htmlpurifier/SLOW

SLOW
  also known as the HELP ME LIBRARY IS TOO SLOW MY PAGE TAKE TOO LONG LOAD page

HTML Purifier is a very powerful library.  But with power comes great
responsibility, or, at least, longer execution times.  Remember, this
library isn't lightly grazing over submitted HTML: it's deconstructing
the whole thing, rigorously checking the parts, and then putting it
back together.

So, if it so turns out that HTML Purifier is kinda too slow for outbound
filtering, you've got a few options:

1. Inbound filtering - perform filtering of HTML when it's submitted by the
user.  Since the user is already submitting something, an extra half a
second tacked on to the load time probably isn't going to be that huge of
a problem.  Then, displaying the content is a simple a manner of outputting
it directly from your database/filesystem.  The trouble with this method is
that your user loses the original text, and when doing edits, will be
handling the filtered text.  While this may be a good thing, especially if
you're using a WYSIWYG editor, it can also result in data-loss if a user
makes a typo.

2. Caching the filtered output - accept the submitted text and put it
unaltered into the database, but then also generate a filtered version and
stash that in the database.  Serve the filtered version to readers, and the
unaltered version to editors.  If need be, you can invalidate the cache and
have the cached filtered version be regenerated on the first page view.  Pros?
Full data retention.  Cons?  It's more complicated, and opens other editors
up to XSS if they are using a WYSIWYG editor (to fix that, they'd have to
be able to get their hands on the *really* original text served in plaintext
mode).

In short, inbound filtering is almost as simple as outbound filtering, but
it has some drawbacks which cannot be fixed unless you save both the original
and the filtered versions.

There is a third option: profile and optimize HTMLPurifier yourself.  Be sure
to report back your results if you decide to do that!  Especially if you
port HTML Purifier to C++.  ;-)