Very Slow Search Loading

We don’t currently have a non-ajax solution. You could look into searchwp or facetwp:
https://facetwp.com/
https://searchwp.com/extensions/wp-job-manager-integration/

If I may, I would like share my findings: it’s not the search query that is slow, but the rendering of the data.

I investigated the issue for a client, as it took a long time for the Ajax call to return a result. After digging fairly deep, I discovered that the query is always quite fast (the raw results are also cached, making it even faster), and that it’s the formatting of the results that takes ages.
For example, the Listify theme processes all the returned items, one by one, to format them, and that is time consuming. A basic theme, such as TwentySixteen, doesn’t perform such operation, and the result is returned much quicker (we are still talking about the result of the Ajax call).

One way to fix this issue could be to extend the WP Job Manager plugin to implement the caching of the formatted. As I wrote, currently the plugin caches the raw data returned by the query, but it still loops through it and passes each entry to the theme for formatting. On our test site, caching the formatted data can cut the loading time from 15-20 seconds to 2 seconds (the first rendering is still slow, because the processing must take place).

Hey Diego!

Caching the fully formatted HTML result is definitely an option. However just wanted to point out that Listify functions the same as a default WordPress theme in this sense.

The plugin runs:

https://github.com/Automattic/WP-Job-Manager/blob/master/includes/class-wp-job-manager-ajax.php#L128

Which is looping through the (cached) results and rendering a template file for each listing found. This is the same process on all themes. Listify just does a bit more with the template file that is loaded than the default plugin.

Hope that helps!

Yes Spencer, that’s precisely the issue: caching the raw data helps only to a certain point, because the rendering is the heavy part. I made a comparison by just calling the Ajax URL directly, without arguments (i.e. example.org/jm-ajax/get_listings/):
– With Listify theme: 8 seconds.
– With TwentySixteen: 0.7 seconds.

I followed the process, step by step, and the slow part is precisely the one you linked, the rendering of each row (the TwentySixteen theme doesn’t do anything at that stage).

Caching the rendered result at plugin level would help, so that you would not have to rely on the goodwill of each theme developer to do the same.

“Calling” meaning loading the URL in your browser?

Listify doesn’t modify the initial query unless you are searching with coordinates, which wouldn’t be the case on a clean load of the URL. So at that point the theme would not make a difference.

Can you please email me directly at spencer at astoundify.com with some more information? Would love to see if we can help you speed this up.

Please also ensure you are using the latest version of Listify, 1.6.0

Yes, opening the URL in the browser. The Listify theme doesn’t change the query, but that is not the issue (as I wrote, the query is always fast, cached or not).

The issue is that the output is processed by Listify to render the HTML, on a row by row basis, and that causes the significant slowdown I indicated.

If you want to make an experiment, you can simply open file listify/inc/integrations/wp-job-manager/class-wp-job-manager.php, go to the setup_actions method comment out add_action( 'init', array( $this, 'init' ), 0 );. The processing of the Ajax data won’t run anymore (exactly like it happens with TwentySixteen) and the result will be much faster.

Correct, so

– With Listify theme: 8 seconds.
– With TwentySixteen: 0.7 seconds.

Must be loading the full listings page then, not the AJAX endpoint URL in your browser. As loading example.org/jm-ajax/get_listings/ simply returns the cached query results which Listify will not modify at that point.

If you email me with your site details I will be happy to take a closer look.

The site is not mine, it belongs to a customer for whom I did some performance troubleshooting. If you want to try the “pure Ajax” URL, it’s https://velocidade.moredev.pt/jm-ajax/get_listings. It only returns Ajax data, which Listify does modify, causing the slowdown. After the processing, the Ajax response contains HTML that is “injected” in the calling page.

Sorry, you’re right the endpoint does return the HTML. However, this is true for all themes that use the plugin.

Can you confirm the client is running Listify 1.6.0?

I see some modifications in the returned data that Listify does not do by default. Have you tried with a clean install of the parent theme?

Again, emailing me with any more details will be much more helpful! Thanks

The theme you see was customised by the client, but those changes don’t make a difference. I have a separate site for testing (local VM, not public), where I excluded every element, customisation and so on, and dug into the Listify code, line by line.

The version of Listify is older than 1.6. I don’t know if the customer is willing to update it, he has a heavily customised child theme, but I will let him know about it.

The last few release of Listify include many, many speed improvements. I would recommend updating as soon as possible and you shouldn’t have any more issues.

Ok, I will recommend that to the client. Thanks.