just to add also

some other problems that happen somtimes are not being able to log in as it just refreshes the login page even when details entered are correct, invalid token which drives me mad because I've gone down the normal roots for fixing that but it keeps popping up.

The site is getting there and I've made some progress tonight with the site speed, I'm just not sure I have it set up correctly or if what i am experiencing are just things that have yet to be fixed.



thanks

It sounds like you might be using Siteground, is that correct?

If so, make sure that the Supercache stitch on the left in cPanel is set to "Off". By switching this on, it sets caching options that are not suitable for a site running components with highly dynamic content like EasySocial. You will run into all manor of problems, as you have discovered.

Instead, click the Supercache icon and only turn on Level 3: Memcache (you'll need to make few small changes to your configuration.php file) and you can also try the Google Pagespeed option, which can work simultaneously with Memcache. Do not switch on Level 1 or Level 2.

Also, try enabling the Joomla cache plugin to see if that works for you. What I would say, is test, test and test again.

Thanks for sharing this Mark. If you have Supercache enabled, the cache might also be caching the tokens that are generated by the login. What actually happens is that our codes would check for these tokens upon submission of the form.

The reason that you are hitting "Invalid tokens" is entirely because tokens last as long as the value that you defined in the Global Configuration area. If it expires, it generates a new set of token but if Supercache is caching on the entire html page, the token might be cached as well (Before a new set of token is being regenerated)

Thanks for that, I'll see if that fixes things:)

Hello I applied the advice above regarding the supercache and after several hours of looking through things have managed to get my site speed hugely improved, I was hoping to get it down to 1.5 seconds this weekend but have got it down to as little as half a second on some tests results so I know I'm getting there as far as that goes.

However this very small problem still wont go away, it doesn't seem to matter what I do, what I switch on or off, how many times i flush the cache, clear browser data and so on

Before the registration worked in this way

user registers
gets email
clicks activate & gets redirected to the site where the green message says its worked and now you can log in.
or user would copy and past code into activation page and upon submit would get the green ok message to sign in.

now

user registers and sees a warning error saying enter a username
they register and get the email
click activate and get redirected to site where no message is displayed, sign in works and then the message appears saying activation worked now sign in.
or using the code it just refreshes and only shows green message after signing in which is simply backwards to how it worked previously.


I know its nothing major but if a site is going to give users warnings and subtle prompts to help aid their interaction with a site, having things show up in the wrong place is a little confusing.

other then that am quite happy with how things are progressing

thanks for the help

Hello Jason,

Hm, I am actually quite puzzled as to why those error messages aren't appearing for you on the site. Even if you disable all caching, the errors still does not appear?

Hello Mark

I spent so long trying to set cloudflare & supercache up correctly I forgot about the joomla cache.
I'd set that to conservative after I think you mentioned progressive could be a problem and thought no more about it.

I disabled the plugin and switched it off in config file.

Presto

the green message shows where its supposed too.

I'm still getting other messages like the one which tells users to enter a username that used to show up only if a user tried to click next without entering one.
Sometimes a message comes up after registering which says something on the form was wrong even though the registration went fine.

Anyway I'll test this more later, its just hard to know what to activate and what not with all the options available, & trial and error takes forever

Should the joomla cache be switched off? my site seemed supersonic when it was on apart from the error messages

I have supercache cloud flare and google page speed on the go at the moment

I'm just waiting for gtmetrix to not be swamped so i can compare the site to my earlier test results before I turned the joomla cache off, the best of which was less than half a second

thanks for your help

just checked and it is slower now,, so ideally would be good to have joomla cache switched on if possible without it causing errors.

I'm a bit hooked now I've seen the site can load in less then half a second so any ideas on how to fix this would be great

as it is now the 1.5 to 2 seconds is a bit of a let down haha

I just switch joomla cache back on and


A
Page Speed Grade:
(98%)
80%
A
YSlow Grade:
(98%)
79%
Page load time: 0.46s
Total page size: 247KB
Total number of requests: 11

which is the kind of result im looking for, the message problem is back though, i just turned the inline setting on in system preferences as well as was hoping that had somthing to do with it but it didnt seem too have an effect.

will be great once I have this bit figured out as 0.46s load time is I think a good start

thanks

Hello Jason,

There's an issue with the way Joomla caches work and to our surprise, the progressive cache actually caches the PHP codes as well. In other words, if you access the registration page twice, the second time wouldn't call up our php script at all. I am not sure if this is a combination issue between Joomla cache and Supercache. I would personally advise you to start off without any cache at all and start turning on one by one and see which could cause this issue.

