Tonight our site was moved to a new server space - a virtual private server. This means that the site will no longer be sharing resources (RAM and processor time) with other users who our hosts are hosting. In short - no more room mates! Yea!
This was done primarily to enable us to add a new module to the site which will greatly expand our searching capabilities, etc. As you know the three letter designation that we use for so much of what is discussed on this site involves short model numbers: E27, E28, E35, E35-2, E35-3, E38, E380, E380-200, etc., etc. and of course, MySQL, which is what our database runs on, cannot parse three letter designations....and so begin the headaches....
So - enter the Elasticsearch engine. It will be indexing our database on a regular/continuous basis and will make those indexes available to a new Xenforo Advanced Search add-on which you will interface with. Elasticsearch is used by HUGE online entities for analysis, searching, AI and a host of other applications. If you've never heard of them, it's because they work very much in the background to generate the analytics that are used to run Fortune 500 companies. Once we get it configured, we should easily be able to run searches that combine model numbers (described a number of ways and other associated data to pull back logical results that are helpful for the user.
"Whoa!" you say "...what do you think this is, 'missile command'?? I thought this was just a fun place to hang out near the yacht club where we could all get away from the admiral and complain about things!?" Well, yes indeed - it is. But it is also much more than that to me.
When I put this site together in 2000, my main goal was to help preserve the Ericson line as long as possible and create a community in doing so. To do this, I wanted to primarily create a repository of information for owners of the Ericson line where people could gather and share ideas and information, and then push that information forward much as a library does. At that time, I had such a horrible time locating information with which to purchase my E35-3, that I vowed to fix the problem; 20 years on, I think we have done much of the original task. The MySQL issue has dogged us for a long time, and while it's good that Google comes over and crawls our DB so that we can search it from outside, I have always wanted to fix this problem.
Note: this is the start of a long road of configuration and testing - so this will NOT happen overnight. Tonight we just met the first requirement: getting onto our space so that the Elasticsearch engine can be installed, the module installed ang then the long painful road of configuration, failures and adjustments until we get it right. There are also questions involving the various modules which make up this site, and how the information within each of them will be integrated so that one search will pull up useful results from everywhere, etc., etc., etc..
What can you do to help? Glad you asked! Since this is a new server space, please keep your eyes open for any changes to the site with respect to performance and how it handles. You should see an improvement in response time, loading times, etc. If you see an improvement, please comment in this thread. Likewise, if you see something that seems negative or goofy, please also comment or contact me about it (you can actually use the reporting system if you see real/specific issues - that system helps us track down issues and keeps a record of where the issue was, etc. - so it's very helpful). I need feedback on how the site performs, and if you use it daily, you are in the best position to see.
So, that's it for now. As we move forward, I will update you on the status of upgrade to our little site.
Thanks!
//sse
This was done primarily to enable us to add a new module to the site which will greatly expand our searching capabilities, etc. As you know the three letter designation that we use for so much of what is discussed on this site involves short model numbers: E27, E28, E35, E35-2, E35-3, E38, E380, E380-200, etc., etc. and of course, MySQL, which is what our database runs on, cannot parse three letter designations....and so begin the headaches....
So - enter the Elasticsearch engine. It will be indexing our database on a regular/continuous basis and will make those indexes available to a new Xenforo Advanced Search add-on which you will interface with. Elasticsearch is used by HUGE online entities for analysis, searching, AI and a host of other applications. If you've never heard of them, it's because they work very much in the background to generate the analytics that are used to run Fortune 500 companies. Once we get it configured, we should easily be able to run searches that combine model numbers (described a number of ways and other associated data to pull back logical results that are helpful for the user.
"Whoa!" you say "...what do you think this is, 'missile command'?? I thought this was just a fun place to hang out near the yacht club where we could all get away from the admiral and complain about things!?" Well, yes indeed - it is. But it is also much more than that to me.
When I put this site together in 2000, my main goal was to help preserve the Ericson line as long as possible and create a community in doing so. To do this, I wanted to primarily create a repository of information for owners of the Ericson line where people could gather and share ideas and information, and then push that information forward much as a library does. At that time, I had such a horrible time locating information with which to purchase my E35-3, that I vowed to fix the problem; 20 years on, I think we have done much of the original task. The MySQL issue has dogged us for a long time, and while it's good that Google comes over and crawls our DB so that we can search it from outside, I have always wanted to fix this problem.
Note: this is the start of a long road of configuration and testing - so this will NOT happen overnight. Tonight we just met the first requirement: getting onto our space so that the Elasticsearch engine can be installed, the module installed ang then the long painful road of configuration, failures and adjustments until we get it right. There are also questions involving the various modules which make up this site, and how the information within each of them will be integrated so that one search will pull up useful results from everywhere, etc., etc., etc..
What can you do to help? Glad you asked! Since this is a new server space, please keep your eyes open for any changes to the site with respect to performance and how it handles. You should see an improvement in response time, loading times, etc. If you see an improvement, please comment in this thread. Likewise, if you see something that seems negative or goofy, please also comment or contact me about it (you can actually use the reporting system if you see real/specific issues - that system helps us track down issues and keeps a record of where the issue was, etc. - so it's very helpful). I need feedback on how the site performs, and if you use it daily, you are in the best position to see.
So, that's it for now. As we move forward, I will update you on the status of upgrade to our little site.
Thanks!
//sse
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