This document provides tips for optimizing Drupal websites for high performance. It discusses caching at various levels including PHP opcode, computations, database queries, and page content. It also covers optimizing assets through aggregation, parallelization, and compression. The document stresses keeping pages simple by using minimal modules and a consistent architecture. Various tools for analysis at the browser, Drupal, PHP and system levels are also listed.

1. High Performance
Drupal Web Sites
360°
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

2. Who's that punk ?!
●
A French nerd !
● Used to manage complex IT projects for the
last 10 years
●
And many more nights on performances
issues ... :)
●
... who just created his own company

3. Summary

Cache

Upload & Download

Browser rendering

Compression

Drupal pages architecture

Analyze

4. Cache
What should we cache ?
EVERY POSSIBLE THING !!!
● PHP (opcode)
● Computations (functions results)
● Datas (views, DB requests)
● Entities & Fields (nodes, comments, taxonomy terms, user profiles,…)
● Images (imagecache/styles)
● HTML (page, block, panel, pane, views)
● Any static ressource (CSS, JS, SWF, SVG, PDF, ZIP, Video, Sound, …)
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

5. Cache
How should we cache ?
PHP (opcode) : // allocate one segment of 32Mb
apc.shm_segments=1
apc.shm_size=32
// do not check if php file was updated
apc.stat= 0
●
APC // never expire
apc.ttl = 0
●
Eaccelerator (a bit faster, // use kernel anonymous memory
seg fault) apc.mmap_file_mask = /dev/zero.
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

6. Cache
How should we cache ?
function mymodule_complex_calculation_crazy_cache() {
Computations (functions results) : static $cache ;
if (isset($cache)) {
return $cache ;
}
● drupal_static (sometime static if big if ($cache = &drupal_static(__FUNCTION__)) {
return $cache;
amount of calls within a page load) }
if ($cache = cache_get('my_cache_item', 'my_cache_bin')) {
$cache = $cache->data;
}
● cache_set / cache_get (use your own else {
bin if lot of data to store and/or need // some = complex_calculation(); kitten
$cache
heavy calculations that kills
more control over your cache) cache_set('my_cache_item', $cache, 'my_cache_bin');
}
return $cache ;
}
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

7. Cache
Note :
How should we cache ? A custom cache bin require, at
module install, to create a new cache
table using the same schema as core
cache tables (see table below).
Copy/paste from :
Datas (views, DB requests) : includes/system.install
●
Views cache Field Type Null
cid varchar(255) no
●
Views per user cache
data longblob yes
●
Own cache bin for DB requests (if expire int no
somehow there is a good reason created int no
to request DB directly) headers text yes
serialized smallint no
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

8. Cache
How should we cache ?
Entities (nodes, comments, taxonomy terms,
user profiles,…) : Entity cache
Load 1 000 users
●
Entity cache 50
45
40
35 First load
30 Next loads
seconds
25
20
15
10
5
0
No entity cache Entity cache
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

9. Cache
How should we cache ?
Images (imagecache/styles) :
●
ImageCache
●
ImageCache External
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

10. Cache
How should we cache ?
HTML (page, block, panel, pane, views) :
●
Panels Page Cache
●
Panels Hash Cache
●
Varnish
●
Varnish ESI
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

11. Cache
How should we cache ?
Any static ressource (CSS, JS, SWF, SVG,
PDF, ZIP, Video, Sound, …) :
●
Varnish
●
Nginx
●
CDN far-future
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

12. Cache
What cache backends ?
http://janezurevc.name/static/bcn_cache
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

13. Cache
What about cache invalidation ?
●
Cache actions
●
Cachetags
●
Views content cache
●
Expire
●
Entity cache flusher
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

14. Upload & Download
Cookie free domains
CDN module in order to use static resources
dedicated domain(s) which differ from main
domain (for instance, static.mysite.com)
$cookie_domain have to be set to main domain in
settings.php (for instance www.mysite.com)
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

15. Upload & Download
Aggregates
●
JS (Advanced aggregate)
Note :
●
CSS (Advanced aggregate) Sprites are now obselete, use CSS
embeded image instead
●
Images & CSS (CSS
(for IE, images <32Kb can be
embeded image) embeded)
●
Images (spritesheets)
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

16. Upload & Download
Parrallelization
●
CDN (URL
sharding)
●
Head.js
CSS
●
Yepnopejs
(Interesting but not yet drupal integrated)
JS
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

17. Browser rendering
JS
●
Rendering sequence : request as soon as it
parse
●
JS in footer scope
●
Head.js / lab.js (defer)
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

18. Browser rendering
CSS
●
Translate3D, no DOM position change
●
Pay attention to selectors performances ! No
CSS3 selectors (great but slow)
●
Avoid blinking > no JS to hide an element on
load, hide by CSS and show from JS
(perception matters!)
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

19. Compression
What should we compress ?
●
Images
●
CSS
●
JS
●
HTML
●
«Any» static file
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

20. Compression
How should we compress ?
Images
●
Imageapi optimize
●
jpegtran
●
advpng
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

21. Compression
How should we compress ?
CSS
●
Advagg CSS compress
●
CSS Compressor
●
faster than CSSTidy
●
gzip
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

22. Compression
How should we compress ?
JS
●
Advagg JS compress
●
JSMin
●
faster than JSMin+
●
Gzip
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

23. Compression
How should we compress ?
HTML
●
Gzip
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

24. Compression
How should we compress ?
Any static files
●
Gzip
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

25. Drupal pages architecture
How to build a performant page ?
USE AS FEW MODULES AS POSSIBLE !
●Search_api (solr, mongo) ●Panels
●Mongodb ●Panels everywhere
●Redis ●Views
●Memcache ●Rules
●Elysia cron ●Entities
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

26. Drupal pages architecture
Why homogeneity maters ?
Blocks, panes, pick one !
One single way of managing « blocks » helps
using ESI caching for instance; it also makes
easier the cache invalidation management for
these «blocks».
Keep it simple : one API to implement
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

27. Analyze
Browser level
●
Gtmetrix.com
●
Yslow
●
Firebug
●
Chrome / Safari developer tools
●
Whichloadsfaster.com
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

28. Analyze
Drupal level
●
Devel
●
Watchdog (redirected to syslog if needed on live
server)
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

29. Analyze
PHP level
●
FirePHP / ChromePHP
●
Xhprof (eventually in addition to Xdebug)
●
PHP error log
●
PHP-FPM slow logs
●
MySQL Slow query logs
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

30. Analyze
System level
●
strace
●
tcpdump & wireshark
jbguerraz@skilld.fr

31. Spasibo bolshoe !
Your time now, any question ?
Wanna get these slides ?
Search for jbguerraz on Slideshare ;)
jbguerraz@skilld.fr