Hello Mark

I tried to figure this out but not completely sure i have. it does seem like its the joomla cache which is a miss.

I disabled it and loaded the pro plugin jch and after some time got the site working although i havent been able to replicate the 0.46s load i had when i had the joomla cache turned on, which is a shame but perhaps during the coming weeks I may figure it out. I know some of the issues with load time is down to the template purity 3, and in particular the t3 assets folder which google says is render blocking? i cant remember exactly.

Do you think the joomla cache is something which can be fixed, I mean we would all like a site that loads in around half a second wouldn't we?

I thought JCH would have given better results but i have no doubt not got it perfect although it did take some time to get it to work so the site didnt break

I currently have cloud flare plus, supercach/memcache, google page speed and the JCH plugin so surely with a bit of time i can improve on page speed or is that the issue? too many programs trying to do similar if not the same thing.

the loading times on my site tested from other parts of the world were not so great but the test from London which is closest to the datacentre was at its best 0.46s

i just tested the site 4 times once after another, the best was http://gtmetrix.com/reports/trickery.eu/1jHBVyCl

and the worse was over 3 seconds, but generally since having to ditch the joomla cache the speed is normally between 1 and 2 seconds

I'll have to go over the plugin and see what can be done,, if i set it any higher the site becomes inaccessible, according to gtmetrix there doesnt seem to be that much more i can do to make it faster really, i know 1 or 2 seconds is ok but im greedy and want a response time verging on precognitive.

thanks for any further advice you can give about the joomla cache or if you know of the particular settings of the jch plugin most suitable for a site which has currently only easysocial installed

thanks
jason

Hello Jason,

If you have quite a substantial amount of stream items, the page load time between 1 - 2s is fine. By the way, you also need to get the correct reading and not calculating the load time for images / js too. If you use firebug and view the "NET" panel, the first request is where you see the page load time (php etc).

The rest of the loading time is dependent on how large / small the image is and whether or not those images are optimized correctly. There's this (minor issue) where you share links on the site, those images are hosted externally and it could also slow down your site if their site is slow. In 1.2.11 (Thanks to Alex for bugging me to add this), we'll be adding the option to save cached image files on your local site. In other words, these images would be hosted from your site instead of theirs.

Thanks Mark

I'm kind of crash learning all of this as I go so appreciate your support, advice and most importantly patience.
I suppose there is only so much you can adjust on a site before adding content but thanks to your support my site is continually improving and I will hopefully feel happy enough with it soon to start adding content and more importantly tell others about it so they can join and add theirs.

No problem at all Jason, I myself am learning on a daily basis too! In fact, hourly when I debug sites with some really weird extensions / templates

Hello Mark

I've been trying for days & nights to get things working, i thought it was the joomla cache but now i dont think it is, i turned off joomla cache, turned off supercache turned nearly all options in jch off,,

speed wise the tests come back ok but the site keeps breaking, ive had to restore it a handful of times these last few days.

when i do get it working and the green message showing in the right order, buttons become un use able, like the one for new sign ups or the drop down menu stops working and always the message saying enter a user name shows up when it shouldnt.

It just seems like the thing is forever breaking, i can change things so the tests come back really good i think 94 was my highest google page speed check but then the site wont work, its so frustrating but it seems like im going to have to turn any functions to speed things up off which is ridicules really.

Having a fast site that doesn't work is as pointless as having a slow site that does.

Anyway I hope you have the answers because after days at it, trying everything i can think of, ive got nowhere.

there must be some way to set it up so it works but i haven't found it, I get the site running fast as possible and then the thing breaks, I've had no success when going to the hosting help who end up having to restore which means i loose hours of work.

If the problem is the cache then somebody must have a clear and precise answer to the problems I am facing but it seems like anyone one does

thanks

jason

I'm afraid I'm having similar issues and I've had to put off launching my site today as a result. Not happy after 4.5 months work and the site is very season dependant, so time is precious.

I already have an open CRM support ticket that Mark has been looking into, but in a nutshell, with just having Joomla cache (Global Configuration and plugin) activated I have no website in effect.

