Check for Transient before Running TLC Transients?

[adamcapriola]

Yoooo,

I run a database type of website that has a lot of entries (like 5,000 at the moment) and I use TLC Transients for every one of them (and it kicks ass!).

But my CPU usage has gone way up since I started using it - my host says I'm getting a ton of POST request for http://mysite.com/?tlc_transients_request.

I assume that's exactly what's supposed to happen, but I was thinking of checking for a stored transient BEFORE running TLC Transients in my code to save on CPU usage. Is this a good idea, or does it defeat the purpose of it? This is what my function now looks like:

//
// Transient Function (better than just saving transient value)
//
function tlc_price_scraper( $postID = '', $name = '', $set = '', $number = '' ) {

    $tlc_name = $postID . '-price'; // Name of value in database.
    $cacheTime = 24; // Time in hours between updates.

    if ( false === ( $t = get_transient($tlc_name) ) ) {

        $t = tlc_transient( $tlc_name )
        ->updates_with( 'price_scraper', array( $postID, $name, $set, $number ) )
        //->expires_in( 5 ) // testing
        ->expires_in( 60 * 60 * $cacheTime ) // live
        //->background_only()
        ->get();

        return $t;
    }
    else {
        return $t[1];
    }
}

So I basically just check with get_transient before running tlc_transient. Good idea? Or not?

[aaroncampbell]

That URL should only be called for a background fetch, and that should only happen when the transient doesn't exist or has soft-expired (is out of date, but still exists). If you want fewer of those, just increase your expires time so your transients last longer.

[adamcapriola]

Good point man, I actually looked through the code a little more a week or so ago and realized the same thing. I adjusted my expires times and things are straight now.