pdb list very slow to load in frontend after update

Andy,

Something is definitely holding the page up…but unless you have your PHP max_execution_time set to over 90 seconds, it can’t be the plugin, you’d get a timeout error.

Did you try a test page on the same site that is a simple page with just the list?

500 errors usually indicate a misconfiguration of the server or possibly a corrupt file. You could try re-installing the plugin (don’t go through the delete process, just download the plugin and replace the files with the downloaded ones)

–Roland

Hi Roland,

Thanks for the quick response, but unfortunately the problem still persists.

I have created a simple test page with just the list and I re-installed your plugin as per your instructions. I have also disabled all other plugins on the website and even removed the Google Plus button (which I heard sometimes causes loading issues).

https://www.surreypetphotography.com/test-list/

As far as I can tell there is nothing else that could be holding up the page. I even tried optimizing and repairing the table. Is it safe to assume that this is a misconfiguration of the server even though everything was working correctly in version 1.3.7?

I can avoid this issue in my primary website by simply not updating from version 1.3.7 but it would be nice to know I am using the latest version for future compatibility.

The issue that concerns me most is not being able to export the csv file from the admin page. This is currently giving me an instant 500 error even now in my primary website using version 1.3.7 which previously allowed me to download it.

Thanks,
Andy

When I mentioned the misconfiguration, I was talking about the 500 error.

It’s true I have not done extensive testing with large databases, so I don’t know what would cause the holdup. The database handling in the latest version should be better, not worse. In order to be able to comment intelligently on what’s happening for you, I’d have to run some tests, and I don’t have a large database to test it with at the moment.

What I do know is I have a number of users who are using much larger databases with no speed problems, so there is likely something about your situation that is different.

Is the database local to the website? How does the database you’re using on the site with 1.3.7 differ from the database you’re showing me that’s slow? If they’re the same, how did you copy it? Some kind of problem could have been introduced to the database at some point, possibly.

That you can’t export the CSV is curious…500 errors are not what you usually see from problems with the PHP code, usually it’s the server configuration that causes that kind of error from the server. The export may be triggering a security protocol, for instance. Have you had a look at your PHP error log or access logs to see if there’s any hints there?

Here’s what I suggest. Export (and backup) your database from your database application (like PHPMyAdmin) and save it as an sql dump. Now, take out half the records and see if there is an improvement. If it’s a bit faster, but still slow, it’s a problem affecting lots of records or the plugin itself. If it’s still the same or suddenly very fast, there is most likely a problem with one or a few records.

What I am going to do is put together a large database for testing purposes and see what the plugin does with it.

Hi Roland,

I also really like the flexibility and functionality of this plugin and it has helped me out tremendously.

I am also experiencing a very long load time just on the page I am using this plugin. I just have 10 records on the page and it is taking at least 15 seconds to load.

Any help on this would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Josh

JoshBow,

If you can include a link to the page, it would be a lot easier to see what’s going on. There really isn’t any general reason why this would happen, so I would need some details to offer some help.

Roland,

Sure, here is the link: https://etciistest.com/bps/parents/faculty-directory/

Thanks again!

JoshBow,

Curious. No idea. I’d really have to go in and set in some debugging code to see what the holdup is.

Is this site live? Are you willing to email me a login so I can debug it? I’d like to know about it if there is a problem with the plugin.

–Roland

Roland,

The site is almost ready to go live. I am using the plugin in an IIS7 environment and have WP installed using a networked setup, so I had to activate the plugin in each site. Doing a network activate didn’t work, but the per site activation did work.

I’m not sure if the WP environment makes a difference. I haven’t tried this in a Linux environment.

JoshBow,

I have to admit I know little about this, and I haven’t tested the plugin at all in a networked setup. I suppose it could be the source of the slow response…The queries themselves shouldn’t be the problem, they are working efficiently on much larger databases.

I would look at the MySQL server response time after the list queries were made. There are two of them: one that just counts the records and the next that actually gets the data for one page of records. Can’t think of much else it would be. Have you looked at your PHP error logs?

I’ve looked at this for a while now. Seems to be just the loading of the photos that is the culprit. The php and iis logs look ok. When I set the display column in Manage Database fields to 0 for the photo field, everything loads fine because it is not loading the photos.

I also tried using version 1.3.7 and that worked fine with the same photos. The reason I don’t want to use this version is because I’ve already modified the template for use in 1.4.5.2

Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks again!

JoshBow,

OK, this is good info. What’s happening is I’m using CURL to validate the images, and I guess it can be slow to respond. This is new in 1.4 so looks like I need to find a way to optimize this or avoid using CURL if it’s not necessary.

Can you tell me what your setting for “File Upload Location” is?

The current status on this issue is I have a fix in the next release, which I expect to be available in a couple of days.

If someone wants to test it before I release it, let me know.

You’re welcome to test it on mine – so long as you fix anything you break lol… mine is slow to load too> You have the login details still?

Em