Does external.php use queries?

[lightwave]

I use external.php to display the latest forum topics in my main website.

Before, it was only showed in the index, but now I plan to show it on the header on every page. My question is, does external.php use a query everytime it is loaded (or called in another file) or is the page built and its just a matter of displaying it.

bump need answer please

[RS_Jelle]

No, it's cached since 3.6 ;)
I see you are still using the 3.5 branch: then it uses a query (so you might want to upgrade).

Cache of Syndication Data (external.php)
Data outputted by external.php (RSS feeds, for example) will now be cached for a specified amount of time. This defaults to one hour. This significantly improves performance on large boards.
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1139149&postcount=10

[Zachery]

Well it has to query something so the anwser is yes. But its not going to kill your boards.

[lightwave]

Thank you! It's actually in my main site, which has like 12,000 page loads a day.

I think that's a lot. Should I take it off until I upgrade?

[Zachery]

Nah, its not going to kill your server.