Hell yea.
[source]

Note to self

Never rewrite the entire base of a very large web application 8 months into development. You screw yourself. Hard.

Make sure it is perfect. Then go. It is much faster in general and refining it in the future is much easier.

But I’m just saying..

Doctrine, hydrate_record, & lazy loading

So, through my adventures with Doctrine I’ve encountered quite a few bugs that a normal (or power) user would come across. The problem I am going to mention today is one that can severely hurt a site’s loading time and cause query backup to the database.

It begins with code like this:

  $q = Doctrine_Query::create()->
           from("profile p")->
           select("p.name, p.zipcode")->
           whereIn("p.id", array(1,2,3,4,5))->
           execute(array(), Doctrine::HYDRATE_RECORD);

Simple code, pull the list of names and zip codes from the database where the ID’s coincide with the given array.

<?php foreach($q AS $person): ?>
  <?php echo $person->name ?> - <?php echo $person->zipcode ?>
  <br />
<?php endforeach; ?>

The result would be something such as

Bob - 63122
Tom - 63122
Frank - 63025
Jim - 63123
Bill - 61236

Now here is the problem: Let’s assume that Jim doesn’t have his zip code in the database. Instead of “62123″ the result of “$person->zipcode” would be null.

Bob - 63122
Tom - 63122
Frank - 63025
Jim -
Bill - 61236

Unfortunately, the null response kicks Doctrine’s lazy field loading feature into drive. Lazy field loading is Doctrines ability to load data from the database not specified in a select() tag. Read more about it here. So, in short, the null response tricks Doctrine into thinking that the field wasn’t populated by the hydrator, then creates a query to grab the entire row.
Now, imagine that being looped five times if none of the users above had the zip codes filled in. That’s one query for each person. Imagine it being scaled higher? We have a potential problem here.

There are two solutions. Theeasy way and then modifying Doctrine itself.

The first solution is to use HYDRATE_ARRAY or HYDRATE_SCALAR. These methods can not perform lazy field loading due to the fact that the hydrator binds the results to an array which is not double checked when outputted (such as the case for objects).

The next solution (and the method I chose) was to modify Doctrine’s coding itself, as there were cases in which objects were necessary. I basically choose to turn lazy-loading off by default, and then added a switch to enable and disable the feature in the core code of Doctrine. The affected files were: /Doctrine.php, doctrine/Configurable.php, and doctrine/Record.php.
Like I said, by default lazy loading is turned off, so if you need it (such as in the case of a plugin), you can turn it on with:

  //on
  Doctrine_Manager::getInstance()->
    setAttribute('lazy_field_loading', true);

  //off
  Doctrine_Manager::getInstance()->
    setAttribute('lazy_field_loading', false);

The modified files are here:
Doctrine Lazy Loading 1.1.2

That’s pretty much a wrap for that. If anyone wants specifics on what I changed, feel free to ask.

I don’t want new furniture.

Over the past couple of months I’ve been getting emails from Target about awesome furniture deals they are having.

I do not want furniture. In fact, I have never even bought furniture there. I’m not even sure how they even managed to snag my email address.

Speaking of which, is there a real purpose for these emails other than to make the person who had just purchased furniture from Target feel like shit. I mean really? I just spent $400 on great deals, but now I can buy an entirely new set for $50 less!

That’s a great way to make you previous purchasers regret their nice new patio set.

When Asian Trannies kiss…

Holy cow

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25658928-948,00.html

In Russia, women rape you!

Distracted, back on NM’s course

Oops, I’ve been getting distracted. I rewrote the majority of the foundation that makes NM click in the past three days; I also forgot to release the source on F*CK THIS or even bring it online. I probably will still, since the FT inspired a bunch of changes with NM and it’s quote interesting.

However, NM is my top concern at the moment. I’ve also hit a bug in Doctrine.
http://trac.doctrine-project.org/ticket/2257
Anyone else experiencing this problem? I’m getting ready patch it, I think.

I’ll post more later.

2008 Top 25 mashup

Just got around to watching it. I really liked it, an amazing job.

F*CK THIS

I would like to introduce F*CK THIS.

It’s just a small jokish app to show off the power of Symfony and Doctrine. It’s almost finished then I will release it and it’s source. I’ll leave it live for a little too, maybe people might like it.

Chatter

Phantom of the T-Shirt

Phantom of the T-shirt

When I am no longer poor, I am going to buy that shirt. Also, I’m in a need of money so I am starting to take up freelance jobs again – if you want to see my portfolio (it’s limited at the moment), just send me an email.