# Fast XML output **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [April 22, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fast-xml-output/135527 "2008-04-22T21:40:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fast-xml-output/135527/1 "2008-04-22T21:40:41Z")
Hi, we just started playing with ruby and ActiveRecord a few days ago at my company and we’re having major troubles of outputting xml fast enough. Pure xml output from ActiveRecord::Base takes approx 20s for 500 objects (that are small and simple). Does anyone have any pointers? How fast is REXML? ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fast-xml-output/135527/2 "2008-04-23T04:30:11Z")
On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:40:07 +0900, Michael L. wrote: > Hi, > > we just started playing with ruby and ActiveRecord a few days ago at > my company and we’re having major troubles of outputting xml fast > enough. > > Pure xml output from ActiveRecord::Base takes approx 20s for 500 > objects (that are small and simple). Does anyone have any pointers? > How fast is REXML? Slow as hell. We just did a refactoring today, going from xml to json to pass AR data between apps. We achieved an order of magnitude speed increase and profiling showed 70% of the time on the client side was spent parsing xml and 30% on the server side creating the xml reppresentation. If you’re stuck with XML I’d look into a replacement for rexml. ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fast-xml-output/135527/3 "2008-04-23T04:37:21Z")
On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 3:40 PM, Michael L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Pure xml output from ActiveRecord::Base takes approx 20s for 500 > objects (that are small and simple). Does anyone have any pointers? > How fast is REXML? Look into libxml. – Avdi Home: [http://avdi.org](http://avdi.org) Developer Blog: [http://avdi.org/devblog/](http://avdi.org/devblog/) Twitter: [http://twitter.com/avdi](http://twitter.com/avdi) Journal: [http://avdi.livejournal.com](http://avdi.livejournal.com) ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 7:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fast-xml-output/135527/4 "2008-04-24T07:00:48Z")
Avdi G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 3:40 PM, Michael L. > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Pure xml output from ActiveRecord::Base takes approx 20s for 500 > > objects (that are small and simple). Does anyone have any pointers? > > How fast is REXML? > > Look into libxml. The devil is in the details. I rewrote my XML-manipulation class to use libxml instead of REXML and the libxml-based version of my routine takes twice as long as the REXML-based version. So it all depends on exactly what you do with it… m.