An In-Depth Look at Beacon's Dynamic Loader System

The article explores the Loader system of Beacon, a CMS built using Elixir and Phoenix LiveView. It begins by critiquing a naive implementation, NaiveCMS, which struggles with performance due to the use of Code.eval_quoted/3 at runtime, leading to delays in serving pages. It discusses possible improvements such as using in-memory storage, but points out that this does not resolve the bottleneck issue. The next section highlights how LiveView addresses this problem by defining templates at compile time, thereby avoiding runtime evaluation. However, since Beacon requires dynamic page generation, it employs a method to compile and load modules into the BEAM during runtime using the :elixir_compiler.quoted/3 function. The Loader also utilizes lazy loading to prevent excessive memory usage during startup by only loading modules on demand when first requested. Additionally, the article addresses concerns about concurrent module loading, explaining how Beacon manages these with a Registry to ensure stability while compiling modules. Overall, it details how Beacon maximizes performance while handling dynamic content in a CMS environment.