fix(SpecialNetworkField): don't use query to identify interface representation #749

This commit addresses an issue where loading a SpecialNetworkField from its internal format could result in all NetworkInterface objects be loaded each time. This could cause major delays and CPU utilization when reading many objects containing this field, as it would also load all NetworkInterface objects for each instance. Instead of using query to identify an interface's representation value, we know simply rely on the base InterfaceField to handle the conversion and check if anything was actually converted.

Author: jaredhendrickson13

pfSense-pkg-RESTAPI/files/usr/local/pkg/RESTAPI/Fields/SpecialNetworkField.inc

@@ -307,13 +307,14 @@ class SpecialNetworkField extends InterfaceField {
             return $representation_value;
         }
 
-        # If the value is a NetworkInterface, obtain its representation value if it's not the ID
-        $if_query = NetworkInterface::query(id: $internal_value);
-        if ($this->represented_as !== 'id' and NetworkInterface::query(id: $internal_value)->exists()) {
-            return $if_query->first()->{$this->represented_as}->value;
+        # When loading the regular internal value (from InterfaceField), if the value is different from the
+        # internal value, it means it was an interface that got converted from its internal ID. So return it.
+        $representation_value = parent::_from_internal($internal_value);
+        if ($representation_value !== $internal_value) {
+            return $representation_value;
         }
 
-        # Otherwise, just return the internal value as it is
+        # Otherwise, just return the internal value as it is (interface ID, alias, IP, subnet, keyword, etc.)
         return $internal_value;
     }
 }