SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/13/2007 9:52 PM |
| As I am starting to use PageBlaster in a more detailed manner (and not just the default-caching of anonymous visit) I am stumbling across things that could improve PageBlaster, and which I would like to see in the next version of PageBlaster.
Note that these request on no way indicate displeasure with the current product. I am a very happe PageBlaster user, I am simply trying to contribute ideas to the next versions.
In order to allow easy export or copy/paste of those feature requests, I will make a new post for each feature in this thread.
(NOTE: All suggestions are for the DNN version of PageBlaster)
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brgds
- Jesper | |
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SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/13/2007 10:00 PM |
| Automatic replacement rule when creating Virtual paths
When adding a virtual path (Configuration > Page Setup > Virtual Path), include an option to automatically create
a new portal-wide replacement rule for the page/path in question.
Example:
Page settings are for "http://www.stopcomputerlicens.dk/Start/Skrivunder/tabid/98/Default.aspx"
Virtual path is "http://www.stopcomputerlicens.dk/skrivunder.aspx"
Allow the user to tick a boolean field or similar, that automatically creates a portal-wide replacement rule for these two strings. This would save a lot of work for the webadmin, as a virtual path typically goes hand in hand with a replacement rule anyway.
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brgds
- Jesper | |
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John Mitchell
Posts:3033
| | 02/13/2007 10:03 PM |
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That's a good idea, keep them coming. | | | |
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SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/13/2007 10:17 PM |
| Automatic cache-rebuild function for pages
When pages are changed, the cache is not automatically flushed and rebuild. This is done manually by the webadmin. PageBlaster could introduce a timed async. event which flushes and perhaps even rebuilds the cache for pages that have just been edited by the webamin or a content editor.
This would ensure that
1.) Neither the webadmin or content editor has to manually flush/rebuild the cache using the browser CTRL+F5 method (which btw is also browser dependant). This saves time.
2.) By not having to manually flush/refresh the cache, visitors are far more likely to get the correct content on their pages, even if the webadmin or content editor has not manually refreshed the cache. This avoids confusion and gives a better service to visitors.
3.) By rebuilding the cache for a page (if possible), the visitors get better response times because they do not have to initiate the building of the page.
I realise that this is no small request, but flushing the cache should at least be possible. And rebuidling the cache should also be possible by making an async HTTP request to the page in question and just discard the response. The request could be repeated for the top n (5?) browsers worlwide, by altering the identification string. And in a total PageBlaster nirvana, the top-five browser strings would be extracted from the existing cache - making the module automatically adjust itself to new browsers, versions, etc.
brgds
- Jesper
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brgds
- Jesper | |
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SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/13/2007 10:23 PM |
| Portal-wide automatic cache-rebuild function
The page-based cache flush/rebuild request above should be available as a portal-wide function. The webadmin should be able to click button in page blaster, which forces a total flush and rebuild of all pages.
This ensures that all pages are cached correctly, even if files have been replaced on the webserver without direct DNN interaction, or if content has been altered in the DNN database by other applications accessing the database directly (through ODBC, ADO, etc).
brgds
- Jesper
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brgds
- Jesper | |
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John Mitchell
Posts:3033
| | 02/13/2007 10:30 PM |
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PageBlaster does aumotically clear the cache (which causes a rebuild on the next request), whenever a page has a POST request method.
For the rare time when you may get an update done to a page without using a post you can manually refresh with CTRL+F5 , or CTRL - click Refresh in IE (for FF it is SHIFT - click Refresh).
What I do need is a way to invalidate the intire cache though.
I don't think doing an async request would be worth the complexity in the code, not that I'm not up for the challenge but I don't want to add too much complexity at the risk of having it be unstable. The editor can invalidate the cache and make the first request to any page., and as long as you are not caching different languages that will be the only cached page. | | | |
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John Mitchell
Posts:3033
| | 02/13/2007 10:32 PM |
| LOL. You got your post in about the Portal wide cache refresh before mine but I didn't see it, I promise 
Good to know we are on the same track though. | | | |
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SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/13/2007 10:35 PM |
| Cache-info in HTML page source
It should be possible to enable an option in PageBlaster that inserts a comment-section in the output HTML files. This is great for debugging and overview.
Introduce a boolean field somewhere, that enables a section like that. It should make a section in the source of the output files that look something like this:
This is only an example, but I have been in several situations where a section such as this in the source of a page would have been a great help.
Brgds
- Jesper
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brgds
- Jesper | |
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SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/13/2007 10:41 PM |
| Arrrrgh, there goes my example section ...
Here is what i wanted to insert (without the HTML comment tags this time)
* This page was cached by Snapsis PageBlaster 2.x.x.
* Page identifyer: (insert FULL page identifyer string here as a serialized string)
* Page built on: 14.02.2007 05.38
* Cache in memory expires after: 00 days 01 hours 00 minutes and 00 seconds
* Cache on disk expires after: 01 days 00 hours 00 minutes and 00 seconds
* Page virtual path: (insert virtual path here)
* Actual page served: (insert actual path here)
hope that works better ... ;-)
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brgds
- Jesper | |
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SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/13/2007 10:44 PM |
| Mjeah ... but I still request some method of building the cache in stead of only flushing it, and an async method (perhaps the default DNN timed event function can be used?) might be the best way to do that.
As mentioned, the cache could even be built for all the top browsers, because the top browser id's could be
extracted from all the existing cache.
