vBulletin - Optimization !!!!!
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n4tec
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Optimizing vBulletin: Server Side & Admin Side
With vBulletin as your software of choice and your community thriving, your well on your way to running a successful community. With a growing community, there are growing needs and optimizing your community for the best possible performance will ensure your visitors keep coming back for more. If a member visits a community that is slow to load and overloaded with heavy graphics, you can bet they aren't going to stick around for long. As the Administrator, we have to keep in mind not everyone is on Cable/DSL connections, some are still using 56k and lower connections and we can't disclude them!
I will state this is not a short article ahead of time. When writing the article, being short & quick was not the intent, reviewing the options for better community optimization however, was. This article goes through various steps from Optimization from the Admin CP, Style & Coding Optimization as well as Server Optimization.
While this certainly does not cover every aspect, it does cover a great deal of what community owners can do to aid in their optimization efforts. These options are all optional, of course and not all of them may be of use to everyone, though the main purpose is to shave off as much of the load time as possible. As mentioned later in the article, shaving off 1-2 sections could save you 100-200 visitors.
Step One: Optimization from the Admin Control Panel
When it comes to optimizing vBulletin for the best performance, the Administrator's Control Panel is the place to be. From the ACP, you can control 95% of what is needed to aid in the optimization of your community; and you thought it was just for user & style management!
» Enable GZIP - Compress & Save
So, let's dive right in and start with the optimization, first we're going to start with the powerful GZIP compression option. GZIP allows us to compress the output of each page that is displayed to visitors and members and shave away the bandwidth used each month. Enabling GZIP does slightly load the server as it has to compress the pages being displayed, though when correctly set to level 1 compression, the load is hardly noticable while the benifits are obvious.
To enable GZIP compression or to modify its current setting, please login to the Admin CP and then selection the following options. You will need to set the first option to 'Yes' and set the compression level to '1' (without quotes):
vBulletin Options » Cookies and Header Options » GZIP HTML Output / GZIP Compression Level
» Disable No-Cache HTTP Headers & Redirection
Now, following the above and in the same section of the Admin CP, ensure that No-Cache HTTP Headers are disabled. Enabling these headers may prove effective for smaller communities, though larger communities will find that the increased load from their use may not be worth the hassle. We are trying to optimize with as little load as possible and while these may provide some optimization, the benifits do not out-weigh the use of the GZIP feature.
Next and still in the same section, we will move to disable the Redirection Message Pages. What enabling these will do is present members with a redirection page each time they post a new thread or reply which will redirect them back to the thread/post in question. While this is nice, it's not needed and is another page to load, therefore increasing load on the server and bandwidth use. Again, optimization is the key and where we increase the load with GZIP, we will balance this out by decreasing the load elsewhere.
» Enable Post Cache & Cut Loading Time
The upside to enabling this option is that vBulletin will cache each post for a set amount of days, of which you can define in the Admin CP. Enabling this option will allow up to a 200% speed increase when displaying threads & posts. The downside, for those with limited disk space, is that enabling this option will take almost double the disk space compared to that of normal post made without this option enabled. If you have the disk space available, it is suggested you enable this option. The extra disk space used is valid for aiding in the optimization of your community and cutting down on the server load. How does this cut down on the load? Simply put, the less the server has to search for when pulling the data from the MySQL database, the less the load.
To enable this option, while in the Admin CP, follow the below. We suggest setting this option to increments of 30, 60 or 90:
vBulletin Options » Server Settings and Optimization Options » Cached Posts Lifespan
» Enable CSS Stylesheets as Files
Enabling this option will allow members to cache/store your CSS filesheet for later reference so that each page load does not call the CSS stylesheet. Simply put, cutting down on the amount of text & coding on each load will speed up overall display. The less there is to read, the quicker the server will be able to display what the member wants to view!
To enable this option, while in the Admin CP, follow the below & simply set the option to 'Yes':
vBulletin Options » Style & Language Settings » Store CSS Stylesheets as Files?
» Disable Memberlist Viewing
While allowing each member/guest you have to view each member in your community by visiting a single page may sound like a wonderful idea, this is another page to load, load and load, especially if you are a larger community. While all members may not search through endless pages of members, some members will sit there and look through them all. Disabling viewing of this page will prevent excess bandwidth usage of which you can save for another day, but it will also keep the server load down as the server does not have to process a request to display 15-50 members per page load (or more, depending on what you have your options set to).
If you simply must have this option enabled and still wish to save on some bandwidth usage and cut back on the load, set a minimum post count for display. Using this method will prevent users with a post count lower than your setting from even being displayed on the member list. You can also limit what is shown to members & guests who visit this page by un-checking various options in this same section, below the member list display option.
To enable this option, while in the Admin CP, follow the below and set the option to 'No':
vBulletin Options » User Listing & Profile Viewing » Members List Enabled
Step Two: Style & Coding/HTML Optimization
After optimizing the settings in the vBulletin Administrator Control Panel, it's time to move on to Style & Coding/HTML Optimization. Believe it or not, a few modifications will go a long way when it comes to speeding up the display of your community. Removing or modifying what is currently shown to your visitors can make all the difference in the world, even if all you shave off is 1-2 seconds from the loading time, that may save you 100-200 visitors that previously would not have given your website a chance.
» Drop the Thread & Post Columns
Thanks to Floris, a vBulletin Team Member and Owner of vBulletin-Fans.com (http://www.vbulletin-fans.com), this small yet effective template modification will cut down on the table display required when loading your forum-home (i.e. index). This modification will remove the Thread & Post columns from the forumhome template and replace them with text-based information directly under the forum name.
Modification Resource: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=117611
» Optimize your HTML & CSS for Display
While it may come as no suprise, many of us that modify the vBulletin templates add un-needed coding to our templates when we could simply use the CSS elements already created on the default vBulletin installation or simply add new ones by editing the style in question. Not only is CSS neater when it comes to viewing, it also displays quicker than 10-20 font tags placed across your templates. The vBulletin developers had a reason to their madness when using CSS to the extent they did, the least we can do is follow in their footsteps!
Step Three: Server Optimization - Take Control
While we have tested many options for server optimization, we've found that a suggestion from Erwin over at vBulletin has been the best optimization effort placed forth. If you own your own server or can persuade your host to install Turke MMCache, it will, by itself, speed up the overall display of PHP based content. For complete installation instructions, please see the following thread.
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75878
Note: Please install this only if you are comfortable doing so, if you are not comfortable using Shell/SSH, please do not proceed to install this module; seek the help of a server administrator or your web host. Also please take note of what Erwin has stated about upgrading and PHP builds/releases that may or may not work.
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As stated above, these options are just that, optional, though they have been tested and proven effective on test communities as well as live. This article will be updated as additional methods are suggested and/or tested and time is available. I do hope that a few of you all benifit from this article and will post your results.
All of the above options will effect different communities in their own way, not all will reach the same results by placing them into effect. Some options may work better for one community and may hardly affect another, though this is the reason many options are available instead of a single option.
Source: Admin Zone Forums
n4tec
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bin_asc said:Really liked the post.Hope to see more where that came from.
the quote is from the site link below..
http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/mainpage.php
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Brandon
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Is vBulletin free? I want to use it
n4tec
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