Pods Optimizer - Eliminate N+1 Queries in Exports & Admin Lists

[leiyangyou]

Supercharge your Pods Framework performance by eliminating N+1 queries

Hey Pods community! I built a plugin to solve a performance problem that many of us have experienced when using relationship fields.

The Problem

If you're using Pods with relationship fields, you've probably experienced:

• Slow CSV exports that timeout or take forever
• Laggy admin lists when displaying related content
• Thousands of database queries for a simple export
• Performance degradation as your data grows

The Solution: Pods Optimizer

Pods Optimizer fixes all of this automatically with zero configuration required!

GitHub: https://github.com/leiyangyou/pods-optimizer

Real-World Performance Results

Scenario	Before	After	Improvement
Queries for 100 items	500+ individual queries	10-20 batch queries	96% reduction
Export time	30+ seconds	2-3 seconds	10x faster
Admin list load	5-10 seconds	<1 second	5-10x faster

Key Features

• Zero configuration - Works instantly upon activation
• Context-aware - Automatically detects exports vs. list views
• Batch queries - Replaces N+1 queries with efficient batch queries
• ARS support - Full compatibility with Advanced Relationship Storage
• All storage types - Works with table-based, post-based, and custom pods
• Dynamic depth - Automatically adjusts caching based on your field setup

How It Works

Traditional approach:

Query 1: Get 100 profiles
Query 2: Get events for profile 1
Query 3: Get events for profile 2
...
Query 101: Get events for profile 100
= 101+ queries

With Pods Optimizer:

Query 1: Get 100 profiles
Query 2: Get ALL events (batch)
= 2 queries

Installation

cd wp-content/plugins/
git clone https://github.com/leiyangyou/pods-optimizer.git

Then activate in WordPress Admin → Plugins. That's it!

Technical Details

The plugin hooks into Pods' architecture to:

1. Detect when you're exporting or viewing admin lists
2. Intelligently batch cache relationship data
3. Intercept field() calls and return cached data
4. Support all relationship types and storage methods

Full ARS (Advanced Relationship Storage) support is included.

Requirements

• WordPress 5.8+
• PHP 7.4+
• Pods Framework 2.8+

Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and feature requests are welcome! Check out the repo for more details.

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Built with love for the Pods Framework community. Special thanks to the Pods team for creating such a powerful framework!

Hope this helps others who have been struggling with slow exports and admin lists. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback!