A New Performance Plugin announced by WordPress

A New Performance Plugin announced by WordPress

WordPress has announced the release of an official performance plugin that aids in website speed optimization. Publishers can participate in beta testing and provide feedback on the new features.

WordPress has released a new Performance Plugin that can help your site run faster

WordPress has announced the availability of a new performance plugin dubbed the Performance Lab. It was created by the WordPress performance team with the goal of speeding up WordPress sites.

The plugin enables publishers to make use of new features before they are integrated into the core of WordPress.

The WordPress performance team, which is composed of WordPress core developers, created the plugin to solicit input on new features being developed for inclusion in a future version of the WordPress core.

 

The WP Performance Group

The WordPress Performance Team was established in November 2021 with the mission of coordinating performance enhancements to the WordPress core. The team is made up of WordPress developers, with people from Google and Yoast among them.

They developed a list of performance tasks to focus on during their inaugural meetings, and this plugin, dubbed the Performance Lab Plugin, is one of the outcomes of the performance team.

 

Performance Lab Plugin

The Performance Lab plugin grants access to WordPress enhancements aimed at assisting publishers in speeding up their websites and diagnosing issues that may be holding them down.

The plugin is modular in nature, allowing publishers to pick and choose which enhancements to apply.

The plugin’s new features are intended to be included in a future release of WordPress.

By exposing these new capabilities early via a plugin, WordPress intends to garner input on any potential difficulties.

Normally, new features are distributed as distinct plugins.

WordPress chose to consolidate all-new performance features into a single plugin, allowing publishers to choose which new capabilities to enable from a single central area within the plugin.

 

Modules for the Performance Lab Plugin

Four modules comprise the new Performance Lab plugin.

The four plugin modules include the following:

 

• Uploads to WebP

Converts fresh JPEG files uploaded to the quicker WebP format. The functionality is dependent on the server’s WebP capability.

 

• WebP Compatibility

This is a site health check module that determines whether the server supports WebP and displays a warning if it does not.

 

• Health Check for the Persistent Object Cache

A module that performs a site health check and may recommend the use of object caching. Caching objects reduces the time it takes for a website to reply, reduces database load, and speeds up the website for visitors.

 

• Audit Assets That Have Been Queued (experimental)

Audits the CSS and JavaScript files that are enqueued on the main page. This assists in identifying superfluous CSS and JavaScrip files that may cause a website to slow down.

 

Is the Module for Enqueued Assets Experimental?

Audit Enqueued Assets is a module that is marked experimental. The creators picked the experimental tag to indicate that the module will be upgraded.

The devs discussed this, with one developer stating on the official Github page’s discussion:

“To be clear, it’s not that there is a problem with the module, but rather that it doesn’t feel as polished yet, which is why we marked it as “experimental” for this first release.” As the module gets better over time, we could then mark it as non-experimental.

He then explained why it is designated experimental:

The main reason I think this is marked as experimental is that it’s still in the early stages of development compared to the other modules. This would not break anyone’s site.”

Some of the problems with this plan are that we haven’t worked out what the thresholds should be yet, and we don’t know how to get the assets in certain situations.

For instance, one way to improve this single module would be to make it more useful by identifying which plugins or themes are bloating the website with unneeded CSS and JavaScript files.

 

Is it Necessary to Download the Plugin?

According to the plugin’s download page, the plugin has been tested and is safe to use on a live production site.

While at least three modules are not labeled experimental and all are considered stable and are unlikely to destroy a site, the plugin’s primary aim is to allow publishers to provide input on modules prior to them being included directly into the WordPress core.

Regarding stability, the official plugin page notes the following:

Unless a module is marked as “experimental,” it has been tested and should be safe to use in the real world.

Additionally, it states the following regarding guarantees:

It’s still at your own risk, though.

You should always start by adding new plugins on a staging site. Then, you can test them there before updating the main site.

Another best practice is to create a website backup before to installing the plugin. The backup will make it simple to restore the website to its original state in the event that the plugin conflicts with another plugin or theme unexpectedly.

The plugin has obvious benefits that may assist in speeding up your website. However, it is given by the WordPress Performance Team as a means of gathering input on fresh new enhancements. This will eventually make their way into the core of WordPress.

WordPress provides a help forum for the Performance Lab plugin and a GitHub repository for providing feedback to WordPress.