A few of us were discussing creating a serverside testing script for MODX. I think the idea started with Mark Hamstra and someone else. In the meantime a few of us joined the discussion: @amdbuilder, @salscode, @mindeffect and some more.
The basic concept we have been talking about:
A script that can test a hosting environment for MODX Revolution capability. The script should be able to run at different times collecting and averaging results containing: CPU power, memory, database speed, possibly connection speed (ping times to a specific fast server) etc etc.
This topic is created to continue the twitter discussion.
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The idea originally pitched to me was more testing the actual performance of MODX on a certain server - benchmarking.
Things like CPU, memory etc are usually in the phpinfo or delivered by the hoster and really don't often mean a lot in terms of actual performance and how well a server works with MODX.
So are we talking something that checks the "hard requirements" like php and db versions (I think that was your idea), or something that tests the actual performance of a MODX (sample) site?
No, I dont mean hard requirements...ALSO that, because it can easily determine if MODX will run at all (the install will fail anyway at that point) but Im talking more of a stress test without the requirement of installing and setting up a complete MODX.
At this point I see a number of possibilities:
- create a modx addon that does speed testing based on the actual modx core
- create a pure php/mysql solution without the modx core
- create a pure php solution that uses some modx functionality
Come to think of it: I think the first option is most viable. Each testing phase adds points to a certain total which in turn determines the servers capability of hosting a certain type of website. The rating could be a score and a textual representation eg: Your server a suitable for a moderate visited blog, or suitable for a very simple website or suitable for a dynamic busy website etc.
We might even add caching tips based on server performance.
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I think that it should not be a separate script but a MODX extra. It should test how MODX is performing, not the server in general. If there where changes in the manager, the servers stays the same but the MODX installation is different. Only a test INSIDE the MODX installation will show the differences.
About the CPU and other specs, they can be shown for a benchmark but normaly they have nothing to do with the actuall performance of the system if the site is running on a shared server. To be honest NONE of my clients has a dedicated server. They all have shared hosting plans because the don't have the infrastructure to pay a fulltime admin and – that's the most importent part – they just don't need a whole server. Just would not make any sense talking about costs and energy consumption/waste.
I expect the follwing two things from such a benchmark: It should tell how fast the MODX backend is and how fast the frontend.
It shall show the core team how MODX backend performs in the outside world. That's a very important thing to know if you want to step out into bright daylite. I am not happy with the manager speed since it takes about 4-5 second until I can edit a resource when I am working on a site with a long tree (long meens about 100 resources). It just feels like walking with plumb shoes. This is more a client side thing with JavaSript.
Site generation – especially the start page if the cache was cleared – often takes up to 8 seconds. This is something on the frontend speed and checks mostly on the server speed.
MODX has to become faster on less powerfull machines – client side and server side – to compete with other CMS (mainly Drupal and ProcessWire). Especially ProcessWire just flys at the backend (jQuery)! I want that for MODX,too, because I want to stay where I feel at home: at MODX.
It would be nice that the component is able to register the installation of specific components (and the impact on the server after the component is used) and monitor the performance of specific pages (pageload, number of queries stuff like that)
This way the addon actually benchmarks the MODX performance and it would be able to plot a graph to show wether it's getting better over time or worse
AMDbuilder and I are working on the start of a wish list. We will release the Google doc sometime next week for everyone to comment on.
