refactor: Optimise count by using estimate

main/views.py

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 from urllib.parse import unquote_plus
 import json
 
+from django.db import connection
 from django.db.models.query import QuerySet
 from django.urls import reverse
 from django.http import QueryDict
@@ -51,12 +52,22 @@
 """Shared context passed to GUI templates."""
 
 
+def _count_estimate(table_name: str) -> int:
+ with connection.cursor() as cursor:
+ cursor.execute(
+ 'SELECT reltuples FROM pg_class WHERE relname = %s',
+ [table_name],
+ )
+ row = cursor.fetchone()
+ return int(row[0])
+
+
 def home(request):
  """Serves main landing page."""
 
  metrics.gui_home_page_hits.inc()
 
- total_indexed_citations = RefData.objects.count()
+ total_indexed_citations = _count_estimate('api_ref_data') # Use estimate
  units = ('', 'k', 'M', 'G', 'T', 'P')
  factor = 1000.0
  magnitude = int(floor(log_(max(abs(total_indexed_citations), 1), factor)))