Dirt cheap way to make magento fly

There are several ways to accomplish the same task and some are more elegant than others.

This one makes any Magento community edition fly and is cheap and quick (read no Magento compliant - because it modifies the templates)

In other words while this trick can help you boost your Magento store server response I am not too proud of it.

Why is that a big deal? I am not a huge fan or changing templates, even if they are “allowed”.

But let’s forget about that and get down to business

Your actual cache helper class

class Performance_CacheHelper_Helper_Data extends Mage_Core_Helper_Data {

    //###########################################
    //Cache related functions and variables
    //###########################################
    /**
     * cache key
     * @var string|mixed 
     */
    protected $key;

    /**
     *
     * @var Mage_Core_Model_Cache 
     */
    protected $_cache;

    /**
     * data container
     * @var string|mixed 
     */
    protected $data;
    protected $tags = array(__CLASS__);

    public function canUseCache() {
        //verify if the cache is enabled
        return Mage::app()->useCache('block_html');
    }

    /**
     * Gets the cache object
     * @return Mage_Core_Model_Cache 
     */
    protected function _getCacheObject() {
        if (!$this->_cache) {
            $this->_cache = Mage::app()->getCache();
        }
        return $this->_cache;
    }

    public function getData() {
        return $this->data;
    }

    public function setData($data) {
        $this->data = $data;

        return $this;
    }

    public function getKey() {
        return $this->key;
    }

    public function setKey($key) {
        $this->key = $key;
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * saves data in a serialize format to cache under the name of this class if the cache can be used
     * @return Performance_CacheHelper_Helper_Data 
     */
    public function saveDataInCache() {
        if ($this->canUseCache()) {
            $cookie = Mage::getModel('core/cookie');
            $this->_getCacheObject()->save(
                    serialize($this->data), $this->key, $this->tags, $cookie->getLifetime());
        }
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     *
     * @param string $key
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getDataFromCache($key) {
        $this->key = $key;
        return $this->_getCachedData();
    }

    /**
     * gets the data saved in cache, if it finds it then it unserializes itF
     * @param string|mixed $key
     * @return bool | string
     */
    protected function _getCachedData($key = null) {
        if ($key !== null) {
            $this->key = $key;
        }
        /**
         * clear the data variable 
         */
        $this->data = false;
        //ensure cache can be used
        if ($data = $this->_getCacheObject()->load($this->key)) {
            $this->data = unserialize($data);
        }
        return $this->data;
    }

}

In your current template:

                
         //this code has been modified so the highligthing works right                   
        $helper = Mage::helper('cachehelper');
        $cachingEnabled = array('catalog');
        $key = md5(Mage::helper('core/url')->getCurrentUrl());
        $currentModule = Mage::app()->getRequest()->getModuleName();
        if (in_array($currentModule, $cachingEnabled)){
         if ($content = $helper->getDataFromCache($key)){
         //nothing do $content now has the data
         }else{
             $content = $this->getChildHtml('content');
             $helper->setKey($key)->setData($content)->saveDataInCache();
            
        }else{
         $content = $this->getChildHtml('content');
        }

  <div class="col-main"><? echo $content; ?></div>

siege -t1m -c5 -b -d -i http://mage.dev/apparel

Examples with File Based cache

Without the “dirt cheap trick”

Transactions:	324 hits
Availability:	100.00 %
Elapsed time:	59.94 secs
Data transferred:	2.13 MB
Response time:	0.92 secs
Transaction rate:	5.41 trans/sec
Throughput:	0.04 MB/sec
Concurrency:	4.95
Successful transactions:	324
Failed transactions:	0
Longest transaction:	2.32
Shortest transaction:	0.63

With the “dirt cheap trick”

Transactions:	475 hits
Availability:	100.00 %
Elapsed time:	59.56 secs
Data transferred:	3.14 MB
Response time:	0.62 secs
Transaction rate:	7.98 trans/sec
Throughput:	0.05 MB/sec
Concurrency:	4.97
Successful transactions:	475
Failed transactions:	0
Longest transaction:	1.45
Shortest transaction:	0.37

Examples with memcache

Without the “dirt cheap trick”

Transactions:	329 hits
Availability:	100.00 %
Elapsed time:	59.65 secs
Data transferred:	2.17 MB
Response time:	0.90 secs
Transaction rate:	5.52 trans/sec
Throughput:	0.04 MB/sec
Concurrency:	4.95
Successful transactions:	329
Failed transactions:	0
Longest transaction:	1.60
Shortest transaction:	0.68

With the “dirt cheap trick”

Transactions:	507 hits
Availability:	100.00 %
Elapsed time:	59.47 secs
Data transferred:	3.35 MB
Response time:	0.58 secs
Transaction rate:	8.53 trans/sec
Throughput:	0.06 MB/sec
Concurrency:	4.97
Successful transactions:	507
Failed transactions:	0
Longest transaction:	1.91
Shortest transaction:	0.40

Pretty awesome right? Don’t think siege is a good testing tool and this is not a good indication? What about jmeter?

