Speed up your store!

[Eric]

In version 3.4, we focused on optimizing the performance of your store. With that brought 2 options that can greatly increase the speed at which your store pages load. You can now cache your CSS file so the browser can store and serve it from its memory and you can also have all of your store pages cached. Cached pages get cleared after each update so you don't have to worry about cached pages being displayed if you've made changes to your store in the Factory. On top of the caching, we've also optimized database queries so that they perform much better.

Below I've outlined how to do 2 things that will improve performance of your store:

1. Store product images and CSS file locally
2. Cache all store pages

There are, however, 2 caveats:

1. If a merchant doesn't allow the downloading of their images, they can't be stored on your server (ie. locally).
2. If you have any views which display products randomly, those views will not be cached as you can not return random products from a cached view.

Store product images and CSS file locally

1. Go here: WordPress Admin Area > Tools > Datafeedr > Directories
2. Click the [Set Up] button to create the required directories on your server (if all directories are not already set up)
3. Go here: The Factory > Your Store > Your store > Store menu > URL Settings
4. Change the Product image field to %li
5. Change the Product thumbnail field to %lt
6. Change the CSS file field to %lc
7. Click the [Save] button
8. Go here: WordPress Admin Area > Tools > Datafeedr
9. Click the [Update Products and Settings] button

Here's a screenshot:




Cache all store pages

1. Go here: The Factory > Your Store > Your store > Store menu > Advanced Store Settings
2. Check the Allow view caching box.
3. Click the [Save] button
4. Go here: WordPress Admin Area > Tools > Datafeedr
5. Click the [Update Products and Settings] button

Here's a screenshot:



If you need more information or explanation, we've also covered how to store product images locally in this video: http://www.datafeedr.com/videos?vide...rc=yt#videotop

Eric

[ayorofrance]

Hi Eric,

Great additions!

Are the store page caches stored on the file system on the server?

If so what is the location? (Just want to make sure I don't inadvertently include the location in backups).

Thanks!

[Eric]

Hi

Originally Posted by ayorofrance

Are the store page caches stored on the file system on the server?

If so what is the location? (Just want to make sure I don't inadvertently include the location in backups).

Yes, they are stored in the file system. They are stored in the Temporary directory configured here: WordPress Admin Area > Tools > Datafeedr > Directories.

Eric

[webnamescouk]

I've just tested this on a store, but the css seems to not be caching?

edit: I see this is a new feature of the updated Datafeedr plugin, i should've updated it before trying it

[ayorofrance]

There are, however, 2 caveats:

1. If a merchant doesn't allow the downloading of their images, they can't be stored on your server (ie. locally).
2. If you have any views which display products randomly, those views will not be cached as you can not return random products from a cached view.

I believe Number 2 is also true if you sort your categories by click thru... e.g. most popular...

In addition to these tips I'd recommend W3Total Cache and using the Content Distribution Network feature of this plugin.

It means that you can have all your product images pushed to a CDN like Amazon Cloudfront with very little work...

Another great option with W3Total Cache is the Cloudflare integration... you can get a free account with Cloudflare...

Just my two cents...

[SkemPab]

Like webnamescouk I also tried and didnt read that it was for the updated version. I will test further tomorrow when I have more time, thanks look forward to this

[lesljr]

how do we use the W3Total Cache Content Distribution Network feature

[Eric]

Originally Posted by lesljr

how do we use the W3Total Cache Content Distribution Network feature

I don't know as I've not used it. That's a better question for the W3TC guys.

Eric

[ayorofrance]

Hi lesljr,

I've done the following:

- Created an account with aws.amazon.com (Amazon Web Services) to use their cloudfront service. You can choose any of the other w3tc supported ones if you prefer.
- On the w3tc General Settings page enable CDN and choose Amazon Origin Pull (have not used Push - with pull everything is automatically pull to the CDN as needed).
- On the w3tc settings page I have created 10 CNAMES (cdn0.xxx.com to cdn9.xxx.com) to use my own hostname and spread across multiple hosts for parallel download... 10 might be a bit much... you could probably get away with 5...
-- You need to:
--- create the cnames in your DNS editor on your hosting account
--- add the cnames to the Cloudfront distribution
--- enter the cnames in w3tc

And that's pretty much it...

