Only Reload Relations When Necessary

[mac-s-g]

Most importantly: thanks for building, sharing, and maintaining such an awesome project!

I've recently been working on minimizing database traffic in my application. While profiling, I found that the LogsActivity trait is responsible for a high volume of (what I would consider) redundant database queries.

Each time a model emits an event defined by static::$recordEvents (created, updated, & deleted by default), the attributeValuesToBeLogged() method is invoked which reloads model relations via $this->fresh().
Here's a link to that line of code.

If I understand correctly, Invoking the fresh() method on a model instance will result in N database queries, where N is the number of relations currently loaded on the model instance.

The LogsActivity trait calls the fresh() method regardless of whether relations are updated. Depending on the application and scale, that behavior can result in a very high volume of unnecessary database queries. This has proven expensive for my application.

Of course, the fresh() call is useful in cases where relations are updated. Here's a link to the original discussion on adding it.

My goal is mainly to identify this issue and start a discussion about possible optimizations.

Would it be feasible to prevent unnecessary database trips by specifying only updated relations when invoking fresh()? The fresh method does support a list of relation names as an optional input.

thanks for reading!

[Gummibeer]

Hey,

thanks for your kind words and very descriptive issue! 🙏

The fresh() method is also in place for database default values - so dropping is not an option.

Would it be feasible to prevent unnecessary database trips by specifying only updated relations when invoking fresh()? The fresh method does support a list of relation names as an optional input.

That's a very good idea/solution! We have a clear attribute/key pattern that identifies attributes to be logged as relation attributes. So it should be possible to match these, collect the relations, unify them and pass them to the fresh() method call.

Would you be willing/available to work on it? As you already have the database query count setup in place you could check if it has the wanted result.

[mac-s-g]

Yep, that makes sense.
Sure, I can probably take a pass at it and post a PR sometime next week.
Thanks for reviewing!