83 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
83 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: post
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title: "This week in DTI: Performance upgrades!"
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date: 2024-10-03 14:47:00 -0700
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author: Matchu
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excerpt: |
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<p>Things got a bit slow this week—so we made three changes to improve pageload times across the site! <em>(Also, I'm job-hunting right now!)</em></p>
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---
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Hi, everyone! You might've noticed earlier this week that DTI had started to
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stutter a bit. We experienced a bit of a traffic spike, and pageloads would
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sometimes start taking a few seconds. (My phone was ringing off the hook to let
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me know!)
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When we dug into it, there wasn't any _specific_ cause—just a bit more pressure
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causing our database to max out our server's CPU a bit too often.
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Rather than just throw more CPU at the problem (always an option, but never a
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cheap one!), we popped open the slow query log. We found the worst offenders,
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and started getting to work fixing database queries that have _always_ been a
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bit slow—in some cases, for many years!
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Here's the three big changes we made:
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- **Item searches:** We
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[sped](https://code.openneo.net/OpenNeo/impress/commit/efda6d74ab6b9405cd563ccc72bb45b4f10eabe3)
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[up](https://code.openneo.net/OpenNeo/impress/commit/efda6d74ab6b9405cd563ccc72bb45b4f10eabe3)
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some of our tougher filters (`occupies` and `fits`) from taking a couple
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seconds at worst, to always nearly instant! _(We did this by "caching" more
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data about the item's appearance onto the item record itself.)_
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- **Trade listings:** Earlier this year, we added the Offering/Seeking pages to
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Classic DTI, and built them faster than the Impress 2020 versions. Now, we've
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[deleted](https://code.openneo.net/OpenNeo/impress-2020/commit/067da33025cbf5ed92707efa1558a658135e310e)
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Impress 2020's slower version of the page, redirecting to Classic's faster one
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instead. _(This brings us closer to [merging
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the apps]({% post_url 2024-09-20-state-of-dti-2024 %}#simplicity), too!)_
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- **Modeling progress:** When we're missing data for new items, we ask for help
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at the bottom of the homepage—and we
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[used the same upgrades](https://code.openneo.net/OpenNeo/impress/commit/03e4233f67935b6e8998904d41305fb41f7660af)
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from item searches to make this faster, too. _(We also
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[fixed](https://code.openneo.net/OpenNeo/impress/commit/fe4db1b60571cbc2b6d295cfc1230f2ebbc6f3bb)
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the long-standing bug of Maraquan items asking for more help than we need!)_
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And these changes don't just affect these features: when our CPU starts to peak,
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_everything_ gets slower. And so when we make the site more efficient and stop
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hitting those limits, _everything_ gets faster!
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Since then, the site has been back to being steady, and I've been glad to see
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item searches—one of the most common things that happens on the site—run much
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faster for everyone!! And it's always a joy to clean up decade-old code and
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bring it closer to what it always deserved to be 🥰
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Hope everyone's doing well, and that you've got fun Halloween plans! I'm excited
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to see your pets all dressed up again this year!!
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## By the way, I'm job-hunting right now! {#job-hunting}
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After a few years consulting part-time, I'm looking for a full-time role again!
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(The tech layoffs came for me and my family, whuh oh—time to step it up!)
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_\[Lore dump!\]_ In addition to running Dress to Impress for 15 years, I've also
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been a senior engineer and tech lead at an edtech nonprofit (2015–2020), focused
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in B2B partnerships, team mentorship, and building integrated platforms to
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support multiple products across teams.
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I'm primarily looking for remote roles hiring in the United States, leveled at
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senior or staff—but some of that could be flexible for the right situation!
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Right now, I'm especially interested in:
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- Consulting firms, especially with a focus in nonprofit
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- Stewarding critical integrations long-term, like identity or payments
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- Shifting to information security, or technical writing
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- Engineering management, for the right human-focused team
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If you happen to have an opportunity, please
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[reach out](mailto:dti-jobs-thank-youuu@matchu.dev) and let me know! It'd help
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me out a lot.
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Thanks for taking a look!
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_—Matchu_
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