Theoretical limit to nodes

[rEd86]

OK. I want to create plugin that would require the dynamic generation of nodes to organize content in a hierarchy. Most forums are pretty flat with only a couple of levels deep, this site is for a larger audience and would have more depth. I'd rather use the built-in node system in XenForo but I want to make sure it scales. (some end-users will be creating the nodes, so there might be thousands of nodes over time) I know the database field for the node_ID is a int(10) but I'm guessing there are going to be other places I need to be aware of and override to limit what is returned. (probably by utilizing the depth and/or parent_node_id) It looks like I'll have to write a new UI in the admin area to manage the node tree, since the drop-down menus (for parent node selection) and node tree page would be unwieldy. (I'll be creating a custom UI on the front end to handle the display on the user side as well)

What (if any) other side effects might be introduced by having an large number of nodes? (would there be significant security speed degradation, etc?) Does the system easily scale to support lots of nodes, or are there some theoretical limits?

TIA for your input and insights.

--Ed

 

[Mike]

There are limits that spawn from permission calculation and the way the node lists can be built. Most of the overhead would be at node save/create time, though there are still places that list off the entire tree.

The theoretical limits are in the billions, but the practical limits are much lower, but they do vary based on a lot of things. I'm not sure if I'd want to go over 1000 to 2000 for the most part.

 

[rEd86]

Thanks Mike. That's about what I was hoping for. I would hope it would stay in the 100s, but you never know. I'll make sure to factor that in with anything I do and we'll see how it goes.

Does it reason that the number of overall groups also effects permission calculations? (or is it based on the number of groups the user is a member of)

--Ed

 

[Mike]

Does it reason that the number of overall groups also effects permission calculations? (or is it based on the number of groups the user is a member of)

The number of groups only indirectly affects it. The system works based on the number of "permission combinations". It's hard to explain here, but it likely will correlate to the number of groups you have (and the number of moderators, as well).