Tag Archives: server

NovelRank Version 3 – Faster Everything

trees in the light

I’m guessing many of you were starting to get annoyed by Server Overloaded, Try Again in a Few Minutes messages, especially late at night. You probably weren’t a fan of waiting 60+ seconds for salesrank data to generate in charts.

These things bothered me too. Thus, I took time aside and have completely rewritten the backend database of NovelRank, which I’m now calling NovelRank version 3 (v3 for short). On the front end, there are no differences, but the experience of using the site is dramatically improved. It’s been a plan for months, and the four phases of transition started one week ago, finishing up late Saturday (Oct 19, 2013) night. I’m really proud and satisfied with the results.

Here’s a full list of everything that has been improved dramatically:

  • Charts (Type: SalesRank)
  • Stats (PRO Users now get to update this instantly)
  • API (NovelRank iPhone app and PRO WebApp)
  • CSV exports (SalesRank)
  • SalesRankExpress rank history charts

Since it was completed, there have been zero users receiving the Server Overloaded message. I’m proud of that.

I hope you continue to enjoy and use NovelRank worldwide. As a reminder, it’s built by one guy, me, and your support through PRO sign-ups and donations are the only income I have.

State of the Server 2013: New hardware, better performance

System_Monitor_screenshotThings have been a little rough over the last 2 weeks…

After a lot of planning, plotting, and back-and-forth with my web host, Dreamhost, I decided that NovelRank’s traffic and requests required an upgrade beyond the ~$100 Virtual Private Server (VPS) setup. My goal with this service is always to try and deliver webpages in about 2 seconds. Sure, charts, CSV files, and other heavy data requests may take a little longer, but the hope is that 99% of all the traffic on the site is served very quickly. Thus, the decision to move to a dedicated server (think a computer just for you).
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