DMZ 1.7.1 (DataMapper OverZealous Edition)

[eluser]OverZealous[/eluser]
[quote author="Mareshal" date="1269043892"]
Is this normal?
[/quote]

First, ALL ORMs are slower than processing the query directly. They have to be! The benefit of an ORM is code-reuse, easier to read code, safer queries, and easier maintenance. Performance is what is sacrificed to make this.

DMZ uses the CI ActiveRecord. Are you measuring just the query? Or the entire page? How many runs did you measure? One run tells you nothing, because the server could be having a hiccup at that moment.

DMZ is an ORM — so remember that it has to instantiate each result as an object. 1.7 includes a new format, get_iterated, that allows the code to only instantiate items as needed, however, there are use cases for it. It doesn't replace every normal get.

Also, compare the queries being generated. Did you specify which columns to query? DMZ is pretty smart, but remember, it's automatically building a query. It doesn't have the ability to predict what you want, so it queries exactly what you ask.

And is there an option to build database from models?

No. DMZ uses the database to learn about the models, not the other way around.