perf: pre-render student popover cards server-side into <template> tags — zero per-hover requests

app/src/Database.php

@@ -473,6 +473,37 @@ class Database {
         return $stmt->fetchAll();
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Batch variant: fetch preview data for a list of author names in one query.
+     * Returns [ authorName => [ thesis, ... ], ... ]
+     *
+     * @param  string[] $names
+     * @return array<string, array>
+     */
+    public function getThesesForAuthors(array $names): array {
+        if (empty($names)) return [];
+
+        $placeholders = implode(',', array_fill(0, count($names), '?'));
+        $stmt = $this->pdo->prepare(
+            "SELECT a.name AS author_name,
+                    vp.id, vp.title, vp.subtitle, vp.year, vp.synopsis,
+                    vp.orientation, vp.finality_type, vp.banner_path, vp.authors
+             FROM v_theses_public vp
+             JOIN thesis_authors ta ON ta.thesis_id = vp.id
+             JOIN authors a         ON a.id = ta.author_id
+             WHERE a.name IN ($placeholders)
+             ORDER BY a.name ASC, vp.year DESC, vp.title ASC"
+        );
+        $stmt->execute($names);
+        $rows = $stmt->fetchAll();
+
+        $grouped = [];
+        foreach ($rows as $row) {
+            $grouped[$row['author_name']][] = $row;
+        }
+        return $grouped;
+    }
+
     public function getAvailableYears() {
         $sql = "SELECT DISTINCT year FROM theses WHERE is_published = 1 ORDER BY year DESC";
         $stmt = $this->pdo->query($sql);