FV Gravatar Cache
There’s one problem with Gravatars. They are very slow to load. Each page with comments on them makes one call per comment to the Gravatar server. While a single call takes only a 100ms, on a page with hundreds of comments, we are talking about major slowdowns. Page loads can take 20 seconds and mor
There’s one problem with Gravatars. They are very slow to load. Each page with comments on them makes one call per comment to the Gravatar server. While a single call takes only a 100ms, on a page with hundreds of comments, we are talking about major slowdowns. Page loads can take 20 seconds and more.
This plugin solves this problem by:
- caching gravatars with WordPress cron job..
- caching gravatars on comment submission
- maintaining a single copy of the default gravatar instead of downloading it again and again for all the email addresses with no gravatar associtated
Installation guide
Support and more information
A closer look.
You can use the built in installer and upgrader, or you can install the plugin manually.
After installing, make sure you visit the plugin settings to make sure the plugin works correctly. You will see a check if the cache directory is writable and you will have to set the gravatar size (plugin also uses autodetection mechanism, which might come handy).
Frequently asked questions.
Gravatars are not caching properly
Hit the “Empty Cache” button to clear the cache database and clear out the cache directory by hand (you can see the path at the very top of the Settings screen). Then hit the “Run Cron Now” button, it will refresh a couple of gravatars, so you can check the cache directory again, to see if it’s filling up correctly. “Current Cron offset:” will increment, so you can track the progess and see how the cron is running. You can also turn on “Debug mode” and check log.txt afterwards.
Generated (Itenticon, Wavatar and MonsterID) gravatars are not working correctly!
These types of gravatars are not currently supported. Drop us a note and we might add this feature in next release.
