Performance Impact

Hello @born2excite ,

Would you mind sharing your form with us so we can check this issue closer? Please see here how to export it https://wpmudev.com/docs/wpmu-dev-plugins/forminator/#import-export

When you have exported the form please share it with us using pastebin.com or a service like gdrive.

kind regards,
Kasia

Hey Kasia @wpmudev-support2

Here’s a link to the form, exported and copied to Pastebin as requested.

Thanks for your help!
Julian

Hi @born2excite

Thank you for sharing the form.

I checked it and it’s a very simple form. I wouldn’t expect it to be that slow even on very basic servers.

If it’s the ajax request that takes this time then yes – you can try switching form to the most “classic” workflow:

– switch “Mehod” in “Behavior” settings to “Page Reload” instead of “Ajax” first
– then if that’s not enough, try also switching “Validation” To “server side”

But I think the issue here would be related to either some sort of conflict on site (with another code – from other plugin or theme) or to some sort of server-level security tool. So if above steps are not helping, I’d strongly recommend

– first clearing and disabling all cache on server and site
– and then performing a full conflict test

A conflict test means disabling all the plugins (except Forminator) and switching site to default theme such as Twenty-Twenty Three temporarily and then:

– if the issue is still happening, you can re-enable everything as it was and it means issue is, indeed, on server side
– if the issue is gone, start enabling your plugins and theme back one-by-one, after each one testing the form; once the issue gets back you know that last enabled plugin (or the theme for that matter) is the cause of the conflict and knowing about it we could look closer into it.

Best regards,
Adam

Hello @born2excite ,

We haven’t heard from you for several days now, so it looks like you don’t have more questions for us.

Feel free to re-open this ticket if needed.

Kind regards
Kasia

Hey Kasia, @wpmudev-support2

I spent 6 days in hospital for a procedure, all good now, I survived. Sorry for my late reply!

I switched settings to “Page Reload” instead of “Ajax” and then?“Validation” To “server side”. Processing the request was still slow.

Then came the nuclear option… the conflict test, disabled plugins and activated the Twenty Twenty-Three theme as you described. Again, processing the request improved but was still slow.

Siteground assures me their servers are not to blame. I guess they would say that.

Thanks, Kasia, I appreciate your help.
Julian

Hi @born2excite

“I spent 6 days in hospital for a procedure, all good now, I survived. Sorry for my late reply!”

I hope you are recovering well,

If the issue persists with the plugins disabled, can you please let us know your server values, PHP Memory limit, WordPress memory Limit and Max execution time, also WordPress version.

All this information can be found at WordPress > Tools > Site Health > “copy to clipboard” button.

Best Regards
Patrick Freitas

Hi Patrick @wpmudevsupport12

Thanks for your concern 😃

The staging site surprisingly performs better than the live site. Please see server values below.

Live Site

Live Site
PHP version			8.0.27
PHP Memory limit		2048M
WP_MEMORY_LIMIT			2048M
WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT		2048M
Max execution time		120
Max input time			120
WordPress version		6.1.1

Staging Site

Staging Site
PHP version			7.4.33
PHP Memory limit		2048M
WP_MEMORY_LIMIT			2048M
WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT		2048M
Max execution time		120
Max input time			120
WordPress version		6.1.1

Hi @born2excite

Thanks for response!

This is actually quite interesting: both staging and live have similar parameters except for PHP version – but that shouldn’t be an issue (there are plenty of Forminator instances running on PHP 8.x without issues).

But if form works better on staging, I’m wondering what other differences are there. From experience (though with different hosts than SiteGround) I can tell that staging version of sites are often not cached that strictly (or at all) as live and/or they are not behind firewall and/or not using some additional CDN or server-level optimization tools.

Are there any differences like that or similar that you are aware of?

Best regards,
Adam

Hey Adam – WPMU DEV Support (@wpmudev-support8)

I reached out to Siteground support and got the usual runaround blaming plugin conflict or MySQL queries for the slow AJAX and REST-API calls processing.

I reached out to Siteground support a second day hoping to get someone else to look at the problem but true to form, I got the same response from a different support officer. So, no luck as expected.

As for differences between the live and staging sites:

Staging site has: 
CRON disabled
Dynamic Caching disabled

Which doesn’t make sense to me because in my mind, disabling CRON and Dynamic Caching should make the staging site slower, not faster than my live site.

What do you think, Adam?

Hi @born2excite

Thanks for the additional info.

If the only difference between the live and staging sites is the Dynamic Caching and CRON, it is possible some cached files may be causing the form slow processing.

To identify if there are specific files slowing down the page, it is also recommended to take a closer view to all the assets loaded in the page using the Developer Tools in your Browser. Please check the following url, where it is explained how to access the Developer Tools depending on the browser used.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/Tools_and_setup/What_are_browser_developer_tools

Once you have access to the Developer Tools, open the “Network” tab and order the files lists based on the time it takes them to load, please see the following pic as an example.
https://snipboard.io/dqmXo3.jpg

This procedure can help you identify if there are any external scripts that may delay the form submission.

Let us know about any findings.

Kind regards

Luis

Hey Luis – WPMU DEV Support (@wpmudev-support7)

I followed your Dev Tools suggestion, tested the site over several days and I cannot identify anything that may delay the form submission. I’m no expert of course, so I’m limited in that regard whereas the trained eye would see things I cannot.

I delete the server and browser cache but the problem is always the same.

If you’re interested, you might want to look at the waterfall:

https://gtmetrix.com/reports/oohlalazouk.com/JUvOWhGL/

Cheers,
Julian

Hi @born2excite

We can take a look at the additional info, however when I tried to access the GTMetrix link got this result:

401 - Authorization required
Sorry, but the URL you were trying to access requires authorization.
If the report is under your account, login to view it.
If the report is under another account, they will have to make it public before you can view it.
If you are trying to make a one time payment, you will need to log in first.

I just went ahead and checked the loading times using the Developer Tools > Network tab and could notice the longest time comes from the page itself. There is not other external scripts slowing down the site. Please see the screenshot below:

https://snipboard.io/961wLG.jpg

Since you mentioned a conflict test was made previously and the form submission is still very slow, even having just a few fields and basic settings, we’d recommend to reach your hosting support and share with them these findings. You may suggest to get a new site created just to perform the tests and verify if it could be an issue with the current host configuration or settings.

Hope this information helps.

Kind regards

Luis

Hey?Luis – WPMU DEV Support?(@wpmudev-support7)

Sorry, I forgot my GTMetrix account is set to private!

I’m with SiteGround hosting and I’ve already reached out to their support about this issue on 2 separate occasions already. As expected, they say their hosting is working perfectly and blame the theme or plugins for Slow processing?AJAX and REST-API calls.

Looks like I’m out of luck. Not to worry, I’ll have to look for other form plugins.

Thanks for your help!
Julian

Hi @born2excite,

Sorry, I forgot my GTMetrix account is set to private!

Sorry to hear it’s still an ongoing issue. Possible to provide new waterfall results via GTMetrix? ie with and without a conflict performed, so that we could also see if there are any further aspects that could be suggested further.

Looking forward to your response.

Best Regards,

Nithin

Hey Nithin – WPMU DEV Support (@wpmudevsupport11)

I haven’t forgotten about you; I’ll do the conflict testing and provide the GTMetrix waterfall results in a couple of days.

Best Regards,
Julian