[deprecated] RockFinder1

[thetuningspoon]

@bernhard I've finally had a chance to try out your module tonight for a project where we're loading pages into a large data table (200+ rows) and were hitting a wall.

Using RockFinder I now have the initial page load down to ~2 seconds, down from ~7+ seconds! This is a fantastic module, Bernhard. It looks like it's really well thought out and has some really powerful features for building queries. I love how it extends PW's native selectors and allows you to return standard objects, making it easier to substitute this in for a regular $pages->find. Thank you for making this!

I think I can answer my own question now... The main issue with creating Page objects is that page instantiation requires a trip back to the database. The initial $pages->find converts a selector into a SQL query which returns an array of matching page IDs. Then those IDs are used to go back to the database and get the pages (or pull them from cache if they're already loaded). Then for any page field requested that isn't auto-join, an additional database query is required. If you're looping through a lot of pages, that's a lot of DB queries!

It seems like there might be a way to provide the functionality of RockFinder in the native PW core, as an option when loading pages. You would still end up with Page objects in the end (which in my case would be a huge boon since I like to extend the Page class with a custom class and methods for each template), but we could skip that second trip to the database (getting pages by IDs) if we could just tell PW which fields we wanted it to get up front. After that, any additional fields we didn't specify could be loaded with another trip to the DB, as they are now.

That being said, I'm sure @ryan has a good reason for that second trip to the DB. But it seems like there must be a way that we could improve the speed of native pages, even if it is a hidden/advanced option with some caveats.

 

One minor complaint: I noticed is that the module seems to fail silently and return nothing when it can't find one of the fields. It would be good to throw an exception to make this easier to debug.

Edit: Another thought... Is there a reason not to use WireData and WireArray for the objects returned from RockFinder, in place of an StdObject? This would allow you to use WireArray's built in sorting and selecting features on the result set:

$results = $this->database->query($this->getSql());
if($array) {
	$objects = $results->fetchAll(\PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
}
else {
	$objects = $results->fetchAll(\PDO::FETCH_CLASS, '\ProcessWire\WireData');
	$objects = (new WireArray())->import($objects);
}

 

[bernhard]

6 hours ago, thetuningspoon said:

Using RockFinder I now have the initial page load down to ~2 seconds, down from ~7+ seconds! This is a fantastic module, Bernhard. It looks like it's really well thought out and has some really powerful features for building queries. I love how it extends PW's native selectors and allows you to return standard objects, making it easier to substitute this in for a regular $pages->find. Thank you for making this!

Great to hear that. I wouldn't call it well thought out, though. When I started building it I had far too less knowledge about what's going on on the regular page finder. I think the module could be improved a lot on several sides. But it get's all the jobs done for me and I can build RockGrids with thousands of pages that load in some ms compared to loading times above 30s that I had before.

6 hours ago, thetuningspoon said:

It seems like there might be a way to provide the functionality of RockFinder in the native PW core, as an option when loading pages.

I'd love to have a better version of RockFinder in the core ? 

6 hours ago, thetuningspoon said:

Another thought... Is there a reason not to use WireData and WireArray for the objects returned from RockFinder, in place of an StdObject? This would allow you to use WireArray's built in sorting and selecting features on the result set:

Sounds like a good idea, I'll have a look ? 

 

PS: 2 seconds still sounds very slow for 200 rows. May I see your finder setup?

[thetuningspoon]

4 hours ago, bernhard said:

PS: 2 seconds still sounds very slow for 200 rows. May I see your finder setup?

You're right... I was not counting some of the pages involved. There are at least 2 to 3 times that many.

Also, I am counting the entire time from request to first response (not using a debug timer)

[thetuningspoon]

A bit of an update after some more experimentation tonight. 

I added pages.templates_id as a field always selected in the RockFinder results, and then attempted to use the $pages->newPage() method to take the results of the SQL query and convert them into a PageArray of Page objects. This worked, thus eliminating that second trip to the database I mentioned (and also bypassing the page cache and probably some other nice features of the normal page creation process).

Unfortunately, this slowed the whole thing way down again. So I'm thinking now that it is something else about constructing Pages that is slow. Maybe generating the page path or some other properties are the problem. Perhaps I need to load up some additional fields up front. Will have to test more.

WireData/WireArray works great, though.

[bernhard]

Hey @thetuningspoon I just tried your suggestion about the WireArray/WireData... It's awesome ? 

