We're implementing a new caching engine into Evance to improve site performance and stability.

Traffic spikes due to bots, link scanners, web crawlers, and even click fraud are at an all-time high. Such spikes can be hundreds of times higher than organic traffic, having a detrimental effect on performance.

We've abstracted whole-page caching away from the web application to offer the best possible performance and stability during traffic spikes. However, it comes at the expense of some user-centric functionality that previously worked out of the box.

Recently viewed...

Our server-side theme engine will no longer support recently viewed products, pages or categories. However, developers can replicate the same functionality with client-side code. We're updating our Ajax APIs to accommodate efficient product data retrieval and publishing sample code for developers.

Geolocation

Server-side geolocation has become an increasing problem, so fundamental changes aren't surprising. However, this will affect merchants utilising the locale targeting system. Therefore, we're releasing a new geolocation Ajax API specifically developed for locale targeting and will be publishing JavaScript code for theme developers to implement in a way that suits the website.

Pagination preferences

Evance previously tracked user preferences for pagination and sorting, which meant the sequence and result sizes remained consistent between product categories. Frustratingly, this will no longer be automated but will be respected if a theme developer wishes to implement preferences client-side. Again, we'll be publishing code on implementing pagination preferences effectively with JavaScript. 

Final thoughts

Whilst caching represents a change in mindset, we believe the benefits will outweigh the small sacrifices.

Q&A

If I make a change to a product or page how long will it take to be reflected online?

Administrators, authenticated users and admin APIs will see updates immediately. Unauthenticated website visitors will see updates within a minute.