[FX.php List] Ajax & server load?

[Steve Winter]

Hi Joel,

Strangely enough this idea that you came up with as an 'after thought' was
what I was thinking as I was reading through your original post... ;-)

I have no solid facts to base it on, but my gut feeling is that with
potentially so many links that can gain mouse focus, that the number of
calls to the db is going to make the tool tips load quite slowly once you
start to get several users on at once...

Like you, I really like the Ajax idea of not having to have a bunch of radio
buttons and a submit, but that it all works through links via Ajax...

Perhaps as a way forward the thing to do is build the 'ideal' situation that
you described in the original post, with the Ajax calls for each mouse
focus, and see how it goes... if it ends up being too slow, with so many db
hits, then 'fall back' to the position that you've outlined here,
potentially putting in a 'page loading' icon if it gets a bit slow, and load
your tool tips into either a Javascript Array, or probably more sensibly a
series of hidden divs, which you then position as required with JavaScript
on mouse focus...

I'd love to hear that you built the 'ideal' solution, and that it worked,
but as a general rule I try to reduce the number of db calls as much as
practicable... This inclination is based on a system I built about a year
ago, in which I started out with a highly distributed series of tables, with
very few relationships in FM, and was essentially building them through
multiple php calls. What I found was that with each page load making 5 - 8
db calls, and 10 simultaneous users (this was an intensive education
programme using FM as the back end), changing pages as often as once every 2
- 3 seconds, things began to slow down dramatically... I did some
restructuring and went back to using portals for related data, dropping the
number of hits per page to 2 - 3 and things improved significantly...

I guess my concern in your situation would be that if you had half a dozen
users who were running their mouse down a column in your table, which passed
over 10 items, each of which initiated a db call, almost simultaneously (and
as far as I know with Ajax once a call is initiated you can't stop it, so
even a brief mouse-pass over one of the links will make the db hit, even if
the data is never used) then the responsiveness of the system would be
lost...

I guess the only way to know for sure is to give it a try, and see what
happens...

A very long winded way to not really say very much, but perhaps helpful...

Cheers
Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org
[mailto:fx.php_list-bounces at mail.iviking.org] On Behalf Of Joel Shapiro
Sent: Friday, 12 October 2007 7:40 p.m.
To: FX.php Discussion List
Subject: Re: [FX.php List] Ajax & server load?

Hmm... One other option but I'd have to look into load times...  I  
could possibly bring in all detail data on my initial page load so  
that tooltips display already loaded content instead of needing to  
rehit the server for each mouseOver.  There's quite a bit of text in  
the details, though, which I thought would significantly slow down  
the page load.

I'll check this, but would still love your feedback.

Thanks,
-Joel


On Oct 12, 2007, at 11:34 AM, Joel Shapiro wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I'd love your feedback on how my intended use of Ajax might affect  
> server load & performance:
>
>  - A <table> with 24 cells (4x6)
>  - Each cell has 2-15 links (120-150 total) that onMouseOver call  
> to the DB for record details (as a tooltip)
>  - Each link when clicked edits the DB and reloads the respective  
> cell via Ajax
>
> Basically, this is for users to select one option in each cell.   
> Mousing over any option shows details.  Clicking an option edits a  
> record in FM via Ajax.  I like the idea that changes are instant  
> and the user doesn't need to click a Submit button for the whole  
> page.  And I like that this way I can do various checks on each  
> selection before editing the record, e.g. to make sure that option  
> hasn't already been selected in another cell.
>
> However, I'm wondering if all these small hits to the DB will be a  
> problem when more than a few users are using the site at once.
>
>  - Probably not more than 30 or so users at a time, but in theory  
> could be more (but not 100s)
>  - 1-machine configuration (FMSA(8) & WPE), running on a new Mac  
> Mini (not sure of the RAM)
>
>
> Do you think this setup will be too slow in production?
>
> If so, would it help much to move the record details that display  
> on mouseOver into static content, since they won't be changing  
> often in the DB?  Or is a hit to the server pretty much the same  
> whether to the DB or to static content?  (& what would be the best  
> way to make static content?  Bring those 100+ records into one  
> large php array and grab each via a GET?  Create 100+ php pages on  
> the server?  Other...?)
>
> Or do you think a Web 1.0 site with radio buttons and a Submit  
> Whole Page button is preferable? (yuck)
>
>
> All thoughts much appreciated.
>
> TIA,
> -Joel
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