S2member-o.php responsible for long loading times / purpose?

#1

Hey Folks,

we are using the s2member pro version and recently tried to optimize the site to get some more speed out of it, however webpagetest.org shows that there is a file which gets loaded after all css/js files are loaded. The file is the following:

wp-content/plugins/s2member/s2member-o.php?ws_plugin__s2member_js_w_globals=1&qcABC=1&ver=160503-160503-2929689346

I have 3 questions:

  1. What is the purpose of this file?
  2. Is it possible to get rid of it? For some reason it contains personal data of the admin, why is that?
  3. How can I optimize the delivery of this file, such that it doesn’t block the whole page from rendering?

Cheers
Warhost

#2

That file should be treated like a canary down the mine. If it’s ill (i.e. loading slowly), your site has problems – but elsewhere. That file is not the cause of your problems. If you sort out what is, it will load very fast.

So you need to do a full audit of what is loading on your pages to find out the real culprit(s). I’d suggest using your browser’s inspector tools and the plugin Query Monitor.

#3

Well now you made me curious, could you elaborate a bit more why it is a ‘dangerous’ file, and how do you now that the site might have problems?

#4

The file is not at all dangerous. Canaries down mines weren’t dangerous either!

But the fact that it is loading slowly means you have something else on your site causing it to do so. So you need to investigate what that something else might be. How do I know? Experience.

#5

What is the purpose of the file then? I can only find something about s2member-only mode, but since it says it loads just s2member without my theme etc., I don’t think my site is in this only mode.

#6

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/canary_in_a_coal_mine

#7

@KTS915 I am afraid I’m going to need a real answer here.

I purchased s2member due to its excellent functionality, but currently, it is slowing down the site by a lot, caused by above-mentioned PHP file. If you could elaborate on what might be wrong and where I should investigate, this would be a great start.

Cheers

#8

This isn’t Pro support – we are just users like you. If you really want help, you need to provide a lot more information, like a URL where we can see what’s happening.

#9

I will bump warhost’s post because it is excellent and deserves a friendly answer from Jason himself, rather than some buzzphrase?

“I have 3 questions:
What is the purpose of this file?
Is it possible to get rid of it? For some reason it contains personal data of the admin, why is that?
How can I optimize the delivery of this file, such that it doesn’t block the whole page from rendering?
Cheers
Warhost”

While I cannot say that in our case it’s slowing down loadtime it IS causing issues on more pages than initially found - initially I reported somewhere else in this lovely forum “only on and below membership options page”, which turns out to be wrong for an unknown reason. Unknown because the link to Jason’s article I posted there suggests it gets ONLY loaded in such case, I understood?

Frankly, if Jason doesn’t have a chance to see this thread, and soon, we gonna have to file a ticket, so important it is.

Jason?