I'm looking for a solution to a content publication issue and I think Views might be the answer, but I'm not sure how or if I could configure it to work. Any advice, ever for alternative methods, is appreciated. The situation is this:
I have a Drupal 5.x website that basically displays various configurations of lists of published content. Views would be an ideal solution for our entire site. A business requirement is live updates. That is, when a new node is published, any View with criteria that would include the node would instantly include the new node within its output. Essentially real-time publication.
Issue #1: Page Caching
Currently the site does not use Views for any content listing because the original developers were very Drupal ignorant when they created the site. Instead we have very heavy custom queries. To boost performance we turned on Drupal's standard Page Caching. In doing so, none of our "dynamic list" pages are updated with new content until that page's cache lifetime expires. I would like to replace these with Views instances, but I need to convince my boss that Views will create a significant performance boost and still allow real-time publication.
Issue #2: Views 1
This must all be done on a Drupal 5 platform and thus Views 1.
I'm not a Views novice by any means, but the area in which I lack is how Views becomes more efficient than custom coding and how, exactly, the caching affects performance.
The Question
Can Views provide a performance enhancing solution, likely through caching, and still allow new content to be added in real time?
Other Options
I would prefer to use Views as I am aware of its flexibility and extensibility, but I am prepared to create custom solutions and explore alternative caching mechanisms if it is determined that Views cannot efficiently accomplish this goal. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Chris