• Hey there, I have a few technical questions I hope you can answer for me.

    I’m currently running the premium version (paid), v4.4.4

    I’ve installed it, configured some options and have noticed a few things…

    1. Do I need to be loading all the files, css and js, on every page of my website? Is there a way to only load plugin related files on plugin related pages?

    2. It would seem that I’m loading files related to the admin? Should it be doing that?

    3. I’ve noticed a few files aren’t minified, can that be done please and thanks?

    4. I’m loading an awful lot of files in general, is there no way for you guys to combine and minify?

    5. I completely understand that this plugin is older, has been around a while, and as such, has a solid foundation… But, is there a roadmap anywhere for you guys to update the old codebase and old frameworks?
    For instance:
    Jquery – version being used: v1.12.4 — Currently at 3.3.1 — YEARS old.
    JqueryUI – version being used: 2016

    6. Is there a way to turn a lot of this stuff off?

    The reason I mention this is, you can probably eliminate 50% of the code needed for this plugin by simply using native browser features, and modern code.

    Do we *really* need to load all this code?

    The old versions of this code are quite slow, bloated, and for me personally, won’t be needing or using a lot of the bells and whistles, but will still need to load all the baggage for them.

    Thanks for your time, let me know.

    • This topic was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by rorytatem.
    • This topic was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by rorytatem.
Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Hi Rory,

    We’ll look into making the enqueueing conditional, so the JS and CSS files are only loaded when a product catalog feature is in use (e.g. the shortcode or widget is on the page).

    When we enqueue our own JS file, we follow the WordPress standard/recommended way of doing it (https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_enqueue_script/). We don’t load the jQuery library ourselves. Following the method prescribed by WordPress at that URL, we just specify that our JS file requires jQuery.

    Thread Starter rorytatem

    (@rorytatem)

    Thanks for getting back to me, and looking into conditional loading for resources, much appreciated.

    I’m also inquiring about performance issues, such as minifying, are you going to look into that as well? It’s a very simple thing to do, which has many benefits.

    There are a number of files that could benefit from minifying them.

    Also, can you look into bundling multiple files together? My server would thank you, and my users will thank you, for reducing the amount of server hits, and round trips from device to user, whereby speeding up the users experience.

    Thank you as well for pointing me in the direction of the standard wordpress way of enqueuing files. I’m familiar.

    I’m also familiar with one of the options, which is stipulating a version number of the script you’re calling.
    So while yes, you can tell wordpress you need Jquery, you can also tell it which version to load.
    https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_enqueue_script/#parameters
    Look for $ver in the list.

    The version you’re loading is years old, when the internet was still grappling with IE6, and a number of other issues, which a long ago relevant.

    It could also be quite beneficial to look into another parameter you can add, which is to load all scripts in the footer, as opposed to the head.

    This pattern is the recommended way to load scripts on websites.

    Thanks again!

    Hi Rory,

    Thanks for the tip about the version number.

    While it’s less likely that we’ll be combining or minifying the enqueued files (compared to implementing conditional enqueues), it’s definitely something we can explore as a possibility for a future release.

    Thread Starter rorytatem

    (@rorytatem)

    I appreciate taking the time to address these concerns, many thanks.

    Ultimately I have 3 options:
    1. I’ve already paid – not yet gone live though – and will have to modify this plugin accordingly – not ideal from a updates maintenance perspective, as I’ll have to continue having a staging environment strictly for merging my mods into your updates.

    2. Leave as is – **more on this below

    3. Abandon this plugin and chalk it up to lessons learned.

    **
    – I currently have a plain, basic website.
    – I’m testing on a page with zero images, and no plugin related functionality.
    – By simply enabling this plugin, with no products in the database yet, my page load went from .863sec to 6.734sec. You do the math.

    It’s unfortunate that a company with “Web Design” in it’s name and title doesn’t, and won’t (a possibility), do very basic Front End optimizations on the code they are releasing into the wild, such as minification on assets. It’s actually baffling.
    This is very basic Front End optimization 101. The very first thing people do to code.

    I love the feature set of this plugin, it’s fantastic.
    But the way it currently sits, I can’t have my users waiting 6-8 seconds for a page to load. In 2018, this is bananas.

    Also, from a jquery standpoint, the versions of jquery and jqueryUI you are loading have been flagged with security vulnerabilities.

    For future consideration when considering features and improvements:
    https://techbeacon.com/23-front-end-performance-rules-web-applications
    https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/01/front-end-performance-checklist-2018-pdf-pages/

    And range sliders in pure css for instance:
    https://freefrontend.com/css-range-sliders/
    Can have you eliminate jqueryUI completely, as it’s useless.

    The financial implications for yourself and for people like me, who are using this to sell products, is measured. With documentation supporting performance increasing sales.

    I hope at some point you consider a future update, as a strictly performance related update. You won’t be disappointed, and will fond it’s resources well spent.

    Thanks.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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