First, while not the biggest friend to the open source community, Oracle does in fact have some open source assets. For example, InnoDB, the default storage engine used by MySQL, is in fact an open source product from Oracle.  They acquired this when they purchased Innobase in 2005.  Here is Oracle’s stated position on open source:  http://www.oracle.com/technologies/open-source/index.html.  Given that, there is some hope they will keep it alive.

Second, I think Oracle will continue offering MySQL as a marketing tool.  I expect they will use the installed user base as a prospecting ground for their premium offerings.  I imagine they will create migration paths for current MySQL users to upgrade to Oracle Database.  That said, I don’t expect we will see large advances in the project.  It is possible Oracle will use it as sandbox for testing out new technologies, however, I don’t expect them to accelerate development of MySQL.  Fortunately, MySQL is already a relatively mature product.

Last, but certainly not least, we should remember that MySQL is open source.  Now that they own the rights, it is true that Oracle can create a commercial product from it and begin charging license fees.  However, because MySQL is open source, anyone, can take the current source base and continue it’s development under the open source model.  They may have to change the name as MySQL is a trademark, however, that would be strictly cosmetic. If Oracle does drop support for the free community edition I imagine someone in the open source community will pick up where they left off.  In fact, Michael “Monty” Widenius, the original founder of MySQL, has since moved on to a new project called MariaDB.  MariaDB is a fork of the MySQL project.  The project’s goal is to maintain a free branch of MySQL that is compatible with the main branch.  The first stable release is expected in August, 2009.

My assessment is that MySQL or a compatible fork, like MariaDB, will continue to be available to all.

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1. Central Data Repository

The primary function of the data warehouse is to provide a single central repository for all - or at least a substantial portion - of your organization’s information.  By mining data from other operational systems, such as accounting systems, point-of-sales systems and project management systems, and storing them within a single data warehouse, users are able to access a plethora of information from a single source.  This is true even when other operational systems are down for maintenance or other issues.  Keeping information available to users will help keep your workers more productive.

2. Inter-application Reporting

This is by far one of the best reasons for building a data warehouse.  By combining data from multiple sources developers and users alike can create reports that look across various applications.  Reports based on multiple data sources can give a better look at your total operation.  For example, a data warehouse that I am currently working on pulls data from an employee time card system and the phone system - among many others.  I combined these data into a series of reports that let managers get a better view of the call-center’s productivity.  Before the data warehouse, combining the data from the separate sources manually required so much effort that it was abandoned before it ever got started.  Now these reports are available at the push of a button.  As a result my client is able to optimize work schedules to reduce staffing costs while at the same time improve the customer service experience for callers.

3. System Integration and Data Synchronization

Data warehouses can also act as a platform for integrating various systems.  This is particularly true in cases where data maintained on different applications overlap.  For example, customer information is often held in multiple systems.  Without proper system integration, data maintenance must be done in each system independently.  Of course this reduces productivity and increases the chance for errors.  A data warehouse can act as the hub for data synchronization tools that help to eliminate the need for duplicate entry.  When customer information is updated in an accounting system, for example, the data warehouse will import those updates.  That information can then be fed as an update to other systems, like a point-of-sale application.

4. Reduced Load on Operational Systems

Some reports, depending on their complexity, create serious performance consequences when executed directly against transaction processing systems.  By moving reporting and other functions to the data warehouse we are able to reduce the load on these other critical systems.  This means that performance sensitive systems, like point-of-sale or web applications, will provide better user response.  This can increase worker productivity and improve customer experience.  In addition, because the data warehouse can be designed to support specific reporting requirements it can be optimized well beyond the reporting capabilities of existing transaction systems.

5. Replacement for Ad-Hoc Systems

In just about any small business you can find dozens, if not hundreds, of ad-hoc data sources that are created as the business and organization evolve.   This is usually due to the fact that other, usually off-the-shelf systems lack the features necessary to maintain this data.  As a result, new files, most often spreadsheets, are used setup simple databases.  Spreadsheets of course have several limitations when we use them as databases.  The two most common are a lack of real-time, multi-user support and the ease of which data rules can be ignored.  In addition, their contents can not be easily combined with other sources to create reports.  A data warehouse can provide you with a platform for maintaining these one-off databases in a more structured, reliable and available way.

