tremendous as there are no "requests" and "loads" going on between pages.
Martin wrote:Do I understand it correctly that when one changes it to 'true' that the server is starting to compress and only after a while (one, two minutes?) the compressed website data object has been created and the effects can be noticed?
Almost, although it's not really about compression. It it just that X3/server creates a "file" (site.json) that contains the entire website, which is loaded into the visitors browser. This technique is covered in detail on my blog:
http://mjau-mjau.com/blog/preload-website/
Martin wrote:Something I don't understand is that it's working with my website-provider because the 'check'-page says that my server cannot compress data (mod_deflate and mod_gzip cannot be detected).
Am I missing something?
This feature does not strictly require server compression, but it is very unfortunate that your server does not compliment with compression. I checked your website, and the entire "siteobject" weighs in at 300kb ... with the internet speeds we have today, it would probably load in 1-2 seconds anyway, and since it loads in the background, you wouldn't experience any "delay". If you server had compression enabled, this file would however compress down to 30-40kb, which would make a huge impact for mobile devices or for other visitors on slow connections!

Snapshot from your site data loading into my browser:
Image

Did you ask your host why server compression is not enabled? This is industry-standard since ages ago, and I would almost classify it as a "rip-off" if they do not offer this ...
https://developers.google.com/speed/doc ... ompression
https://developers.google.com/web/funda ... d-transfer
 
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Martin
Experienced
Posts: 651
Joined: 30 Jan 2011, 23:24

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

14 Jan 2015, 01:21

mjau-mjau wrote:Did you ask your host why server compression is not enabled? This is industry-standard since ages ago, and I would almost classify it as a "rip-off" if they do not offer this ...
Yes, I did ask them.
They've got two kinds of packages, the first one they call Shared Hosting and the second one is a Virtual Private Server.
With VPS you've got you own dedicated (though virtual) server on which you can activate the compression.
On the Shared Servers it's not possible. They are afraid of too much load on these servers.

But did I understand correctly that in the next beta-version in which CDN is used, the core of X3 is distributed in compressed form through these CDN-servers?

Oh... but that's 'only' the core of X3 and not my own website data object.... Right?
 
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mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

14 Jan 2015, 02:46

Martin wrote:On the Shared Servers it's not possible. They are afraid of too much load on these servers.
Just for curiosity, how much are you paying for the hosting service? It is not my job to rate hosts, but Gzip compression should be obligatory these days. Gzip compresses all text-based outputs (for instance css, js, html, json etc.) to a large degree, and makes the internet a better place for everyone. Keeping this option unavailable seems like an attempt to oversell hosting on a shared server.
Martin wrote:But did I understand correctly that in the next beta-version in which CDN is used, the core of X3 is distributed in compressed form through these CDN-servers?
That is correct, although we are only talking about the main X3 JS+CSS files that initially need to load before the page even displays. These scripts are very "critical" to have loaded as fast as possible because the visitor is "waiting". However, as you point out, this will not benefit your "pages" or "website data object", which has to come from your server ... Basically all "pages" from your server are uncompressed, and although this is far from critical, it is a pity. As for images (jpg etc), you need not worry because they are already pre-compressed ...

I might suggest for you to use Cloudflare, which you can get as a free service. Basically it works as a "proxy" for your hosting, and would be able to compress output ... In addition, it offers some improved security and basic integrated CDN. It will speed up any website on average, but I need to write a tutorial on how to make the most out of it integrated with X3.
 
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Martin
Experienced
Posts: 651
Joined: 30 Jan 2011, 23:24

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

14 Jan 2015, 04:50

mjau-mjau wrote:Just for curiosity, how much are you paying for the hosting service?
Well... you started me thinking and looking for other hosting services... and I've got the very strong impression that I'm paying far too much (150 euro)...
So, besides their not supporting the deflate/gzip modules I've got enough reasing to look around and switch (after having checked their gzip policy :-))
mjau-mjau wrote: I might suggest for you to use Cloudflare, which you can get as a free service. Basically it works as a "proxy" for your hosting, and would be able to compress output ... In addition, it offers some improved security and basic integrated CDN. It will speed up any website on average, but I need to write a tutorial on how to make the most out of it integrated with X3.
If Cloudflare is free and speeds up my website, even after switching to a hosting service with compression capablities, I'm very interested in your manual 'Cloudflare for X3 websites' :wink:

Afterthought: if everyone would be using Cloudflare, would that make your using the Amazon CDN superfluous?
 
