Using PHP With Firebase Database is Slow

Question

Wanna ask if somebody has been used PHP and Firebase together using this library: https://firebase-php.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

For some reason every single key from firebase take a long time to get out. Each item around 700-800ms. 10 Items about 8 seconds, etc. Why it's so slow?

foreach ($data as $key => $value){
    $this->database->getReference()->getChild($this->dbname)->getChild($userID)->getValue();
}

This loop can take for ever if in object there is 100 items. Why it's so slow and how I can fix it?

Have you tried the same code with a different firebase php lib, such as ktamas77/firebase-php? Have you checked if ipv6 resolution works correctly on your box? I had similar issues that were even slower, and binding curl to ipv4 helped a lot. — mastef, Jun 18 '19 at 07:12

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 05 '18 at 14:29

Reading data from Firebase in this way, these are the main factors that affect performance:

The time it takes to connect to the Firebase servers.
The time it takes for the Firebase servers to get your data from disk.
The time it takes for the data you requested back to your machine.

This in total apparently 700ms for each item. There is no magic switch that will make this go faster, you will either have to ask less from the database or do it in fewer calls.

The most common ways to improve performance:

Request less data, which improves #3 (and #2 a bit). The bandwidth of the client is often the most limiting factor when people download non-trivial amounts of data.
Make the calls from a faster connection, which improves #3 and #1.
Find a way to need fewer calls. When you use one of the Firebase SDKs to access the Firebase Database, this usually isn't a factor since they can pipeline the requests over a single connection. But the PHP library is built on top of Firebase's REST API, which likely has more overhead per call.

First of all thx for answer. All this things I know, the issue is that firebase should to be a nosql platform contains and load nonconventional data in realtime such as realtime database, filesystem, machine learning, etc. All this in realtime. 700ms it's for each item its to many. However the connection is already exists so it's just an absurd reconnect every single time for 10 items (the limit) and hold the page on load for 7 seconds. Moreover how about messaging system, something that need load million of object items... It's contrary to all firebase concept. — ArtiMann, Aug 06 '18 at 11:46

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 06 '19 at 18:57

Fastest way to reduce the runtime is by getting snapshot of the complete database.

This is the hierarchy of database looks like

Database hierarchy in firebase

Below is the basic code to retrieve the data using custom function downloadDatabase();

require __DIR__.'/vendor/autoload.php';

use Kreait\Firebase\Factory;
use Kreait\Firebase\ServiceAccount;
class accountInfo{

    protected $database;
    protected $dbname = "users";

    public function __construct(){
        $serviceAccount = ServiceAccount::fromJsonFile(__DIR__.'/secret/yoursecret.json');
        $firebase = (new Factory)
                ->withServiceAccount($serviceAccount)
                ->create();
        $this->database = $firebase->getDatabase();
    }

    public function downloadDatabase(){
        return $this->database->getReference($this->dbname)->getValue();
    }
}

$users = new accountInfo();
$array = $users->downloadDatabase();

Now you have your $array with complete database snapshot. You can easily display all the data neatly by using foreach loop.

foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
    echo $key."<br>";
    if(is_array($value)){
    $value2 = $value;
        foreach ($value2 as $key2 => $value2) {
            echo "----";
            echo $key2." : ".$value2."<br>";
        }
    }
    echo "<hr>";
}

To test the speed of your code use this at the beginning of your code.

$start = microtime(true);

and then at the end of your document use this

$time_elapsed_in_microsecs = microtime(true) - $start;
echo "<hr>Runtime : ".$time_elapsed_in_microsecs;

Using PHP With Firebase Database is Slow

2 Answers2