memcache option for ArrowChat?

[DDurante]

Sorry if this is already a feature, but I don't see it anywhere. I was wondering if you guys could (I can help if you want) make a memcache option for various things such as chat list, chat history, the # of online users, and etc. This would dramatically reduce the amount of querying to the DB, and since it's a live chat program it's probably best to set the heartbeat to ever 3-5- seconds (it's low but every bit helps).

[Jason]

I'm not quite sure how would would do some of those things as they constantly need updating. The chat history would be a possibility, but one less query call isn't going to do much. We already have all the administrator settings set in the cache.

[DDurante]

One less query wouldn't do much? Seriously? Guys, any DB administrator will tell you, "It only takes one query to f@@# up your server." Now, I'm not saying your DB and queries aren't optimized, but what I am saying is that the ONE query is being triggered a bunch of times for every heartbeat, every page load, multiply that by the amount of users you have online at once using the program, and etc.

Things that do not need constant updating...
Chat list <-- FB uses memcache for their system on this...it just refreshes every 3-5 seconds rather than every click/load.
Chat history <-- Pull up the query, cache it, then pull up the cache until the session is over (you could really set the TTL to a high number).
# of online users <-- Same thing as chat list
Member searching <-- Caching this would also be ideal. Search takes up a lot of server resources (unless it's running on a sphinx architecture) so yer caching this would also benefit a lot. :)

Either way, the program looks great and with your .1.31 update it seems like you guys nailed a lot of performance issues. Does anyone here have AC installed on a server with a lot of traffic? And I have a copy of CometCrap as well, but it seems like AC runs a lot better (although I just heard they came out with 2.0....hopefully it isn't better :P)

[Jason]

We've actually modeled our entire back-end after Facebook. There were a lot of good articles that Facebook developers had written, so we knew what was going on in their back-end. I just want to note that the member search is pure JavaScript with no queries, because it is only searching online users.

As far as I know, their 2.0 update hasn't improved their back-end at all, but rather finally add things like 'is typing' and idle users.

[DDurante]

Ah very cool :) Well as soon as .31 is ready for download I'm going to put it on my server! Can't wait. :) And glad to see this product is alive and kicking rather than taking years for updates like *ahems* some other guys ;)

P.S. I still think a memcache option would still be fantastic for the other things, although this is for later versions and nothing urgent obviously (I still have a hard time thinking that FB's chat doesn't utilize memcache or something like DB Slayer at all heh).

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