SERVICE NOTES

Ten performance-boosters you should use

1. Compression. By adding these lines to the .htaccess file in your web directory, you can save 50% to 80% of the time and bandwidth needed to deliver your pages:
   

   AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .html
   php_flag zlib.output_compression On

   This causes the server to compress HTML content as it is sent. Check your results using this compression tester.

2. Optimize Images. Use a good graphics program like Adobe Photoshop or ImageReady. Size your images appropriately, then use the Save For Web feature. Depending on the image, certain image formats will yield better size vs. quality ratios, so try them all, reducing colors or quality levels as needed.

(more…)

This month’s website showcase is for National Police Supply, owned by Sean and Debra DePriest. With 15 years in local law enforcement, Sean recognized the need to bring modern police equipment to a worldwide market that, since 9/11, demands faster access to the latest security gear.

“We have a lot of hands-on knowledge and experience with our products, but we were out of our league in bringing it all to the web,” says DePriest. “We selected DTL and Ras Graphics to develop our corporate identity and design a site that was easy to use without all the typical noise you find on most shopping sites. These guys really came through.”

Although some products are restricted to police and military, most are available to the general public. The site had to present an engaging style, copy that expresses NPS’s unsurpassed customer service, and provide a broad selection at competitive prices.

NPS’s extensive ecommerce site is built using an integration of custom pages designed by DTL and an open source ecommerce engine. The entire site is fully web standards-compliant using valid XHTML 1.1, CSS, and is based on DTL’s PageWorx page-generation system that simplifies maintenance and updates.  DTL also created automated mechanisms for inserting, sizing and optimizing product images.

“We’re adding dozens of new products and variations every day,” says Debra DePriest, who does most of the online catalog management. “DTL’s tools give us a huge time and quality advantage over our competitors.”