Board Optimization - Load templates from XCache

By default vBulletin loads templates out of the database which means that all templates that are required on a page must be loaded ("cached") before the first template gets rendered.

If a template is not cached an additional dataase query is required.

This Add-on loads templates from XCache on demand, completely emiminating the need for database reads after an initial pageload.

By loading templates on demand only those templates that are really being used on a page will be loaded into memory, so theoretically this Add-on should

• Decrease memory footprint
• Decrease page creation time (as loading data from a shared memory storage like XCache is faster than DB access)
• Remove 1+X (X = amount of uncached templates) queries per page

How is that different to other existing tools like vBOptimise?
Most existing tools (at least the ones I know of) load all templates upfront, just like vBulletin would do if the DB is used.
This means that only those templates that are explicitly cached will be loaded from the cache, uncahed templates will cause additional database queries.

Can I use this Add-on my hared Webhosting?
Most likely not as it requires XCache with variable caching enabled which is usually not the case on shared hosts

I use multiple webservers, is that a problem?
It should work just fine with multiple webservers but that has not been tested so far.

Are there any other drawbacks?
Yes, this Add-on might be (be is not necessarily) incompatible with Add-ons that manipulate the template cache at runtime (which is a technique that is genreally deprecated).

History
1.0.0 Beta 1
First Public Release

1.0.0 Beta 2

• Fixed incorrect variable initialisation that caused problems with other Add-ons that manipulate the template cache
  Important: Such techniques (like using str_replace(), etc.) are deprecated and it is strongly advised not to use Add-ons that do such auto-template changes.
• Increased Plug-in execution order to the maximum to ensure all Templates cached via Plug-ins are grabbed

1.0.0 Beta 3

• Fixed missing global in Hook template_compile
• Added prefix setting to config.php

[rajubd]

Originally Posted by demonfatal

This can be used with vBOptimise without conflict?

i don't know why vBOptimise incresing my server load. when i disable it server running well after apply it it goes high. this mod behave same like vboptimise?

[Alfa1]

Please consider to release a vb 3.8 version.

[Andreas]

No way, 3.8 is outdated

[Shamil.]

What's the benefit of this, over loading it from disk?

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by Andreas

No way, 3.8 is outdated

Haha, maybe true, but vb4 isnt ready yet. Im only using vb4 for smaller sites.

[rob01]

cant use XCache

shared hosting :S

[ImmortalForums]

Is there a benefit it running this with vboptimise as vboptimise puts them into xcache or any other cache system you are using?

I did some tests with this on with vb vboptimise page load speeds are identical but this causes one more query. Without looking into the code I am going to assume you are doing the exact same thing as vboptimise.

Also they can not run together as then no templates get cached.

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by ImmortalForums

Is there a benefit it running this with vboptimise as vboptimise puts them into xcache or any other cache system you are using?

If it is possible to tell vBOptimise not to cache templates - yes.
If it always does - no.

Without looking into the code I am going to assume you are doing the exact same thing as vboptimise.

No. vBOptimise does precache all templates that are set to be cached on hook cache_templates (+ a few more once that are normally not cached).
This Add-on caches Templates purely on demand, it does not precache any templates which gives you two advantages:

• Only those templates that are actually being used are cached
• There won't be any uncached templates at all (which AFAIK can still happen with vBOptimise)

[Robru]

Thanks for sharing this, it's very useful

[ImmortalForums]

I have disabled optimize cache of templates and will see how this compares in a couple of days and see if stats show anything.