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On using the right tool for the job.

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Case Study: Tag Autocompleter

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The Naïve Solution

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The Naïve Solution

•Tag.find
:conditions
=>
[‘text
LIKE
?’,
...]

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The Naïve Solution

•Tag.find
:conditions
=>
[‘text
LIKE
?’,
...]
•TagController#autocomplete

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That’s not so bad, is it?

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What is important for an autocompleter?

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SPEED

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Let’s enumerate the steps to get the tags.

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Ajax Call

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Ajax Call
Nginx

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Tag.find

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Tag.find
MySQL full table scan

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Tag.find
MySQL full table scan
Map rows to ActiveRecord objects

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Tag.find
MySQL full table scan
Map rows to ActiveRecord objects
Render JSON/HTML

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Tag.find
MySQL full table scan
Map rows to ActiveRecord objects
Render JSON/HTML
Respond

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Tag.find
MySQL full table scan
Map rows to ActiveRecord objects
Render JSON/HTML
Respond

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 Put Down the Hammer

Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Tag.find
MySQL full table scan
Map rows to ActiveRecord objects
Render JSON/HTML
Respond

Unnecessary steps that take up most of the time!

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How can we do this more efficiently?

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First, ditch the database.

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ActiveRecord and MySQL are overkill.

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Use a Trie.

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Use a Trie.

(Shameless Plug: http://github.com/tyler/trie)

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B E E

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A R

B E

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A R T

B E A R

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Use the right data structure for the job.

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Tag.find
MySQL full table scan
Map rows to ActiveRecord objects
Render JSON/HTML
Respond

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Trie#children(prefix)
Render JSON/HTML
Respond

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Trie#children(prefix)
Render JSON/HTML
Respond
Our next victims!

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Next step is to sidestep the Rails app altogether.

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If not Rails... then what?!

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Rack is awesome for little web services.

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•Fast

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•Fast
•Low Memory Usage

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•Fast
•Low Memory Usage
•Easy

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class
Autocompleter


def
initialize




@trie
=
Trie.load_file(file,
/(\w+)\|(\d+)/)


end



def
call(env)




req
=
Rack::Request.new(env)




words
=
@trie.children(req.params['query'])[0,5]




[
200,






{
"Content‐Type"
=>
"text/html"
},






[words.to_json]
]


end
end

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What about routing?

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location
/autocomplete
{
proxy_pass
http://autocompleter;



}

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location
/autocomplete
{
proxy_pass
http://autocompleter;



}

(You are using Nginx, right?)

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Router
Action
Trie#children(prefix)
Render JSON/HTML
Respond

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Ajax Call
Nginx
Rack Service
Trie#children(prefix)
Render JSON/HTML
Respond

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Does it really matter?

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It’s handling 200 requests per second.

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It’s handling 200 requests per second.

On a single Thin instance.

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It’s handling 200 requests per second.

On a single Thin instance.
With a response time of 0.006s.

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It’s handling 200 requests per second.

On a single Thin instance.
With a response time of 0.006s.
Takes up 18mb of ram.

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 Put Down the Hammer

It’s handling 200 requests per second.

On a single Thin instance.
With a response time of 0.006s.
Takes up 18mb of ram.
And <1% cpu usage.

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It’s good for your users and your budget.

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Questions?

Tyler McMullen