Which is faster : get array from $_SESSION or from json file?

Question

here is my dilemma :

I am creating a multilingual platform. In that purpose I created json files containing all the translated text for each language.

Now when the user land on a their page I read from that file and store the array of translations in the $_SESSION variable such as

$_SESSION['website_text'] = json_decode(file_get_contents("content_".$language.".json"), true);

Then everytime I want to echo text on the views I access the element from the session array :

$text = $_SESSION['website_text']['paragraph2_headline'];

Now I am wondering, since the $_SESSION is stored on the server. Is it faster to read from the session like I do or to read everytime from the file and decode the json? The second option would go like that :

$website_text = json_decode(file_get_contents("content_".$language.".json"), true);
$text =  $website['paragraph2_headline'];

Thank you all for your help!

Did you test anything? You can keep track of time that youre script runs. — Jurgo
– Jurgo, Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 12:55
@Jashwant how would opening a local file would create an http request? — Vlad Balmos
– Vlad Balmos, Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 12:58
asside from $_SESSION and file, you could also cache it using APC or memcache, which is definetly faster since the storage is the RAM — Vlad Balmos
– Vlad Balmos, Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 13:00
I have not tested it indeed, but since I took it as a common dilemma for developers, I preferred asking first. — Tristan
– Tristan, Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 13:03

Jon · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-20 13:04:04Z

4

Most likely it's faster when pulling the data from $_SESSION, but $_SESSION is not a good place to store localization data in because it will end up being duplicated for each user.

When you retrieve the strings from $_SESSION then PHP has to read the data from the session file (which it already does to read any other session data, so the cost of opening the file is somewhat amortized) and run unserialize on it; if you retrieve it from a JSON file then it has open the file, read it and run json_decode. unserialize should be faster than json_decode, but please don't quote me on that.

If you are interested in making this fast, it would be better to read the strings directly from a PHP file where they are stored as an array:

// content_en.php
<?php
return array(
    'welcome' => 'Welcome to our website!',
    // ...
);

Even if your localization files are in JSON it would be very easy to "compile" the JSON into PHP and use the PHP code as a cache:

$lang = 'en';

$sourceFile = 'content_'.$lang.'.json';
$cacheFile = 'content_'.$lang.'.cache.php';
if (!is_file($cacheFile)) {
    $content = json_decode(file_get_contents($sourceFile), true);
    file_put_contents($cacheFile, "<?php\n return ".var_export($content, true).";");
}
else {
    $content = include($cacheFile);
}

edited Sep 20, 2012 at 13:04

answered Sep 20, 2012 at 12:55

Jon

439k85 gold badges756 silver badges820 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

7 Comments

FIG-GHD742 Over a year ago

we think the same, as create a fast access cache in native PHP code, but you code is beter

Tristan Over a year ago

Those are two very good points. Indeed, I duplicated the data in every session but if indeed it is faster it might be worth it because the this is an operation I do for every piece of text and overall it would make a noticeable difference to the user.

Jon Over a year ago

@Tristan: I hope you only load the content (in whatever manner you choose) once for every script, not for every string translation -- I was somewhat confused by your comment. But anyway, loading straight PHP code is the fastest.

Jon Over a year ago

@FIG-GHD742: Tip: var_export lets you get rid of the serialize/unserialize overhead.

Tristan Over a year ago

@Jon Yes sorry it was confusing. In the first solution, I load it only once and then I read from the session but in the second case, I would read from the file everytime.

|

FIG-GHD742 · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-20 13:04:57Z

1

I do not know much about JSON, but I know for the $_SESSION is save as a file on the server with

file_put_contents($path, serialize($_SESSION));

And read as

$_SESSION = unserialize(file_get_contents($path));

Yes as Jon say, if you will has speed, format this as native PHP code or we can save the data as a PHP file in this exemple.

function save_data($path,$data) {
     file_put_contents($path, "<?php $data=unserialize('".addslashes(serialize($data))."'); ?>");
}

And for load this is only to include the file and then get the data from $data.

edited Sep 20, 2012 at 13:04

answered Sep 20, 2012 at 12:58

FIG-GHD742

2,4962 gold badges21 silver badges27 bronze badges

Comments

S3Mi · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-20 13:06:30Z

0

In both examples you gave us, you store your localization data in file but process them in different way, one in variable other in session.

Question should be "How to process a localization data efficient"

answered Sep 20, 2012 at 13:06

S3Mi

4884 silver badges10 bronze badges

1 Comment

Tristan Over a year ago

This is a good point, I'm quite novice to localization data and I am going step by step here but obviously it would be worth looking in a wider perspective.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Which is faster : get array from $_SESSION or from json file?

3 Answers 3

7 Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

7 Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related