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

Announcements

• Welcome to our new members of #core-performance
• Thanks to everyone who visited the Performance table on Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. at WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US last week – here’s a round-up of some activity:
  • @westonruter I was working on removing unload event handlers from wp-adminadmin (and super admin) (#55491) which relate to performance since they prevent bfcache. Got a mostly-complete patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. ready for review. But ironically I found in 6.3 that bfcache was explicitly disabled via Cache-Control: no-store (#21938), so removing unload doesn’t have any effect. Maybe we want to revisit that.
  • @flixos90 I committed https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/56445 at Contributor Day, that’s a big deal in terms of new APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. functions, with prime_options() and get_options() (the latter is probably what most WP devs will immediately understand what it does)
  • @mukesh27 One ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. that was committed at WCUS Contributor Day Performance optimization of register_block_script_handle() – This will improve improve Server side metric by ~1%
  • @joemcgill #58998 should help avoid DB stampedes when rewrites are flushed. I’m hoping @icaleb will be able to test this patch at VIP and let us know if there are any side effects that we need to be aware of.
  • @joemcgill We also had #52759 committed that adds a filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. to avoid a potentially expensive DB query, but it’s currently reopened to consider a name change for the filter. Feel free to weigh in if you have opinions.
  • @flixos90 During Contributor Day @gziolo and myself worked through this, at the end came up with an idea for a solution, which I implemented yesterday, in https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/49904 and https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/5104 (the two are kind of related but separate problems)
• This week’s Performance Bug Scrub lead, request for volunteer please
  • @joemcgill happy to run this weeks bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. scrub (thank you!)

Priority Projects

Server Response Time

Link to roadmap projects

Contributors: @joemcgill @spacedmonkey @aristath @swissspidy

• @joemcgill I spent some time prior to WCUS looking at #57789 and plan to pick that back up later this week as a part of a general focus on improving template loading
• @flixos90 working on https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/5069, starting at Contributor Day and iterated yesterday. Will make another iteration today and then it should be ready for another review
• @swissspidy I had some great discussions at WCUS regarding i18ni18n Internationalization, or the act of writing and preparing code to be fully translatable into other languages. Also see localization. Often written with a lowercase i so it is not confused with a lowercase L or the numeral 1. Often an acquired skill. performance, people are really interested in testing this new feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins.. The great news is that 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 just got approved, so I’ll push it to WordPress.org later today or so. Then we can spread the word and start looking into adding it to Performance Lab (once we have the standalone modules) etc.

Database Optimization

Link to roadmap projects

Contributors: @aristath @spacedmonkey @olliejones

• No updates this week

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/. & CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets.

Link to roadmap project

Contributors: @mukesh27 @10upsimon @adamsilverstein @westonruter

• @westonruter I backported the use of defer for blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. view scripts from GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ to WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. (#59115). I did some more perf analysis and found a 6.5% reduction in TTFB-LCP
  • @flixos90 What scenario was that tested with? TT3 or another theme / configuration? (Details are in the TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. comment)
• @westonruter I also analyzed moving Twenty Seventeen’s scripts from the footer to the head and adding defer, but I didn’t find there to be any improvement
• @westonruter On the non-JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. front, I did some more analysis on the impacts of inlining stylesheets instead of loading them externally, especially when a CDN is involved. I found inlining to be more important when a CDN is involved, but when a CDN isn’t involved, then better not to inline. The findings don’t seem to be entirely conclusive, however
  • @flixos90 I think this is an important learning worth sharing with the broader community. It has come up numerous times in the past that folks suggest to inline certain assets based on an assumption that that would be faster. But seems that’s more complicated than that
• @joemcgill I noticed that #58634 has a PR that could use a review. Otherwise, that one doesn’t yet have an owner
• @joemcgill Also, https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/discussions/53260 is an interesting conversation going on in the Gutenberg repo about using JS modules to better load scripts and styles async. Worth looking into and giving feedback.

