[Typo3] Performance issue with a template

[Steven Bagshaw]

Hi All,

I've been stuck on this one for a while. Here's the scenario...

1) I have a HTML template with around 15 placeholders. e.g. <!-- 
###BREADCRUMBS### -->bc<!-- ###BREADCRUMBS### -->

2) I have a Typoscript template that uses this template in a
straight-forward way. No TemplaVoila, no automake, just use
tx_rlmptmplselector to select between different templates.

3) My Typoscript template is fairly long I suppose - almost 1000 lines.

4) When caching is off, my pages take a long time to load. Looking at the
output of the Typoscript, one of the elements in my template will always
take around 3.5 seconds. If I comment out various elements, this 3.5 second
overhead always appears somewhere, so it is not a specific subpart that is
involved.

an example of how I replace the placeholders - subparts.COUNTRIES_NAV <
temp.menu_countries

5) If I comment out ALL of the subparts allocations, the overhead is gone
and the template is produced quickly. But if I even have 1 of the 15, it
re-appears.

I've tried using a PHP accelerator - no difference. We've copied the site on
to a much more powerful server - no difference. IIS vs Apache - no
difference either.

How do I go about locating more precisely what is going on? Or is there
something flawed in the way I've set things up?

Thanks for any help!

Steven