Advice on W3TC combined with asset cleanup
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Hi,
I was considering unloading unused scripts and styles on specific pages, through functions.php or a plugin like Asset CleanUp. I was also wondering however about the final impact. I cannot seem to logically get my head around the “verdict”, so I was hoping maybe you or someone else could help me out getting things clearer.
My reasoning is this:
1)
Without W3TC, unloading unused scripts and styles for certain pages or post types initially seems like a good idea, as it would reduce loading time per page. So each page would only get the assets they need loaded.2)
With W3TC and without the Asset Cleanup, the combined scripts and styles would be one (larger) block — so a heavier download — but it would be advantageous on access to subsequent pages, as all needed JS+CSS would already be loaded the first time and thus be client browser cached.3)
With both W3TC and the Asset Cleanup however, the combined scripts and styles would be different blocks for certain pages, posts, post types. Access to subsequent pages would then each need to load their respective blocks (with generally needed duplicates!), as each page gets their own combination and thus is not browser cached after the first page visit.In other words, would this then result in an actual slowing down of the cache advantage? Different JS/CSS blocks would exist, resulting in extra HTTP requests and multiple downloads before all site assets are client cached for various pages.
Do you have any real world experience with this? Thanks in advance for the help and advice.
Rob
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Hi Marko,
Thank you for the good explanation of the how to handle this. I already have this planned, as I mentioned. But I cannot wrap my head around the (in my mind at least) conflicting logic.
Your answer does not include the answer to my main question about this:
Will the resulting (thus multiple) combined JS&CSS packages for each page/post/post-type not lead to additional http requests throughout the site?I mean, the procedure you outline does function well for each individual page, obviously.
BUT…and this is my main question:If I should leave all script and styling as is, there would be one big JS and CSS file created by W3TC which can then apply to all pages regardless, thus saving the downloading of the individual “customized-per-page-or-post” JS and CSS combinations on subsequent site pages visited.
So, in other words, is the customzing of the JS and CSS per page/post not offset by the extra downloading of these “customised” combinations? Especially since each of these special combinations would also contain the parts which are needed on all pages regardless.
I hope I explained myself well and you understand my question. But if there is some kind of flaw in my logic, please correct me.
Thanks for your help
RobADDED Explanation about my conundrum:
Let me try to explain with a practical example.Scenario 1 – Restrict ContactForm7 JS and CSS to only Contact Page
(which I already had, by the way)
Home Page: W3TC creates combined/minified JS-combi-1 and CSS-combi-1
Contact Page: W3TC creates combined/minified JS-combi-2 and CSS-combi-2Visitor goes to Home Page > browser downloads JS-combi-1 and CSS-combi-1
Visitor goes to Contact Page > browser downloads JS-combi-2 and CSS-combi-2Scenario 2 – No asset cleanup done
Home Page: W3TC creates combined/minified JS-combi-1 and CSS-combi-1
Contact Page: no combi-2 is needed, combi-1 has it allVisitor goes to Home Page > browser downloads JS-combi-1 and CSS-combi-1
Visitor goes to Contact Page > browser downloads nothing, JS-combi-1 and CSS-combi-1 are already in the browser cache.Hi,
I am still trying to understand the website cache expiration behaviour when W3 Total Cache is combined with Asset CleanUp.
I have W3TC combining and minifying JS & CSS automatically, works fine.
I have set Asset CleanUp to just combine the remaining JS & CSS. Which also seems to be working fine in this combination.I have however noticed some strange things happening with the cache expiration. Originally I had W3TC set with a very long cache expiration for those files. With Asset CleanUp active however, it seems like the caching is cleared around every 8 hours? This of course results in a (temporary) slowdown of the website, as the browser needs to download the generated assets again before being able to take them from the cache.
From what I understood so far, the expiration in W3TC and Asset CleanUp (for JS & CSS) need to be set to equal values, so I have opted to set them both to 14 days (= 1209600 seconds).
> Asset CleanUp > Clear previously cached CSS/JS files older than 14 days
> W3 Total Cache > Minify > Advanced:
Update external files every: 86400 seconds (24 hours)
Garbage collection interval: 86400 seconds (24 hours)
> W3 Total Cache > Browser Cache > CSS & JS > Expires header lifetime: 1209600 seconds (14 days)
> W3 Total Cache > Browser Cache > HTML & XML > Expires header lifetime: 1209600 seconds (14 days)My questions:
1. will these settings really prevent the cache clearing of both plugins to NOT interfere with each other?
2. Will clearing (purging) the cache in W3TC also clear the Asset CleanUp cache and vice versa?
3. How can I assure both caches are kept in sync and cleared in sync?I have put the exact same questions to support for Asset CleanUp also.
Once again, thank you in advance for your help,
Rob
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