I did it a little differently though, because my RockGrids don't work the way you implemented it. v1.0.9 introduces a new method: $finder->getWireArray(); This will return a WireArray containing WireData objects just as you suggested:

For anybody wondering what this update could be used for: You can use all the pw api magic on that objects:

 

New version is on GitHub - I'll change my public projects to github to have the PW modules directory automatically in sync: https://github.com/BernhardBaumrock/RockFinder/commit/46377ba6ea399f8557893684da3c3dd486b2c44e

[thetuningspoon]

The separate method is a good idea. Glad my suggestion was useful!

[bernhard]

Just for reference, I think the easiest way to do aggregations at the moment is creating a regular finder and taking the resulting SQL as subquery and modifying it to your needs:

 

 

And if you need it in your code (not in the RockFinder Tester) you need to set the SQL via $finder->sql:

[bernhard]

Here's a little Tutorial of how to get pages and their parent's titles requested by @mel47

The page structure:

The initial basic Finder:

The easy and inefficient way:

This will load all pages in memory and be slow when you have lots of pages!

The a little more complicated but far more efficient way. First, we prepare the finder to join:

Then we join that finder to the initial finder:

Then just hide those two unnecessary columns in your final grid:

document.addEventListener('RockGridItemBeforeInit', function(e) {
  if(e.target.id != 'RockGridItem_yourgrid') return;
  var grid = RockGrid.getGrid(e.target.id);
  var colDefs = grid.gridOptions.columnDefs;
  var col;
  
  // all your grid's frontend settings

  grid.getColDef('parent_id').hide = true;
  grid.getColDef('cat_id').hide = true;
});

 

[mel47]

Thanks!

Was able to successfully display children/parent pages. Looks like this :

$contact = new RockFinder('template=contact',  ['title', 'parent_id']);

$org = new RockFinder('template=organisme', ['title']);
$contact->join($org, 'contact', ['id' => 'parent_id']);
return $contact;

However, I can't add any other fields like I normally do:

$contact = new RockFinder('template=contact, include=all',  ['title', 'parent_id', 'nom', 'prenom']);

I guess it have to be done after the join or have to be written in a different way? I couldn't find any example on your documentation similar to that.

Thanks again!

Mel

[bernhard]

It's really just adding the field to the finder:

[mel47]

Thanks. Effectively working, I messed up titles of fields. Feel a little bit noob... ?

[eelkenet]

I had a quite some trouble getting this to work with the content from a ProFields Table, as this does not work the same as with a Repeater or PageTable.
But I am happy to say that treating those fields as a 'file' works, by setting this in the options array.  Ie: 

<?php 
	$finder = new RockFinder("template=template_name,limit=10", ["title", "some_field_name"]);
	$field = $finder->addField("my_table_field", ["column_name", "other_column"], ["type" => "file"]);
	$field->seperator = ", ";

 

[bernhard]

Hi eelkenet, nice find! Thx.

Could you try adding this fieldtype here, then I could push an update: https://github.com/BernhardBaumrock/RockFinder/blob/master/RockFinder.module.php#L70

You can do a PR or just paste this line of code here in the forum. But I don't have a version to test here at the moment.

[bernhard]

RockFinder v1.1.0 now supports filters. This makes it possible to use custom access control (eg showing only certain rows on a RockGrid):

https://github.com/BernhardBaumrock/RockFinder/commit/3e4daae0f283280672ab606a1eef1b16497f19fe

 

https://github.com/BernhardBaumrock/RockFinder/blob/3e4daae0f283280672ab606a1eef1b16497f19fe/readme.md#filters--access-control

Filters & Access Control

You can filter the resulting rows by custom callbacks:

// show only rows that have an id > 3
$finder = new RockFinder('id>0, limit=5', ['title', 'status']);
$finder->filter(function($row) {
  return $row->id > 3;
});

You can also use these filters for showing only editable pages by the current user. Be careful! This will load pages into memory and you will lose the performance benefits of RockFinder / direct SQL queries.

$finder->filter(function($row) {
  $page = $this->wire->pages->get($row->id);
  return $page->editable();
});

One thing to mention is that you can apply these filters BEFORE or AFTER closures have been applied. If you apply them BEFORE executing the closures it might be a little more performant (because closures will not be executed for rows that have been removed by the filter), but you will not have access to columns that are populated via closures (like page path).

[dotnetic]

Hey @bernhard I try to show only pages that are published. But right now my query shows all entries.

I tried to use a filter, but it doesn't work. How can I get only published pages?