Images

Link to roadmap projects

Contributors: @flixos90 @thekt12 @adamsilverstein @joemcgill

• @pereirinha I do have clarification for #58893, and asked for another round of feedback on #58892. If I didn’t get it back to the right track, I might need a call to clear it up
• @flixos90 Update from me that is kind of related to images but actually has nothing directly to do with images is that I opened a can of worms at contributor day finding several bugs with how the WordPress main query 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. (“the loop”) is being handled incorrectly by block themes in general, which has been causing problems such as https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/58027

Measurement

Link to roadmap projects

Contributors: @adamsilverstein @joemcgill @mukesh27 @swissspidy

• @swissspidy Just before WCUS I merged r56399 so that we now track TTFB & LCP in WordPress core performance tests
• @swissspidy Another PR to improve the core performance tests output is currently in review
  • @joemcgill I’m particularly interested in how we can get this into the CI workflow sooner rather than later, since folks on the Gutenberg side are finding it extra helpful. I think it will reduce the amount of manual work we end up doing benchmarks on individual PRs as well
  • @swissspidy Yeah I might remove the PR comment part if that’s a blockerblocker A bug which is so severe that it blocks a release.. Jonathan offered to review it once he’s back from WCUS
  • @flixos90 Agreed, though I am slightly concerned by posting the results in a comment on each PR at this point. Given that the metrics are still rather unstable, I am wary of people over-interpreting them, e.g. arguing that a change is particularly great or problematic just based on numbers which could come from variance. So not a technical problem with the PR at all, but I’d feel more confident about implementing everything but the PR message, so that the data is there, just not as “alarmist”
  • @joemcgill I agree. I would like for there to be a way to contextualize the change related to expected variance so folks don’t get super excited about a small change that could just be noise
  • @flixos90 We could pull the PR message logic out, and then create a separate ticket with PR for “Future Release”
  • @swissspidy Yeah, there’s still some variability with those results, but that’s just GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/. Adding an explanation to the comment makes sense. I like the PR because it is easier to discover than the summary, but it does require setting up a secret token for it to work, which is also not ideal when working with forks. (NB I did experiment with running Playwright browsers within Docker, so in the future that might help reduce variance.)
  • @joemcgill We can also tie that to the trac ticket (I’ll find it and thread it) that is about posting results from workflows – https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/56150

Ecosystem Tools

Link to roadmap projects

Contributors: @mukesh27 @swissspidy @westonruter

• @mukesh27 Some minor update for Plugin Checker:
  • Bump WPCS to 3.0.0 – Merged
  • Add Spell Check action – Merged

Creating Standalone Plugins

Link to GitHub overview issue

Contributors: @flixos90 @mukesh27 @10upsimon

• @flixos90 I had something to share kind of related to ecosystem tools: At Contributor Day, @chriscct7 shared https://plugintests.com/ with a few of us, which he had discovered at some point, and it’s just a mind blowing tool nobody seems to know about, covering the whole plugin repository in a lot of detail. Not sure what we can do with that at this point, but it’s just something quite interesting to look at and be aware of. It has e.g. PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher compatibility information for every plugin, detailed data on e.g. which options or admin screens a plugin adds, whether there are PHP or JS errors etc.
  • @joemcgill This is very cool https://plugintests.com/plugins/wporg/performance-lab/latest
• @icaleb There were talks, once upon a time, of integrating that same tech into the .org repo. I think various acquisitions got in the way – but definitely would be interesting to see what might still be possible!

Open Floor

• Reviews of #59224 and #59226
  • @joemcgill Two issues that seem like they need early eyes on. I see Andrew and Jonny are already reviewing, but would be good for others to have visibility
• @johnbillion Quick item from me, I’m planning on opening a ticket for implementing a function to bulk add metadata (starting with users), mostly a narrower scope version of #34848. I’ve recently been looking at various performance issues when inserting data into WP, hoping to tackle a few – PR review would be good, I’ll add the performance focus when I open the ticket later today

Our next chat will be held on Tuesday, September 5, 2023 at 15:00 UTC in the #core-performance channel in Slack.

#core-performance, #performance, #performance-chat, #summary