Low Bandwidth Tips for GroupServer Dev
Summary
- There are 3 posts — by 2 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Steven Clift at 2009 Oct 23 00:33 UTC
I often suggest GS is a great tool for those trying to reach people
via low-bandwidth environments because of the e-mail hook and
placement of files on the server.
Here are some tips to confirm/improve our approach:
http://www.aptivate.org/webguidelines/Home.html
Interesting article that tipped me off to this guide:
ICT4D: When mobile phones link with computers
http://ow.ly/vEtd
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy
Thanks for linking to the “Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth Connections”, Steve. Richard and I have been quietly optimising the performance of GroupServer for years now <http://groupserver.org/r/topic/Utdgagkol0J5DPD8LA4ym> but it is a good idea to look at how we are doing! I will look at topic pages, because I consider them to be the most important pages ☺ 1. No Page Bigger Than 25kB This topic (before I posted this message) came in at 4KB, and even moderately long topics take less than 10KB <http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/6z6YWvon6pmB8pFiOBufj0> To reduce the size of long topics I could change GroupServer so it did not transmit the “snipped” text, and sent it when someone explicitly viewed it. 2. Reduce Images GroupServer does not require images for the navigation elements, and it does use CSS for laying out the page. I am familiar with the problems and advantages with GIF, PNG and JPEG, so I am confident that I am using the correct image format for the correct tasks. 3. Have Good Site Structure I am not sure GroupServer has an exceptional site structure by default, but I tried to make it so it is possible to go from the front page of a GroupServer site to a recent topic in one click. I hope I succeeded. 4. Use Style Sheets GroupServer uses style sheets. Tables are only used to lay out tabular data <http://groupserver.org/groups/development/stats.html>. 5. Minimise HTTP Requests Minimising HTTP requests is important to Richard and I, as it takes a minimum of 0.25s to send data across the Pacific from the servers in California to us in New Zealand. It is hard to reduce the number of requests: JavaScript libraries (for a “Web 2.0” experience), profile photos (for user engagement) and the like all add to the load. There are at least 18 requests required for a topic page. I can see how to remove at least two, and possible four other requests from the list. However, once all the JavaScript and stylesheets are loaded a topic can be loaded with just the request for the HTML-page. 6. Turn on Compression Richard has turned on compression for sites run by OnlineGroups.Net. This item, like the next, is less of an issue for GroupServer as it is for the caching-proxy that runs infront of GroupServer. (Currently we use nginx <http://nginx.net/>.) 7. Be Cache-able Richard and I set cache time-outs of ten years for our resources, so once your browser has a stylesheet (for example) it can hold onto it. This is why the file names of most of our resources have a date at the end, because we have to change the name of the file to force the browsers to download it. For example <http://groupserver.org/++resource++globalstyle-20090126.css>. 8. Avoid PDFs GroupServer does not ship with any PDFs. 9. Put Useful Items First The main navigation items are loaded first. In addition I use a design philosophy with JavaScript called “progressive enhancement”, where I try and make the page work even if the JavaScript and CSS are not loaded. This allows a group member to read a topic while the JavaScript to support multiple-file uploading is being loaded. 10. Show Link Sizes The recommendation is to say how large any item over 75KB is. The only items I can think of that are commonly on GroupServer and are over 75KB are posted files, and it says how large they are. In addition, GroupServer provides scaled versions of posted images (thanks to the feature funded by e-Democracy.org) so group members on low-bandwidth connections can still view images at a reasonable speed. The second site you linked to <http://ow.ly/vEtd> mounted what I consider to be an unfair attack Facebook. It does take a while to load its front-page over a low bandwidth connection (though it is only around 400KB in size, not 800KB; they misread the summary provided by the tool they liked to). However, the target market for Facebook seems to be the privileged classes of the West and the site works very well for them — they have access to powerful computers (and phones) and high-bandwidth connections. I also note that the article on low-bandwidth connections had a Flash video at the end, and even without the video the page is roughly the same size as the Facebook homepage. Thank you for the opportunity to evaluate GroupServer with some fresh eyes, Steve. I also really enjoyed having the chance to write “privileged classes of the West”, which is not something that I get to do every day. Kind regards, Comrade Michael ☭
Thanks. This is why the New Zealand development agency should use a tool like GroupServer in their work with Pacific Island nations!