These are the primary reasons that I give to prospective clients when recommending a data warehouse.  The bottom line is a data warehouse helps improves productivity, supports better decision making and ultimately helps you run your business better.

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1.  Add More Memory.  Adding memory to your PC is one of the best ways to improve its speed.  This is especially true if you are multi-tasker that likes to keep several programs open at the same time.  When a PC does not have enough RAM to run all of the programs you have open it must use your hard drive to create a virtual memory swap file.  When you open a new program that is going to need more RAM than is available, programs that are minimized or have dropped to the background will be swapped out to the virtual memory on disk.  This does free up the memory necessary to run your program.  However, when you switch back to the other program, Windows must first save the current program to the swap file and reload the one you are switching to back into RAM.  While this can help you elude an “out of memory” error, it is extremely slow.

If you are multi-tasker using Windows XP or above and have less then 1 or 2GB of RAM, upgrading is one of the best moves for improving system performance.  You should know that 32-bit versions of Windows can only recognize about 3.5GB of RAM - the addressable space is actually 4GB, but a portion of that is reserved for other purposes.  However, because installing 3.5GB of RAM is not always so easy given the rounder size of memory modules, I recommend installing the full 4GB.  The incremental cost will not be that much.  If you have a 64-bit version of Windows - only available with Vista and the some server editions - then, if your hardware allows it, you can go much higher than 4GB.  Most memory upgrades can be done for about $100 or so.  I recommend using the Crucial Memory Advisor to find the right upgrades for your PC.

2.  Remove Unnecessary Start-Up Programs.  It seems like every time we install some new software it wants to automatically load its “quick launcher” or “auto updater” at start up.  While this may be useful for some programs it certainly isn’t necessary for most of them.  Too many of them can consume enough memory to noticeably slow down your PC.  To remedy this use a tool like CCleaner to discover and remove or disable these start up programs.  Another tool I like to help with this issue is WinPatrol.  Not only will it tell you - and help you disable - what programs and services are starting automatically, it has two other very useful features.  One lets you modify a start up program to start only after a short delay - helping improve your boot up time.  The other is a tool that monitors and warns you of any software’s attempt to load itself into your list of start up programs, giving you the opportunity to block it before it does.  CCleaner and WinPatrol are also valuable tools in preventing spyware infections - and they’re both free - so I highly recommend them.

3.  Remove Unnecessary Browser Plugins.  I love Firefox and one of the reasons is the number of useful plugins - also known as add-ons.  In the process of experimenting with various add-ons, however, we often leave enabled ones that we will never use.  Like unwanted start up programs, add-ons consume memory and can slow down your browser’s performance.  Since browsing is one of the most prolific functions of a computer, most of us keep a browser window open regardless of what we are working on.  Therefore, optimizing browser performance - by eliminating unwanted plugins - is a great way to improve overall system performance.

Of course there are many other things you can do to improve performance, but I think the three methods listed here would be very effective for most users.  For a list of additional techniques, check out another of my posts here.

Please add any tips you have for improving performance by commenting on this post.  Thanks for the question, Phil.

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If you buy QuickBooks at Staples today (normally priced at $199.99) you will receive a $40 instant rebate and a $159.99 mail-in-rebate.  Your only net cost is any local sales tax charged on the $159.99 at the register.

The deal was available online as well, but Staples’ online is sold out.  They are flying off the shelves at the brick and mortar stores as well so you may want to call ahead and reserve a copy.  The first store I went to you was sold out, but the manager called a nearby store and they still had about a dozen left.  They reserved one for me and I picked it up later in the day.

The offer is good on QuickBooks Pro 2009 only and has other typical restrictions such a limit of 1 per customer.

If you are looking to get started with QuickBooks or your ready to upgrade a dated copy now is your chance to get in free - excluding that sales tax, of course.

If you miss today’s deal check the QuickBooks Page here at GARA.com for their latest online offerings.

Happy Holidays!!

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This release contains a fix to how the image path is determined.

The bug only affected WP installations where the WordPress URL is different than the Blog URL.  Bookmarkify was making use of the Blog URL to create the path to the image files.  Under some situations the images are not accessible via this path.  This causes the bookmark site names to appear instead of the site icons.