Here is the test plan I used:

      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
      <jmeterTestPlan version="1.2" properties="2.1">
         <hashTree>
            <TestPlan guiclass="TestPlanGui" testclass="TestPlan" testname="Test Plan" enabled="true">
               <stringProp name="TestPlan.comments"></stringProp>
               <boolProp name="TestPlan.functional_mode">false</boolProp>
               <boolProp name="TestPlan.serialize_threadgroups">false</boolProp>
               <elementProp name="TestPlan.user_defined_variables" elementType="Arguments" guiclass="ArgumentsPanel" testclass="Arguments" testname="User Defined Variables" enabled="true">
                  <collectionProp name="Arguments.arguments" />
               </elementProp>
               <stringProp name="TestPlan.user_define_classpath"></stringProp>
            </TestPlan>
            <hashTree>
               <ThreadGroup guiclass="ThreadGroupGui" testclass="ThreadGroup" testname="Thread Group" enabled="true">
                  <elementProp name="ThreadGroup.main_controller" elementType="LoopController" guiclass="LoopControlPanel" testclass="LoopController" testname="Loop Controller" enabled="true">
                     <boolProp name="LoopController.continue_forever">false</boolProp>
                     <stringProp name="LoopController.loops">1</stringProp>
                  </elementProp>
                  <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.num_threads">10</stringProp>
                  <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.ramp_time">1</stringProp>
                  <longProp name="ThreadGroup.start_time">1340804136000</longProp>
                  <longProp name="ThreadGroup.end_time">1340804136000</longProp>
                  <boolProp name="ThreadGroup.scheduler">false</boolProp>
                  <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.on_sample_error">continue</stringProp>
                  <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.duration"></stringProp>
                  <stringProp name="ThreadGroup.delay"></stringProp>
               </ThreadGroup>
               <hashTree>
                  <HTTPSampler guiclass="HttpTestSampleGui" testclass="HTTPSampler" testname="/apparel" enabled="true">
                     <elementProp name="HTTPsampler.Arguments" elementType="Arguments" guiclass="HTTPArgumentsPanel" testclass="Arguments" enabled="true">
                        <collectionProp name="Arguments.arguments" />
                     </elementProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.domain">mage.dev</stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.port"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.connect_timeout"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.response_timeout"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.protocol"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.contentEncoding"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.path">/apparel</stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.method">GET</stringProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.follow_redirects">false</boolProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.auto_redirects">true</boolProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.use_keepalive">true</boolProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.DO_MULTIPART_POST">false</boolProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.FILE_NAME"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.FILE_FIELD"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.mimetype"></stringProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.monitor">false</boolProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.embedded_url_re"></stringProp>
                  </HTTPSampler>
                  <hashTree>
                     <HeaderManager guiclass="HeaderPanel" testclass="HeaderManager" testname="HTTP Header Manager" enabled="true">
                        <collectionProp name="HeaderManager.headers">
                           <elementProp name="Accept-Language" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">Accept-Language</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">en-us,en;q=0.5</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                           <elementProp name="Accept" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">Accept</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                           <elementProp name="User-Agent" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">User-Agent</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                           <elementProp name="Accept-Encoding" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">Accept-Encoding</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">gzip, deflate</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                        </collectionProp>
                     </HeaderManager>
                     <hashTree />
                  </hashTree>
                  <HTTPSampler guiclass="HttpTestSampleGui" testclass="HTTPSampler" testname="/furniture/living-room" enabled="true">
                     <elementProp name="HTTPsampler.Arguments" elementType="Arguments" guiclass="HTTPArgumentsPanel" testclass="Arguments" enabled="true">
                        <collectionProp name="Arguments.arguments" />
                     </elementProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.domain">mage.dev</stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.port"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.connect_timeout"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.response_timeout"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.protocol"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.contentEncoding"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.path">/furniture/living-room</stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.method">GET</stringProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.follow_redirects">false</boolProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.auto_redirects">true</boolProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.use_keepalive">true</boolProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.DO_MULTIPART_POST">false</boolProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.FILE_NAME"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.FILE_FIELD"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.mimetype"></stringProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.monitor">false</boolProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.embedded_url_re"></stringProp>
                  </HTTPSampler>
                  <hashTree>
                     <HeaderManager guiclass="HeaderPanel" testclass="HeaderManager" testname="HTTP Header Manager" enabled="true">
                        <collectionProp name="HeaderManager.headers">
                           <elementProp name="Accept-Language" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">Accept-Language</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">en-us,en;q=0.5</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                           <elementProp name="Accept" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">Accept</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                           <elementProp name="User-Agent" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">User-Agent</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                           <elementProp name="Accept-Encoding" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">Accept-Encoding</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">gzip, deflate</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                        </collectionProp>
                     </HeaderManager>
                     <hashTree />
                  </hashTree>
                  <HTTPSampler guiclass="HttpTestSampleGui" testclass="HTTPSampler" testname="/furniture/bedroom" enabled="true">
                     <elementProp name="HTTPsampler.Arguments" elementType="Arguments" guiclass="HTTPArgumentsPanel" testclass="Arguments" enabled="true">
                        <collectionProp name="Arguments.arguments" />
                     </elementProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.domain">mage.dev</stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.port"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.connect_timeout"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.response_timeout"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.protocol"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.contentEncoding"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.path">/furniture/bedroom</stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.method">GET</stringProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.follow_redirects">false</boolProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.auto_redirects">true</boolProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.use_keepalive">true</boolProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.DO_MULTIPART_POST">false</boolProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.FILE_NAME"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.FILE_FIELD"></stringProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.mimetype"></stringProp>
                     <boolProp name="HTTPSampler.monitor">false</boolProp>
                     <stringProp name="HTTPSampler.embedded_url_re"></stringProp>
                  </HTTPSampler>
                  <hashTree>
                     <HeaderManager guiclass="HeaderPanel" testclass="HeaderManager" testname="HTTP Header Manager" enabled="true">
                        <collectionProp name="HeaderManager.headers">
                           <elementProp name="Accept-Language" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">Accept-Language</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">en-us,en;q=0.5</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                           <elementProp name="Accept" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">Accept</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                           <elementProp name="User-Agent" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">User-Agent</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                           <elementProp name="Accept-Encoding" elementType="Header">
                              <stringProp name="Header.name">Accept-Encoding</stringProp>
                              <stringProp name="Header.value">gzip, deflate</stringProp>
                           </elementProp>
                        </collectionProp>
                     </HeaderManager>
                     <hashTree />
                  </hashTree>
               </hashTree>
               <ResultCollector guiclass="SummaryReport" testclass="ResultCollector" testname="Summary Report" enabled="true">
                  <boolProp name="ResultCollector.error_logging">false</boolProp>
                  <objProp>
                     <name>saveConfig</name>
                     <value class="SampleSaveConfiguration">
                        <time>true</time>
                        <latency>true</latency>
                        <timestamp>true</timestamp>
                        <success>true</success>
                        <label>true</label>
                        <code>true</code>
                        <message>true</message>
                        <threadName>true</threadName>
                        <dataType>true</dataType>
                        <encoding>false</encoding>
                        <assertions>true</assertions>
                        <subresults>true</subresults>
                        <responseData>false</responseData>
                        <samplerData>false</samplerData>
                        <xml>true</xml>
                        <fieldNames>false</fieldNames>
                        <responseHeaders>false</responseHeaders>
                        <requestHeaders>false</requestHeaders>
                        <responseDataOnError>false</responseDataOnError>
                        <saveAssertionResultsFailureMessage>false</saveAssertionResultsFailureMessage>
                        <assertionsResultsToSave>0</assertionsResultsToSave>
                        <bytes>true</bytes>
                     </value>
                  </objProp>
                  <stringProp name="filename"></stringProp>
               </ResultCollector>
               <hashTree />
            </hashTree>
         </hashTree>
      </jmeterTestPlan>

