[TYPO3-dev] AJAX and TYPO3 - just a quick fix?!

[dan frost]

Hi,

I am currently implementing an AJAX-based frontend
editing system for TYPO3 which reads in the TCA
and delivers the forms over AJAX.

It is become very clear to me that, even with
AJAX, TYPO3's "load everything" architecture is
making this very slow.

I understand V4 has an AJAX-dropdown menu in the
backend and I've tested this and, to me, the speed
is not "AJAX" speed - it's AJAX+TYPO3 speed. It's
slow!

We've been developing lots of AJAX applications
recently and oner rule of thumb that seems to have
emerged in our work is that the AJAX server should
be small - it should deal with just a few specific
things and shouldn't load into memory masses of
junk. If you start loading loads of junk into
memory, the AJAX server becomes slow and then the
AJAX experience is slow.

I would suggest that version 5 should look to a
lazy-loading architecture first and then a much
more trimmed down core. This is already one of the
goals - so I'm just adding support to this.

Lastly, to show how AJAX becomes pointless with a
heavy, slow-loading architecture: suppose you have
a page which has 2 AJAX requests on. If both of
those AJAX requests are handled by an AJAX server
which has as 400% TYPO3 overhead (say 1 second,
instead of 1/4 second) then the page is delivered
with 800% overhead. If the page had been delivered
in the traditional, non-AJAX way then performance
would actually be better.

In summary: AJAX is not a good idea for improving
performance if the AJAX server is still
bloat-ware. Start were the problem is - the bloat!

Regards,
dan