I’ve modified the plugin to use the WordPress URL instead.  The images should always be available via that path.

Click here to visit the Bookmarkify page and download the plugin.

If you were having this issue, please share your experiences with this version.

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This release contains the following changes:

LinkedIn Added to Site List

I’m not exactly sure how I overlooked LinkedIn for all of this time but apparently I did.  It has been added to the list of bookmark and sharing sites.  Because of its popularity among the business community I’ve also made it one of the default options.

Bookmarkify Button

I’ve added a new feature that lets you display a “Bookmarkify It” button instead of the entire widget.  Clicking the button triggers the More Box to appear.  You can see an example of this on my blog’s header to the right of the search box.

Currently there is no way to implement this via the plugin’s options/settings page.  That feature will be forthcoming.  Until then it must be added by inserting a PHP call with in your template or other PHP pages.  See the readme.txt file for details.

Bug Fix

In my previous post I mentioned a couple of issues some users were having with the plugin.  My initial approach to the solve the problem was to rewrite the way in which the More Box is loaded.  I am still looking at the approach because it improves the plugin in many other ways.  However, in the process I discovered the bug that caused the issue for most of these users.

For those interested in such things here is some background.  The styles for the More Box are contained in the more.css file.  Bookmarkify links this style sheet in to a blog’s template by hooking into the wp_head function.  Templates should always call this function somewhere within their head tags.  I learned, however, that some don’t.  The result was a raw looking More Box with no styling applied.  To remedy that I created a modification that caused the more.css file to get linked in at the time when the widget was being written - that is only if it hadn’t already been linked in to the header.  This worked to correct the styling issue, but I had introduced a small bug that caused issues for some installations with outputting the post’s content.

That bug has been corrected.  So rather than make everyone wait for the additional work to be complete, I am making this fix - and the other improvements mentioned above - available to you now.

Please post any questions or comments that you have.

Click here to visit the Bookmarkify page and download the plugin.

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The first issue causes a warning message to appear in the post editor whenever the work is saved.  Those that have this issue have reported that there is no negative impact on their blogs.  The posts are saved properly and visitors have no issues when viewing the blog.

The second issue causes the content of posts and pages to disappear once the plugin is activated.  It was also reported that this issue goes away if you change the Widget Location option to “Top of Content.”

I have been unable to reproduce these issues within my installations.  I do believe that the issues could be caused by how a link to the more.css file is loaded.  In some cases it may be loaded within the body tags and apparently some server installations don’t like this much.  It is possible that this is connected to the second issue as well.  One thing to verify is that the wp_head() is being called in your template’s head tags.  This will ensure that the link is inserted there instead of the body.

I am currently working on modifying how the more box is loaded.  The change eliminates the need to load the link within the body tag.  I suspect this will correct, at the very least, the first issue.  The change will also have positive impact on page load time.

Again, this only seems to affect a small number of installations so most of you should be able use Bookmarkify with no problems.

If you have experienced these issues, please post any details in a comment to this post.  Please provide information on your installation (e.g. WordPress version, Template, PHP version, web server, etc.).  With this information I may be able to create an environment that manifests the error.

Thank you to those that have reported issues.

Please stay tuned to this blog for updates as they become available.  You can click here to subscribe to Bookmarkify updates.

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GARA.com is in fact a very dynamic site.  Nearly every page contains some element that is updated on a regular basis, such as the Recent Free Software Updates, Current Deals and, of course, the Blog.  But, again, it was working just fine a week ago.  So my troubleshooting began.  It wasn’t long before I realized that I had turned of the cache plugin that I use within the blog.  My intent was to do this temporarily as I was testing changes to my template.  Unfortunately, I forgot to re-enable it.  The result was a sudden spike in hits against the site’s MySQL database and the resulting server errors.  Once I turned it back on, the problems quickly receded.

INTERESTING NOTE - My host provides me with unlimited disk space and bandwidth.  However, if they limit MySQL execution, doesn’t that in effect put an artificial limit on my traffic and bandwidth?

What is Caching and How Does it Improve Performance?

