PHP conditional statements and page load times.

nuken · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:52 pm

When you use the php if statement, does the code that does not apply slow down load time?

Example: you have a an if statement for IE6 browser and an else for all other browsers, will that if statement have an impact on non IE6 browsers load times or is it ignored?

montego · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:29 pm

nuken, not 100% sure where you are going with this. When you say "load time", that could mean different things to different people. I suspect you mean the overall performance of the server producing the page. Others could think it means "parsing time". Essentially no different in terms of code parsing. When it comes to code execution, what is the alternative? If you want to perform one thing for IE6 and other code if not IE6, you have no choice. HOWEVER, since IE6 users are FAR LESS likely than the others, I would put that in the else, but it may also be important as to what kind of test you are making. Your most likely conditional should be up front and as best it can be to be on the "positive" side and not complicated, the better.

If you have specifics that you would like to share - some alternatives that you are considering - go ahead of post them and let us see what seems the better choice.

Palbin · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:52 pm

If I had to guess, and I am, I would say that what you are referring to would be to minuscule to measure.

nuken · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:54 pm

Specifically, I added a jquery star rating system to the Tricked Out News. The css for the rating system does not work well with IE6. Today I have been testing using the original rating system with IE6 and the new with all other browsers. It seems to work fine. I was then considering what impact the extra code would have on the over all performance of the articles.php verses removing the IE6 specific code and using a css based work around for IE6.

Raven · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:32 pm

Normally jQuery handles the browser differences for their plugins. If you did this already then sorry for the redundancy Wink

. Google for jquery star rating.

nuken · Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:29 pm

The jquery star rating works fine in IE6, the issue is with consistent location in IE6 with the css. I think I will tinker with the css some more to work the bugs out. All other browsers it seems to work as expected.

gazj · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:51 am

nuken im no wizzkid with css but i seem to have a good track record with working with it and learn more n more as i work with ie specific css and other css hit me up on my site sometime via chat and i may be able to work it out with you as i dont fully understand what your getting at

nuken · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:32 am

Thank you gazj. My issue is that in IE6 the placement of the stars changes depending on the theme used. Every other browser works fine no matter what theme is used. I just about have it worked out though.

Raven · Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 1:42 am

Maybe this would help:

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djmaze · Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:40 am

Every IE has issues and the trouble really starts with IE8

You can detect the mode using document.documentMode
The values can be:

5 = IE5 mode
7 = IE7 mode
8 = IE8 mode

Each mode handles javascript, html and css differently.
Declare a DOCTYPE and IE5 mode is gone (only IE7 and IE8 modes remain)

Then try this:

Code:

some text
<span style="float:right">more text</span>

Now view the code in IE7, IE8, IE8+Compatibility mode, Firefox, Safari and Opera

Oh, and just skip IE6. Everyone is abandoning it anyway.

montego · Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:49 am

djmaze wrote:

Oh, and just skip IE6. Everyone is abandoning it anyway.

Could not agree more. I just wish those who voted "Yes" in our recent poll would have added their reasons why in the comments like I had asked:

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However, in my opinion, still enough to conclude that we can stop trying to tweak everything to work on IE6. JMO though and not a reflection of any official RN policy. Laughing

spasticdonkey · Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:55 am

I thought these snippets of jquery were interesting, It requires JS so I wouldn't use for major restyles... but if you are just selectively tweaking the appearance for a feature that requires JS anyway, you can target any browser you want.

Code:

You can target other browsers by emulating of the pattern of the user-agent/name

djmaze · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 1:56 pm

@spasticdonkey

Your code fails miserably on XHTML documents. document.write() doesn't exist in XHTML

Don't say: it works in IE. yes... IE is NOT a xhtml parser it thinks it is HTML.

spasticdonkey · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:13 pm

good point, I've never actually used it... and would probably shy away from any JS style corrections unless there was no other easy method... it was more for concept than anything... also in jQuery 1.4 the $.browser variable is changed to $.support