SPEED: Performance issues?

MungoBBQ

I'm writing a simple template system for internal use at my company. I've got large HTML documents stored on the file system which I am using as templates and making simple preg_match_all() and str_replace() on to replace template-tagged content with dynamic database content.

Now for the question:

I am using fopen(), fread() and fclose() on the template files to read them from the filesystem. This is done every time a user visits a templated page. Is this really the best way to do this? Is the whole file-loading process as fast as it could be, or is there a better way to do this?

Any helpful hints or ideas or thoughts would be welcome. Thanks!

//Mans

the_Igel

You can store templates in a db: it would be faster. Though, as you perform only one fopen per page, it shouldn't slow your script much. Try to make your preg_replace as few as possible, if your templates are really big.

MungoBBQ

I was thinking of storing them in a database, but would that really be faster? Why?

Also, I am performing just one preg_match_all() per template to find all the template tags so it shouldn't be too slow. Then I use str_replace() to make the actual replacements, which according to all documentation I can find is supposed to be the best and fastest way to replace stuff.

the_Igel

It sounds that there's no serious reasons to worry about performance.

DB operations are generally faster than file handling. I'm no real programmer, but I believe those guys at MySQL worked hard to make it fast 🙂 It's common knowledge, and we've got to believe it.
But in your case it doesn't really matter. Too few operations. You won't notice any difference.

MungoBBQ

OK, thanks.

I was thinking about later, when/if I implement this code on a site with millions of hits each day... 😉 I guess I'll see if it's fast enough at that point!

lostcarpark

It's times like this that I miss the Application object from ASP.

If you are concerned about speed, you could look at the "shmop_" shared memory functions. These allow you to store values in memory, cutting out disk access. However it puts you in charge of memory management, which you're often better off leaving to PHP.

There's no reason to think storing it in a database will be any quicker than a file. You may get some benefits from caching, but this can be offset by the extra searching the database engine has to do.

So unless you're having performance problems, you're probably better off sticking with your current solution. It's simple, and it works.

James

MungoBBQ

Thanks.

Yes, I wish that I had application variables for this too, it would probably be the best solution. I wonder when/if PHP will ever get that - it is a much requested feature.

su1d

Actually, keeping templates in BD is not a solution. You may compare the time of implode('',file()) against mysql_query()-
mysql_fetch_array().

More, this is a bit strange to hear that you worry about perfomance and write a template library in PHP itself and using preg_*() functions which are very slow.

Not so long ago I had a similar problem, and I made my own template engine. It is a compiled PHP extension and it doesn't use any kind of text search-and-replace at all. Hope you'll like it.

Homepage: http://php-templates.sourceforge.net/

There's a version of php_templates in FreeBSD ports collection but I'd recommend to compile the newer 1.5 version. Read its docs for instructions.

Good luck

MungoBBQ

Thanks for your reply.

My issue here is that I'm looking for a solution to be much, much simpler than any PHP template solution I've found online, including yours, which BTW, is the best one of the ones I looked at.

I am looking at creating a "for dummies" system where my clients can add new pages and templates to their site without writing any code whatsoever or opening Dreamweaver. It's all a wysiwyg-thingamajig, and it works.

Currently, my template files are just standard .php or .html files with template markup in the following format:

These template tags will be parsed and replaced with database content, after the user have defined what image to place as image #1 in the current page, etc. I am also writing functions and GUI for uploading images, creating an image bank, text re-use and such, all to keep this very simple for my clients.

preg_match_all is slow you say - are there any other, faster ways to do what I want to do? I am currently using this regexp:

preg_match_all("//", $content, $regs);

...to fetch my tags and put the important stuff in the $regs array. Later I loop through the array and use a str_replace() to replace the content in the page with the database loaded stuff.

If anybody has any better ideas on how to do this, I'd be very greatful!

//Mans

su1d

Well, it looks like you have chosen the best solution for your particular problem.

However, to speed up the system you would want to keep parsed HTML files on the disk instead of templates. Although, users' templates could be stored in BD without any problem. In this case when a user will change something in her template, you will have to parse it with new data and store the result on the disk.

MungoBBQ

Thanks, that's an idea I'm toying with right now.

I'm thinking of implementing a caching system for the parsed HTML files which will only be refreshed when a user changes something in the database (i.e. the templates need to be parsed again) or the user uploads a complete new template to replace an old one.

I'm hoping this will be the fastest and especially easiest template system around. I don't plan to install this on any high traffic sites, but it's just nice to have my path cleared, just in case...

//Mans