[support] SLOW LOADING

[Larry Garfield]

First off, make sure you're running with page caching enabled.  Cached pages 
are drastically faster than non-cached pages.  Unfortunately they only work 
for anonymous users.

If you're running a dedicated server, install an opcode cache.  That will have 
a huge impact on any PHP application, but particularly to large ones like 
Drupal that have a lot of code.  

After that, you get into more detailed benchmarking.  Try using the devel 
module to see what queries are being run, and if any of them are especially 
slow.  After analyzing the queries, you may find that adding an index or 
three to the database could get you a nice performance boost.

If you're using Views, I always recommend using a List or Table view rather 
than Full or Teaser view.  Full and Teaser views run a full node_load() on 
each node returned, and each node_load() can be anywhere from 3 to 10 queries 
depending on what you have installed.  List and Table views are always two 
queries: A data query and a count query.  

And of course, try upgrading. :-)  Most modules get faster over time rather 
than slower, and Drupal 5 is faster for anonymous users than 4.7.  Once on 
Drupal 5, make sure you use the CSS compressor.  I've been able to cut a 
page's load time in half just by switching on the CSS compressor.  Drupal 6 
will include a Javascript compressor as well for the same reason.

Cheers.

On Sunday 14 October 2007, blogdiva at culturekitchen.com wrote:
> This is the #1 complaint I get from users of my site and no matter
> what I do, I can't figure how to make my pages load faster. I would
> like to know what suggestions you have. I really don't think this is
> an issue with what's on the pages. I think this is something to do
> with the DB and how it calls in blocks.
>
> I am running D4.7
>
>
>
> / liza
>
>
> Liza Sabater, Publisher
> www.culturekitchen.com
> www.dailygotham.com
>
> MOB - 646.552.7365
> AIM - cultkitdiva


-- 
Larry Garfield			AIM: LOLG42
larry at garfieldtech.com		ICQ: 6817012

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