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mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

14 Jan 2015, 09:39

Martin wrote:So, besides their not supporting the deflate/gzip modules I've got enough reasing to look around and switch (after having checked their gzip policy :-))
Your host should really enable this, or they will eventually lose customers. Google SEO now rate website based on their "page speed" performance, and compression is an important part of this. Therefore, any person with some knowledge of this would (and should) dismiss their services. They should know, because they are shooting themselves in the foot, even if they are a good host in regards to everything else ...
Martin wrote:If Cloudflare is free and speeds up my website, even after switching to a hosting service with compression capablities, I'm very interested in your manual 'Cloudflare for X3 websites' :wink:
I have been testing Cloudflare lately, and indeed it is a very good solution considering it is free. I would perhaps still consider finding a host that serves compressed output, or getting your current host to change their policy. Even if you use Cloudflare, html/json output isn't by default stored on the CDN, and therefore they would still need to be output from your server on a per-request basis. I believe Cloudflare would likely compress the file when it passes their proxy server, but it is still not optimal, as Cloudflare still needs to request the files uncompressed from your server before passing them on ...
Martin wrote:Afterthought: if everyone would be using Cloudflare, would that make your using the Amazon CDN superfluous?
From a technical perspective, that is a correct assumption, and also something we asked ourselves some time ago. However, from a pure CDN-perspective, Cloudflare is to some disadvantage:

- Cloudflare is a full-on service for the entire domain, and you don't have full control of how certain assets are cached on their server.

- Because it uses your domain, you lose the benefit of loading assets from a "cookie-less" domain.

- Because it uses your domain, you lose the possible advantage of "parallel loading" assets.

- Cloudflare is "almost" as fast as other CDN services, and honestly I don't know how they can do it for free, but dedicated CDN services seem slightly faster in terms of just serving static assets.

- We would lose the benefit of having a "common" URL for X3 assets, which increases the chance that some visitors already have the item in their cache.

- If your server outputs wrong headers for css/js files (for example cache headers), this will just be passed on by Cloudflare. This is unlikely, but combined with the above, essentially it just means I don't entirely trust Cloudflare for this.

Essentially though, you are correct. If your domain is running through Cloudflare, then you would likely have almost the same benefits as loading the same js/css from a dedicated CDN. There are the possible factors above though. The most powerful combination, is to use both Cloudflare and a dedicated CDN (for images) in combo, something we will be offering with our own X3 Hosting, available shortly: https://forum.photo.gallery/viewtopic.php?t=8415
 
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EHRETic
Experienced
Posts: 116
Joined: 02 Feb 2011, 16:26

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

21 Jan 2015, 10:08

Hello there :)

Finally migrated my entire website to OVH hosting. My test X3 is available here : http://test.ehretic.com

I'll update it soon with more content and I've already stated that it will replace my main website which run on Wordpress.

Really impressed with X3 speed, which I'm looking for. But I'm still thinking about the best image size/quality for it. Any suggestion that would also look nice on retina displays ? On this test, I've tried 2048px on 60% quality jpgs.
 
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mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

21 Jan 2015, 10:34

Looks good!
EHRETic wrote:Really impressed with X3 speed, which I'm looking for.
It will be even faster after next release ... Did you try to set preload: true in your settings btw? It will make it extremely fast ... Just keep in mind, this setting should be set to false while you are in "editing mode".
EHRETic wrote:But I'm still thinking about the best image size/quality for it. Any suggestion that would also look nice on retina displays ? On this test, I've tried 2048px on 60% quality jpgs.
You are aware that X3 resizes images and outputs "best guess" size based on pixel-density and screen resolution of the browsing device? Often on large and/or retina screens, it will serve the "original" image, because it guesstimates this image to be best match. Next size down, is 1280w, 1024w, 800w, 640w and a few more, just to create the best match also for smaller screens and handheld devices. These sizes are also used to best suit images in the various X3 layouts ...

