Long processing time on menu script - php

Question

I am building out a nested menu for a Magento store I am working on. The store has around 700 categories in total (that are nested around 4 levels at most) that need to be spat out into this menu.
The code I have written takes on average 2.5s to process (tested using microtime).
I am wondering if this is unavoidable given the amount of categories that need to be processed.
Anyways, this is the code I have come up with (go easy I am a front end dev by trade): NOTE: is am also using this code to loop out CMS pages in the same fashion
$type = Mage::registry('current_category') ? 'category' : 'page';
if($type == 'category') {
$currentID = Mage::registry('current_category')->getId();
$parentIDs = explode('/', Mage::registry('current_category')->path);
$rootID = Mage::app()->getStore()->getRootCategoryId();
}
else {
$currentID = Mage::getSingleton('cms/page')->getId();
$parentIDs = Mage::getSingleton('cms/page')->getPathIds();
$rootID = 0;
}
function checkChildHtml($parentId, $htmlString) {
$string = '';
if($parentId != $rootID) {
$string = $htmlString;
}
return $string;
}
// Recurse the site tree and build out a menu
function buildChildMenu($type, $currentID, $parentId, $isChild, $parentIDs, $rootID) {
// Get the appropriate collection based on type
if($type == 'category') {
$children = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCollection()
->addAttributeToSelect('*')
->addAttributeToFilter('is_active', '1')
->addAttributeToFilter('include_in_menu', '1')
->addAttributeToFilter('parent_id', array('eq' => $parentId))
->addAttributeToSort('position', 'asc');
}
else {
$children = Mage::getModel('cms/page')->getCollection()
->addFieldToSelect('*')
->addFieldToFilter('is_active', '1')
->addFieldToFilter('include_in_menu', '1')
->addFieldToFilter('parent_id', array('eq' => $parentId))
->setOrder('position','asc');
}
// TODO check for $parentID != $rootID is a little hacky, need to DRY this up
$html .= ($parentId != $rootID) ? '<ul>' : null;
// Loop over categories at the current level
foreach($children as $child) {
$childId = $child->getId();
$parent = (count($child->getChildren()) > 0) ? $child->getChildren() : false;
$classes = [];
// Build out class lists
if($parent) {
$classes[] = 'parent';
}
if(in_array($childId, $parentIDs, true) || count($children) == 1) {
$classes[] = "current active";
}
if($childId == $currentID) {
$classes[] = "current-page";
}
// Build out the list item with the values appropriate to the type
if($type == 'category') {
$html .= checkChildHtml($parentId, '<li class="' . implode(' ', $classes) . '">' . ($parent ? '<button class="toggle"></button>' : null) . '' . $child->getName() . '');
}
else {
$html .= checkChildHtml($parentId, '<li class="' . implode(' ', $classes) . '">' . ($parent ? '<button class="toggle"></button>' : null) . '' . $child->title . '');
}
// Append the list html (if not root page)
if($parent) {
// Get the categories below this page
$html .= buildChildMenu($type, $currentID, $child->getId(), true, $parentIDs, $rootID);
}
// Close the list (if not root product page)
$html .= checkChildHtml($parentId, '</li>');
}
$html .= checkChildHtml($parentId, '</ul>');
return $html;
}
// Build out menu from root level down
$categoryListHtml = buildChildMenu($type, $currentID, $rootID, false, $parentIDs, $rootID);
Are there any obvious bottlenecks here? If not, what is best practise in this scenario?
For instance, should I AJAX the children when requested? Or maybe cache the menu? Or... something else?

Answer 1

Okay, the issue was that I had my cache turned off whilst I was developing this menu. With the cache enabled the processing time is insignificant.