Why include performance in All in one SEO?

  • Zahak

    (@zahak)


    10 years, 8 months ago

    Why include the Performance part in All in one SEO plugin?

    First and primarily, I really don’t like when you try to alter memory_limit and execution time through a clickable admin interface, within the application itself. There is a reason for have such settings in php.ini…

    Second, why activate it by default? We upgrade All in one SEO plugin, and suddenly it tries to set memory_limit to 256MB. What if we have a complete different setting? …and assume that most sys-admins actually do have a reason for their settings?

    Third, why include these kind of settings at all in a plugin for SEO? Google don’t care what memory_limit I have, or what execution time I allow.

    —

    Think that it is a little bit scary when plugins start to fiddle with server settings, and especially when they start to fiddle around with things that is way out of what they should do.

    Google do mind the performance of the website, but to alter settings like this, may as well disable the entire website… Then it would probably be a better way to include a caching part within the performance part.

    Also I think that it is a bit scary with plugins that do to much. The risk for interfering with other plugins or themes increases a lot, and why use a plugin with a heavy overload when you only need one thing?

    —

    I think that the plugin is great. I have used it for many years. Please don’t screw it up with wierd things 🙂

    http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Peter Baylies

    (@pbaylies)

    10 years, 8 months ago

    Zahak,

    You might be interested to learn that WordPress often does the exact same thing in the admin area as well – look up WP_MEMORY_LIMIT. If you don’t see the need for the Performance module, and don’t want it potentially changing the memory limit, then I suggest you change that setting to System Default and/or deactivate the module.

    The reason this exists is because quite often sysadmins don’t have a reason for their settings – i.e. they use default settings and never look at them, and then users wonder why their site breaks when they activate All in One SEO Pack and don’t realize their PHP memory limit was set at 32MB, or indeed, even know what their PHP memory limit is. By having this module, users can both inspect their settings and easily fix a couple of key site performance related settings which have caused problems for them in the past.

    Glad you like the plugin!

    Thread Starter Zahak

    (@zahak)

    10 years, 8 months ago

    Hi there Peter,

    I know about WordPress constant, and I think that is a totally different matter, of several reasons.

    1. WordPress need about 40MB to run. Without that amount, the probability is that it will crash all time.

    2. As it is a constant, the developer may easily alter this, but the webmaster (with no real knowledge about php) may not.

    3. It is actually nice to be able to increase memory size in admin (using WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT) without touch memory size for default web.

    But it is also a bit different, as WordPress is the entire application, responsible for the entire application to work. I still don’t understand why All in one SEO, which is for SEO, would like to alter memory limit. What is next, will All in one SEO alter the wysiwyg? I think that it is very different areas.

    The main issue in the end is that the very group that don’t know what PHP memory limit is, can alter memory limit. So what happens if we increase memory limit to 256MB, and there are 20 people visiting our website? Suddenly we use (potential) 256*20 = 5 120 MB. But we only had 4GB memory for starters… so our server, not the application, crash.

    Memory limit itself is a guard, to ensure that the application crash, not the server. I don’t think that it is wise to give tools to disable this guard to people who don’t know what it is, how it may affect them, or how it should be set up.

    —

    It is very simple to deactivate that part of plugin, which I’m very happy for. But as it is enabled by default, and for instance my fellow developers at our company didn’t notice that the performance-part was added at all…

    —

    A bit curious though, it sounds like it’s quite common that memory limit is set so low, that it breaks the site when activating All in one SEO? Hm, All in one SEO can’t increase the memory consumption that much, can it?

    Peter Baylies

    (@pbaylies)

    10 years, 8 months ago

    Let me correct a potential misconception here – a memory limit of 256MB does not mean that a PHP process has to use 256MB – it means that it can use up to 256MB. Changing your memory limit to 256MB or higher typically should not increase the memory usage of your server at all, and the only reason it would is if you already had PHP processes that were running out of memory. I think we can both agree that that’s a bad situation, and that’s what this is designed to – and indeed does – correct.

    All in One SEO Pack doesn’t significantly increase the memory consumption of a WordPress site, but in the past it’s been enough to cause problems with people who have low memory limits set on their site. Given the amount of sites that run All in One SEO Pack, this can cause a fair amount of support requests and confusion, which we have to troubleshoot to diagnose potential bugs. So in short – there’s not really a downside to doing this, and there’s a huge upside – people whose sites would otherwise be broken are fixed. That’s why it’s like this by default.

    Thread Starter Zahak

    (@zahak)

    10 years, 8 months ago

    I’m very aware of that memory consumption is not increased due to higher memory limit. But again, the limit is there for a reason.

    So I don’t agree with there being no downside, however I can understand that it is nice to avoid those quite unecessary bug reports. Still think it’s wrong solution though.

    Anyway, have a nice weekend, and keep up the good work with the plugin.

    Peter Baylies

    (@pbaylies)

    10 years, 8 months ago

    Zahak,

    Cheers; the main problem is, if you run into a situation like that, and don’t raise the memory limit early, the site in question will die. What would be more sane, do you think? Ideas / patches welcome.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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