oh good gravy. what did i do now?

**fontaholic** · 4 Nov 2010, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by saitomedia

Your web server seems awfully slow. I would try uploading a static .html file and see if it loads just as slow in your browser to determine if it's a hardware issue or software issue as a quick diagnostic method.

I've sorted enough out that I'm out of panic mode with my site. My local and remote installations are running again. The remote site is still running really slow and now the test HTML file I put up loads just fine. My local installation (MAMP) seems to be quicker now. How does one sort out what might be making the pages load so slowly? My parse times are usually about 13 seconds on pages with lots of images. (what is the proper emoticon for LEARNING!)

thanks for any help. in other news, i got credit cards and all my requirements for SLL/security stuff up!

**edadk** · 5 Nov 2010, 03:59 AM

Originally Posted by fontaholic

The remote site is still running really slow and now the test HTML file I put up loads just fine. My local installation (MAMP) seems to be quicker now. How does one sort out what might be making the pages load so slowly? My parse times are usually about 13 seconds on pages with lots of images. (what is the proper emoticon for LEARNING!)

There could be several possible reasons for your site running slow (and it is running VERY slow).

You have many levels of categories, and it looks like you have category counts showing in some places.

You might want to consider moving the categories so that they are in only 1 or 2 layers. To look at some books, I had to navigate down 5 levels of categories, and I think that will slow things down considerably. Displaying the category counts also takes a lot of resources.

There may be other issues too, but this is something to think about.

Also make sure your database indexes are in place and that you are on a fast server. A dedicated server would be best for a large product database and a lot of customers.

Lastly, you posted info which makes your site accessible. If you are still running the old version, change the password and keep your site private until you upgrade or you will likely encounter ugly issues.

Nice site design though :)

Ed

**fontaholic** · 5 Nov 2010, 04:23 AM

Originally Posted by edadk

There could be several possible reasons for your site running slow (and it is running VERY slow)....

thank you for these words of advice and ideas to try regarding the categories. i will have to do some reading on what you mean by database indexes being in place. i don't entirely know what that means either.

Lastly, you posted info which makes your site accessible

thank you. i have changed my passwords. what did i post that was sensitive? that i use MAMP? just so i know next time...

Nice site design though :)

thanks! just in time! we redesigned our logo and need to update the whole look... but it's ok. that's what my plan for 1.3.9 is for.

**edadk** · 5 Nov 2010, 02:50 PM

what did i post that was sensitive?

Older versions are susceptible to hacks. If you let the bad guys get to your site, they might be able to mess it up. You're better off behind a password until you upgrade to 1.39h.

Don't worry about the indexes for now. Get rid of the category counts and think about a less complex category setup first and see if that speeds things up.

Ed

**fontaholic** · 5 Nov 2010, 03:09 PM

thanks... i really have tried to be mindful not to post passwords or database names.

another zenner i know gave me a bit of code that put the category counts in the center panel. i took that out so it doesn't have to do math every time a category page loads and i think i've gotten better parse times this morning because of it (once as low as 2s!). perhaps once i get some of the extra category layers out of there it will get even faster. it still takes a long time to load a single product detail page, which makes me feel like i'm not done finding the problem yet.

i struggle about reducing the categories though... i'm going to have twice the amount of products in here eventually and really need to give folks a sane way to find what they're looking for. books and music are the most terrifying because you can make SO many layers of topics within those.

because i want to offer the 'shop by intention...' idea, the category layers are already going to be complex enough.

**fontaholic** · 11 Nov 2010, 11:06 PM

ok, so i took the plunge and have started the upgrade to 1.3.9h. in that process, the parse times for my pages were not improved.

i reduced the number of category levels from 7 - 4 and saw a minimal increase in speed. and then...

i found this page...

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=21

and followed the suggestions there and now have what an offsite tester describes as "lightning quick".

i think all the things helped, but the last one was key... i had a background image in one of my header elements that was being called from my www server and not the shop subdomain. once i moved it, it sped right up.

hope this helps the next person!