CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpmysqljson
Alain D'Ettorre
Alain D'Ettorre

Reputation: 144

PHP - MySQL call or JSON static file for unfrequently updated information

I've got a heavy-read website associated to a MySQL database. I also have some little "auxiliary" information (fits in an array of 30-40 elements as of now), hierarchically organized and yet gets periodically and slowly updated 4-5 times per year. It's not a configuration file though since this information is about the subject of the website and not about its functioning, but still kind of a configuration file. Until now, I just used a static PHP file containing an array of info, but now I need a way to update it via a backend CMS from my admin panel.

I thought of a simple CMS that allows the admin to create/edit/delete entries, periodical rare job, and then creates a static JSON file to be used by the page building scripts instead of pulling this information from the db.

The question is: given the heavy-read nature of the website, is it better to read a rarely updated JSON file on the server when building pages or just retrieve raw info from the database for every request?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 147

Answers (2)

Marcin Orlowski
Marcin Orlowski

Reputation: 75646

I just used a static PHP

This sounds like contradiction to me. Either static, or PHP.

given the heavy-read nature of the website, is it better to read a rarely updated JSON file on the server when building pages or just retrieve raw info from the database for every request?

Cache was invented for a reason :) Same with your case - it all depends on how often data changes vs how often is read. If data changes once a day and remains static for 100k downloads during the day, then not caching it or not serving from flat file would would simply be stupid. If data changes once a day and you have 20 reads per day average, then perhaps returning the data from code on each request would be less stupid, but from other hand, all these 19 requests could be served from cache anyway, so... If you can, serve from flat file.

Upvotes: 1

Michael Ryan Soileau
Michael Ryan Soileau

Reputation: 1833

Caching is your best option, Redis or Memcached are common excellent choices. For flat-file or database, it's hard to know because the SQL schema you're using, (as in, how many columns, what are the datatype definitions, how many foreign keys and indexes, etc.) you are using.

SQL is about relational data, if you have non-relational data, you don't really have a reason to use SQL. Most people are now switching to NoSQL databases to handle this since modifying SQL databases after the fact is a huge pain.

Upvotes: 0

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