Question

I’m pulling data from the Instagram API and caching it using php for use with a Polymaps application. My question is simple (but probably not simple) — I’ve been approaching this from the standpoint that I should format my data in php and then make a json file I can use directly with polymaps.

Would it be better to just cache the json file and use javascript to pull the information I need from it?

Or is this mostly a matter of personal preference?

Answer 1

You should always favor client-side processing in these cases. Server-side processing tends to add up to server load. And it really depends on:

• whether JS is a must for your application (in this case, it is; because without javascript those maps are dead anyway and so it will be the processing )
• whether the processing mechanism is not hard to replicate and is not a company secret (this is up to you)