For a bit more detail on creating cnames and etc. see these resources:
- http://support.maxcdn.com/pull-zone/...ion/wordpress/ (from MaxCDN)
- http://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/ho...for-beginners/ (uses MaxCDN)
- http://www.freedomtarget.com/w3-tota...and-cloudfront

Sorry this is a bit brief... If you have any questions please ask and I will try to answer them...

[lesljr]

thanks for the info. I'll take a look

[lesljr]

how much does it cost?

[daniel_28]

Store ID: 38503
Website URL: www.fitliving.nl
URL to page in question: www.fitliving.nl/shop


I have done the customizations as instructed above. But I have not seen any speed improvement yet...

I am still in my 30 days trial, but the speed of the store is a deal breaker for me.

The support is very good and the back-end works perfectly, but my visitors will not be waiting a few seconds for every page to load..

[Eric]

Originally Posted by daniel_28

I have done the customizations as instructed above. But I have not seen any speed improvement yet...

The thing that is taking a long time to load are the images from the merchant's site. The merchant has access controls on their images which prevent the images from being downloaded to your server ultimately allowing the images to be served quickly off of your server.

Here's the solution for this problem: http://www.datafeedr.com/forums/show...1487#post31487

Eric

[daniel_28]

Originally Posted by Eric

The thing that is taking a long time to load are the images from the merchant's site. The merchant has access controls on their images which prevent the images from being downloaded to your server ultimately allowing the images to be served quickly off of your server.

Here's the solution for this problem: http://www.datafeedr.com/forums/show...1487#post31487

Eric

Ok, so the fact that this has not improved my store speed, has nothing to do with the fact that I changed my URL settings before..? Because I renamed "STORE" -> "SHOP" as shop is more common in my language..

But now, after 'Set Up All Directories' in The Directories area within the Datafeedr/Wordpress admin, I see the word 'STORE' in URL and PATH.. Shouldn't this be SHOP because the location is of my store is www.fitliving.nl/shop...???

[Eric]

Originally Posted by daniel_28

Ok, so the fact that this has not improved my store speed, has nothing to do with the fact that I changed my URL settings before..? Because I renamed "STORE" -> "SHOP" as shop is more common in my language..

No, but you do not make the change properly. On your Default Category Page view you still have this [product.image tag='1']. It should be this [product.image tag='1' direct='1'].

[daniel_28]

Originally Posted by Eric

No, but you do not make the change properly. On your Default Category Page view you still have this [product.image tag='1']. It should be this [product.image tag='1' direct='1'].

I just did. Much much better speed. Thanks Eric.

Almost their. What are the trics & tips to get it turbo speed?

[Eric]

Originally Posted by daniel_28

I just did. Much much better speed. Thanks Eric.

Almost their. What are the trics & tips to get it turbo speed?

That's about it. The rest you can handle with WP caching plugins and not adding too many plugins to your site.

Eric

[daniel_28]

Originally Posted by Eric

That's about it. The rest you can handle with WP caching plugins and not adding too many plugins to your site.

Eric

Ok thanks.

Which WP caching plugins would you recommend?

And do you mean not adding too many plugins only for the store page, or the whole site?

[Eric]

Originally Posted by daniel_28

Which WP caching plugins would you recommend?

And do you mean not adding too many plugins only for the store page, or the whole site?

I think WP Super Cache is the most popular.

I mean not to add too many plugins to your whole site. The more you add, the more work your server has to do to load all the plugin information on every page.

Eric

[ayorofrance]

Originally Posted by daniel_28

I just did. Much much better speed. Thanks Eric.

Almost their. What are the trics & tips to get it turbo speed?

Hi Daniel,

I have sub-second response times (testing with http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/) on a shared bluehost hosting account for my sites...

I use W3Total Cache, Cloudfront and Amazon Pull CDN. This is for merchants that do allow image caching...

I might write up the process for Performance Optimization some day, but for now look at my post above for more info...