Bethany Chobanian Lang 4:38 pm on June 28, 2022
Tags: , , , , , , ,   

Performance team meeting summary 28 June 2022

Meeting agenda here and the full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.

Focus group updates

Images

@adamsilverstein @mikeschroder

GitHub project

Feedback requested

Object Cache

@tillkruess @spacedmonkey

GitHub project

Feedback requested

Site Health

N/A

GitHub project

  • We’re seeking 1-2 POCs for this group; if you’re interested, please comment here or pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.
  • @furi3r: Working on porting Full Page Cache and Persistent Object Cache Health Checks to core in https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/391 and drafted proposal post here for review; also pinged the Site Health maintainers to keep them in the loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop.

Feedback requested

Measurement

N/A

GitHub project

  • We’re seeking 1-2 POCs for this group; if you’re interested, please comment here or ping in Slack
  • @flixos90: Working on a blog post for Make about the plugin checker proposal

Feedback requested

JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/.

@aristath @sergiomdgomes

GitHub project

  • No updates

Feedback requested

Infrastructure

@flixos90

GitHub project

  • @mxbclang: Submitted a new PR to update our GitHub Workflow doc with clarification around adding milestones or no milestone to issues and PRs
  • @flixos90: Released 1.2.0 last Tuesday. Found a few minor Infrastructure bugs during the release party (first three issues in this list, one of which already has a PR). @mukesh27 is also working on Implement mechanism to not load module if core version is available #390, which will give modules control about whether they should load based on current environment factors in a way that makes it apparent to users
    • @olliejones: One factor to keep in mind is MySQLMySQL MySQL is a relational database management system. A database is a structured collection of data where content, configuration and other options are stored. https://www.mysql.com/./MariaDB version
    • @flixos90: New infrastructure is primarily checking to see if something is in and loading via core, so it shouldn’t be loaded via the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party – but it’s agnostic, so it could check those things
  • @spacedmonkey: Should we run PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher unit tests against different versions of PHP?

Feedback requested

New module proposal: Performance-oriented indexing for WordPress database tables

  • @olliejones: Request reviews of the proposal, specifically the Decisions to make section:
    • Unlike other modules, this one needs at least some dashboard user interface, to initiate the reindexing of the tables, and to complain if the tables use legacy storage features (MyISAM, COMPACT row format). Where do we put that user interface panel?
    • Experience shows that the POC plugin’s wp-cliWP-CLI WP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is http://wp-cli.org/ https://make.wordpress.org/cli/ access is necessary on large sites to do the reindexing without timeouts. Should performance lab get wp-cli access? How about using WP_Cron?
    • What should the module do on multisitemultisite Used to describe a WordPress installation with a network of multiple blogs, grouped by sites. This installation type has shared users tables, and creates separate database tables for each blog (wp_posts becomes wp_0_posts). See also network, blog, site installations?
  • @olliejones: This is a bit different from the existing plugin modules because it initiates an operation that might run for a long time – several minutes on a big site. WP-CLI has been very useful in proof-of-concept plugin and could use advice on how to proceed. Wonder if this should be run by the hosting community?
  • @spacedmonkey: Worth sharing with the hosting community channel?
  • @flixos90: Adding a UIUI User interface shouldn’t be a concern for a Performance Lab module; Site Health is almost all UI. Feels like UI would probably be under Tools somewhere. Would it be technically possible to do this spread out through multiple web requests?
  • @spacedmonkey: Might need Site Health warning saying indexes are not in place
  • @olliejones: There’s a single ALTER TABLE SQL statement for each table and we need to add/drop all indexes in a single statement. Slowest/biggest table is usually postmeta.
  • @flixos90: How long would executing this query typically take? If too long, can this SQL statement be sent in a non-blocking way for the PHP process?
    • @olliejones: Overall, a few minutes for a postmeta table with a couple of megarows. PHP’s SQL support doesn’t have any fire-and-forget or threading that I know about.
    • @flixos90: If that’s true, not sure this would be feasible for core given they take so long to execute. My concern would be PHP timeout. If SQL execution takes several minutes, an AJAX request won’t work for most sites.
    • @flixos90: Realistically we wouldn’t be able to send an AJAX request and in that request complete the execution of the SQL statement?
      • @olliejones: AJAX and/or WP Cron might work, but the AJAX request won’t finish until after ALTER TABLE finishes
  • @pbearne: For core these could run only for new sites and be worth it
    • @spacedmonkey: Could adding indexes to new sites be a start?
    • @flixos90: If we can determine support on site creation and do it only for new sites as applicable, could still be beneficial without having those concerns from slow SQL queries
  • @furi3r: How does WooCommerce do it? They run big DB updates on upgrades
    • @olliejones: AFAIK, they’re in batches, but we can’t do that for reindexing
  • @spacedmonkey: See this as two problems: old sites vs. new sites. Changing schema for newly created sites is more simple
    • @olliejones: Agreed, but old sites are the ones that have the huge pain points
  • @olliejones: Plugin already has the WP-CLI stuff, could that be put into a Performance Lab module?
    • @flixos90: Since Performance Lab is for future core features, a WP-CLI command doesn’t qualify. Would potentially be a good contribution for the WP-CLI project, though. If we want to build something into core, it needs to work through what core offers, e.g. UI-triggered, AJAX, Cron, etc.
  • Will pick this back up next week

Help wanted

#core-js, #core-media, #performance, #performance-chat, #summary

#hosting-community, #tide