[FX.php List] FM Scripts vs. PHP

Leo R. Lundgren leo at finalresort.org
Fri Oct 26 01:36:57 MDT 2007


26 okt 2007 kl. 03.45 skrev Dale Bengston:

> Joel,
>
> I stopped using related fields on layouts back with v6. My  
> anecdotal experience tells me it's faster to go get the data from  
> the child records from a separate, optimized layout than to pull it  
> through the parent record.
>
> Other databases don't have such things as portals, so it's all done  
> with separate queries. MySQL is heaps faster than FMSA for  
> everything we've thrown at it.

Am I misunderstanding the features of portals? In other databases you  
have the ability to JOIN tables, which seems much more flexible to me  
in that with FM portals you can only go one level down a hierarchy,  
so to speak. That's a pain in the ass, and it's made me collect my  
data in other ways than using portals.

-|

> Dale
>
> On Oct 25, 2007, at 12:24 PM, Joel Shapiro wrote:
>
>> Thanks d,d,&ggt
>>
>> Dale: Out of curiosity -- & because I don't know MySQL yet -- if  
>> you don't use related fields are you hitting the database  
>> additional times (e.g. once for parent, once for related  
>> children)?  I'd thought the conventional wisdom here was that it's  
>> faster to get everything in one hit off one layout -- at least w/  
>> FMP.
>>
>> -Joel
>>
>>
>> On Oct 25, 2007, at 12:27 AM, Gjermund Gusland Thorsen wrote:
>>
>>> The answer lays in maintenance, if the php task and the ScriptMaker
>>> task can bring maintenance issues, make both in FileMaker if  
>>> possible.
>>>
>>> If not make one script for each medium.
>>>
>>> ggt667
>>>
>>> On 10/25/07, Dale Bengston <dbengston at preservationstudio.com> wrote:
>>>> Derrick is dead on: it depends. There are certainly cases with our
>>>> existing clients where we are tapping into a process that invoke
>>>> complex scripts that are part of a client-server installation. In
>>>> such cases, it doesn't make sense to replicate the process in PHP.
>>>>
>>>> On the other hand, we are doing all new development so that it  
>>>> can be
>>>> switched between FMP and MySQL. This means no related fields on
>>>> layouts and no native FMP scripts. It's amazing how much faster  
>>>> data
>>>> retrieval is without any related fields on a layout.
>>>>
>>>> So for us, it's a matter of how tied to FMP we want to be. Since we
>>>> choose to support more than one data source, we do as much as
>>>> possible in PHP. But in certain cases for existing FMP clients,  
>>>> it's
>>>> easier (and cheaper) to tap into the existing scripting.
>>>>
>>>> Dale
>>>>
>>>> PS I concur with everyone who's commented about the pre v7 use  
>>>> of FMP
>>>> scripting from the web: it is ugly. On the other hand, I used to  
>>>> do a
>>>> lot of stuff with AppleScript and v6 from the web. Ah, those  
>>>> were the
>>>> days.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Oct 24, 2007, at 9:04 PM, Derrick Fogle wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Oct 24, 2007, at 7:34 PM, Joel Shapiro wrote:
>>>>>> Anybody else care to pipe in?
>>>>>
>>>>> As always, it depends what you're doing. If your operations are
>>>>> mostly native FM with only a small web-based presence, sticking
>>>>> with FM is probably the best choice. But I can't recommend  
>>>>> using FM
>>>>> scripting, or even FM at all, if you're good with PHP and your
>>>>> operations are primarily web-based.
>>>>>
>>>>> FWIW, I use FM8SA one one machine, and Apache/PHP on a nearly
>>>>> identical 2nd machine (both XServes). Processing data in PHP is so
>>>>> much faster than processing data in FM, it's not even funny. I'm
>>>>> competent enough with both FM and PHP, and I invariably fetch the
>>>>> minimum raw data required out of FM with as few actual  
>>>>> interactions
>>>>> with FM as possible, and do any processing needed for output to a
>>>>> browser with PHP.
>>>>>
>>>>> I can see where, if you want to update a whole bunch of FM records
>>>>> with a single web submit, you will find a point where  
>>>>> processing in
>>>>> FM will be faster than processing in PHP, simply because of the
>>>>> time overhead of getting data in and out of FM. But I would
>>>>> question any web application that modified a whole bunch of  
>>>>> records
>>>>> with a single web submit.
>>>>>
>>>>> Derrick Fogle
>>>>> derrick at fogles.net
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>>>> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>>>
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