With cache enabled:

1. The first user gets to register and then is logged in WITHOUT ACTIVIVATING ACCOUNT. This is a security issue for me and a spammers festival.

2. Subsequent users get all manor of errors like Jason is experiencing and can never get registered.

Having a fast site that doesn't work is as pointless as having a slow site that does.

I'm afraid this sentence sums up my predicament entirely.

With caching turned on, nobody can register. With it off, I have page load speeds of 13-28 seconds, which for me makes launching pointless, as I'll have bounce rates in the 60-80% mark.

I hope the Mark and the team are working on this for us.

Hey guys,

I have been experimenting at Mark's site and I think this could work. Can you edit the file /components/com_easysocial/controllers/registration.php and at line 339, add the block of codes below,

// Clear the system cache once the user completed their registration.

$cache 		= JFactory::getCache();

$cache->clean('page');

$cache->clean('_system');		

Hi Mark

I currently have my site working something like although I haven't added that code. still getting the enter user name warning but the other issues seem to be resolved but my internet connection is trouble at the mo making any decent testing impossible.

I switched off supercache, left google page speed and cloud flare plus on, switch joomla cache off in config but left the plugin on, left jch plugin on but switched everything off in it but auto rewrite url

I had my cookie domain entered as .trickery.eu wasnt sure if that had anything to do with things so deleted that for now.

Also deleted a staging version and i just read in another post you mentioned something about it being an issue so not sure if that effected things.

just ran a few tests one from london and the other from vancouver

http://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.trickery.eu/ND3ERmZP

http://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.trickery.eu/HYvvxix7


I'd like to improve as i have had much better results speed wise with more things turned on but dare not touch a things for now until i know for sure what does actually cause it.

thanks

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the heads up on this one. We are currently monitoring all the cache related issues or posts and we will update you again if we've figured out something that causing these issues. For now, yeah, maybe you should stick with your current caching configuration

Thanks again and have a nice day

Hello Sam just to say i've put my site off line, further tests revealed it was a pig dressed as a dinosaur.

I tried adding the code mentioned above, I tried turning all cache off and still experienced some of the problems on top of the speed issues even though cleared browser, delete cookies.

somethings not right as they say

I know I'm not in as urgent a position as someone who has a site live with members but i am working hard non the less to get mine to the point where i can put it live knowing at the very least people can actually sign up without a single hitch.

essentially the sign up process wants to be flawless anything less is just not good enough.

Members are not developers & while there are those of us who do spend stupid amounts of time trying to figure things out most people are not going to go to a site and invest time trying to make it work or stick around for future developments when the basic ones are not functioning correctly.

Anyway hopefully you guys will have the answers soon enough.

Thanks:)

Hello Jason,

I have applied some "fixes" on the caching issues on 1.2.12 and it's really difficult to know what issues are you having when I cannot reproduce this problem. To add salt into the wound, you guys have different cache environment and different setups. Anyway, if you are still having issues with caching and registration, can you start a new clean thread and provide us with the Joomla back end access and FTP as well?

However, do try out 1.2.12 first and see if the issue still persists.

Hello Richard

Thanks for the info, I set it up as described & after a bit of messing with jch I think its ok now I'll test it some more tomorrow.



Thanks again:)

Hi Jason,

Sure, do let us know how is your test outcome
Have a nice day

Wow, thanks for the heads up on this Richard but seriously, do you guys need that many cache engines around? It's like a domino effect of caching where a cache system is caching against another

But thanks for the heads up on the System cache plugin. I did not realize that it conflicts with Super Cache. I will definitely keep this in mind when debugging customer's site issues when they have Super cache.

It does seem a lot of caching options Mark and is a bit of a domino effect but if I understand them correctly (not always a 'given'..... ) they are also doing different/other things and as long as JCH is the last in line to do anything it sweeps up the little piles of caching created around the site into one big pile of cached data, possibly acting as an override to any previous caching activity.

Ref the Supercacher, (really for Jason/Mark H but may be useful for reference), this is the SiteGround summary information:

Overview

SiteGround SuperCacher services are developed by our server optimization experts to increase the number of hits a site can handle seamlessly and drastically boost your website's loading speed. We offer 4 different caching options for maximum optimization of your websites. Our tests show that a website using simultaneously the Varnish-based Static & Dynamic caching and Memcached can handle 100 times more hits than a regular website without any caching.

