[Plugin: W3 Total Cache] A few Questions From a Non-Expert

  • I have plugin installed and running with APC configuration. Some results lead me to ask a few questions:

    1. I set up the CDN for OriginPush/Self-Hosted. Now Yslow gives me an “F” for Add Expires Headers largely for files returned from the static subdomain:

    e.g. (no expires) https://static.401kplanning.org/wp-content/w3tc/min/default.include.css.

    Added htaccess with expires command to static subdomain to no effect. Something else I should be doing or is this just the way it is?

    2. Using OriginPush/Self-Hosted doesn’t seem to get me anywhere with Yslow
    “Use a Content Delivery Network” for which I get “F” grade. Again, something else I should be doing or is this just the way it is?

    3. Files from the static directory also aren’t passing Yslow gzip:

    Grade D on Compress components with gzip
    There are 3 plain text components that should be sent compressed
    * https://static.401kplanning.org/wp-content/w3tc/min/default.include.css

    4. Do I understand correctly that W3TC uses “Etags” so I should not include “FileETag none” in htacess? Removing this returns a Yslow “F”.

    Hope I can get some guidance on these items. I really appreciate the work you’ve put into this plugin and I want to make sure I’m using correctly. Thanks.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • I set up the CDN for OriginPush/Self-Hosted. Now Yslow gives me an “F” for Add Expires Headers largely for files returned from the static subdomain

    We need to remember that YSlow has it’s own thresholds for satisfying it’s criteria. There is no single tool (because they don’t report the values they’re finding and explain why they don’t like it) can be satisfied with a single solution. So the point is just know what it is that you’re implementing.

    In wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/ini/_htaccess you’ll find directives you can use on your subdomain (rename to .htaccess and put in document root). It’s well commented so you can see what it is that you are doing including: setting expires, cache-control, pragma (included for completeness), etags and http compression. This will directly incorporated in an automated fashion the final release.

    Using OriginPush/Self-Hosted doesn’t seem to get me anywhere with Yslow “Use a Content Delivery Network” for which I get “F” grade.

    YSlow is not going to recognize your host as a CDN. So yes, that’s just how it is.

    Files from the static directory also aren’t passing Yslow gzip

    See #1, if you’re using apache, this will sort it out.

    Do I understand correctly that W3TC uses “Etags” so I should not include “FileETag none” in htacess? Removing this returns a Yslow “F”.

    Yes it does, so don’t try to remove it.

    Sage one,

    The Yslow FAQ describes how you can configure Firefox to recognize your static subdomain host as a “CDN”.

    https://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/faq.html#faq_cdn

    It’s pretty easy and helps you to easily narrow down the list of things that still need to be addressed.

    Nice one @sqlwiz

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • The topic ‘[Plugin: W3 Total Cache] A few Questions From a Non-Expert’ is closed to new replies.