how to disable firstPost query parameter

lycorisor

Since my discussion content is very long, accessing the discussion list will take a long time to load

I recently observed that the include query parameter of /api/discussions has firstPost. When I remove this query option, the api response speed will be greatly accelerated

/api/discussions?include=user,firstPost

Since the default setting does not have a way to remove the query firstPost, I tried to write an extension to prevent the firstPost query

use Flarum\Extend;
use Flarum\Api\Controller\ListDiscussionsController;

return [
    (new Extend\ApiController(ListDiscussionsController::class))
    ->removeInclude('firstPost')
    ->prepareDataForSerialization(function ($serializer, $data, $request) {
        $include = $request->getQueryParams()['include'] ?? '';

        if (strpos($include, 'firstPost') !== false) {
            $include = str_replace(['firstPost,', ',firstPost', 'firstPost'], '', $include);
            $request = $request->withQueryParams(array_merge($request->getQueryParams(), ['include' => $include]));
        }
    }),
];

I tried the above code, and by removeInclude I can avoid querying firstPost when loading the entire page.

But I overloaded ListDiscussionsController and tried to disable the query of the firstPost parameter when accessing the API in this way, but it failed and it still queried firstPost

Is my thinking wrong, or is my code incorrect?

luceos

lycorisor are your able to share you output of php flarum info?

lycorisor

Also, I noticed that except for the sticky plugin using firstPost to display the summary when posting, there is no other place that needs to load firstPost, which seems useless and a waste of time. Why didn't Flarum optimize this?

luceos

lycorisor Also, I noticed that except for the sticky plugin using firstPost to display the summary when posting, there is no other place that needs to load firstPost, which seems useless and a waste of time. Why didn't Flarum optimize this?

Actually Flarum is optimized by making firstPost an optional include. The fact that you use flarum/sticky causes the extension to require that include to generate the summary, as you've noticed. There's always a balance between performance and extensibility, the fact that this include is optional versus the need to show more information by an extension.

As for the performance impact, what hit to response times did you perceive? Quickly trying this on the demo site shows an average impact of 3 - 5ms.

lycorisor

luceos

Flarum core: 1.8.5
PHP version: 8.1.21
MySQL version: 5.7.43-log
Loaded extensions: Core, date, libxml, openssl, pcre, sqlite3, zlib, bcmath, ctype, curl, dom, filter, ftp, gd, gettext, hash, iconv, intl, json, mbstring, SPL, session, pcntl, standard, mysqlnd, PDO, pdo_mysql, pdo_sqlite, Phar, posix, Reflection, mysqli, shmop, SimpleXML, soap, sockets, sodium, sysvsem, tokenizer, xml, xmlreader, xmlwriter, tideways_xhprof, zip, fileinfo, exif
+---------------------------------+------------+--------+
| Flarum Extensions               |            |        |
+---------------------------------+------------+--------+
| ID                              | Version    | Commit |
+---------------------------------+------------+--------+
| flarum-flags                    | v1.8.0     |        |
| askvortsov-auto-moderator       | v0.1.3     |        |
| flarum-sticky                   | v1.8.0     |        |
| flarum-tags                     | v1.8.0     |        |
| flarum-lock                     | v1.8.0     |        |
| flarum-likes                    | v1.8.0     |        |
| foskym-issue-tracking           | v0.4.2     |        |
| flarum-suspend                  | v1.8.1     |        |
| flarum-approval                 | v1.8.1     |        |
| fof-upload                      | 1.5.5      |        |
| ziiven-post-number              | v0.1.4     |        |
| ziiven-daily-check-in           | v0.3.7     |        |
| v17development-user-badges      | v1.1.0     |        |
| v17development-blog             | v0.7.7     |        |
| sycho-profile-cover             | v1.3.5     |        |
| michaelbelgium-discussion-views | v7.3       |        |
| litalino-more-bbcode            | 2.0.0      |        |
| imeepo-more-bbcode              | v1.0.3     |        |
| foskym-issue-tracking-youtrack  | v0.4.1     |        |
| fof-user-bio                    | 1.4.0      |        |
| fof-terms                       | 1.3.2      |        |
| fof-polls                       | 2.2.4      |        |
| fof-nightmode                   | 1.5.3      |        |
| fof-gamification                | 1.6.7      |        |
| fof-drafts                      | 1.2.10     |        |
| fof-default-group               | 1.1.2      |        |
| flarum-subscriptions            | v1.8.0     |        |
| flarum-statistics               | v1.8.0     |        |
| flarum-nicknames                | v1.8.0     |        |
| flarum-mentions                 | v1.8.3     |        |
| flarum-markdown                 | v1.8.0     |        |
| flarum-lang-english             | v1.8.0     |        |
| flarum-lang-chinese-simplified  | dev-master |        |
| flarum-emoji                    | v1.8.0     |        |
| flarum-bbcode                   | v1.8.0     |        |
| ffans-geetest                   | v1.0.7     |        |
| datlechin-usercard-uid          | v0.1.1     |        |
| clarkwinkelmann-status          | 1.0.0      |        |
| antoinefr-online                | v1.0.1     |        |
+---------------------------------+------------+--------+

Queue driver: sync
Session driver: file
Scheduler status: 激活
Mail driver: smtp
Debug mode: off

lycorisor

luceos
Indeed, Sticky requires firstPost, but it will load whether it displays the summary or not, and having this parameter will slow down the API query speed

Enable firstPost

Disable firstPost

You can see that the speed difference is 5 seconds.
The reason is that firstPost queries every text of about 40,000 words.

Other than that, I don’t see any option to turn off the summary in Sticky, which I think should be optional.

luceos

lycorisor how many discussions and posts does your community have?

lycorisor

luceos
The key problem is not that I have a lot of discussions, but that the first message of my post is very long.

Flarum will load 20 posts per page, while Sticky displays the summary by directly returning the full first message of each post to the front end, and then processing it by intercepting the string. In this way, the loading time for discussions with a long first message will be very long.

SychO

Your best bet would be to remove the firstPost include the same way it is added by the sticky extension. Through JS.

flarum/frameworkblob/1.x/extensions%2Fsticky%2Fjs%2Fsrc%2Fforum%2FaddStickyExcerpt.js#L10-L15

lycorisor

SychO
Okay, i'll try it.
By the way,can Sticky extension make summary(firstPost) optional in future updates? I believe this will greatly improve loading speed for discussions where the first message is long.

Or I can submit a Pull Request.

SychO

lycorisor submitting a pull request is the best way to increase the chances of this being added, but please if you do make sure it's directed at the 2.x branch and not 1.x (1.x no longer receives new features)

lycorisor

SychO

flarum/framework4016

Please check