<?php
$stellen = new RockFinder("template=stelle", ['title', 'stellekosten', 'kostenproclick', 'mitarbeiterid', 'created', 'bookmark','status']);
$stellen->filter(function ($row) {
    $page = $this->wire->pages->get($row->id);
    return $page->isUnpublished();
});

return $stellen->getSQL();

 

[bernhard]

IT should return only published pages! I can't investigate during the next days, sorry.

[KarlvonKarton]

I have a problem getting to use Rockfinder online correctly.
On my developer network every works fine, but once the site is online, RockFinder stops working.

$finder = new \ProcessWire\RockFinder("template=panddetail,ska_Status='FOR_SALE',limit=0,ska_City!='',sort=ska_City",['ska_City', 'ska_ZipCode']);
$sql = $finder->getSQL();
$finder->sql = "SELECT ska_City AS city, ska_ZipCode AS zip FROM ($sql) AS tmp GROUP BY city";
$ska_Cities = $finder->getArrays();

print_r($ska_Cities);

I don't understand why...

I also used new Rockfinder (without namespaces etc)

I checked PHP version too... 

Is there some specific dependency that Apache or PHP should have for RockFinder?

[dotnetic]

1 hour ago, KarlvonKarton said:

RockFinder stops working

What exactly is the output? Do you get error messages?

[KarlvonKarton]

4 hours ago, jmartsch said:

What exactly is the output? Do you get error messages?

 

I've compared the $sql variables on the live server end the local server.  They both are the same.

SELECT `rockfinder`.* FROM /* original pw query */ (SELECT pages.id FROM `pages` JOIN field_ska_status AS field_ska_status ON field_ska_status.pages_id=pages.id AND (((field_ska_status.data='FOR_SALE' ) )) LEFT JOIN field_ska_city AS field_ska_city__blank3 ON field_ska_city__blank3.pages_id=pages.id LEFT JOIN field_ska_city AS _sort_ska_City ON _sort_ska_City.pages_id=pages.id WHERE (pages.templates_id=49) AND (pages.status<2048) AND (((field_ska_city__blank3.pages_id IS NOT NULL AND (field_ska_city__blank3.data!='' OR field_ska_city__blank3.data='0')))) GROUP BY pages.id ORDER BY _sort_ska_City.data ) as `pwfinder` /* rockfinder */ LEFT JOIN ( SELECT `pages`.`id` AS `id`, `ska_City`.`ska_City` AS `ska_City` FROM `pages` /* --- join ska_City --- */ LEFT JOIN (SELECT `pages_id` AS `pageid`, `ska_City`.`data` AS `ska_City` FROM `field_ska_City` AS `ska_City`) AS `ska_City` ON `ska_City`.`pageid` = `pages`.`id` /* --- end ska_City --- */ ) AS `rockfinder` ON `pwfinder`.`id` = `rockfinder`.`id` /* end rockfinder */

SELECT `rockfinder`.* FROM /* original pw query */ (SELECT pages.id FROM `pages` JOIN field_ska_status AS field_ska_status ON field_ska_status.pages_id=pages.id AND (((field_ska_status.data='FOR_SALE' ) )) LEFT JOIN field_ska_city AS field_ska_city__blank3 ON field_ska_city__blank3.pages_id=pages.id LEFT JOIN field_ska_city AS _sort_ska_City ON _sort_ska_City.pages_id=pages.id WHERE (pages.templates_id=49) AND (pages.status<2048) AND (((field_ska_city__blank3.pages_id IS NOT NULL AND (field_ska_city__blank3.data!='' OR field_ska_city__blank3.data='0')))) GROUP BY pages.id ORDER BY _sort_ska_City.data ) as `pwfinder` /* rockfinder */ LEFT JOIN ( SELECT `pages`.`id` AS `id`, `ska_City`.`ska_City` AS `ska_City` FROM `pages` /* --- join ska_City --- */ LEFT JOIN (SELECT `pages_id` AS `pageid`, `ska_City`.`data` AS `ska_City` FROM `field_ska_City` AS `ska_City`) AS `ska_City` ON `ska_City`.`pageid` = `pages`.`id` /* --- end ska_City --- */ ) AS `rockfinder` ON `pwfinder`.`id` = `rockfinder`.`id` /* end rockfinder */

But $ska_Cities array remains empty on live server. 

