Caching, modules and components. Last year with VM2 A real Nightmare!!

[ereallstaff]

At today it's more than 1 year I am using Virtuemart 2, or at least trying to do this.

At this moment I have spent lots of moneys really, but I can't see any result.

My website is modacalcio.it, as you can see.

- Speed is very slow: I know I charge jquery from google, but I could find which components it does, or remove without having error

- Checkout is a real nightmare with default code. To Choose shipping change page and to confirm the page updates ( or try to do that if there are not loops or error ). Choose payment the same result. Then have to accept policies ( forced by suppliers ) and at the end another screen confirming all ( shouldn't be already confirmed ?|!?!? ).  I have purchased until now 3 extension for one page checkout, deleting captcha, not forcing registration for users, and still I have errors!!!!!!

- Cache to improve speed? Another big trouble. With standard Cache yesterday I did some test from a PC in my house, making a trial order. When I arrived to my office I saw the details in public page checkout I have put from other pc. So I should assume that customers see . CART is cached too, so I add one thing to the cart, surfing around the website to continue shopping, and when I come back to cart : IS EMPTY!!  Same with minicart modules

At this point I am only afraid I wasted one year and a very lots of moneys

[jjk]

Speed is very slow: I know I charge jquery from google, but I could find which components it does, or remove without having error

Looking at your site with the Firebug plugin for the Firefox browser, you are loading 2 different jQuery versions, which certainly will produce conflicts on your website. You should eliminate one. Personally
I prefer to use internal VM jQuery only, because googleapis tend to be slow. (I think my VM shop isn't smaller than yours, but running faster on a cheap shared server with Joomla cache disabled and no 3rd party cache extension)

Your jQuery versions:
jQuery v1.6.4

Code Select Expand

...//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6/jquery.min.js
jQuery v@1.8.1

Code Select Expand

...//www.modacalcio.it/media/jui/js/jquery.min.js

Other errors:

Code Select Expand

"NetworkError: 404 Not Found - http://www.modacalcio.it/altre-ricerche/per-prezzo/fino-a-15-eur/4056/images/whatsapp.jpg"
"NetworkError: 404 Not Found - http://www.modacalcio.it/altre-ricerche/per-prezzo/fino-a-15-eur/4056/templates/gk_esport/images/payments.png"
"NetworkError: 404 Not Found - http://www.modacalcio.it/altre-ricerche/per-prezzo/fino-a-15-eur/4056/images/imgloghi.png"
"NetworkError: 404 Not Found - http://www.modacalcio.it/altre-ricerche/per-prezzo/images/style1/bg_dropline.png"
ReferenceError: JCaption is not defined

- Checkout is a real nightmare with default code. To Choose shipping change page and to confirm the page updates

Mine works great with default code  . If you offer only one shipping method per country, you can enable auto-selection for that in VM configuration.

Choose payment the same result.

Ok, up to VM 2.0.22 you have one click more than OPC when you have to choose from several payment methods. VM 2.0.24 comes with it's own OPC, which you can enable in the Configuration > Checkout tab. BTW - the common belief that OPC results in a higher conversion rate is nonsense. I see a lot of people repeating that statement, but I still didn't find a single statistical proof of that. It's more like a 'religion'.

Then have to accept policies ( forced by suppliers ) and at the end another screen confirming all

That's required by law in most european countries. I'm not shure about Italy. However, the second confirmation screen usually only shows up if you missed a mandatory selection above.

Cache to improve speed? Another big trouble.

Joomla cache and most should be switched off unless you want present your customers the cached cart from the previous customer. Also see here for an explanation:
http://www.itoctopus.com/why-progressive-caching-in-joomla-should-be-avoided-in-most-cases
If you need cache, you may try JotCache, which is sometimes being used in VM shops much larger than yours. Other cache systems are usually not flexible enough for use along with a shopping cart.

Because of your installed extensions, you are loading for example twice as many javascript as there is on my website. It just comes into my mind that you can reduce most page load times if you initially show for example 16 products (4 products per row) instead of 30. Loading thirty is slow, because browsers load images one after the other, not simultaniously. Also keep in mind that using templates based on frameworks all have the tendency to make your site slower. And if you use VM > than 2.0.21, you need to update your template to the latest version (I don't know if they tested it with 2.0.24 already).

Overall, your shop seems to work nicely, but you still should solve the small problems mentioned above.

[ereallstaff]

Sorry for very late reply , and first of all thanks for your reply.

As said I can't find who calls the external Jquery library. I have tried enabling and disabling one component and module per time, but is really difficult to find this. So at the end I was forced to leave.

The caption and other error, are related to JotCache, as this component doesn't accept relative path. I am resolving one by one.

It's not OPC taking more conversions, it's normal Virtuemart2 checkout process, that let's customers run away, it's quite different. I will create a mirror website soon to let you see.

But the real surprising thing is that: I am promoting and advertising the new modacalcio.it without having back an order.   The old virtuemart1 website (www.modacalcio.com ) in this period is having a conversion rate of 30%  , 20 visits and 2/3 order.

Is that normal?

[jjk]

But the real surprising thing is that: I am promoting and advertising the new modacalcio.it without having back an order.   The old virtuemart1 website (www.modacalcio.com ) in this period is having a conversion rate of 30%  , 20 visits and 2/3 order.
Is that normal?

I don't know, if this is normal, but I have a similar experience with my old/new shops. Almost a full year after my new VM2 shop went online, orders from the new shop are slowly overtaking the ones from the old shop, even though the new VM2 shop is much better represented in the search engines for quite a while already. When I talk to customers on the phone and ask them why they used the old shop instead of the new shop to place an order, I usually get answers like "I' stick with what I'm used to use" or something similar.

However, make shure the order emails from the new shop are being sent 

[jenkinhill]

As said I can't find who calls the external Jquery library. I have tried enabling and disabling one component and module per time, but is really difficult to find this. So at the end I

Where I see an extra jQuery I use Rereplacer to stop the second library from loading & can then quickly check the site. Saves going through all modules & plugins.
http://www.ostraining.com/blog/joomla/rereplacer-jquery
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/edition/replace/4336

[ereallstaff]

Is Mootols mandatory for all virtuemart pages?

I have read on forum that AddToCart is mandatory Jquery only to work.

Thanks for tip on rereplacer, but at first look I can remove only from all pages right? not maybe on selected page like category or productdetails

thanks!

[ereallstaff]

Ok Mootols is mandatory for tons of plugin and my gavick template.

I was wondering why use a so heavy library like mootols ( 500 kb of library in total ) instead of Jquery


MMMMMMah! mistery

[Milbo]

Vm2 dont need mootools, only joomla and other 3rd party.

You can disable the loading of jquery via google by the vm config itself. If your cart is not directly going from one step to the other and is instead showing always again the main page, then you have a seo problem due other extensions.

[ereallstaff]

Ok that's fine, I will disable all mootols extension or convert the code.

While I load my website ( www.modacalcio.it ) I have the impression that nothing is stored on browser cache.

Let's explain my self better: I download all website and images. But If I refresh all images should be in browser cache so for a second load, they are no more downloaded by web.

I have checked in developer chrome toolbar, but seems each time to download Mootols again. How I can check if effectively in cache or not?

Thanks

With chrome dev bar

[ereallstaff]

and also for jjk:

Downloading category "Scarpe Calcio --> Tutte le scarpe Calcio" is 1.6MB - 4.96 seconds ( with 100 products inside , 30 at first load )

Downloading category "Scarpe Calcio --> Famiglia --> nitrocharge " is 1.4MB - 4.26 seconds with 3 products only

The bottleneck is for sure js and css compression, and double loading