Static

The Static Cache option, based on the HTTP accelerator Varnish, caches all static content on your account that includes images, CSS files, javascript, flash, and more. Once enabled, all requests of future visitors to your pages will be answered from the cached content and not directly from the server. If you just made changes to your website and want to see them live immediately, you could use the flush button to purge the cache on your account and not wait for the automatic server flush that happens over periods of a few hours.

Dynamic

Dynamic caching is the second layer of Varnish-powered site performance improvement. It creates copies of your website's dynamic content and stores them in the server RAM. To enable the dynamic caching for any application, please follow the sequence: 1) Download and add our special plugin to your application and 2) Switch the caching service ON from this panel. Enabling the Dynamic cache for any of the installations will automatically enable the static caching for your account.

Memcache

The Memcached technology speeds up database calls, API calls and page rendering by storing data and objects in memory to reduce the number of times a database is queried. SIteGround is the only company that applies the memcached algorythm on a shared server environment thanks to its unique isolation methodology. To configure your website to work with memory cache, your application should have the functionality to work with memcached. Then you need to enable this option from this panel and then take the hostname and pass generated to set up your website.

CloudFlare

@Jason/Mark H - I can't edit an accepted answer to add my preferred settings into my earlier post (forgot to include them earlier) so will do it here:

Caching Level = Aggressive
Development Mode = Off
Cloudflare Security = Low
Always Online = On
Email Obfuscation Parameters = On
Auto Minify = On (for all 3, Javascript, CSS, HTML)
Railgun = On

All other options are CloudFlare Plus only (I do not use it).

I know it is a long thread so will sign off here but hopefully the above will clarify the reasons for using all 3 Supercache options for anyone reading it.

Thanks for sharing this Richard, greatly appreciated!

Richard, thank you so much, once again you have come up trumps with some incredibly detailed and helpful info.

In particular, the info about the need to disable the Joomla system plugin has been particularly helpful, as I had been on your exact path (Siteground/CloudFlare/JCH etc).

You've saved me a lot of work and so far, page speed is blistering, I have been able to register a few users on the site without any issue (much more testing needed though).

Getting pagepeeds scores in the 80-90 range using GTMatrix and CloudFlare hasn't kicked in yet!

Just need to work out why Google's own Pagespeed tests is only rating the same pages 45-50 for mobile and up to 70 for desktop. very strange.

One last thing Richard, did you did you add the performance and expire header sections? See below: -

https://github.com/h5bp/html5-boilerplate/blob/master/.htaccess

No I haven't added anything yet, just seeing how things go with the standard joomla .htaccess file with SiteGround:

##

# @package		Joomla

# @copyright	Copyright (C) 2005 - 2013 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved.

# @license		GNU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt

##



##

# READ THIS COMPLETELY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS FILE!

#

# The line just below this section: 'Options +FollowSymLinks' may cause problems

# with some server configurations.  It is required for use of mod_rewrite, but may already

# be set by your server administrator in a way that dissallows changing it in

# your .htaccess file.  If using it causes your server to error out, comment it out (add # to

# beginning of line), reload your site in your browser and test your sef url's.  If they work,

# it has been set by your server administrator and you do not need it set here.

##



## Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above.

Options +FollowSymLinks



## Mod_rewrite in use.



RewriteEngine On



## Begin - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits.

# If you experience problems on your site block out the operations listed below

# This attempts to block the most common type of exploit `attempts` to Joomla!

#

# Block out any script trying to base64_encode data within the URL.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} base64_encode[^(]*\([^)]*\) [OR]

# Block out any script that includes a <script> tag in URL.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (<|%3C)([^s]*s)+cript.*(>|%3E) [NC,OR]

# Block out any script trying to set a PHP GLOBALS variable via URL.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} GLOBALS(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) [OR]

# Block out any script trying to modify a _REQUEST variable via URL.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} _REQUEST(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2})

# Return 403 Forbidden header and show the content of the root homepage

RewriteRule .* index.php [F]