Yet a copy of site on development server $ska_Cities is print_r:

Array ( [0] => Array ( [city] => Aalst ) [1] => Array ( [city] => Duinbergen ) [2] => Array ( [city] => Heist-aan-Zee ) [3] => Array ( [city] => Knokke-Heist ) [4] => Array ( [city] => Oostende ) [5] => Array ( [city] => Varsenare ) [6] => Array ( [city] => Wenduine ) [7] => Array ( [city] => Zeebrugge ) [8] => Array ( [city] => Zwevegem ) ) 

ps: NO errors

[flydev]

9 hours ago, KarlvonKarton said:

I've compared the $sql variables on the live server end the local server.  They both are the same.

Is the MySQL server the same version ?

Second, are you SURE that the template id 49 is the same on both dev and prod site ?

edit: nevermind, I didn't saw `template=panddetail` on first instance..

[KarlvonKarton]

1 hour ago, flydev said:

Is the MySQL server the same version ?

• Serverversie: 5.6.41-log - MySQL Community Server (GPL) = LIVE
• Serverversie: 5.6.38 - MySQL Community Server (GPL) = DEVELOPMENT

[KarlvonKarton]

I have tried to execute the SQL with phpmyadmin on both servers (live and dev).

On DEV it works, but not on LIVE.

The problem is that RockFinder switches from uppercase to lowercase in the SQL.
Just check this SQL:

SELECT `rockfinder`.* FROM /* original pw query */ (SELECT pages.id FROM `pages` JOIN field_ska_status AS field_ska_status ON field_ska_status.pages_id=pages.id AND (((field_ska_status.data='FOR_SALE' ) )) LEFT JOIN field_ska_city AS field_ska_city__blank3 ON field_ska_city__blank3.pages_id=pages.id LEFT JOIN field_ska_city AS _sort_ska_City ON _sort_ska_City.pages_id=pages.id WHERE (pages.templates_id=49) AND (pages.status<1024) AND (((field_ska_city__blank3.pages_id IS NOT NULL AND (field_ska_city__blank3.data!='' OR field_ska_city__blank3.data='0')))) GROUP BY pages.id ORDER BY _sort_ska_City.data ) as `pwfinder` /* rockfinder */ LEFT JOIN ( SELECT `pages`.`id` AS `id`, `ska_City`.`ska_City` AS `ska_City` FROM `pages` /* --- join ska_City --- */ LEFT JOIN (SELECT `pages_id` AS `pageid`, `ska_City`.`data` AS `ska_City` FROM `field_ska_City` AS `ska_City`) AS `ska_City` ON `ska_City`.`pageid` = `pages`.`id` /* --- end ska_City --- */ ) AS `rockfinder` ON `pwfinder`.`id` = `rockfinder`.`id` /* end rockfinder */

In the JOIN the field is field_ska_city, but in the last FROM the field is field_ska_City...

Is that normal behavior?  Is this a bug?

 

The code I use:

$finder = new \ProcessWire\RockFinder("template=panddetail,ska_Status='FOR_SALE',ska_City!='',sort=ska_City",['ska_City']);
$sql = $finder->getSQL();
print_r($sql);
$finder->sql = "SELECT ska_city AS city FROM ($sql) AS tmp GROUP BY city";
$ska_Cities = $finder->getValues('city');
print_r($ska_Cities);

Quote

 

[flydev]

1 hour ago, KarlvonKarton said:

The code I use:

$finder = new \ProcessWire\RockFinder("template=panddetail,ska_Status='FOR_SALE',ska_City!='',sort=ska_City",['ska_City']);
$sql = $finder->getSQL();
print_r($sql);
$finder->sql = "SELECT ska_city AS city FROM ($sql) AS tmp GROUP BY city";
$ska_Cities = $finder->getValues('city');
print_r($ska_Cities);

 

shouldn't be ? :

 

[...]
$finder->sql = "SELECT ska_City AS city FROM ($sql) AS tmp GROUP BY city";
[...]

 

[KarlvonKarton]

4 hours ago, flydev said:

$finder->sql = "SELECT ska_City AS city FROM ($sql) AS tmp GROUP BY city";

It should, but it doesn't change the outcome.  (I've tried both upper or lowercase)

Whatever I try (upper, lowercase), the SQL statement created by RockFinder is changing the name of the table to 'field_ska_City' while the name of the table is 'field_ska_city'... (in the last FROM - see SQL above)

[dragan]

I don't think RF changes any lower/uppercase. Quickly googling for "case sensitivity table mysql" returns tons of results though, suggesting it may have to do with how mySQL handles case-sensitivity on different OS... just one random example: https://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/answer/Naming-and-renaming-MySQL-files-for-case-sensitivity