[Resolved] Do many Views slow a site down

[Author]

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[Pete]

Hi there,

A quick question please.

Our main site has 35 views, site works great no issues. However we need many more.

Do many Views slow a site down? We may need double this amount?

Our site is on a dedicated server with server side caching. We optimize all images and run a couple of things on site to further speed things up.

Worried if using say, 60 Views will slow the site down at all?

Thank you.

[Shane]

Hi Pete,

Thank you for getting in touch.

There is no simple yes or no to this question. It really depends on how well your server/hosting can handle the loads and requests being made to the database.

However i've seen customers with over 100 views but no slowdowns so i'm not able to say Yes your website will run smoothly or No it will load very slow.

We try to optimize our plugins to run as efficiently as possible and our views plugin makes use of caching in order to reduce the request on the database.

If you do experience any slowdowns then it will need to be investigated as to what is the cause.

Thanks,
Shane

[Pete]

Hey Shane,

Thank you for replying. Ok thought you'd say as much, I have seen forum questions where someone had over 90 Views and needed more...he received a similar reply that if your server is up to it and the site ok then no issues should be expected.

I have investigated the alternative, one View that has a setting so it can display a different area depending on the page it's on and this doesn't seem a stable or viable option...hence we may need multiple Views.

I'm still unsure what w may do here.

[Shane]

Hi Pete,

Usually its best that you create a new view for each data you want to display. It helps to keep your edits separate, so one edit doesn't affect the views being used in other location.

As mentioned views has caching that can help to alleviate any slowdowns. Usually when a client has a slowdown issue its normally related to the server or a poorly built view. Meaning the customer has used many nested conditional shortcodes which can cause the server to time out.

This is the main reason why separating your view is recommended and not to overload a single page with massive amount of data. Try to separate your views on different pages where possible.

Thanks,
Shane

[Pete]

Hi Shane,

Yes seeing this and try and keep our Views well coded and simple 🙂

Last thing, Toolset has caching, does each individual View?

Not sure I've seen this?

Thank you.

[Shane]

Hi Pete,

Yes each individual view is cached. Its enabled by default unless you disable it explicitly on a view per view bases.

Here is a link to our blog post on the views cache information.
https://toolset.com/2019/05/toolset-views-2-8-1-with-performance-improvements/

Thanks,
Shane

[Pete]

Hi there,

Sure that option is checked however why do I see this in our main Views screen?

[Shane]

Hi Pete,

What you need to do is visit the view on the frontend and then check the view list page while checking the view on the frontend.

The cache is generated after you've visited the view on the frontend . See Screenshot

It is an automatic process so once its enabled it always works.

Thanks,
Shane

[Pete]

Hi Shane,

I'm constantly on the site and never seen in Views, the Clean Cache button you're showing.

On the site now, all say Not cached...always been the case.

[Shane]

Hi Pete,

Not because this button doesn't show up doesn't mean the cache isn't there or not working. As mentioned this is an automatic process so the cache is cleared/built automatically by our Toolset plugin so you may not always see the button there to clear the cache.

There is also an option to manually clear this if you go to Toolset -> Settings -> Frontend-End and scroll to Cache.

Here you will see that the setting is enabled for Toolset to automatically manage the caching for you.

Hopefully I was able to clear this up for you.

Thanks,
Shane

[Pete]

My issue is resolved now. Thank you!