Suggestion for Subversion & Memcached

[hobbes006]

Hi there,

I have been happy with Hostgator so far and of all the many web hosting services I have tried out so far, I can honestly say that it is one of the most reliable hosting service out there and the servers are really feature-packed!

I have two suggestions for Hostgators...

(1) Set up memcached on selected shared hosting servers

Memcached is a server feature which is catching on very quickly. Huge sites like livejournal and facebook use it to distribute the server load. My thoughts are that Hostgator can benefit its clients, as well as itself, by having a standard install of memcached on some of its shared servers. Customers can opt to get themselves hosted on these specially configured memcached-enabled servers if they are interested to implement memcached-specific scripts in their PHP code.

It is probably not everyone's cup-of-tea but web masters (like myself! ) who understand the value of Speed Optimization will definitely go for it and even if it means paying slightly above the rates for hostgator's standard shared hosting plans; I will be more than happy to do so! And I am pretty sure some web masters will be keen too.

As far as I know, currently, customizing/setting up memcached on a server is only allowed on VPS or Dedicated Hosting Plans. This is generally true from host-to-host.

Hostgator can definitely "eat up its competitors" by introducing this value-added service!

(2) Subversion Hosting on Selected Shared Hosting Servers

Similarly, subversion - a powerful tool which enables teams of developers to collaborate effectly - is also catching on.

Traditionally, open source projects use Subversion and CVS (the first such version control system) to manage code. This allowed different developers from all around the world to work together effectively without stepping onto each other's toes. It is one of the most important cornerstones why we are all enjoying great open source software today.

I have managed to find two web hosting services that offers Subversion Hosting on its Shared Hosting Plans
- www.a2hosting.com
- www.dreamhost.com

I have tried out a2hosting and they are not bad... reasonably responsive etc and can almost compare with Hostgator; but I still prefer Hostgator so far.

Dreamhost is a disaster... personally, I would stay far far away even though they have Subversion Hosting included, which is attractive for me.

I think setting up subversion hosting on specific servers on Hostgator is trivial and also can be considered as a value-added service (extra $ per month). There are many dedicated subversion commercial hosting services around but it is quite tiring to manage different accounts. Much better to just consolidate all my Live Sites as well as "Code-Under-Development" Projects on 1 single host.

Just my 2 cents and suggestions for Hostgator

Hope that some one will read this and think about implementing these two Developer Oriented Features...

Hey... It is a great differentiating feature too in the overcrowded/commoditized web hosting industry! Lead the industry by implementing features before they are commoditized... a good strategy for sustained competitiveness... no?

What do you say, Gator?

Regards,
Hobbes

[kmaw]

Subversion was enabled on all servers when they introduced Ruby... not sure about documentation for it though...

[gtgeorge]

Originally Posted by hobbes006

Hi there,
I have been happy with Hostgator so far and of all the many web hosting services I have tried out so far, I can honestly say that it is one of the most reliable hosting service out there and the servers are really feature-packed!
<hosting links deleted>
What do you say, Gator?

Regards,
Hobbes

Hobbes,

Once again I have to ask why you only seem to want to come to the forums to post links to other companies if you are so happy with HG so far?

[hobbes006]

ah... linking out is a problem?

well, i am just putting out a very transparent comparison as much as possible. i have actually spent time and money testing out host-by-host (1 month payment subscription of course so that I can terminate if it doesn't work out).

my apologies if linking out to these other hosting service is bad form.

thanks for pointing it out.

[hobbes006]

Originally Posted by kmaw

Subversion was enabled on all servers when they introduced Ruby... not sure about documentation for it though...

Subversion is enabled????

Hmmm.. interesting... I didn't know that!

Let me look around in the knowledge base and find out more.

[kmaw]

See the bottom of this first post... http://forums.hostgator.com/showthread.php?t=13038

[hobbes006]

Hi kmaw,

Thank you for the information.

I have about 4 fellow developers (who are working together with me to develop applications on a regular basis) and the SVN feature will come in very handy.

I have just sent in a request to enable my shell access.

I have a few other questions regarding the use of SVN on Hostgator.

Is it possible to create different shell access so that each user can access the same repository using their own private key? This allows my colleagues to commit and we can all see each others commit. Or is this not possible on Hostgator and the SVN is restricted to only 1 developer access??

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thank you.
Hobbes

[kmaw]

Originally Posted by hobbes006

Is it possible to create different shell access so that each user can access the same repository using their own private key? This allows my colleagues to commit and we can all see each others commit. Or is this not possible on Hostgator and the SVN is restricted to only 1 developer access??

I believe it's only possible to have one user per account on reseller.... dedicated you could create multiple. check with support for sure.

[hobbes006]

Ok. Thanks... I shall find out more.

Regarding the "memcached-enabled" Shared Hosting option, I hope Hostgator will consider too.

Regards,
Hobbes

[jwcraig]

I vote for memcached too

[Typer85]

I also would like to see Host Gator add some sort of PHP accelerator to the Shared Hosting packages.

Using a PHP accelerator is a benefit for everyone I believe, customers and Host Gator.

The urban legend that PHP accelerators are only required for high traffic web sites is simply not true. Let's face it, PHP has evolved into a pretty powerful scripting language and complex web applications are being developed for it every day. You do not need a high traffic web site to experience the unfortunate high processing time of some of these PHP developed web applications or scripts.

PHP accelerators decrease the processing time of PHP scripts by caching the compiled byte code of the PHP script so that on subsequent times, the processing time attributed to compiling the script is negated. Sure it is not a complete solution but it helps.

In the old days, PHP accelerators would cache PHP scripts in main memory, which is why I would understand Shared Hosting plans would not work with them, but that is no longer a factor today.

PHP accelerators today have the ability to cache PHP scripts to disk, which means they can be saved directly relative to a user's account and just take up some of their allocated disk space; I think all Shared Hosting accounts have tons to spare!

I recommend eAccelerator; its free, stable, and works with all current versions of PHP Host Gator currently supports. It also has the ability to cache PHP scripts to disk, so main memory is no longer an issue.

I don't think it would cost Host Gator a dime to add this extension to Shared Hosting or at the very least, any more than it would to add any other extension to PHP.

So why should Shared Hosting accounts have to pay to upgrade to a Dedicated Hosting account just to get a feature that would otherwise cost them nothing to use?

To any Host Gator administrators reading this post, I hope you take these points into consideration ... it would make thousands of happy customers happier.

[gtgeorge]

Isn't eAccelerator installed. I know I have seen it in a couple of phpinfo readouts for some of the HG servers. If not I am sure it can be added by request