Performance team meeting summary 11 October 2022
Meeting agenda here and the full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
Focus area updates
Images
@adamsilverstein @mikeschroder
- @adamsilverstein: Committed two small fixes related to the existing `image_editor_output_format` filter – #54476 and #56442
- @mukesh27: Added checkbox to Settings > Media to control whether to generate JPEG in addition to WebP in #537
- @flixos90: This is unlikely to ever make it into core, but it is useful in the plugin to test either of the two behaviors
- @ankitgade: Continuing to work on background processing infrastructure
Background process runnerclass PR is up for review: https://github.com/WordPress/performance/pull/512- Working on job status check cron: https://github.com/WordPress/performance/pull/552
- Working on admin queue screen: https://github.com/WordPress/performance/pull/533
Feedback requested
- See above
- Needs Discussion (9 issues)
- Needs Review (1 issue)
Object Cache
- @spacedmonkey: Published and helped with several dev notes for 6.1:
- https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/performance-improvements-to-the-rest-api/
- https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/multisite-improvements-in-wordpress-6-1/
- https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/07/improvements-to-wp_query-performance-in-6-1/
- https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/06/new-cache-site-health-checks-in-wordpress-6-1/
- https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/11/performance-field-guide-for-wordpress-6-1/
- @spacedmonkey: Also merged https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/3424 and https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/3403 and need code review for https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/commit/832b6c35f36d5f1ca84feadc49b0e5424af0ad6c, which will add a new function to core called
wp_cache_supportsto allow object caches to support different functionality - @spacedmonkey: Been investigating the performance regression seen in Beta 2, particularly new caching issues in block themes – see https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/44772 for details. PR in the works https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/3418 that needs review ASAP before the RC1 cutoff.
Feedback requested
- See above
- Needs Discussion (4 issues)
- Needs Review (1 issue)
Site Health
N/A
- We’re seeking 1-2 POCs for this group; if you’re interested, please comment here or ping in Slack
- @shetheliving: Dev note for new Site Health checks has been published: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/06/new-cache-site-health-checks-in-wordpress-6-1/
Feedback requested
- Needs Discussion (8 issues)
Measurement
N/A
- We’re seeking 1-2 POCs for this group; if you’re interested, please comment here or ping in Slack
Feedback requested
- Needs Discussion (5 issues)
- Needs Review (1 issue)
JavaScript
- No updates
Feedback requested
- Tree-shaking block styles on the frontend #41020
- Needs Discussion (2 issues)
- Needs Review (3 issues)
Infrastructure
- @flixos90: Our next release, 1.6.0, will be this coming Monday, October 17. Any feature or enhancement that you want to include in this release should be completed and merged by tomorrow (Wednesday, October 12, see #548).
Feedback requested
- See above
- Needs Discussion (6 issues)
- Needs Review (3 issues)
Focus area updates
- @flixos90: Three proposed changes that have come up in recent weeks to align focus areas. First is to introduce a new Database focus area; there are several module proposals (SQLite, optimized autoloaded options, database health checks) and some core optimizations that would also fit into this
- @spacedmonkey: Should Object Caching and Database be the same?
- @olliejones: Suggest keeping them separate
- @flixos90: Don’t think so, some are pure database optimizations while sometimes object caching works around DB requests. I’d say adding caching around DB queries is still “Object Caching,” but there’s also room to improve some queries themselves and other DB issues
- @spacedmonkey agrees
- @flixos90: Second: We have a JS focus, but there’s also a lot of work going on in Gutenberg to improve CSS loading. Should we introduce a CSS area, or alternatively broaden the existing focus to be Assets (including CSS & JS)?
- @shetheliving: Makes sense to me to broaden JS to both unless we have someone who is really interested in leading CSS
- @spacedmonkey: Think they should be separate; if no one leads CSS, then it is not a “focus”
- @shetheliving: That’s not entirely true; there’s some maintenance around designating something as a “focus,” e.g. having it on our weekly agenda, GH labels, updating the
CODEOWNERSfile, etc. - @olliejones: Is the scope of the JS focus intended to cover React apps and XHR/fetch performance?
- @flixos90: FWIW the JS focus has barely made any updates here since it was established, but it’s a noticeable aspect of performance and some projects have been kicked off so would not want to remove it; @aristath has been quite involved with CSS though
- @spacedmonkey: What does the JS focus mean right now?
- @adamsilverstein: We do have some work around enabling better loading strategies for scripts that falls under JavaScript; I’ve been working on researching the benefits of using defer
- @flixos90: Generally most of our focus is on website front-end performance, so the JS focus is also focused on front-end – things like deferring scripts, not loading JS that isn’t used, etc.
- @spacedmonkey: How about a “Front-End” focus then?
- @flixos90: Don’t think that would make sense, since everything we do is about front-end. Even DB queries and object caching improvements affect the front-end a lot. Let’s discuss later.
- @flixos90: Last one: Suggest removing the Site Health focus – not because we shouldn’t work on Site Health, but more because any Site Health check actually fits into other areas and would be better suited as part of the other focus areas as opposed to it’s own area. There has not been a focus lead for Site Health, which is maybe another indicator that we should retire this area and consider checks to be part of other focus areas moving forward.
- @spacedmonkey: So like an object caching-related Site Health check would be part of the Object Caching focus, right? Yes
- @flixos90: Looking at our current SH modules:
- Autoloaded options audit > Database
- Enqueued assets > JS/CSS (TBD)
- Full page cache > Object Caching
- WebP support > Images
- Vote on all through proposals here through Tuesday, October 18, 2022 at 1pm EDT: https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/554
Our next chat will be held on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 at 11am EDT in the #core-performance channel in Slack.
#core-js, #core-media, #performance, #performance-chat, #summary, #hosting-community