When visiting a site that runs a database driven content management system - like WordPress, for example - every page request will in turn make a request to the database.  Sometimes, several database queries are executed.  Once the data is retrieved it is combined with a template and the resulting HTML page is delivered to your browser.  This is a lot of work for a web server to do.  Fortunately, most of it is not necessary.  Since blog posts rarely change once their posted, regenerating the HTML page for every visitor ends up being work that does not need to be done.

Caching tools work by using a very creative but simple technique.  The first time a page is requested it is generated the normal way described above.  Then, in addition to delivering the page to the visitor, a copy of it is stored in a special cache directory on your server.  The next time a visitor requests the same page, the caching tool simply delivers the already generated HTML page.  This eliminates the need to execute as many database queries as well as the need to repeatedly generate the same pages.  The result is reduced server load and a more pleasant user experience.

WordPress Cache Tools

Because WordPress is a PHP/MySQL based content management and blogging system it is an excellent candidate for caching.  Fortunately there are two very good plugins that serve this purpose.  The first, WP-Cache, has been around for a while.  It is the one that I use on this site.  It is mature, very stable and works wonders on site performance.  It works well in most WordPress installations and comes highly recommended.

The second, WP Super Cache, was branched from wp-cache and includes additional features.  It is currently the top featured plugin in the WordPress Plugin Directory.  WP Super Cache does require that you have access to your .htaccess file and other Apache mods.  It is also pre-release - version .0.8.4 as of this posting.  Therefore, it may not be suitable for every webmaster.

There are some situations where certain parts of a page should not be cached.  For example, you may be using a widget that updates frequently.  Fortunately, both of these plugins support a feature that let’s you identify specific portions of a template that should not be cached.  See their documentation for more details.

If you are using a different CMS or blogging platform check for the availability of caching tools.

Beyond the Blog

Caching is important not just in your CMS or blog but also on any page that retrieves content from a database.  This is particularly true when that content does not change very often.  One example on this site is the Recent Free Software Updates that appears in the sidebar of most pages.  This information is updated daily on average, but certainly not every time the user navigates to a new page.  So again, going out to the database to get this info for each page view would put a huge load on the server.

To remedy this I created a very simple caching method.  Whenever a new update is received, the MySQL database is updated and then a script is executed to create a static XML file on the server.  Every time a user navigates to a new page the data for the Recent Free Software Updates is extracted from the XML file.  The effect is similar to that of WordPress delivering an already generated HTML file in its cache:  a significant reduction to the load on my server.

If your site has custom features that make use of database-driven content you should examine its architecture to see where you can make similar improvements and optimizations.

Conclusion

We create dynamic database driven web sites because they help us create and maintain fresh content.  The result is an audience that grows and comes back frequently.  However, a site that times out or serves up 500 errors can be counter productive.  To improve your site’s performance and keep your audience growing it is important that you implement effective methods to cache your dynamic content.

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The most obvious change to the site is the layout of the home page.  I’ve moved the Recent Blog Posts and Featured Deal sections to the top of the page.  This gives visitors a quicker look at those items that change most often.  I’ve also laid them out side-by-side for a three-column look.  This keeps them both at the top and makes them a bit easier to browse.

Below that you will find a new home page feature, the Featured Video.  I often view videos on small business topics from a variety of sources.  I’ve decided to start sharing the most informative ones with GARA’s visitors.  Sometimes videos will be news items from major outlets like MSNBC.  Others may seem a bit dated, but I’ve chose them for the excellent information contain.  You can expect the Featured Video to be updated at least a few times week.

The “signin” bar to the top of the page.  This is more consistent with other popular site’s that I feel have the best layout.  It keeps the login links handy but out of the way of the content.

To help improve your ability to find relevant content, I’ve added an abbreviated site map to the footer of every page.  The search feature has been improved to make switching between search domains (i.e. GARA.com, Free Software Catalog, etc.) much easier.  The Blog search results and archive pages have been modified to provide excerpts of results instead of the full text.  This should make finding the post you want much easier as well.

In the coming weeks I will continue to improve the Current Deals page both in design and function.  I also have some plans on improving the main menu in each page header.  Stay tuned and come back often!! Watch GARA.com evolve.

I am very interested in feedback about the new site design features and open to suggestions as well.  Please post your comments and let me know what you think.

Happy Halloween!!

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