Thread

I currently have over 270 channel fields in my database, and I’m having issues with ExpressionEngine. Specifically, when I try to add additional fields, performance is terrible and I start to get 500 Internal Server errors.

I looked at the channel_data table and noticed that I have 2 columns for each field, creating over 540 columns. Is there a way to split this into multiple tables. As of right now, I’m just trying to get the back end to work. When I go to publish or edit a channel entry for a channel that has over 100 fields, it times out. I increased the memory_limit and max_execution_time, but no dice.

Let me know if there is a way to break this up into multiple tables, or perhaps I could break it into multiple tabs and the tabs would only load once clicked. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for posting to the Forums and welcome!

I’m sorry you’ve run into this.

Let me know if there is a way to break this up into multiple tables, or perhaps I could break it into multiple tabs and the tabs would only load once clicked. Thoughts?

Not without some serious mods to the Core of ExpressionEngine. The way channels and fields are handled runs pretty deep.

One thing you can do is implement Pixel & Tonic’s Matrix. Matrix stores its data in a separate table and counts as only one field in and of itself. It would be a rebuild for the most part, but would help spread the load.

I’m sorry, but I don’t have an answer that doesn’t involve a good bit of work :(

If the Matrix idea sounds like something you would like to investigate, let me know and we can walk it out.

~

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the response.

As it turns out, Matrix is actually installed and part of the problem. I get the 500 internal server error when adding a Matrix field with a Playa field inside. It works when I create up to 4 Matrix entries, but then I get the server error whenever I go up to about 10 entries.

I understand that you are unlikely to provide any support for third-party add-ons (I have been working with P&T, but no solution so far), so figured I’d try another route (such as splitting up the channel_data table. If you have any other thoughts, let me know.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hey Andrew,

What version of ExpressionEngine, Matrix and Playa are you using?

I check for compatibility if you’d like.

Cheers,

EE v2.5.2
Playa v4.1.0.3
Matrix v2.4.3

Thanks,
Andrew

Dan,

While you’re checking into compatibility, I asked my hosting company to look into it as well and they said that the error log showed the following:

[Sun Oct 07 21:18:40 2012] [error] [client 46.214.130.40] Warning: PHP Startup: It is not safe to rely on the system’s timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected ‘America/Chicago’ for ‘CDT/-5.0/DST’ instead in Unknown on line 0, referer: http://test.gofinancialaid.com/admin.php?S=e4796b24d5fd665c6a600cda7855b94387234292&D=cp&C=content_edit&channel_id=8
[Sun Oct 07 21:18:40 2012] [error] [client 46.214.130.40] , referer: http://test.gofinancialaid.com/admin.php?S=e4796b24d5fd665c6a600cda7855b94387234292&D=cp&C=content_edit&channel_id=8
[Sun Oct 07 21:18:40 2012] [error] [client 46.214.130.40] Deprecated: Directive ‘magic_quotes_gpc’ is deprecated in PHP 5.3 and greater in Unknown on line 0, referer: http://test.gofinancialaid.com/admin.php?S=e4796b24d5fd665c6a600cda7855b94387234292&D=cp&C=content_edit&channel_id=8

Let me know if this means anything to you.

Thanks,
Andrew

Hey Andrew,

Any work from P&T? The error from the log does not really point out what is calling the deprecated call.

Thank you,

It looks like your version of Playa is a bit out of date. I would recommend upgrading Playa since P&T’s addons like to be in sync with each other - you should always use the version of both that were available on the website at the same time and you should upgrade them both at the same time.

The latest version of Playa is 4.3.3, which should go along with the version of Matrix you have - 2.4.3 - which is also the latests.

Before upgrading anything, do a full site backup. You may also want to open a Matrix support request with P&T.

Thanks, all. I upgraded to Playa 4.3.3 and EE 2.5.3 and still no luck.

I was communicating directly with Brandon by email, but maybe I’ll move that discussion to the P&T support forums to see if anyone else has this issue.

Let me know if you guys think of anything within EE that might help.

Thanks again,
Andrew

Hey Andrew,

Will do!

Cheers,