:-) | |
brgds
- Jesper | |
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SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/13/2007 11:05 PM |
| Multiple virtual paths to a single page
It would be nice if it was possible to specify multiple virtual paths to a particular page. In a newly established DNN portal, a page such as:
"http://www.stopcomputerlicens.dk/Start/Tipenven/tabid/230/Default.aspx"
would benefit from a friendly URL. And the existing module is made for that.
However, if that page really replaces a similar page on an older website (on the same domain) it would really benefit the webadmin if he could specify additional virtual paths to the page. In that way the webadmin can ensure that links to the old website are not broken. Currently the webadmin is forced to choose between using the virtual path for the new DNN portal (giving it a good path) or use it to "repair" old links.
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brgds
- Jesper | |
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SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/13/2007 11:17 PM |
| Import and Export function for Replacement rules
It should be possible to Export and Import PageBlaster replacement rules - either as a single rule or the entire set of rules for page or portal.
This enables the webadmin to move/copy rules from one DNN portal to another without manually shuffling around with files on the webserver.
A webadmin could also make a set of "standard replacement rules" and submit them to the Snapsis forums so everybody could benefit from them.
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brgds
- Jesper | |
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John Mitchell
Posts:3033
| | 02/14/2007 6:14 AM |
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Both of these last two ideas are very good and have been on my list. I already have some of the plumbing in place for the "status" page, and the import and export of rules is a high priority.
Right now you can drag the rules you want to save down to the Saved Rules node. Then you can get the PageBlaster.SavedRulesΎ].config file from the PageBlaster/Config/SavedRules folder and save it off, or give them to someone else, but I do need a way to import and export Rules Packages. | | | |
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SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/23/2007 10:42 AM |
| Site-wide option for showing settings directly in PageBlaster container
Make an option in the PageBlaster setup, that enables the webadmin to display all the pageblaster settings within the actual container inserted on a page. Rather than navigating to the "edit" section, I would personally prefer to have all PageBlaster options shown directly in the container when I insert it into a page.
This might not be true for everyone - so it should be an option. But for me its just extra waiting/navigation time when I have to click the "edit" option for PageBlaster and then wait for a new page to display.
If possible, consider if the option to display everything could be based on a security role. It would be great if my normal content-editor account did not display the PageBlaster options by default. That is only needed for the Host and Admin acount.
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brgds
- Jesper | |
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SplatMan_DK
Posts:81
| | 02/25/2007 6:02 PM |
| Auto-suggest a friendly page name
When creating page rules, PageBlaster should automatically suggest a "friendly page name", based on the actual page name.
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brgds
- Jesper | |
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Nelson Fernandez
Posts:50
| | 04/19/2007 9:43 PM |
| New UserInfo Tag: UserID
The ability to add a userid tag would benefit me greatly since I have the need to supply the id as part of a link.
ie: http://www.somsite.com/Home.aspx?userid=12345
Currenlty I can use username but then I have to reverse lookup the userid. I know there is some DNN class that exposes many of these properties, maybe you could make a generic tag to access these directly via namspace.classname.property?
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John Mitchell
Posts:3033
| | 04/19/2007 11:26 PM |
| Wow, I can't believe I left out UserId.
I have just added that and UserInfo.Roles to a newer version.
Send me an e-mail from an address I can reply to with an attachment if you'd like it now. | | | |
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Laurence Neville
Posts:60
| | 05/17/2007 9:22 AM |
| Another feature request:
In this thread : How to redirect sitename.com to www.sitename.com you said you would be adding a feature where URLs could be redirected. Are you still intending to do that? If so, would that also cover the following:
I need to set up addresses for people to quickly and easily get to commonly used pages, e.g. www.sitename.com/products, www.sitename.com/support etc. These redirect to the real DNN address for the page. At present I use IIS virtual directories for this. I think I could use the native DNN SiteUrls.config to do this also, but I read somewhere (your blog probably) that adding a lot of these redirects would add a lot of overhead to DNN, and on some sites I have maybe 100 of these.
So, could PageBlaster (if/when you add the redirect feature) handle redirects like the above, and could it do it more efficiently than the native DNN function so I could have 100 on a site? | | | |
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John Mitchell
Posts:3033
| | 05/17/2007 5:03 PM |
| Yes, I'm adding 301 & 302 redirects as a feature in PageBlaster. The performance will be somewhat affected as it loops through the possible redirects comparing them to the Url, so there is a trade-off that is hard to avoid since all requests are always handled by the same code (vs. going to physically different pages). I had made a comment about not putting too many Url Rewrite rules in the SiteUrls.config on my blog, but that was one about changing the child portal alias to look more friendly, which is more or less a 'vanity' thing. Each one of those is a wasted check for every other child portal. If you really need the redirect then it may easily be worth the performance hit (and you may never notice it with all the gains from PageBlaster).
As for using a folder to signal the redirect, that is difficult. The reason is because in order for any ASP.Net code to get a chance to look at the url, it must first be passed from IIS to and ASP.Net web application. By default there are only a few file extensions that are actually handed off to ASP.Net for processing, and folders are not unless there is a wildcard application mapping, or if a Default document (with an extension mapped to ASP.Net) is designated in IIS and one actually exists in a real folder.
So to do a redirect using asp.net from a just using folder name you would need to physically create the folder, and then put a default page in it. If you go that far though, you could then easily put the redirect code directly in that default page. Another benefit of actually creating the folder and the default page is that you would not take the performance hit of having all your urls checked against a list of possible redirects. | | | |
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John Mitchell
Posts:3033
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