Next version
I'm currently working on the next release of Siteframe. In addition to the usual round of bug fixes, this version will also contain support for working with replicated databases. Specifically, it allows the specification of different databases for reading and writing, which means that you can use a master database for writing, and a set of load-balanced slaves for reading. This should make the site highly scalable.
This new code is currently running on this site; if you notice anything unusual, please let me know, since the changes, while small, affect nearly every file in the build.
Is it very difficult to set up the db server to support this?
It's not too bad; you typically need to take a "snapshot" of your master (basically copy the database files), then put it on the slave, and then set a few configuration values. mysql.com has good docs on replication.
I got lucky on a google and got led to the keyword of replication. Looks very cool. Since I am on a virtual service not sure if this is an option or not, but I am going to ask. Not that my sites are busy enough to rate.
A bit off topic but the site seems to have slowed down about the time you added the T-Shirt image on the index. Not sure if you are linking that or not but it hangs for me while the right side bar loads. Talking seconds here, so not that big a deal but it is slower now.
The site slowdown was caused by the "There have been xxx,xxxx visitors" on the home page. The page view table didn't have an index on the date column, so the SQL query "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table WHERE log_created>7 days ago" was taking 18 seconds to complete. I added an index and voila! we're happy now.
Yes, much snappier now. Interesting. I am running my page views in the footer so may have never noticed it because it's below the fold for most pages.
If you want to fix it (it'll be fixed in the next version, but older databases will still need to do this): ALTER TABLE bpt_user_log_raw ADD INDEX (log_created)
I just ran this through the Admin Update Database screen and it worked like a champ. Just had to delete the "bpt_" as I do not use prefixes. Thanks Glen.