On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:56:20 Paul Bennett wrote: > Boost uses static page caching and works at an .htaccess level, meaning > that if a cached file exists Drupal - and hence PHP and MySQL - aren't even > invoked. There may be a link here to mod_cache but I'm not certain enough > of the details to know. > > The Boost Drupal module mainly manages production and expiry of cached > content and the performance improvement we got for a site whose content > doesn't change all that often was "dramatic" to say the least. > > There are some caveats, which I'd be happy to discuss if anyone is thinking > of going this route...
The best system is server caching for the following reasons: 1. It does not invoke the PHP interpreter 2. Can be enabled on a per virtual host basis - in the case of my own custom e-commerce platform I cache images (including images that are produced on the fly with ImageMagick) and fire the interpreter every time for PHP code, though that what is optimal for my setup. 3. Works with safe mode on - (I am not sure if PHP caching would work in safe mode) 4. Once installed (at compile time) and enabled in the config - automatically works independent of the PHP code. I have spent a considerable amount of time during my career in the internet industry testing and refining performance related issues, and the best conclusion I have reached in a variety of systems is that code would have to be awlfully bloated or badly written to need 100% caching, and imho the fact they would build something like this into a system like Drupal says something. The only time I ever had a noticeable performance problem was with netTRUST GCN version 1 on the first page of a site - it had a random product display using MySQL order by rand() and this was a problem taking on average 400-500ms on a dual P3 tualatin with 1gb of RAM to render that page. Needless to say I have not repeated that in netTRUST GCN version 2. In summary - I am a great fan of server based caching though it is not a good replacement for something that is otherwise poorly conceived. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
