Cache plugin- recommended?

[iguanaacademy]

My host has recommended that I install W3 Total Cache plugin. I read the August 2015 forum post re cache plugins at https://wplms.io/support/knowledge-base/enabling-caching-in-wplms/. Is this advice still current? My host support's interpretation of your post: "The recommendation seems to be to enable Object and DB caching, which should make the site a bit more performant to be sure. If you're using the WPLMS Filters widget as discussed there, that might be a potential caveat for enabling Object Caching. The only other caching method I usually suggest with W3 Total Cache is Page Caching, but this is often times not appropriate for highly dynamic sites. W3 Total Cache is smart enough to not cache for logged-in users though, so if dynamic content is limited to logged-in users on your site, Page caching may be workable." We are using the search filter widget on our courses page. Can you provide specific advice and guidance on using a cache plugin and what the settings should or should not be? Thanks! Tim

[Clayton]

Hi IguanaAcademy Here's what VibeThemes recommends from another post: <span style="color: #4b4d4d; font-family: Lato;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Please note that wplms is a buddy press based site and it does not recommend any caching plugin.</span></span>

[MrVibe]

Unfortunately, WPLMS is not "just" a WP theme/WP Skin and if you're using Google page speed score or Yahoo speed score then probably you're ignoring half of the variables to improve you site speed. We've seen WPLMS sites with 90+ speed score and users still complaining of slow site. For all BuddyPress themes, caching and mini-fication of javascript (CSS can be minified ) really causes issues ( based on experience ). The reason why standard caching plugin fails is because these plugins simply do not/can not cache for logged in users. It is important to understand why caching this is an issue. I'll just post a simple comparison to help you understand the difference : a. Consider a Static site like a site with company page, about page, services page,  portfolio page. The content is static. Which means you can save the pages in server cache and whenever one views the page, the server simply throws out the cache. When you update the page from WP Admin, server would re-cache the page. b. Consider a dynamic site like WPLMS. We have various user types : Logged out user, Logged in user, Instructor, Course instructor Administrator, User taking the course, user not taking the course. Now,  consider the course page. For every user the course page has different content:

1. Logged out user : Course button take this course or Login warning
2. Logged in user : Course button content Take this course or Start course for free courses
3. Instructor : sees an admin section
4. Admin/Course  Instructor : Sees an admin section and a edit course section

So, WPLMS needs to keep personalised information for most of the pages which can not be cached like previous site. Server needs to intelligently cache parts of site. Which is where server caching comes into picture. We recommend users to read following articles to help improve the site speed: http://scotty-t.com/2012/01/20/wordpress-memcached/ http://info.varnish-software.com/blog/step-step-speed-wordpress-varnish-software https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-using-varnish-and-caching-HTML-pages-in-memcached   p.s : This is the most frequently asked question and have been replied many times in forums. For more insight on this I would suggest you to go through many replies on previous forums.     

[iguanaacademy]

Thanks for the very informative explanation. It helps a lot to understand how a dynamic site works compared to a static site, and why caching doesn't help a dynamic site. Thank you. :) On this BuddyPress help site, they recommend using "objecting caching" but like you, say do not use page caching ("BuddyPress is built to be able to take advantage of Object Caching when enabled."). They explain why and how to set up object caching. W3TC (W3 Total Cache) was a second-choice option; their recommended method is with the APC Object Cache Backend “drop-in” file, requiring only one file to do its job instead of an entire plugin like W3TC. Read the article for details. Seems like a good solution to speed up the site without messing up the dynamic setup of WPLMS. Your thoughts?

[iguanaacademy]

One more tip that I learned today after talking to my webhost about installing APC as discussed in the previous post in this thread. My host said that I could upgrade my server from (and this is over my head) suPHP to FCGI and making use of Opcache, which will be an awesome option to keep your site running quickly. The only downside to this is that FCGI uses slightly more RAM than suPHP, but this is usually a non-issue as FCGI will run the script itself faster and release the memory quicker than suPHP and the actual usage doesn't normally matter.  They recommend upgrading to FCGI with Opcache much over the Object Cache Plugin mentioned in the previous post, especially since that plugin hasn't been updated in over 2 years. As of PHP 5.5, there’s now a built-in opcode cache called OPcache, which replaces the need to install third party modules such as APC. However, OPcache isn’t always enabled by default, so you have to have your host enable it. Hope this helps. I'll find out if it helps our school site run faster, smoother. p.s. this following page has information describing the benefits and advice on server setup for BuddyPress sites: https://deliciousbrains.com/hosting-wordpress-yourself-server-monitoring-caching/

[Anshuman Sahu]

WPLMS is also optimised for object caching objecting caching = opcache =  APC or Memcached or Varnish Thanks for the useful information.  

[Vladimir]

Thank you very, very much!!!!

[Author]

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