How can I achieve efficiency and speed for high traffic dating web site

[PD]

I am currently making a dating website.

I want to have some information on how to structure the database and
the php files so that I can achieve speed and efficiency.

Can some one please give me suggestions and point me to references
where I can get this information.

[Jerry Stuckle]

PD wrote:

I am currently making a dating website.

I want to have some information on how to structure the database and
the php files so that I can achieve speed and efficiency.

Can some one please give me suggestions and point me to references
where I can get this information.

I don't have any sites offhand - but you can start with the database by a google
search for

database normalization

Will help you with theory of normalization and even some tutorials. Most sites
are around third normal form.

Other than that, it's basically a matter of style. There's really no "right"
way to do it. The main thing is to design your pages ahead of time (don't code
them - just scratch them out on paper if nothing else). This will tell you what
data you need in the database. Then figure out what code you need for each piece.

The main things being the site works and is easy to maintain.

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JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attgl obal.net
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[Dikkie Dik]

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

PD wrote:

I am currently making a dating website.

I want to have some information on how to structure the database and
the php files so that I can achieve speed and efficiency.

Can some one please give me suggestions and point me to references
where I can get this information.

Lazy computation can speed up things as well (see for instance
http://www.w-p.dds.nl/article/wrtabrec.htm )

Best regards

[x0054]

"PD" <pd****@gmail.c om> wrote in news:1143063234 .055424.271710
@i40g2000cwc.go oglegroups.com:

I am currently making a dating website.

I want to have some information on how to structure the database and
the php files so that I can achieve speed and efficiency.

Can some one please give me suggestions and point me to references
where I can get this information.

Try to study up on SQL. Usually you can pass a lot of heavy load to the DB
engine, rather then doing it in PHP. For instance mySQL 5 supports
subselects. Just using subselects in my script has improved my PHP run
time by 300%. Also, try to use native php SQL functions instead of DB.php
class. In my tests DB.php class is almost 2000% slower when direct mySql
functions. Finally, try to use persistent connection. That is, create a DB
object, open it in the beginning of the script and don't close it until
the script has finished.

As far as DB structure, rule of thumb is, never save data in more then one
place in DB.
- Bogdan

[Iván Sánchez Ortega]

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x0054 wrote:

Finally, try to use persistent connection. That is, create a DB
object, open it in the beginning of the script and don't close it until
the script has finished.

Well, technically, a persistent connection is never closed - the PHP engine
keeps it open, so the next script to "open" a persistent connection does
not open it - it reuses the connection from a previously run script.

See php.net/mysql_pconnect ...

- --
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Iván Sánchez Ortega -i-punto-sanchez--arroba-mirame-punto-net

Cabeza: El aparato con que pensamos qué pensamos.
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[PD]

Jerry, Dikkie, Bogdan,

Thanks for the input.
More is welcome.

- PD

[PD]

Thanks for the input Bogdan.

I use MySQL 4 so subselect is out.

Also I had a confusion. I dont understand how a persistant connection
can help boost the speed. I thought it the other way. So I open and
close a connection at every query. A persistant connection can run the
db into a lot of open connections, wont it? Please throw some light on
this one.

Thanks again!

[PD]

Thanks Iván.

[ECRIA Public Mail Buffer]

Rather than have a lot of lengthy SQL queries, we have always opted to do a
good portion of the data processing/filtering for high-traffic sites in PHP,
and when necessary have optimized the application server for speed. You
should check out the Zend Optimizer and/or Zend Caneveral. These
optimizations will cache php scripts in the server's memory (along with
common database queries) to improve speed and reduce load on the db &
interpretive engines. Then, after all is said and done, you can always use a
stateful load balancer (such as the Cisco local director) to distribute
requests to duplicate servers while maintaining session information for each
user.

In some cases, one may run into a data storage problem before running into a
script/query speed problem, even without application server optimization.
This can be taken care of using a storage area network.

Until then, if you want to squeeze the most out of one box, bear these in
mind:
PHP - Split your files up and only run the code that you need for the action
being carried out
PHP - Limit your use of abstracted methods - make sure they are efficient,
and if not write your own.
PHP - You can often write little scripts to loop over subroutines that
contain code you suspect to be sluggish, and determine exactly what the
overhead is. Some built-in PHP methods are faster than combinations of
others that achieve the same thing, especially in specific contexts and
especially for string parsing tasks.
MySQL - Indexes. Learn & use them. Keep them as small as possible.

Good luck & happy programming,

ECRIA Dev Team
http://www.ecria.com

[Jerry Stuckle]

PD wrote:

Thanks for the input Bogdan.

I use MySQL 4 so subselect is out.

Also I had a confusion. I dont understand how a persistant connection
can help boost the speed. I thought it the other way. So I open and
close a connection at every query. A persistant connection can run the
db into a lot of open connections, wont it? Please throw some light on
this one.

Thanks again!

Yes and no. Persistent connections will stay open - but your script will run
very quickly compared to real-time. You probably won't have very many
connections in use at one time. OTOH, there is a significant amount of overhead
in connecting to MySQL.

Personally, I do it a little differently. I make the connection at the
beginning of the script (or no later than first use). Then I close the
connection before the script exits.

In most cases it works as fast as persistent connection (which have their own
overhead associated with them) but doesn't make multiple connections per script
to the database.

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