Here are the results, sorry about the formatting:

Without the “dirt cheap trick”

sampler_label	aggregate_report_count	average	aggregate_report_min	aggregate_report_max	aggregate_report_stddev	aggregate_report_rate	aggregate_report_bandwidth	average_bytes
/apparel	10	1710	1274	2180	290.2423125597	4.5724737083	199.8358553384	44753
/furniture/living-room	10	896	618	1272	254.8664159908	7.5757575758	227.1173650568	30699
/furniture/bedroom	10	747	565	953	137.6	7.3637702504	204.8623895434	28488
TOTAL	30	1117	565	2180	484.8805133455	7.2904009721	246.6680589307	34646.6666666667

With the “dirt cheap trick”

sampler_label	aggregate_report_count	average	aggregate_report_min	aggregate_report_max	aggregate_report_stddev	aggregate_report_rate	aggregate_report_bandwidth	average_bytes
/apparel	10	675	434	904	147.3737086457	6.1199510404	268.3156269125	44895
/furniture/living-room	10	741	581	950	107.7506844526	5.4436581383	164.0678160724	30862.6
/furniture/bedroom	10	631	389	827	157.5221889132	7.3691967576	206.1388863301	28644.4
TOTAL	30	682	389	950	146.3524057427	10.8577633008	369.0013685306	34800.6666666667

As you can see this is trick helps a lot but it doesn’t compete with Magento’s FPC or Varnish and it still needs lots of polishing. The good think is that is doesn’t require holepunching or lots of Magento knowledge. Now a few pointers… this is not the full implementation, as this code doesn’t work with load balancers and there is not a way to clear it here. But implementing both is trivial.

I'm Luis Tineo, a DevOps and infrastructure leader, and I'm looking for my next team. About · GitHub · LinkedIn