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[Hummingbird] Asset Optimization

I have put hours and days into Asset Optimization but very little change. CSS files almost all combined, moved or force loaded and still slow. De-activated all plugins and tested. The slowdown starts with the installation of WPMU Dashboard and Hummingbird Pro. I had optimized most CSS and JS with no real progress then decided to deactivate plugins and, of course, had to start all over again. A huge amount of render blocking resources and most are hummingbird items. Ready to give up on WPMU Dashboard and plugins.

Wed, 16 Jan 2019 1:44:39
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Hummingbird Pro
  • Nithin Ramdas
    • Support Wizard

    Hi Bill,

    Sorry to hear that you are still having issues with making the plugin work. Please do note that what Hummingbird Pro does is compress, minify, and combine all the JS, and CSS assets in your theme side into a one single file like:

    /wp-content/uploads/hummingbird-assets/222a5a3bba2120ef9e4d7a85d7fb6682.css
    
/wp-content/uploads/hummingbird-assets/1fb2a4fa0ede33e007cf4a271b3eacfd.js

    Such files 222a5a3bba2120ef9e4d7a85d7fb6682.css, are basically all the CSS combined into a single file to load the site much faster.

    However, trying to load everything into one single files can break the sites layout, so what the plugin does is create such assets by splitting the CSS, and JS output created via Hummingbird into many such files:

    /wp-content/uploads/hummingbird-assets/222a5a3bba2120ef9e4d7a85d7fb6682.css
    
/wp-content/uploads/hummingbird-assets/2bc065616f70f5b3e843737d51948652.css

    So, the number of files the Asset Optimization would list would be less, when compared to the number of files causing the render blocking issue when Asset Optimization was disabled.

    Such files are what you are currently noticing in the “Remove Render blocking issue” section in Hummingbird Performance. The number of such files, entirely depends upon your theme, on how it honours minification settings.

    The basic rule of the thumb is to move the files to the footer to improve render blocking issue, however if the theme doesn’t support such workflow, you’ll notice anomalies regarding this.

    Since support access to your site is disabled at the moment, I wasn’t able to give a closer look. Could you please grant support staff access so I can take a closer look, and see what further could be improved.

    You can grant access from WPMU DEV > Support > Support Access > Grant Access, or check this manual: https://wpmudev.com/docs/getting-started/getting-support/#chapter-5

    Please let us know once you enable access, so that we could get this sorted. Have a nice day. :slight_smile:

    Kind Regards,

    Nithin

  • Nithin Ramdas
    • Support Wizard

    Hi Bill,

    Thanks for enabling support access, I checked your site with Hummingbird enabled, and disabled and could notice the site takes time to load.

    I checked the site in Pingdom score:

    https://tools.pingdom.com/#5a1a6971d3800000

    And could notice notice the server is taking time to establish an initial connection, and could also notice the following cloudflare script taking time to load:

    https://ajax.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/scripts/2448a7bd/cloudflare-static/rocket-loader.min.js

    Seems like it’s part of Rocket Loader enabled in Cloudflare? Could you please try disabling it, and see whether it makes any difference? You might have to re-check the Asset Optimization too.

    What Hummingbird does is an application level fix such as Asset Optimization, Gzip, Browser caching, cache tc to load the site faster, if the server is general is taking time, then no amount of application level fix would bring significant difference.

    Checking “Remove render blocking resources” listed in Performance Report, it seems like there are still files that are listed, that could be improved via Asset Optimization page:

    The general rule of the thumb would be to move the files to the footer in order to reduce render blocking issue:

    [attachments are only viewable by logged-in members]

    For example:

    1) Go to the 1st file listed in the Asset Optimization page, enable “Compression” option for the 1st file,

    2) Load the frontend, and check whether the homepage design, or layout breaks

    3) If not, you can enable the “Combine” option, and then check the homepage, and see whether the layout breaks.

    4) If the layout breaks this time, you’ll have to revert the “Combine” option, and Save the changes, and move on with the next button which is “Move to footer”, and check whether it breaks the style, if yes, revert if needed. Then carry the step 1 again for the next file, until you get an optimised result.

    There isn’t any way to pin point, or provide a general settings that will work out of the box, as it entirely depends upon your theme, and how it honours minification.

    Only way to improve this is by Trial, and error method. I could still notice plugins files from blooms, monarch etc listed in the Performance report, and could notice there are still files which are pending to be optimized in the Asset Optimization page.

    Would recommend you to give a try with Asset Optimization, and see how it goes with above steps. Please make sure to keep cache disabled temporarily until you have finished with optimising Asset Optimization. You might find the following articles helpful for reference::

    https://wpmudev.com/blog/eliminate-render-blocking-issues-hummingbird/

    https://wpmudev.com/docs/wpmu-dev-plugins/hummingbird/#chapter-4

    Regards,

    Nithin