Today I nearly finished the parser layer. Two parser modules are present:
simplepie_parser
aggregation_parser
Those are standalone modules, can be installed on a Drupal5 site. If you turn the modules on, you won't see anything, just some functions become available.
Facts:
Size
aggregation_parser - 13 569 bytes
simplepie_parser - 286 197 bytes
The two modules has almost identical output and identical input.
Speed test
aggregation_parser - 20ms
simplepie_parser - 240ms
(you can find the method later)
That's our benefit from PHP5. :) Go PHP 5, Go!
The repository for the parsers: http://svn6.cvsdude.com/aronnovak/parsers
More: svn checkout --username soc_devel --password devel http://svn6.cvsdude.com/aronnovak/parsers
Speed test method
I set the page's input format to PHP and then I create two pages with these contents:
<?php
timer_start("agg");
$data = aggregation_parser_feed_parse("http://localhost/atom.xml");
?>
<?php
echo $data->title;
?>
<?php
echo $data->description;
?>
<?php
echo $data->items[0]->description;
print_r($data->items[0]->options->timestamp);
echo timer_read("agg");
?>
Another:
<?php
timer_start("agg");
$data = simplepie_parser_feed_parse("localhost/atom.xml");
?>
<?php
echo $data->title;
?>
<?php
echo $data->description;
?>
<?php
echo $data->items[0]->description;
print_r($data->items[0]->options->timestamp);
print_r($data->items[0]->options->tags);
echo timer_read("agg");
?>
As you see the download time is not a factor.