My EECI2010 talk on performance and Expression Engine. You can view the details of the talk at http://joelbradbury/notes/tuning_your_engine

1. Tuning Your Engine
Joel Bradbury

2. I’m Joel Bradbury
@joelbradbury
View Creative
I’m the lead developer at
viewcreative.co.uk

3. What we can tune

4. The tuning options

5. The tuning options

6. The Server
(Apache etc.)
The tuning options

7. The Server Extra magic dust
(Apache etc.) (squid cache,
load balancers etc.)
The tuning options

8. The Server Your Site Extra magic dust
(Apache etc.) (EE for us) (squid cache,
load balancers etc.)
The tuning options

9. The Server Your Site Extra magic dust
(Apache etc.) (EE for us) (squid cache,
load balancers etc.)
The tuning options

10. The tuning options

11. The html
The tuning options

12. The html The EE
& CI Core
The tuning options

13. The html OUR The EE
implementation & CI Core
The tuning options

14. The html OUR The EE
implementation & CI Core
The tuning options

15. Performance

16. Performance
•Why it matters

17. Performance
•Why it matters
•Why it’s an issue

18. Performance
•Why it matters
•Why it’s an issue
•What we can do about it

19. Why it matters
A user’s overall site experience
will be set by the worst part

20. Why it’s an issue

21. Why it’s an issue
especially for ExpressionEngine

22. Flexibility

23. Flexibility
costs

24. What we can do about it

25. What we can do about it
Tune it to hell and back

26. What can we tune?

27. What can we tune?
•Site Baseline - disable what you don’t need

28. What can we tune?
•Site Baseline - disable what you don’t need
•Data Structure - you know your data best

29. What can we tune?
•Site Baseline - disable what you don’t need
•Data Structure - you know your data best
•Addons - the black boxes in the system

30. What can we tune?
•Site Baseline - disable what you don’t need
•Data Structure - you know your data best
•Addons - the black boxes in the system
•Templates - the devil is in the details

31. Metrics
If we’re going to tune it,
we’ve got to be able to measure it

32. Turn them on
Admin > System Administration > Output and Debugging

33. Output Profiler

34. Output Profiler

35. Output Profiler

36. 15
Output Profiler

37. Template Logging

38. Template Logging

39. Template Graph

40. Time
Template Graph

41. Time
Template execution
Template Graph

42. End Metrics

43. End Metrics
15
Database queries

44. End Metrics
15
Database queries Execution Profile

45. End Metrics
15
Database queries Execution Profile
* take all numbers/times as guides only.
yours will differ

46. Metrics - baselines

47. Clean Template
Literally this :

48. Clean Template
Literally this :

49. Clean Template

50. Clean Template
6-8
Queries

51. Clean Template
6-8
Queries Execution profile

52. What’s happening?

53. What’s happening?

54. What’s happening?

55. What’s happening?

56. What’s happening?

57. What’s happening?

58. What’s happening?

59. What’s happening?

60. What’s happening?

61. (0.008751) Template Parsing Finished
Keeping it in context

62. The interesting bit

63. The interesting bit

64. Templates

65. Templates - loops

66. Loops can kill

67. Loops can kill
your performance

68. Loops can kill
your performance
but only if you’re sloppy

69. The Cost of a Loop
using channel:entries as an example
{exp:channel:entries
dynamic=“no”
channel=“example”
limit=“1”} ...

70. The Cost of a Loop
using channel:entries as an example
clean template

71. The Cost of a Loop
using channel:entries as an example
loop template

72. The Cost of a Loop
using channel:entries as an example
loop template

73. The Cost of a Loop
using channel:entries as an example

74. The Cost of a Loop
using channel:entries as an example

75. The Cost of a Loop
using channel:entries as an example
limit = 100

76. The Cost of a Loop
using channel:entries as an example
limit = 500

77. The Cost of a Loop
using channel:entries as an example
limit = 1000

78. The Cost of a Loop
using channel:entries as an example
limit = 2500

79. The Cost of a Loop
the effect on the database queries

80. The Cost of a Loop
the effect on the database queries
24
100
entries

81. The Cost of a Loop
the effect on the database queries
24 24
100 500
entries entries

82. The Cost of a Loop
the effect on the database queries
24 24 24
100 500 1000
entries entries entries

83. The Cost of a Loop
the effect on the database queries
24 24 24 24
100 500 1000 2500
entries entries entries entries

84. The Cost of a Loop
the effect on the database queries
with current db_cache

85. The Cost of a Loop
the effect on the database queries
6-8
for n
entries
with current db_cache

86. Increasing Complexity

87. Increasing Complexity

88. Lather, Repeat, Rinse
using an “optimised” channel:entries as an example
{exp:channel:entries
dynamic=“no”
channel=“example”
limit=“1”
disable=“{disable_entries}
”
cache=“yes”
refresh=“900”}

89. Lather, Repeat, Rinse
with everything disabled

90. Lather, Repeat, Rinse
with everything disabled
21
for n entries

91. Lather, Repeat, Rinse
with tag caching on
uncached

92. Lather, Repeat, Rinse
with tag caching on
caches primed

93. What we want:

94. What we want:
•
Caches shouldn’t be relied on to get good
performance

95. What we want:
•
Caches shouldn’t be relied on to get good
performance
•
Entry count shouldn’t affect the number of
Database queries

96. What we want:
•Caches shouldn’t be relied on to get good
performance
•Entry count shouldn’t affect the number of
Database queries
•Entry count should relate linearly to template
processing time

97. What we want:
•Caches shouldn’t be relied on to get good
performance
•Entry count shouldn’t affect the number of
Database queries
•Entry count should relate linearly to template
processing time
•What works for 10, needs to scale to work for
10,000

98. Nested Loops

99. Nested Loops
“ Pro tip: don't ever, ever nest a
channel:entries tag inside another
tag that loops. Srsly. Don't.
#eecms
@low

100. Nested Loops
“ Pro tip: don't ever, ever nest a
channel:entries tag inside another
tag that loops. Srsly. Don't.
#eecms
@low

101. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page

102. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
Category Loop {

103. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
} Entries Loop
Category Loop { } Entries Loop
} Entries Loop

104. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page

105. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
What you’d expect :

106. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
What you’d expect : +2 for category loop

107. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
What you’d expect : +2 for category loop
+3 for entries loop

108. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
What you get :

109. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
What you get : +2 for category loop

110. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
What you get : +2 for category loop
+3

111. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
What you get : +2 for category loop
for EACH entries loop
+3
PER CATEGORY

112. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
With some tuning
(and some php)
you can get:

113. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
With some tuning +2 for category loop
(and some php)
you can get:

114. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
With some tuning +2 for category loop
(and some php)
you can get: +3 for entries loop

115. Nested Loops
Category Archive Page
With some tuning +2 for category loop
(and some php)
you can get: +3 for entries loop
see : bit.ly/eeci2010_low

116. Where the pain comes
from

117. Where the pain comes
from
Never testing with end-scale datasets

118. Key Points

119. Key Points

120. Key Points
•Don’t rely on caches
for performance

121. Key Points
•Don’t rely on caches
for performance
•Measure as you go

122. Key Points
•Don’t rely on caches •Test with end-scale
for performance data sets
•Measure as you go

123. Key Points
•Don’t rely on caches •Test with end-scale
for performance data sets
•Measure as you go •Understand what’s
going on

124. Thank you
Tuning your Engine
@joelbradbury
@viewcreative