I am going to start using codeigniter, but since it only offers to cache everything or nothing (which would not work, because I have logins, and other areas which cannot be cached) I was wondering whether it is a good idea to use Smarty.
The only concern I have in this question is speed. (No yes/no smarty general question.)
My Question:
CodeIgniter with some db queries (blog, loading data for pages from the database, etc.)
vs.
CodeIgniter + same db + smarty + partial caching (and of course if smarty->is_cached(.tpl) do not do any db requests)
What is fast, what should I use. Are there any smarty-benchmarks I did not see? Starting at how many db request, would you say, smarty improves performance noticeable considering you have to also load the smarty library?
Thanks in advance.
Smarty or any template system is another layer of complexity. It comes with overload not with performance increase, even when cached. Its advantages are others, like easiness to develop with.