The reason we don't also have a resize size 1600w, is basically because most shared servers aren't able to resize to this size. Thus, the biggest resize is "1280", and next size UP, is your original. Considering it is mostly modern computers that will request the "original" size, I would say 2048 is ok ... 60% sounds like a fair amount of compression, but it might be ok since highly compressed images work quite well on retina screens.
http://alidark.com/responsive-retina-image-mobile/

I checked a full image on your website here, which certainly looks good, and it loads in at 700kb ...is that 60% compression? Most of the X3 demo images are closer to 500kb, and I can't remember using such high compression. I think you are within reasonable limits though ... Keep in mind, only "hungry" devices will be requesting your full size images anyway. By default, X3 leans towards "generous" defaults where the main focus is to make your images look good ...
 
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EHRETic
Experienced
Posts: 116
Joined: 02 Feb 2011, 16:26

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

22 Jan 2015, 09:48

Hi gain,

No I didn't try yet as I want a minimum of content to display before I'll try ! ;-)

Very very... very interresting article to read, thanks a lot for that.

I've checked again my export settings, it was in fact 70%. I might downgrade the quality a little because I don't want to end up with 14MB to download like on my current main website !!! I'm trying now to have a really fast website, even if I have to compromise (a little) the pictures quality ! ;-)

Il keep everybody posted when I'll have some updates. I'll study now how to create properly galeries.

By the way, before I'll study the whole thing, How can I :

* Create a galery for home page, but without being able to see it somewhere else (so hidden somehow) ?
* Create protected galeries. Iwas using that a lot with X2 for my customers.

See you soon ! ;-)
 
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mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

22 Jan 2015, 10:53

EHRETic wrote:Create a galery for home page, but without being able to see it somewhere else (so hidden somehow) ?
You mean a gallery for the index page? The index page is just like other pages, and you can upload images directly to the index page ... I am not quite sure why you need to add a new folder to contain the gallery for the home page ...

If for some reason you must do this, you can just create a new folder "home_images", and as long it does not have a number i front, it will be hidden. Then you can refer to it from the 1.index page gallery: assets:home_images.
EHRETic wrote:Create protected galeries. Iwas using that a lot with X2 for my customers.
This is quite high up in our todo list, but password protected pages are not ready yet. For now, you can still create "hidden" galleries that only the person with the link will know. Hidden folders are created by naming the folder without a number first.
 
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EHRETic
Experienced
Posts: 116
Joined: 02 Feb 2011, 16:26

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

23 Jan 2015, 08:37

mjau-mjau wrote:You mean a gallery for the index page? The index page is just like other pages, and you can upload images directly to the index page ... I am not quite sure why you need to add a new folder to contain the gallery for the home page ...
Yes, but I've ony tried yet to do as the package out of the box does... thanks for that tip ! ;-)


BTW : I've tried quickly the preload option... wooooooow !
 
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EHRETic
Experienced
Posts: 116
Joined: 02 Feb 2011, 16:26

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

25 Jan 2015, 18:11

Put some new content... blog section, more portfolio... check this out ! ;-)

http://test.ehretic.com

Close to put it productive from the layout, but still lot of selection work to do...
 
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mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Topic Author
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

26 Jan 2015, 00:32

EHRETic wrote:Put some new content... blog section, more portfolio... check this out ! ;-)

http://test.ehretic.com
Awesome ... New logo looks great (retina-friendly and everything ;) I also noticed your menu carousel with square images (I can't even remember that being an option, but there you go ...). You are gonna love the new "STYLER" coming in v0.9, which will allow you to combine layouts, skins, variations, colors and fonts from visual interface.
Image
 
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masquefotos
Experienced
Posts: 140
Joined: 20 May 2011, 05:38

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

26 Jan 2015, 06:07

mjau-mjau wrote:
EHRETic wrote:Put some new content... blog section, more portfolio... check this out ! ;-)

http://test.ehretic.com
Awesome ... New logo looks great (retina-friendly and everything ;) I also noticed your menu carousel with square images (I can't even remember that being an option, but there you go ...). You are gonna love the new "STYLER" coming in v0.9, which will allow you to combine layouts, skins, variations, colors and fonts from visual interface.
Image

do not put us long teeth and upload now !!! :lol:
 
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nz-photo
Experienced
Posts: 248
Joined: 06 Dec 2007, 17:26

Re: I wanna see your X3 ...

26 Jan 2015, 11:14

Yeah should start a thread called "I wanna see your STYLER now... " :mrgreen:
Empty your mind, be formless, be shapeless, like water...
www.nz-photo.com
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