For best page load time: FP_Borders or Includes?

[Marcia]

Which would have more impact on page loading time, either positively or negatively: using Front Page Borders sitewide, or SSI or PHP includes?

[jimbeetle]

In FP each page is saved in its entirety when using borders (or the FP include page function), so there are no other calls when the page is served. So, I'd *assume* it would result in less server load and a hair's breadths less time.

[Marcia]

How about when other pages using the same navigation are loaded?

I believe I read something about linked Stylesheets being cached, and wonder if there's anything similar to consider.

[rogerd]

Since the includes are done server-side, Marcia, they won't be cached like external style sheets.

Unless your server is pretty bad, I wouldn't think that the includes would pose a big problem. I haven't used FP in a while, but I recall that the big drawback of shared borders was the sluggish update process. I.e., you change one tiny item in a border, and FP then has to grind through the entire site updating the pages. All pages have to be published or uploaded, too, every time you make a border change.

If you are using SSI for your nav menus and the like, you can upload one tiny file and your whole site is updated.

[jimbeetle]

big drawback of shared borders was the sluggish update process

Yep, that's one of the trade-offs, slow update versus faster serving. However, server config impacts a lot. Apache/Red Hat always seems to process web updates much, much, make that *much* more quickly than Windows-based. Comparable A/RH always seems to be about 60% faster. On one site I went from Windows-based 500Mhz machine to A/RH 1000Mhz -- 1,500 page site with footers and included pages changed takes less than 5 minutes as opposed to 15 to 20 on old server.

Think the main consideration would be the amount of traffic. Heavy traffic with a lot of includes would argue for FP; lighter and it might be a toss-up.

[rogerd]

I recall a while back Brett commenting that he used multiple includes on each WebmasterWorld page. As compulsive (in a good way :)) as Brett is about keeping WebmasterWorld snappy, I would guess the server hit isn't too onerous...