CI + HMVC solution for large site ?

[eluser]mglinski[/eluser]
My Accreditation: I developed the software that serves over 300mbit(and growing) of files per second on 2 different servers. Every download request is run through php code totaling 1mb in mem use. Server load averages at .06 over a 48 hour span.

Best Practice for large sites with CI IMO:

1. use APC or eAccelerator, cuts execution time in half or better(in my experience)

2. if the database is not needed for every page DO NOT AUTOLOAD IT.
The DB class uses .6mb of ram and takes .05 seconds to load, very costly.
The same goes for the session class, its an extra class and at least one db query per page load

3. if using the DB, Cache everything you can. All settings, any user permission levels, anything that needs to be accessed on every page load. Just make sure you overwrite them if they change

4. do not go on an autoload spree, take the time and define what you want, where you want.

5. do not xss validate all incoming and set compress_output to false. your server should be compressing the output, not CI

6. serve static files outside of CI. do not use an assets manager that gets called for every js and css file

7. any ajax you implement that does not use the DB, do not use CI for it. create a small php file in a different folder. no need to call CI 4-5 times per page load.

-Matt