Website Slow Since V7.0 (Public Release)

A couple of more questions concerning FBC:

(4) Following V7.0, when we click on the “Purge SG Cache” button (WP Dashboard Menu), what caches are being purged? (e.g., dynamic, FBC, Cloudflare)

(5) We have “Automatic Purge” turned on. However, we have confirmed that when FBC is enabled and when we make a change to a page containing a Gravity Form (AJAX On), the form stops displaying on the frontend. To fix the issue, we are forced to disable FBC, clear all cache, then re-enable FBC. So, in short, could there be a compatibility issue between FBC and Gravity Forms (AJAX on)?

Thank you!

Hello @generosus,

Thank you for using our plugins and for reaching out to us.

Allow me to first jump on the easier questions:

“Also, can you point us towards your documentation explaining better your FBC feature? “
-> In general the File Based Caching preserves an HTML cache of your site pages. You can read more on the official KB page of the plugin:

(1) Is FBC compatible with other major caching plugins?
-> Yes, it is – however, it is always advisable to not use the case feature in several caching plugins simultaneously. For example, if you are using CSS Minification in one plugin, switch that feature off in the others. Same is true for the File Based Caching. If you have several plugins that offer this type of caching, choose one and disable it in the others;

(2) Is FBC compatible with Cloudflare and SGO Full Page Caching?
-> Yes, the File Based Caching is compatible with the Full Page Caching option in other plugins;

(3) Do we need to deactivate FBC before we clear our theme’s cache? (a good example is the Avada theme, which has its own caching function)
-> A general rule of thumb is to always go about clearing all your enabled caches (including the caching in your local browser) after you make changes to the content or appearance of your site which you want to show up immediately on the front end;

Now on the tough part in your post:
Since the release SGO V7.0, our website “feels” sluggish. Our website’s Clouflare caching level (% cached) has dropped and/or does not cache our website as fast as it used to.

We did many tests with the plugin and our observations are just the opposite of yours – file based caching resulted in even faster site loading than just the Dynamic Caching in our plugin alone. Of course, our tests were done in our hosting environment on SiteGround servers, where even the server level caching technologies are further optimized to work in line with the caching in the SiteGround Optimizer plugin, however you should not see any “sluggishness” on your site after the caches are once generated.

I would advise you to give that a test – preserve a backup of your site’s database, then disable all of the plugins bus the SiteGround Optimizer and then check if the site is still sluggish. Then you would want to enable the plugins in your site one by one to see if the sluggish behaviour might be caused by any of the other plugins.

Regards,
Plamen.M
SiteGround Tech Support Team

Hi @plamenm,

Thank you for your time, effort, and information.

Our website is hosted with SG and we’re using Cloudflare (purchased via SG), so we’re surprised about the “sluggishness” of our website after V7.0 — especially since we’re not using any other caching plugin. We’ll test per your instructions and see what happens.

And if you don’t mind, can you answer Items (4) and (5)?

Oh, the good ‘ol “cache” — something we love and hate at the same time ??

Again, thank you!

Hello @generosus,

Please allow me to reply to the questions that were not addressed by my colleague.

(4) Following V7.0, when we click on the “Purge SG Cache” button (WP Dashboard Menu), what caches are being purged? (e.g., dynamic, FBC, Cloudflare)
-> By clicking the button you get the Dynamic, File-based and Object caches flushed from the application.

(5) We have “Automatic Purge” turned on. However, we have confirmed that when FBC is enabled and when we make a change to a page containing a Gravity Form (AJAX On), the form stops displaying on the frontend. To fix the issue, we are forced to disable FBC, clear all cache, then re-enable FBC. So, in short, could there be a compatibility issue between FBC and Gravity Forms (AJAX on)?
-> We have not received such reports from other users so there might be a conflict. My advice is to open a ticket through your Client Area with detailed steps on how we can replicate the issue and our Technical Support will investigate this. If there is a bug we will consider how to resolve it.

Best regards,
Georgi Ganchev

@georgiganchev,

Thank you for your help. Much appreciated.

Concerning (4), when does SG plan to update the functionality of the “Purge SG Cache” button to include clearing Clouflare cache?

Also, SG’s documentation is lacking in many areas (not too descriptive), so can you guys look into that as well?

For example, your changelog for V7.0.2 (released today), says this: “Improved Cloudflare cache purge” What does this mean? Does it mean the “Purge SG Cache” button now clears Cloudflare cache? Your plugin’s “Details” section does not mention Cloudflare at all.

Concerning (5), as you recommended, we plan to submit a ticket to SG for further investigation.

Again, thank you.

Hello @generosus,

I do not believe our developers will implement such functionality for the “Purge SG Cache” button because the CloudFlare cache is a separate service.

As for the documentation, we are aware that the documentation is a bit outdated or missing for some functionalities. We have just released the new “global” version of the SG Optimizer plugin so we will need some time to catch up with the documentation for it.

The changelog on other hand is just a guide for the changes made in the last release and this is the convention our developers have chosen.

Best Regards,
Delyan Delov

• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Delyan Delov.

Hi @delyandelov,

Thank you!

So, what button (inside your plugin) clears Cloudflare cache? If none, then why did your V7.0.1 and V7.0.2 changelog entries mention Cloudflare?

We thought SG was going to update the Purge SG Cache button to include Cloudflare?

Below topic confirms it. Sooo confusing!

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/admin-bar-purge-sg-cache-not-purging-cloudflare/

Please excuse me for the confusion, @generosus!

Actually, the CloudFlare cache should be purged by the Purge SG Cache button if the Cloudflare Full Page Caching functionality is enabled. This was implemented in the latest 7.0.2 release of the plugin.