Using TEC with cache plugins

[Shaun]

I have attempted to install a few cache plugins to improve my site’s speed but find that they break my events page. Once the plugins are activated, nothing shows up on the page at all. I don’t want to try more and risk breaking something more difficult to fix. The plugins I’ve tried to use so far are WP Fastest Cache and WP Super Cache. Does anyone know if there is a special setting I need to activate to get a cache plugin working with TEC or a solution to this problem?

Thanks!
Mike

[George]

Hey Mike,

Thanks for reaching out.

Our plugins should play nicely with W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache as long as you ensure there is no compression or concatenation of JavaScript or CSS files on calendar pages.

There are different settings in the various caching plugins to control this, so consult with the documentation and/or support teams behind your caching plugin of choice to learn how to disable script compression or concatenation on events pages.

We also have a Knowledgebase article here that, while it doesn’t deliver many specific recommendations, may just generally be useful in learning more about how our plugins related to caching generally: https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/caching-basics/

Cheers,
George

[Shaun]

I find it strange that every caching plugin (I’ve tried 4 now) has the same result with the main events page. I went into settings for the plugins and prevented the cache from caching anything with /events/ and there is still some conflict preventing anything from showing up at all.

[George]

Hi Shaun,

1. Which plugins did you try specifically?

2. Can you post the complete System Information for your site to this thread, as per the instructions here? → https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/sharing-sys-info/

3. What web host are you using? WP Engine, for example? Page.ly? Media Temple? GoDaddy Web Hosting? A2? HostGator? BlueHost? etc…whichever web host you’re using, let us know. Or if you’re self-hosting on our own server, let us know a bit about its config: are you using Apache? nginx? Etc.

Thanks!
George

[Shaun]

This reply is private.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by Shaun.

[George]

This reply is private.

[Shaun]

Unfortunately, none of that seems to help. Even preventing the emcdevsite.com/events page from caching does not make that page work. I fear some other type of conflict taking place, but I don’t have time to solve it. Guess I’ll just be without caching for the time being.

Thanks for the help.
Mike

[Brook]

Thanks for getting back, Mike.

I am sorry the above advice did not work. That is very strange, we have a large number of users on W3TC. That plugin definitely has to be configured correctly. The primary thing you want to do is just disabled the minifcation as George outlined. Perhaps you could try the Restore Default Settings button in W3TC, and then disabling minification. Does that help any?

You certainly don’t want to run multiple cache plugins at once. This is likely to cause issues, and would typically slow your site down. You would want to deactivate any past caching plugins that you had run, and make sure they are uninstalled properly. In particular a lot of caching plugins have special deactivation instructions. Simply clicking Deactivate and uninstalling does not fully disable them, you will want to consult each plugins documentation on how to properly deactivate and uninstall it.

Please let us know if you need anything else. Cheers!

– Brook

[Shaun]

Unfortunately the problem occurred with the very first Cache plugin install. I deactivated and uninstalled every plugin before attempting the next, although I did not do any special form of deactivate or uninstall. Maybe the first plugin modified something permanent?

I did disable the minification as was recommended, but alas, as soon as I activate any cache plugin, my schedule page becomes a white screen of death.

I’ll look into specific uninstall instructions, although I fear something else is at play.

Thanks,
Mike

[George]

Thanks for your patience here, Mike. As Brook mentioned, along with my own input, we’ve got a lot of folks using W3TC with our plugins so it should be possible here…

Your last update was as follows:

I’ll look into specific uninstall instructions, although I fear something else is at play.

☝️ Keep us posted on whether you’re able to find more complete uninstall instructions and if you’re able to make any headway on these issues.

If not, and issues persist regardless, then you may want to contact your web host for some insight into these issues. It’s possible they have their own server-side configurations that are interacting with the caching plugins in a problematic way here, or they may just be able to better identify the problem from their end based on things like your site’s .htaccess file and other server configuration info.

[Shaun]

So I don’t know exactly what was causing the issue, but I increased WordPress’ php memory as well as tinkered with a few other things, and the problem seems to have disappeared. I can’t confirm what was causing it, but thanks for all of the help on here!

Mike

[George]

Glad to hear it, Mike! Thanks for the update.

I’ll close this thread for now, but feel free to open a new thread any time if other issues or questions arise.

Best of luck with your site in the meantime! 😀

— George

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