Expanded category load time?

[Snaggle]

Hello
I would love to know if this add on would be approproiate in order to expand categories to sub categories with say a hiver over effect?

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=392

This is the add on.

Also would it lag the zen cart site at all as in load time for end users?

thanks you I hope to hear from some one thank you

[gjh42]

It would obviously increase load time, but not noticeably for a modest catalog. How many categories and products do you have? It could quickly get out of hand just from a space standpoint.

[Snaggle]

Hello
I added the mod anyway

www.snagssharkteeth.com is the site I have.

I do not have to many sub cats.

let me know what you think thank you

[gjh42]

I can't tell whether it is from the categories mod as I haven't visited without it in place, but your site is loading very slowly for me. This has been consistent for several pages.

[Snaggle]

The load time has not changed really.

Could oyu help me understand and find a way to speed upo my site load time? I have optimized my graphics, every graphic is under 150 kilobytes
I need multiple images as this is the nature I need to sell fossils

I did a page weight calculator

Here are my results

Analysis and Recommendations

TOTAL_HTML - Congratulations, the total number of HTML files on this page (including the main HTML file) is 1 which most browsers can multithread. Minimizing HTTP requests is key for web site optimization. Y

TOTAL_OBJECTS - Warning! The total number of objects on this page is 68 which by their number will dominate web page delay. Consider reducing this to a more reasonable number. Above 20 objects per page the overhead from dealing with the actual objects (description time and wait time) accounts for more than 80% of whole page latency. See Figure II-3: Relative distribution of latency components showing that object overhead dominates web page latency in Website Optimization Secrets for more details on how object overhead dominates web page latency. Combine, refine, and optimize your external objects. Replace graphic rollovers with CSS rollovers to speed display and minimize HTTP requests. Consider using CSS sprites to help consolidate decorative images. Using CSS techniques such as colored backgrounds, borders, or spacing instead of graphic techniques can reduce HTTP requests. Replace graphic text headers with CSS text headers to further reduce HTTP requests. Finally, consider optimizing parallel downloads by using different hostnames or a CDN to reduce object overhead.

TOTAL_IMAGES - Warning! The total number of images on this page is 53 , consider reducing this to a more reasonable number. Recommend combining, replacing, and optimizing your graphics. Replace graphic rollover menus with CSS rollover menus to speed display and minimize HTTP requests. Consider using CSS sprites to help consolidate decorative images. Use CSS techniques such as colored backgrounds, borders, or spacing instead of graphic techniques to reduce HTTP requests. Replace graphic text headers with CSS text headers to further reduce HTTP requests. Finally, consider optimizing parallel downloads by using different hostnames to reduce object overhead.

TOTAL_CSS - Warning! The total number of external CSS files on this page is 8 , consider reducing this to one or two external files. Combine, refine, and optimize your external CSS files. Ideally you should have one (or even embed CSS for high-traffic pages) on your pages. You can optimize CSS files using shorthand properties, grouping, and then minify and GZIP compress them to reduce their footprint. Remember to place CSS files in the HEAD and JavaScript files at the end of the BODY to enable progressive display.

TOTAL_SIZE - Warning! The total size of this page is 2309955 bytes, which will load in 473.97 seconds on a 56Kbps modem. Consider reducing total page size to less than 100K to achieve sub 20 second response times on 56K connections. Pages over 100K exceed most attention thresholds at 56Kbps, even with feedback. Consider optimizing your site with Website Optimization Secrets, Speed Up Your Site or contacting us about our optimization services.

TOTAL_SCRIPT - Warning! The total number of external script files on this page is 6 , consider reducing this to a more reasonable number. Combine, refactor, and minify to optimize your JavaScript files. Ideally you should have one (or even embed scripts for high-traffic pages) on your pages. Consider suturing JavaScript files together at the server to minimize HTTP requests. Placing external JavaScript files at the bottom of your BODY, and CSS files in the HEAD enables progressive display in XHTML web pages.

HTML_SIZE - Congratulations, the total size of this HTML file is 8026 bytes, which less than 50K. Assuming that you specify the HEIGHT and WIDTH of your images, this size allows your HTML to display content in under 10 seconds, the average time users are willing to wait for a page to display without feedback.

IMAGES_SIZE - Warning! The total size of your images is 2194452 bytes, which is over 100K. Consider switch graphic formats to achive smaller file sizes (from JPEG to PNG for example). Finally, substitute CSS techniques for graphics techniques to create colored borders, backgrounds, and spacing.

SCRIPT_SIZE - Warning! The total size of external your scripts is 98147 bytes, which is over 20K. Consider optimizing your JavaScript for size, combining them, and using HTTP compression where appropriate for any scripts placed in the HEAD of your documents. You can substitute CSS menus for JavaScript-based menus to minimize or even eliminate the use of JavaScript.

CSS_SIZE - Caution. The total size of your external CSS is 9330 bytes, which is above 8K and less than 20K. For external files, ideally keep them less than 1160 bytes to fit within one higher-speed TCP-IP packet (or an approximate multiple thereof). Consider optimizing your CSS and eliminating features to reduce this to a more reasonable size.

MULTIM_SIZE - Congratulations, the total size of all your external multimedia files is 0 bytes, which is less than 10K.

[gilby]

The load time has not changed really.

Could oyu help me understand and find a way to speed upo my site load time? I have optimized my graphics, every graphic is under 150 kilobytes
I need multiple images as this is the nature I need to sell fossils

No you haven't.....
Not even close!
Most of your product images should be around 8 to 15k
atm they are all 100 to 130k

TOTAL_SIZE - Warning! The total size of this page is 2309955 bytes

Here is part of your problem...
With this load size its going to take forever to load.
Chomp on those images.

Maybe try IH3

[Snaggle]

If I go that low with image size it loses clarity

um I am on a shared hosting and I spoke to my friend who tells me the data base needs optimizing

So I think I need seperate dedicated hosting?

[stevesh]

Like everybody else, I think you need to optimize your images first. There shouldn't be any meaningful difference in visual quality between an image originally sized at 186 X 163 or a 600 X 565 image resized by Zencart to 186 X 163 as you have now.

I resized your necklace image to 186 X 175, with no loss in apparent quality, but a decrease in file size from 107Kb to 24.5 Kb.

You haven't mentioned the name of your host, which may have a considerable effect on page load times.

[Snaggle]

I will work on resizing my images.

the host I am with is

https://idp.securepaynet.net/login.a...prog_id=466331

I think as I am not totally sure, I set this site up with another guy and I use the same host as he, but I think many people use the same server, I thin I need a separate dedicated server?

[gjh42]

You probably don't need a dedicated server. Most Zen Carts with even much larger catalogs are on shared servers.