Building the Fastest Drupal in the Galaxy - Mateu Aguilo

8/16/2019 Building the Fastest Drupal in the Galaxy - Mateu Aguilo

1/37

BUILDING THE

FASTEST

DRUPAL OF THEGALAXY


2/37

Hello!

I AM MATEU AGUILÓI am a senior developer at Lullabot

You can find me at @e0ipso


3/37

Hi!

I AM PEDRO GONZÁLEZI am a sysadmin at sbit.io

You can find me at @NITEMAN_es


4/37

DISCLAIMERThese are our experiences and what

we learned so far.


5/37

Forget Drupal < 8Why?

Drupal’s 1.001 cachesHow?

Performance by design

What?


6/37

Drupal’s 1.001

caches

Drupal 8’s cache system

overview

Swappablecache

backends

Cachestrategy


7/37

SWAPPABLE CACHE BACKENDS

MemCache

Redis

Database

etc.

CacheBackendInterface


8/37

CACHE STRATEGY I: How to cache

cache it permanently

avoid doing the work at all

avoid doing the work during the critical

path

defer executing it after the main content

cache it temporarily


9/37

“ There are only two hard things inComputer Science: cacheinvalidation and naming things.

— Phil Karlton


10/37

CACHE STRATEGY II:

Cache hit ratio

Cache invalidation complexity

Content as current as possible


11/37

Batteries includedDrupal 8 comes with cachingenabled by default

PageCache

DynamicPageCache

https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/internal_page_cachehttps://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/dynamic_page_cachehttps://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/internal_page_cachehttps://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/dynamic_page_cachehttps://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/internal_page_cachehttps://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/dynamic_page_cachehttps://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/dynamic_page_cachehttps://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/internal_page_cachehttps://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/internal_page_cache


12/37

Old good Page Cache: Upgraded!

Almost a “poor man’s Varnish”

1


13/37

Pros

◦ It’s super fast

◦ It shortcuts

bootstrap◦ It’s URL based

◦ New! Instantly

updated when

something ischanged

PAGE CACHE

Cons

◦ Only for

anonymous users

◦ Assumes pages areidentical for all

anonymous users

◦ Does not use

Authentication API◦ Poor extensibility


14/37

Dynamic Page Cache

Built upon render cache, powered by the cacheability

metadata.

Personalized parts are excluded automatically: they are

turned into placeholders.

2


15/37

Pros

◦ Still quite fast

◦ Works for all users

◦ Personalized partsare turned into

placeholders

automatically

◦ Instantly updatedwhen something is

changed

DYNAMIC PAGE CACHE

Cons

◦ Slower than Page

Cache

◦ Require devs to beaware of it


16/37

Render API:

CachingDrupal needs to be aware of how dynamic yourcode is.

metadata placeholders


17/37

Cacheability Metadata

Keep Drupal informed about dependencies

1


18/37

CACHE TAGSAvoid having stale content by using

the appropriate cache tags.


19/37

CACHECONTEXTSHave different versions of a cache

entry depending on the context


20/37

MAX-AGEHow old can your cache entry be

before it’s considered stale


21/37

Drupal 8 requires

developers, tothink about

caching


22/37

Mindset

If it varies depending on the situation, I'll use

contexts

I’ll always think about cacheability whenrendering anything

If it’s expensive I’ll cache it using cache keys

If it may become stale I’ll use max-age

If anything will cause it to be outdated I’ll use

tags


23/37

EXAMPLEOf cacheability metadata


24/37

A “REAL LIFE” PROBLEM

First node in the site:

◦ A block in the sidebar

◦ Contains a greeting to the user

You want this block to be cached!


25/37

Cache TagsThe first node

Max-AgePermanent

Cache ContextThe user display name


26/37

Common PitfallsWhen caches go sour


27/37

BUBBLINGParents get children’s cacheability

metadata


28/37

Cacheability metadata in the Black box is surfaced tothe Maroon one, and then to the Pink one, and then tothe Orange one, and then to the Blue one.

The Blue one (page) contains all that, plus the Green box, etc. Every box inherits and adds its own.


29/37

Placeholdering

Drupal’s learning magic

2


30/37

PLACEHOLDERING FOR LAZY BUILDING

Automatic - Manual?

Enables Small & Big Pipes

It all comes down to setting:

#create_placeholder = TRUE

When there is:

#lazy_builder = […, …]


31/37


32/37

Manually

Via the alter

hooks:

◦ hook_block_build◦ …

SETTING #create_placeholder to TRUE

Automagically

Detects

configured

conditions incache metadata.


33/37

Perceived

performanceHow all we have seen will

make Drupal feels faster

Today:BigPipe

Tomorrow:RefreshLess


34/37

◦ A placeholdering strategy.

◦ Applies when there is a session

◦ Works with and without

javascript.

Big Pipe2.1


35/37

RefreshLess

Inspired by RoR’s turbolinks.

2.2


36/37

“ For us, the caching system alone

justifies choosing the Drupal 8

platform

— NITEMAN & e0ipso


37/37

Thanks!

ANY QUESTIONS?You can find me at

@e0ipso

@NITEMAN_es

Documents

Building the Fastest Drupal in the Galaxy - Mateu Aguilo