Pre-Sale Questions for Big Boards

[orban]

Hello!

1. How does the new search work? I found this blog post, but apart from some (not so true) things, I didn't learn anything.

2. Do large threads (100.000+ posts) finally scale?

3. Are templates still eval'ed on every request?

4. Is all CSS/JS external?

5. Has the PM database layout been fixed?

6. Memory usage for a regular showthread/forumdisplay? Is the whole forum layout still loaded into memory on every request?

7. Forum permissions, does it work like in 3.6/3.7/3.8?

8. Thread RSS?

9. Support for memcached beyond "datastore"?

10. Upgrade script still web- and PHP-based, so unusable for us?

Thank you

[orban]

Hello? Jelsoft?

[Carlos 360]

1. How does the new search work? I found this blog post, but apart from some (not so true) things, I didn't learn anything.

Not too clear on how you want it to "work"? And I was thinking of saying "As long as it works." But you want a better solution.

2. Do large threads (100.000+ posts) finally scale?

I think its too early to tell. VB4 hasn't reached big boards yet - it might take a month before we start seeing big boards with them.

3. Are templates still eval'ed on every request?

I'll let someone else answer for ya.

4. Is all CSS/JS external?

I'll let someone else answer for ya. I'm assuming yes, tho.

5. Has the PM database layout been fixed?

I'm also assuming no, because its remained largely the same from the user-side.

6. Memory usage for a regular showthread/forumdisplay? Is the whole forum layout still loaded into memory on every request?

I'm once again assuming that its been reduced - since loading pages are faster now.

7. Forum permissions, does it work like in 3.6/3.7/3.8?

Yeap. ACP isn't new, just some changes - minimal changes.

8. Thread RSS?

Yeap. In fact, each forum comes with their own RSS button.

9. Support for memcached beyond "datastore"?

Not sure, but lettin' someone else answer.

10. Upgrade script still web- and PHP-based, so unusable for us?

I'm not sure how VB4 upgrades are, so lettin' someone else answer.

[orban]

Thank you Carlos 360, but I would like a response from a Jelsoft representative.

[beishe8]

Thank you Carlos 360, but I would like a response from a Jelsoft representative.

"Not tonight Joséphine"

[HeyMe]

8. Thread RSS?
Yeap. In fact, each forum comes with their own RSS button.

Forum RSS existed before, only buttons added .. is there really thread RSS now?

[Shamil.]

Question 2, it is highly recommended that you prune the thread at that stage, for performance reasons.
Question 4, can you clarify what you mean by "external"?
Question 6, depending on what cache you use, if any. It is recommended that you use Memcache or APC, though staff suggest that you use XCache becuase it is faster.
Question 9, There is no further support for memcache other than Datastore.
Question 10, The upgrade is done via a web interface.

If you wanted a member of staff to reply, then you should have emailed [email protected]

I'd also advise that you wait for vBulletin to become fully stable, i.e 4.0.1 at the very least before even thinking of upgrading, if you chose vBulletin to be your forum solution.

[orban]

Why do I have to email sales? Isn't this the Sales/Pre-Sale Questions forum?

[Shamil.]

Yes, however, you're probably going to get a faster response. The forums is a secondary line of support.

[Alfa1]

I would like to know the answers to several of these questions as well, so a public response would be useful.

[orban]

I sent Jelsoft an email, if I get a response, I'll post it here.

[orban]

I got a reply today:

Thank you for your interest in the vBulletin Forum Software and for contacting vBulletin Sales.

1) It is an indexed fulltext search apart from the thread and post tables.

2) Not sure what you mean by this. We have tested with 100,000 posts in the past without problems.

3) Templates are still rendered with eval at the end but the entire template system has changed.

4) No.

5) Not sure what you mean by fixed. It is working as designed and hasn't changed at this point from the 3.X series.

6) Yes, this is one of the purposes of the datastore.

7) Permissions are unchanged.

8) There is no RSS for individual threads and I do not believe this is a planned feature.

9) Not at this time.

10) Many of our large sites have no problems using the current upgrader. Including the largest Internet Brands websites. I am not sure why it is unusable for you.

2) So I guess it's still O(threadsize).

I asked again about the new post and thread search, because I'm still confused.

TLDR version: vB 4 is vB 3 with a new skin.

[Alfa1]

Thanks.

[orban]

Update:

1) Search works by indexing all content in a separate table. This isn't unlike the popular Sphinx search which indexes content outside of the tables. The inserts into this table are delayed so they do not interfere with the writing of the content to the database.

2) As the structuring and formatting of threads hasn't changed, it would still use limits. The forums are still scheduled to be refactored so this could change in a future version.

So I'm assuming that vB 4 just duplicates the post and thread tables and creates a full-text index on them.

[orban]

Last Update:

1) The content is indexed in specific search engine tables that contain all searchable content.