#

## End - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits.



## Begin - Custom redirects

#

# If you need to redirect some pages, or set a canonical non-www to

# www redirect (or vice versa), place that code here. Ensure those

# redirects use the correct RewriteRule syntax and the [R=301,L] flags.

#

## End - Custom redirects



##

# Uncomment following line if your webserver's URL

# is not directly related to physical file paths.

# Update Your Joomla! Directory (just / for root).

##



# RewriteBase /



## Begin - Joomla! core SEF Section.

#

RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

#

# If the requested path and file is not /index.php and the request

# has not already been internally rewritten to the index.php script

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index\.php

# and the request is for something within the component folder,

# or for the site root, or for an extensionless URL, or the

# requested URL ends with one of the listed extensions

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /component/|(/[^.]*|\.(php|html?|feed|pdf|vcf|raw))$ [NC]

# and the requested path and file doesn't directly match a physical file

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

# and the requested path and file doesn't directly match a physical folder

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# internally rewrite the request to the index.php script

RewriteRule .* index.php [L]

#

## End - Joomla! core SEF Section.

########## Begin - ETag Optimization

## This rule will create an ETag for files based only on the modification

## timestamp and their size. 

## Note: It may cause problems on your server and you may need to remove it

FileETag MTime Size

# AddOutputFilterByType is now deprecated by Apache. Use mod_filter in the future.

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain text/html text/xml text/css application/xml application/xhtml+xml application/rss+xml application/javascript application/x-javascript

# Enable expiration control

ExpiresActive On

# Default expiration: 1 hour after request

ExpiresDefault "now plus 1 hour"

# CSS and JS expiration: 1 week after request

ExpiresByType text/css "now plus 1 week"

ExpiresByType application/javascript "now plus 1 week"

ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "now plus 1 week"



# Image files expiration: 1 month after request

ExpiresByType image/bmp "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/gif "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/jpeg "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/jp2 "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/pipeg "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/png "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/svg+xml "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/tiff "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/vnd.microsoft.icon "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/x-icon "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/ico "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/icon "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType text/ico "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType application/ico "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/vnd.wap.wbmp "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType application/vnd.wap.wbxml "now plus 1 month"



ExpiresByType application/smil "now plus 1 month"

# Audio files expiration: 1 month after request

ExpiresByType audio/basic "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/mid "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/midi "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/mpeg "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/x-aiff "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/x-mpegurl "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/x-pn-realaudio "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/x-wav "now plus 1 month"



# Movie files expiration: 1 month after request

ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType x-world/x-vrml "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/x-msvideo "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/mpeg "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/mp4 "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/quicktime "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/x-la-asf "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/x-ms-asf "now plus 1 month"

I will make adjustments as GTMetrix results guide but have not changed anything yet, the results to date can be called for a 'Standard Configuration'.

Hi I ran a few tests today heres one.

http://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.trickery.eu/JJwFMcNj

google page speed 68 mobile 81 desktop

I've had Google desktop as high as 94 and the gtmetrix tests better but I just have not found the best yet, setting jch to optimum seemed to make things slower so I'll just carry on until I find the best set up.

Thanks Mark H for the .htaccess info

I made some attempt before to update the original one although I doubt very much that it is correct so will take on board the info and see what happens when i adjust the htaccess file.

my current one is

##

#RewriteEngine On

#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^trickery.eu [NC]

#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.trickery.eu/$1 [L,R=301]

# @package    Joomla

# @copyright  Copyright (C) 2005 - 2014 Open Source Matters. All rights reserved.

# @license    GNU General Public License version 2 or later; see LICENSE.txt

##



##

# READ THIS COMPLETELY IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS FILE!

#

# The line just below this section: 'Options +FollowSymLinks' may cause problems

# with some server configurations.  It is required for use of mod_rewrite, but may already

# be set by your server administrator in a way that dissallows changing it in

# your .htaccess file.  If using it causes your server to error out, comment it out (add # to

# beginning of line), reload your site in your browser and test your sef url's.  If they work,

# it has been set by your server administrator and you do not need it set here.

##



## Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above.

