[FX.php List] Apache anolmaly with Fx.php and FileMaker Web Publishing Engine

[Travis Kroh]

You might want to include some logic in your PHP that gives you some 
more metrics about the page load. My recommendation:
At the top of the page, add
	$start_time=array_sum(explode(" ",microtime()));
Then, at the bottom of the page, add
	$end_time=array_sum(explode(" ",microtime()));
	$run_time=$end_time-$start_time;

Run it under various conditions, and see how long the actual page time 
takes (since the page can *appear* to be finished loading in your 
browser, but still be processing).
If the resulting $run_time is long, then you'll be able to add more 
checks throughout your code, to identify what portion is taking up the 
time. If not, then you've got an apache problem, and this question is 
better posed to an apache mailing list.
Regardless, you should find out what is spawning that apache thread 
(apache starts a new thread for each request it receives), and what 
that thread is doing. (You also might want to look into whether or not 
WPI is doing some caching of its own somehow.)

Good luck.
-trav

On May 25, 2006, at 16:27, William Vaughn wrote:

> Tenon Technical Support:
>
> Your previous analysis of the atitle.PHP script went a long way toward 
> helping me understand the problem we are having with server 
> configuration.
>
> We are running iTools 8.2,  Tenon PHP 5.1.1, Tenon Tomcat 5.5.9, 
> FX.PHP, and FileMaker Web Publishing 8v3 on a Mac Mini G4 1.25GHz with 
> 1GB RAM (Web Server).
>
> A second server is running FileMaker Server Advanced 8v3 on a Mac G4 
> 2.0GHz with 1.5GB RAM (Database Server).
>
> The Database Server is running FileMaker Server Advanced and hosts 
> FileMaker databases containing information that will be used to power 
> websites hosted on the Web Server. The Web Server hosts websites using 
> Apache and mod_PHP to publish dynamic content from FileMaker. PHP 
> powered websites use mod_PHP running FX.PHP to communicate with 
> FileMaker. The Web Publishing Engine communicates with FileMaker 
> Server running the Database Server, and makes xml output available to 
> FX.PHP, which in turn processes the data into an HTML document served 
> by Apache. Tenon Tomcat is disabled, as the only reason it is 
> installed is to permit Apache to use the bundled mod_jk connector to 
> communicate with the Web Publishing Engine.
>
> I have a test database set up on the Database server with a few tables 
> and a couple of relationships. In one table I have ~5000 records with 
> four or five text fields: name, title, date, and description.  I 
> designed a PHP page which displayed 500 of those records in a list. At 
> this point I encountered first encountered the problem. When loading 
> the page (it took two or three seconds) the Web Publishing Engine 
> placed a significant load on the processor for two or three seconds 
> while the page was loading. That was expected. What followed was not. 
> One of  the Apache httpd processes then pegged the processor at 
> 85%-95%, AFTER the page had loaded in the browser. This was quite 
> confusing. So, I went to the Web Server and opened Safari. I loaded 
> the page. Sure enough, the WPE (Web Publishing Engine) worked for 
> about three seconds and produced the page. Apache did not so much as 
> blink. I set my laptop down next to the KVM and loaded the same page. 
> Lo and behold, the WPE worked for two or three seconds, and the page 
> loaded. Then, once again, Apache pegged the processor for several 
> seconds, AFTER the page had loaded. So I did some experimentation, and 
> found that if I limited the page to about 130 records the problem went 
> away: 130 records, and the WPE engine worked for two seconds; 135 
> records and the WPE worked for the same two seconds, but this time 
> Apache pegged the processor for five to ten seconds after the page had 
> loaded. I experimented more and found that the number of records was 
> not the only factor. Fewer records with more data, or, vice versa, 
> more records with fewer data, would exhibit the aberrant behavior. 
> There was always a distinct limit, which if reached, would cause 
> Apache to go misbehave as described above.
>
> I have also run the script with the PHP CLI and , regardless of the 
> number of record the page is set for,it always behaves more or less on 
> a linear scale. (double the records, double the time.)
>
> I have thus far disabled the Apache caching (both disk and memory), 
> increased the memory limit for PHP from 8 to 16 MB, and , as 
> previously mentioned, varied the size and number of record processed 
> by the PHP script. None of these efforts, save the reduction in the 
> amount of data requested, have had any effect in resolving Apache's 
> use of CPU AFTER a page has loaded.
>
> I very much appreciate your efforts thus far, they have been valuable. 
> However, I would greatly appreciate any further insight you might have 
> regarding this problem.
>
> William Vaughn
> Richard Carlton Consulting, Inc.
>
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