ColdFusion 8 ValueObjects vs Typed Structs for Flex RemoteObjects

ColdFusion Objects transfer nicely over to Flex, making the remote data connection for Flex run like a dream.  It can get out of hand, however, when there are a large number of Objects to return from ColdFusion, for example, an array of ValueObjects, which might have other value objects as members.  In researching this, I ran across a few very helpful postings.  Basically, CF8 has a workaround wherein you use typed Structs instead of full blown Objects to pass VO’s to Flex:

http://www.briankotek.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/1/28/Returning-Typed-Structs-vs-CFCs-to-Flex
http://groups.google.com/group/transfer-dev/browse_thread/thread/0abdb2191dcfd226#2cbf827754e75376


So, I decided to run a few very simple tests to see what the impact of CreateObject was on a large dataset.  I put together a CF script with a loop to create 5000 objects using CreateObject (with init), another for 5000 with CreateObject (without init), another to simply duplicate a template Object and another to create 5000 structs.  The breakdown and the code follow: 

Test	Iterations	Elapsed Time (ms)	ms/Instance
structTest	5000	157	0.0314
FullCreateTest	5000	17468	3.4936
createTest	5000	16610	3.322
dupeTest	5000	12469	2.4938
structTest	5000	15	0.003

This was run on a CF8 Box with JRun running on Java 1.5 I had similar results on a CFMX 7 Box with JRun running on Java 1.42 The option of rolling query results into typed structs is really a lifesaver given the performance numbers.       

<cfset t1 = GetTickCount() /> <cfset myArray=ArrayNew(1)> <cfloop from=”1″ to=”5000″ index=”i”> <cfset newStruct=StructNew()> <cfset newStruct["iter"] = #i# /> <cfset ArrayAppend(myArray,newStruct) /> </cfloop> <cfset t2 = GetTickCount() /> <cfset elapse1 = t2 - t1 /> <cfset myArray2=ArrayNew(1)> <cfloop from=”1″ to=”5000″ index=”i”> <cfset newObj=CreateObject(”component”,”com.test.TestIter”) /> <cfset newObj["iter"] = #i# /> <cfset ArrayAppend(myArray2,newObj) /> </cfloop> <cfset t3 = GetTickCount() /> <cfset elapse2 = t3 - t2 /> <cfset myArray3=ArrayNew(1)> <cfloop from=”1″ to=”5000″ index=”i”> <cfset newObj2=CreateObject(”component”,”com.test.TestIter”).init() /> <cfset newObj2["iter"] = #i# /> <cfset ArrayAppend(myArray3,newObj2) /> </cfloop> <cfset t4 = GetTickCount() /> <cfset elapse3 = t4 - t3 /> <cfoutput>Results<br/>Structs : #elapse1# ms for 5000</br> CreateObject (no init) #elapse2# ms for 5000<br/>CreateObject (with init) #elapse3# ms for 5000<br/></cfoutput>

<cfcomponent name="TestIter"> <cfproperty name="iter" type="numeric"> <cffunction name="init"> <cfreturn this /> </cffunction> </cfcomponent>