On 10/22/09, <email obscured> <email obscured>> wrote: > Thanks for linking to the “Web Design Guidelines for Low Bandwidth > Connections”, Steve. Richard and I have been quietly optimising the > performance of GroupServer for years now > <http://groupserver.org/r/topic/Utdgagkol0J5DPD8LA4ym> but it is a good idea > to look at how we are doing! I will look at topic pages, because I consider > them to be the most important pages ☺ > > 1. No Page Bigger Than 25kB > This topic (before I posted this message) came in > at 4KB, and even moderately long topics take > less than 10KB > <http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/6z6YWvon6pmB8pFiOBufj0> > To reduce the size of long topics I could change > GroupServer so it did not transmit the “snipped” text, > and sent it when someone explicitly viewed it. > > 2. Reduce Images > GroupServer does not require images for the > navigation elements, and it does use CSS for laying > out the page. I am familiar with the problems and > advantages with GIF, PNG and JPEG, so I am confident > that I am using the correct image format for the > correct tasks. > > 3. Have Good Site Structure > I am not sure GroupServer has an exceptional site > structure by default, but I tried to make it so it > is possible to go from the front page of a > GroupServer site to a recent topic in one click. I > hope I succeeded. > > 4. Use Style Sheets > GroupServer uses style sheets. Tables are only used to > lay out tabular data > <http://groupserver.org/groups/development/stats.html>. > > 5. Minimise HTTP Requests > Minimising HTTP requests is important to Richard and > I, as it takes a minimum of 0.25s to send data > across the Pacific from the servers in California to > us in New Zealand. It is hard to reduce the number of > requests: JavaScript libraries (for a “Web 2.0” > experience), profile photos (for user engagement) and > the like all add to the load. There are at least 18 > requests required for a topic page. I can see how to > remove at least two, and possible four other requests > from the list. However, once all the JavaScript and > stylesheets are loaded a topic can be loaded with just > the request for the HTML-page. > > 6. Turn on Compression > Richard has turned on compression for sites run by > OnlineGroups.Net. This item, like the next, is less > of an issue for GroupServer as it is for the > caching-proxy that runs infront of GroupServer. > (Currently we use nginx <http://nginx.net/>.) > > 7. Be Cache-able > Richard and I set cache time-outs of ten years for > our resources, so once your browser has a stylesheet > (for example) it can hold onto it. This is why the > file names of most of our resources have a date at > the end, because we have to change the name of the > file to force the browsers to download it. For example > <http://groupserver.org/++resource++globalstyle-20090126.css>. > > 8. Avoid PDFs > GroupServer does not ship with any PDFs. > > 9. Put Useful Items First > The main navigation items are loaded first. In > addition I use a design philosophy with JavaScript > called “progressive enhancement”, where I try and > make the page work even if the JavaScript and CSS are > not loaded. This allows a group member to read a topic > while the JavaScript to support multiple-file uploading > is being loaded. > > 10. Show Link Sizes > The recommendation is to say how large any item over > 75KB is. The only items I can think of that are > commonly on GroupServer and are over 75KB are posted > files, and it says how large they are. In addition, > GroupServer provides scaled versions of posted images > (thanks to the feature funded by e-Democracy.org) so > group members on low-bandwidth connections can still > view images at a reasonable speed. > > The second site you linked to <http://ow.ly/vEtd> mounted what I consider to > be an unfair attack Facebook. It does take a while to load its front-page > over a low bandwidth connection (though it is only around 400KB in size, not > 800KB; they misread the summary provided by the tool they liked to). > However, the target market for Facebook seems to be the privileged classes > of the West and the site works very well for them — they have access to > powerful computers (and phones) and high-bandwidth connections. I also note > that the article on low-bandwidth connections had a Flash video at the end, > and even without the video the page is roughly the same size as the Facebook > homepage. > > Thank you for the opportunity to evaluate GroupServer with some fresh eyes, > Steve. I also really enjoyed having the chance to write “privileged classes > of the West”, which is not something that I get to do every day. > > Kind regards, > Comrade Michael ☭ > > ----------------------------------------- > Full text of this topic in GroupServer Development: > http://groupserver.org/r/topic/u7XWFdnlCVpUATXkc5p33 > > To leave GroupServer Development, email > <email obscured>?Subject=unsubscribe > > Start your own free groups and site with > OnlineGroups.Net http://onlinegroups.net > > Host your own online groups site with > GroupServer http://groupserver.org > -- Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org Follow me - http://twitter.com/democracy
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