Modified networking architecture of the service responsible for receiving backups, SMS/Email, and back channelling weborders etc to use non-blocking IO.  Previous version was limited in number of simultaneous connections it could handle to only a few hundred whereas new system should be able to handle thousands of simultaneous connections.  Which is not a pressing issue because typically there is only one connection from each shop. But I want to eventually modify c9 so all terminals sign into the web server, and remove the messenger altogether.

More modifications of backup service.  Fixed regression with multiple messengers running.  Fixed bug causing all backup streams nation wide to serialize to a single thread of execution (poor performance and could trigger replication race conditions).

Upgraded our backup server infrastructure over weekend.  Added in larger and faster hard disks.

C9 websites have had a number of new features added to them

• Ability to configure web special prices. Example of how looks visually.
• Ability to add a spare part onto the website many times, in different locations.
• C9 configured freight options and banner logo
• Improved image caching; means website should be even faster.
• Improved database indexing. Even faster websites.
• Average web page load for c9 website is now <150 ms. Very quick; compared to other motorcycle dealer websites which tend to hover around double this.  Hosting in Australia, while arguably more expensive, gives a much better result than offshore hosting esepcially when most of your web visitors are from Australia.

Changes to backup server email notifications to further reduce false positive alarms.

Added more network monitoring to server. Because of image caching problem, we went well over billing limits this billing period. Shortly I will include weekly reports on website activity.  i.e. # of unique visitors, # of page hits, etc.

http://www.facebook.com/C9Software

Mainly created to facilitate advertising campaign for Aussie Bike Finder.  But if you feel the urge, click on like.  If enough people do it I'll start posting some stuff there too. Though you should probably be shelving received stock; not wasting time on FB.

Sometimes you may need to do a forceful reimport of fiche diagrams; typically because of a BFU as Dave calls them; a type of programming bug.  Adding the ability to import catalogs into c9 is a fiddly and delicate business; and getting it spot-on is a significant software engineering challenge for us; our error rate for bugs in this part of c9 is substantially higher than our overall defect rate. Occasionally we will release versions that fix catalogue importers that require data already imported to be removed and import to be redone all over.

Following explains how to do this.

Read more...

Like a neighbourhood burglar alarm that goes off with the slightest provocation; backup error emails are really starting to annoy me.

Actual backups are working correctly. The problem is that the process of verifying that the backup is an exact copy of your database sometimes returns an error when in fact the databases are perfect replicas.  This sends emails overnight incorrectly stating that there are backup errors.

The cause is largely the recent addition of fiche diagrams into c9.  These increase the size of the database significantly.  This increases the time it takes for online backup to perform a verification cycle.  Because of the increase in verification time there is increased chance that while a verification is in progress, a change to the database is made that invalidates the verification.  Result : a false alarm.

I will rethink the design of online backups and come up with a method that eliminates the inherent 'race condition' (as it is known in IT lingo), that triggers the false alarm during verification.

Inclusion of fiche diagrams has been a great addition to c9; but it has not been without its technical challenges;  which we are slowly mastering and resolving.

Update: Worked out a better system. Deployed bulk of changes to our webserver. Will take a few days to monitor and ensure it is working as designed before complete migration to new verification methods; but if they are working correctly should provide instant relief.  Next version of c9 will also include some minor changes to remove some 'race conditions' that exist in c9 itself during the process of creating verification statistics; but this is a much lesser issue than the server issues now corrected. False alarms are generated mainly because of how our backup web server was doing its job of cross checking fidelity of the backup.  Another advantage of new system is that our webserver will generally be much more responsive.   Verification workload on server has now been significantly reduced. Previously, running verification would load the webserver so much you could notice a difference in performance when loading our web pages for example; but new design this no longer happens. Also, I expect that online backup will be alot quicker, especially when installing a new system, as server code has now been tuned for increased performance.

Redesigned the layout of gallery items so that text in a 'cell' cannot overflow into the cell below it.  Generally visually improve the layout of gallery items.  Interesting software development lesson in all of this (about accepted wisdom of not using tables to express html structure), but won't bore you with the details.

Also redesigned checkout process so initial checkout page is hopefully more intuitive.  More suggestions here welcome.

Finally, fixed an annoying IE9 bug relating to browser compatibility.

C9 powered website now have hotspots on the catalog diagrams.  Web shoppers can now click on diagrams directly to browse and order items. Try it yourself:

http://c8software.com.au/shop/test/find/fiche/269951

Problems with sending email via c9.  An ongoing network configuration issue means that some email channelled via c9 cannot reach its destination.  I was hoping that our provider would of fixed the issue by now but they are dragging their feet on this :-(. In meantime be advised that some mail delivered by c9 or email from myself directly will not necessarily get there.

UPDATE: all fixed now.

Bug fixed - stock taking via web browser was not sorting results by part number if you keyed in a part number.

Deployed new version of remote access client.  Recent changes to c9 from version 4.252 onwards mean that older client no longer worked properly with new c9.  Windows that changed size, such as workshop, would not work properly.  The new client will coexist with older <4.252 installations of c9.