Options +FollowSymLinks



## Mod_rewrite in use.



#RewriteEngine On

#RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} libwww-perl.* 

#RewriteRule .* – [F,L]



## Begin - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits.

# If you experience problems on your site block out the operations listed below

# This attempts to block the most common type of exploit `attempts` to Joomla!

#

# Block out any script trying to base64_encode data within the URL.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} base64_encode[^(]*\([^)]*\) [OR]

# Block out any script that includes a <script> tag in URL.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (<|%3C)([^s]*s)+cript.*(>|%3E) [NC,OR]

# Block out any script trying to set a PHP GLOBALS variable via URL.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} GLOBALS(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) [OR]

# Block out any script trying to modify a _REQUEST variable via URL.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} _REQUEST(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2})

# Return 403 Forbidden header and show the content of the root homepage

RewriteRule .* index.php [F]

#

## End - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits.



## Begin - Custom redirects

RewriteEngine On



## End - Custom redirects

#



##

# Uncomment following line if your webserver's URL

# is not directly related to physical file paths.

# Update Your Joomla! Directory (just / for root).

##



 RewriteBase /



## Begin - Joomla! core SEF Section.

#

RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

#

# If the requested path and file is not /index.php and the request

# has not already been internally rewritten to the index.php script

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index\.php

# and the request is for something within the component folder,

# or for the site root, or for an extensionless URL, or the

# requested URL ends with one of the listed extensions

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /component/|(/[^.]*|\.(php|html?|feed|pdf|vcf|raw))$ [NC]

# and the requested path and file doesn't directly match a physical file

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

# and the requested path and file doesn't directly match a physical folder

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# internally rewrite the request to the index.php script

RewriteRule .* index.php [L]

#

## End - Joomla! core SEF Section.

########## Begin - ETag Optimization

## This rule will create an ETag for files based only on the modification

## timestamp and their size. 

## Note: It may cause problems on your server and you may need to remove it

FileETag MTime Size

# AddOutputFilterByType is now deprecated by Apache. Use mod_filter in the future.

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain text/html text/xml text/css application/xml application/xhtml+xml application/rss+xml application/javascript application/x-javascript

# Enable expiration control

ExpiresActive On

# Default expiration: 1 hour after request

ExpiresDefault "now plus 1 hour"

# CSS and JS expiration: 1 week after request

ExpiresByType text/css "now plus 1 week"

ExpiresByType application/javascript "now plus 1 week"

ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "now plus 1 week"



# Image files expiration: 1 month after request

ExpiresByType image/bmp "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/gif "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/jpeg "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/jp2 "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/pipeg "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/png "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/svg+xml "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/tiff "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/vnd.microsoft.icon "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/x-icon "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/ico "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/icon "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType text/ico "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType application/ico "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/vnd.wap.wbmp "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType application/vnd.wap.wbxml "now plus 1 month"



ExpiresByType application/smil "now plus 1 month"

# Audio files expiration: 1 month after request

ExpiresByType audio/basic "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/mid "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/midi "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/mpeg "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/x-aiff "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/x-mpegurl "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/x-pn-realaudio "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType audio/x-wav "now plus 1 month"



# Movie files expiration: 1 month after request

ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType x-world/x-vrml "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/x-msvideo "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/mpeg "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/mp4 "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/quicktime "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/x-la-asf "now plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType video/x-ms-asf "now plus 1 month"

#

<IfModule mod_expires.c>

# Enable expirations

ExpiresActive On 

# Default directive

ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 month"

#

# My favicon

ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 year"

# Images

ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 1 month"

ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 month"

# CSS

ExpiresByType text/css "access 1 month"

# Javascript

ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 year"

</IfModule>

I'm sure its not correct as I do not fully understand yet what goes where and what in particular is missing.

I'm fairly sure with the .htaccess sorted and a bit more time improving on speed it will be as good as it possibly can be on the current server set up I have.

Not quite right yet but thanks to Richard for the info which has certainly put me on the right track and my site seems to work whereas just lately its been testing my patience with various errors related to the correct set up of cache.

The many options in them selves are confusing my common sense says there should be one thing to deal with the cache, my mind says wow look at all the options, add that and that and that and surely the site will be like lightening but having so many things trying to do the same thing is bound to present issues, is it the old case of to many cooks spoil the broth or rather to many Cache options spoil the performance .

The front page of my site is just a joomla article page at the moment, so the loading time on that is a second or two, ES (tribe off the main menu) takes twice or even longer but when things are set up right I think it will be ok.

I'm just trying to get the site set up in the best possible way before I make attempt at adding content because if the site doesn't flow while I'm adding content and creating it I really don't want to tell people to come and try using it.

Really I would like to push forward when i have added easy blog and easydiscuss along with ES1.3 so I may be a while creating the site I guess it really comes down to when 1.3 comes out so am guessing I'll have enough time to get other things done and easydiscuss and easyblog added.

