Re: [PHP] Which is faster, a MySQL access, or a set of PHP variables?
Thank you for the advice. The point was raised, and it's a good one, that if I'm getting content from the database for most pages, then attaining the necessary translations probably won't make a difference. And of course, it is true that at my current levels of hits, the server load is negligible. But, of course, one always hopes that site popularity will increase and justify the efforts of making it efficient. I think I am going to database the translations for now, and then later if need be, I will go with the suggestions of creating a list of variables from the database once a day with a cron job. I appreciate all the help people have given to let me understand the issue. -- Dave M G -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
[PHP] Which is faster, a MySQL access, or a set of PHP variables?
PHP General, I have a site where I will set the interface up to be multilingual. This means that all the snippets of text which make up the menu and other elements of navigation common to most pages will be stored as variables. In most web site set ups that I have seen, especially on forums, the text is stored in a PHP script which is just a long list of variables. I wondered if there was any downside to storing the list of interface texts in a MySQL database, then calling them as an array when the page loads? This would have one minor advantage, which is that as I expand to new languages, I could build a simple web interface where people could input new languages into a form. However, is it a drag on a server to have to reach into the MySQL database to retrieve the array of texts each time the page loads? Note that the texts will be something like 20 to 30 small one to four word phrases like contact and previous page and that sort of thing. On the surface, it doesn't seem like this would be much different than accessing a PHP script with a list of variables. But then, I figured there might be a reason why I've never seen it done this way. Opinions would be much appreciated. -- Dave M G -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Which is faster, a MySQL access, or a set of PHP variables?
Dave M G wrote: PHP General, I have a site where I will set the interface up to be multilingual. This means that all the snippets of text which make up the menu and other elements of navigation common to most pages will be stored as variables. In most web site set ups that I have seen, especially on forums, the text is stored in a PHP script which is just a long list of variables. I wondered if there was any downside to storing the list of interface texts in a MySQL database, then calling them as an array when the page loads? This would have one minor advantage, which is that as I expand to new languages, I could build a simple web interface where people could input new languages into a form. true - rather than trying to writing an interface thats _properly_ capable tf editing phpb-like language files - which although not impossible is a lot more difficult to make fool-proof than one first imagines (I have very ingenious 'fools' who want to edit stuff like that!) However, is it a drag on a server to have to reach into the MySQL database to retrieve the array of texts each time the page loads? Note that the texts will be something like 20 to 30 small one to four word phrases like contact and previous page and that sort of thing. using var_export() you can write the array to a file on a TMPFS filesystem (e.g. /dev/shm) as a cache and have a cmdline script or something that you run whenever you want the lang itmes to be updated - reading a single small file in off disk (which in the case of TMPFS is in RAM - bonus!!!) will be faster in general than querying MySQL and building the array. essentially this gives you the best of both world - with the added bonus of begin able to easily control publication of updates to the lang items. On the surface, it doesn't seem like this would be much different than accessing a PHP script with a list of variables. But then, I figured there might be a reason why I've never seen it done this way. basically unless you have some killer site thats taking a beating and needs to take performance very seriously in order to stay in the air then either way will do fine. a DB call on every request is somewhat wasteful but a low traffic site won't mind one little bit. Opinions would be much appreciated. -- Dave M G -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Which is faster, a MySQL access, or a set of PHP variables?
At 10:32 AM 12/30/2005, Dave M G wrote: PHP General, I have a site where I will set the interface up to be multilingual. This means that all the snippets of text which make up the menu and other elements of navigation common to most pages will be stored as variables. In most web site set ups that I have seen, especially on forums, the text is stored in a PHP script which is just a long list of variables. I wondered if there was any downside to storing the list of interface texts in a MySQL database, then calling them as an array when the page loads? This would have one minor advantage, which is that as I expand to new languages, I could build a simple web interface where people could input new languages into a form. However, is it a drag on a server to have to reach into the MySQL database to retrieve the array of texts each time the page loads? Note that the texts will be something like 20 to 30 small one to four word phrases like contact and previous page and that sort of thing. On the surface, it doesn't seem like this would be much different than accessing a PHP script with a list of variables. But then, I figured there might be a reason why I've never seen it done this way. Opinions would be much appreciated. -- Dave M G Dave, I did that for an online auction site, now defunct, where the languages could be German or English. To expand to Spanish one had only to supply the structure and have someone who knew one of the other languages to enter the correct terms. That would be pasted into the script and run, presto, the site was available in Spanish. Database hits ere not a problem, as all of the content on the page came from a database, none of the content was static. That was three years ago, and it was done that way because native language support was wobbly in both PHP and Apache. Joachem's solution is probably better for today. Cheers - Miles Thompson -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.9/216 - Release Date: 12/29/2005 -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
Re: [PHP] Which is faster, a MySQL access, or a set of PHP variables?
On Fri, December 30, 2005 8:32 am, Dave M G wrote: I wondered if there was any downside to storing the list of interface texts in a MySQL database, then calling them as an array when the page loads? If you are already connecting to the database, then you are comparing an extra query or two to loading a file from the hard drive and the database wins on performance. Unless you are already loading some file where it would be convenient to stick the text, and then the variables win. Actually, this all depends on your hardware and database/drive performance setup... There really is NOT a good answer to this question from a performance stand-point. But then it's not a good question, really, unless you REALLY expect your site to get a ton of traffic, because the performance of the machine will probably not be a big factor in your success, compared to maintainability of code, feature-set of the site, cool-ness and prettiness and marketing and... All of those will matter more to your success than raw performance. This would have one minor advantage, which is that as I expand to new languages, I could build a simple web interface where people could input new languages into a form. Something to consider: Can you get data in other character sets into and out of your database and web application? If you plan to support 2-byte (or more) character sets, this is not trivial at all -- or maybe it is, but you have to at least plan ahead for it from the get-go. However, is it a drag on a server to have to reach into the MySQL database to retrieve the array of texts each time the page loads? Note that the texts will be something like 20 to 30 small one to four word phrases like contact and previous page and that sort of thing. On the surface, it doesn't seem like this would be much different than accessing a PHP script with a list of variables. But then, I figured there might be a reason why I've never seen it done this way. Generally, on most projects, the people who are contributing the translations of internal things like contact and previous page are developers who are comfy with editing a text file, and putting them in as text files with, say CVS or subversion, gives the developers control over versioning etc. That's not to say you COULDN'T do something similar with the database, or run hourly dumps of (some) tables into CVS or something. I don't think it's going to matter much which way you do this, so long as you can plan ahead for all the character-encodings you will ever need, and make sure you can handle them all. Perhaps try it with a test phrase like Hello which you can probably find in every language fairly easily. -- Like Music? http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
