Board Optimization - Plugin Based Template Cache

Removed on author's request.

[orban]

I am using this with 3 styles.

Do you get any php errors when switching styles? Check your logs White page usually means errors.

[orban]

Removed this post on author's request.

[amcd]

orban, can you briefly explain how/why this new experimental one is better than the released product?

[orban]

Well, the old one used the following "hack" for the template evals:

eval('$navbar = include("templates/1234.php");');

And that only for larger templates. Smaller ones (default setting 4500 bytes I think) were still executed the old way (even if stored in a file).

This one, however, takes a different approach.

eval('$navbar = template_1234($spacer_open, $stylevar, $GLOBALS, $welcomeheaders)');

All templates are parsed and stored in functions, and all "template function" for one page are stored in a file.

So basically all eval()s only execute a function call. This means all eval calls are nearly completely avoided, and there is just one file for every page. The files aren't too big on disk (40-100kb) but up to 2.5mb in xcache which isn't an issue though so far (I think this is because vB compiles all templates as one very long string with <if> calls being ternary conditionals).

[thincom2000]

Yeah, I noticed coding one of my plugins that using a bunch of eval()s really slows things down. I ended up rewriting the code 3 times before I came up with a way that didn't use a more than one eval() on runtime.

Thanks for the update!

[thincom2000]

What could be causing fatal undefined function errors when using the experimental code?

[orban]

That the file doesn't get included, have you created a writable cache/ folder?

[amcd]

That's really great thinking, orban. What is stopping you from making this the default method?

[orban]

Well, you can't easily "exclude" templates like in the default method so all addons that dynamically modify templates on run time will break and it's mostly untested.

But yeah I might release it as a second option.

[thincom2000]

Originally Posted by orban

That the file doesn't get included, have you created a writable cache/ folder?

Yes, it is only happening on some pages. I am thinking it is an issue with those pages, but I don't really know what to look for.

I reverted to the default method to "fix" the issue.