[wp-hackers] Facebook API and WordPress Plugin Development - Insight / Best Practice

[Otto]

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 2:54 PM, Jeffrey Nolte <jnolte at getmoxied.net> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> We are currently developing a plugin which pulls events from the Facebook API and will display them on the front-end of the site with a shortcode based on some parameters set on the plugins option page.   We are pulling in the data but it takes some time ( 5-10+  seconds depending on how many events, connection, etc).
>
> I wanted to try to get some insight on how / where we should store this info for the plugin.
>
> I was thinking of the following options:
>
> Store JSON string with all events in options table and have user initiate pull of data in admin on plugin options page -> then:
> User initiated pull / update of events via plugin options page.
> Update via cron on set interval based on plugin settings (we will be using transients for this option).
>
> We are open to other input / options for this.

Or just use a transient to store the data with a decent amount of
timeout, such as 6-24 hours. Much easier.

If you want background updating and the like, use Mark Jaquith's TLC
Transient code:
https://github.com/markjaquith/WP-TLC-Transients


-Otto