Picasa API access benchmarks

bench.rb

require 'rubygems'
require 'benchmark'
require 'httparty'

@picasa_user = '117499753694301708125'

class XmlFetcher
  include HTTParty
  format  :xml
end

class JsonFetcher
  include HTTParty
  format :json
end

def fetch_albums(format = :xml, headers = {}, &block)
  params = "&alt=json" if format == :json
  headers.merge!({ "GData-Version" => "2" })
  url = "http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/api/user/#{@picasa_user}?v=2#{params}"
  if block_given?
    yield(url, headers)
  else
    HTTParty.get(url, :headers => headers)
  end
end

def fetch_albums_with_gzip(format = :xml)
  fetch_albums(format, { "Accept-Encoding" => "gzip, deflate", "User-Agent" => "bench (gzip)" })
end

puts "Measuring fething only (no parsing involved)\n"

Benchmark.bm(10) do |bench|
  bench.report("plain (xml) ") { @plain_xml  = fetch_albums                  }
  bench.report("plain (json)") { @plain_json = fetch_albums(:json)           }
  bench.report("gzip  (xml) ") { @gzip_xml   = fetch_albums_with_gzip        }
  bench.report("gzip  (json)") { @gzip_json  = fetch_albums_with_gzip(:json) }
end

puts "\nMeasuse parsing only (no fetching involved)\n"

@xml  = @gzip_xml.body
@json = @gzip_json.body 

Benchmark.bm(10) do |bench|
  bench.report("XML (nokogiri)  ") { MultiXml.parser = :nokogiri; MultiXml.parse(@xml)  }
  bench.report("XML (ox)        ") { MultiXml.parser = :ox; MultiXml.parse(@xml) }
  bench.report("JSON (json_pure)") { MultiJson.use :json_pure; MultiJson.load(@json) }
  bench.report("JSON (yajl)     ") { MultiJson.use :yajl; MultiJson.load(@json) }
  bench.report("JSON (oj)       ") { MultiJson.use :oj; MultiJson.load(@json) }
end

puts "\nMeasure fetching and parsing, all handled by HTTParty\n"

Benchmark.bm(10) do |bench|
  bench.report("plain XML (nokogiri)  ") { MultiXml.parser = :nokogiri; fetch_albums        { |url, headers| XmlFetcher.get(url, :headers => headers).parsed_response } }
  bench.report("plain XML (ox)        ") { MultiXml.parser = :ox;       fetch_albums        { |url, headers| XmlFetcher.get(url, :headers => headers).parsed_response } }
  bench.report("plain JSON (json_pure)") { MultiJson.use :json_pure;    fetch_albums(:json) { |url, headers| JsonFetcher.get(url, :headers => headers).parsed_response } }
  bench.report("plain JSON (yajl)     ") { MultiJson.use :yajl;         fetch_albums(:json) { |url, headers| JsonFetcher.get(url, :headers => headers).parsed_response } }
  bench.report("plain JSON (oj)       ") { MultiJson.use :oj;           fetch_albums(:json) { |url, headers| JsonFetcher.get(url, :headers => headers).parsed_response } }
  bench.report("gzip  XML (nokogiri)  ") { MultiXml.parser = :nokogiri; fetch_albums_with_gzip        { |url, headers| XmlFetcher.get(url, :headers => headers).parsed_response } }
  bench.report("gzip  XML (ox)        ") { MultiXml.parser = :ox;       fetch_albums_with_gzip        { |url, headers| XmlFetcher.get(url, :headers => headers).parsed_response } }
  bench.report("gzip  JSON (json_pure)") { MultiJson.use :json_pure;    fetch_albums_with_gzip(:json) { |url, headers| JsonFetcher.get(url, :headers => headers).parsed_response } }
  bench.report("gzip  JSON (yajl)     ") { MultiJson.use :yajl;         fetch_albums_with_gzip(:json) { |url, headers| JsonFetcher.get(url, :headers => headers).parsed_response } }
  bench.report("gzip  JSON (oj)       ") { MultiJson.use :oj;           fetch_albums_with_gzip(:json) { |url, headers| JsonFetcher.get(url, :headers => headers).parsed_response } }
end

results.txt

Results on a Linode box

Measuring fething only (no parsing involved)
                 user     system      total        real
plain (xml)   0.090000   0.050000   0.140000 (  2.660800)
plain (json)  0.100000   0.050000   0.150000 (  2.549367)
gzip  (xml)   0.040000   0.020000   0.060000 (  0.680799)
gzip  (json)  0.030000   0.010000   0.040000 (  0.648499)

Measuse parsing only (no fetching involved)
                 user     system      total        real
XML (nokogiri)    2.590000   0.210000   2.800000 (  2.845596)
XML (ox)          1.390000   0.010000   1.400000 (  1.392543)
JSON (json_pure)  5.250000   0.010000   5.260000 (  5.303357)
JSON (yajl)       0.220000   0.000000   0.220000 (  0.239877)
JSON (oj)         0.410000   0.020000   0.430000 (  0.435273)

Measure fetching and parsing, all handled by HTTParty
                 user     system      total        real
plain XML (nokogiri)    1.920000   0.050000   1.970000 (  4.067620)
plain XML (ox)          0.810000   0.010000   0.820000 (  2.640043)
plain JSON (json_pure)  2.870000   0.030000   2.900000 (  4.922784)
plain JSON (yajl)       0.310000   0.010000   0.320000 (  2.494792)
plain JSON (oj)         0.230000   0.030000   0.260000 (  2.122090)
gzip  XML (nokogiri)    0.040000   0.000000   0.040000 (  0.691813)
gzip  XML (ox)          0.040000   0.010000   0.050000 (  0.624246)
gzip  JSON (json_pure)  0.030000   0.000000   0.030000 (  0.790274)
gzip  JSON (yajl)       0.020000   0.010000   0.030000 (  0.703493)
gzip  JSON (oj)         0.040000   0.000000   0.040000 (  0.621552)