So thanks again for all the help, support & advice, without which I would be progressing substantially slower then currently am:)

Hello Jason,

Hm, I just tried the gtmetrix url that you provided and the scores are pretty high actually http://screencast.com/t/JiOWCOIb . Though I see there's some landing page redirection? Maybe you want to link the /tribe page with the login page?

@Jason/Mark H

If it helps as a reference point:

I just ran the same 4 pages on Google Page Speed under the same conditions as my earlier post to give a 'Standard Speed' for comparison, before I make any adjustments:

Google Page speed of home page is 82 on mobile, 92 on desktop (GT Metrix desktop was Page Speed 98, YSlow 93 in 3.64s with 21 requests)
Google Page speed of blog is 75 on mobile, 82 on desktop (GT Metrix desktop was Page Speed 90, YSlow 89 in 5.28s and 50 requests)
Google Page speed of social is 75 on mobile, 82 on desktop (GT Metrix desktop was Page Speed 90, YSlow 90 in 4.87s and 46 requests)
Google Page speed of forum is 76 on mobile, 82 on desktop (GT Metrix desktop was Page Speed 90, YSlow 91 in 4.11s and 39 requests)

There is a consistent fall of 6-8 in desktop speed comparing Google and GTMetrix but it is probably only relevant to my own site as everyone has different content and both provide slightly different and useful suggestions for improving the page speed.

You can see the Home Page Speed Analysis difference between GTMetrix in the link and Google in the 2 images.

Home Page on GTMetrix

We all approach thing differently (nothing wrong with that ) but I am initially using the Joomla .htaccess from htaccess.txt, testing different live content and will be updating the html as suggested from the 2 speed checks in due course.

When I have done as much as I can in that part of the process, I will look at improving the .htaccess content to improve speed even more (if required).

The overall aim is to keep it as simple as possible with content and user experience the main priority and knowing it will take time, with sample content removed as each area is complete.

Images are always tricky (and mine do need adjusting) but the continuous improvement in process and coding from Stackideas with help from Josh in another thread makes it easier to wait for the next releases before making the required changes and I will update to ES 1.2.13 tomorrow.

Thanks for sharing Richard

Thanks Richard

Thanks Mark I've changed the redirecting page

My site was broken again today when i checked, SiteGround have just adjusted something in cloud flare (turned railgun off I think) & I've just altered jch again so I'll wait a few days and see how it goes before I post the set up which is working for me.

gtmetrix is saying a page speed of 99 and yslow at 97 at the moment but I'll see if I get any more errors when i check over the next few days.

Take a look at our site, http://gtmetrix.com/reports/stackideas.com/z7a4uuiD even if it's not 100% or 99%, it's still pretty good

Jason wrote:

Thanks Richard

Thanks Mark I've changed the redirecting page

My site was broken again today when i checked, SiteGround have just adjusted something in cloud flare (turned railgun off I think) & I've just altered jch again so I'll wait a few days and see how it goes before I post the set up which is working for me.

gtmetrix is saying a page speed of 99 and yslow at 97 at the moment but I'll see if I get any more errors when i check over the next few days.

Jason and Richard, are you both still using Railgun?

I am having awful performance with Siteground + CloudFlare. Maybe I have two much caching going on!

I have Richard's CloudFlare settings (except Railgiun is off) + all three SiteGround SuperCache levels + JCH. Is this overkill?

I contacted SiteGround and they said CloudFlare is slowing down my site!

@ Mark H

I am still using the same settings from my earlier post (with RailGun ON), the only change being an update to Joomla 3.3.1 last week - are you still on v 3.3.0?

If JCH is the last caching plugin to allow a final 'sweep' of all the other caching activity there should not be a problem, unless the JCH cache file is not be cleared properly in the cache folder in your site as it can grow very quickly (about 1GB every 1-3 days) to take up 50%-75% of site disk space capacity and slow things down.

You can always delete the plg_jch_optimize folder in .../cache/plg_jch_optimize as it will automatically rebuild without any harm to your site and also allow you to test CloudFlare before the jch cache file builds up again in case there is a problem there.

There may also be a CloudFlare problem not related to caching, test by switching CloudFlare off and seeing what impact there is on speed.

I will do some tests on my site this week and if there are any problems will report them here in case the solution is relevant to your own issues.

Thank you for the tips Richard (and sorry for the late reply)!