Contents of the document

The product............................................................................................................................................3

Prerequisites & compatibility.............................................................................................................3

Archive content..................................................................................................................................3

Product installation procedure...............................................................................................................4

Requirements.....................................................................................................................................4

File System permissions.....................................................................................................................4

Getting the product and installing it...................................................................................................4

Product basic configuration procedure..................................................................................................5

Product full documentation...................................................................................................................6

Blockhtml Cache.................................................................................................................................6

What is this?...................................................................................................................................6

Access.............................................................................................................................................6

Grid Config Interface......................................................................................................................7

Component details.........................................................................................................................7

Cache Entry Config Interface:.........................................................................................................7

Component details.........................................................................................................................8

Additional configuration of the blockhtml cache:..........................................................................8

Configuration details......................................................................................................................8

Learning Grid Interface...................................................................................................................8

Component details.........................................................................................................................9

Fullpage Cache.................................................................................................................................10

What is this?.................................................................................................................................10

Access...........................................................................................................................................10

Grid Config Interface....................................................................................................................11

Component details.......................................................................................................................11

Cache Entry Config Interface........................................................................................................11

Component details.......................................................................................................................12

Htaccess...........................................................................................................................................12

What is this?.................................................................................................................................12

Access...........................................................................................................................................12

Config Interface............................................................................................................................12

Component details.......................................................................................................................13

Reindexation URL Booster................................................................................................................13

What is this?.................................................................................................................................13

Configuration of Reindexation......................................................................................................13

CDN..................................................................................................................................................14

What is this?.................................................................................................................................14

Configuration of CDN....................................................................................................................14

Component details.......................................................................................................................14

AdditionalCDN configuration........................................................................................................15

Advanced configuration of the module................................................................................................16

Custom block caching & hooks.........................................................................................................16

Tip for blocks................................................................................................................................16

General information on the Magento Cache................................................................................16

BlockhtmlHelper Cache................................................................................................................16

FullpageHelper Cache...................................................................................................................17

Example of a concrete case of adaptation....................................................................................17

Nitrogento 1.1 new features............................................................................................................18

Nitrogento 1.2 new features............................................................................................................18

Use of Mobile Themes or Packages In Magento...............................................................................19

Optimize File Cache Backend............................................................................................................19

Disabling Cache on a given page from the frontend.........................................................................19

Checking your settings & scores with Gtmetrix, Yslow, and/or Pagespeed..........................................20

Results..................................................................................................................................................20

Contacts / Support...............................................................................................................................20

Other sources of optimizations............................................................................................................21

Credits & copyrights.............................................................................................................................21

The product

Nitrogento boost Magento page load time through many optimization systems. All of them are configurable from the back office, except the Custom Block Cache feature that require some few additional code in your website sources.

The Features removed in 1.2

We decided to remove some features in version 1.2 :

Sprite Minification of HTML, JS & CSS CDN support

Those features necessited to have a very clean template and we 97% customer having issues with poor quality template, that generated troubles. The other features of Nitrogento are “template resilient” and won’t be affected by HTML/CSS/JS issues, so we decided to lower the price of the product and remove those three features.

(Just FYI, you can check if yours is clean regarding HTML there : http://validator.w3.org and CSS there : http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/)

Prerequisites & compatibility

Magento with an unmodified core Nitrogento operates on versions

o CE : 1.4,1.5, 1.6 and 1.7o EE : 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12

(On EE version, FPC should be desactivated if you want Nitrogento FPC’s to work) We don’t recommend installing Nitrogento along with another cache management module unless you know what you're doing since the effect can be contradictory, the site can bug and you’ll perhaps loose performances instead of increasing them.

Archive content

This extension contains files located in the following folders :

app/code/local/NBSSystem/Nitrogento (module sources) app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/nitrogento (module admin templates) app/design/adminhtml/default/default/layout/nitrogento.xml (module admin layout) app/etc/modules/NBSSystem_Nitrogento.xml (Magento module configuration file) app/design/frontend/default/default/layout/nitrogento.xml (module frontend layout)

Product installation procedure

Requirements

The product will check if all pre requisite are met. If you have some errors, Nitrogento should report them like this :

File System permissions

The following folders and/or files must be readable & writable on the file system :

.htaccess (the one at the root of the site) index.php (the one at the root of the site)

(Don’t forget to put back .htaccess in a restrictive right settings after)

Getting the product and installing it

READ CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW STEP BY STEP WITHOUT SKIPPING ANY LINE.

This install process should take you less than 10 mins.

1. Buy the product online on our website : www.nitrogento.com(Fill the CORRECT URL (production and if any, preproduction) so we can compile your licence key)

2. Get the extension archive, upload it to your website root, unpack its content(Copy the content of the “Copy_content_to_website_root” directory, to your website root)

3. Fix the permissions & ownership with chmod and chown according to your webserver settings4. Check that your admin theme is default (only one directory in app/design/adminhtml/default) or

custom (another one is there, let’s call it “mytheme”)(If your theme is customized, follow this procedure : Move in the app/design/adminhtml/default/default directory and move the content of the folders “layout” and “template” in the directory theme of your custom template (the “mytheme”))

5. Connect to your admin panel. Go to System->cache management and select all cache and then select desactivate action, validate. (this is temporary, but mandatory)

6. If you get some messages (error in permissions), correct them by fixing the permission / ownership of the uploaded files (chown / chmod)

Product basic configuration procedure

1. Login to your admin, move to System, desactivate your cache if this has not already been done.

2. Move to System->Nitrogento. Check if you want to desactivate any block or FPC cache.

3. Next, parameter the htaccess settings, activate the three check box, default settings are 1 year, this make sense but you can have, for specific reasons, to change this. (Don’t worry, if the file size is changed, it will be reloaded by the browser anyway)

4. Move to System-> configuration->Advanced->Nitrogento->CDN settings. (Fill the 3 fields, don’t put http before), add your CDN URL (cdn.foobar.com if you want only one cdn or cdn[x].foobar.com if you want many of them).

5. Move to System->cache management, activate Nitrogento Full Page Cache (you can get back to system->Nitrogento->cache->Full page cache to set some exception if needed) and get back in system->cache management and activate “Nitrogento Full Page Cache”.

6. Go to System -> Advanced -> Nitrogento -> Cache fullpage, clic on “activate index.php”

7. The only remaining thing to do is insert your custom bloc. No “straight to the goal method” here, you have to move to the documentation and modify a bit your code. Nothing real hard to do but no “Auto Magic” method there. (Move to custom bloc caching & hooks in the documentation)

Product full documentation

Blockhtml Cache

What is this?

To render each of its pages, Magento divides it into "blocks", the sum of these blocks will form the rendering of the page.

It is possible to cache the html rendering of these blocks to avoid having to recalculate content on the server side.

E.g. If we cache the html rendering of the block containing a product, we won't have to query the database to search for product info anymore.

Access

From your Magento BackOffice, go to System> Nitrogento>Cache>Blockhtml

Grid Config Interface

Component details

Component DescriptionChange View button Used to change the user view (the top one is in advanced mode,

there is however one in simplified mode)Add Config button Used to add a blockhtml cache entry configurationFlush Blockhtml Cache Objects button Used to clean fullpage cacheEnable/disable/refresh action Used to respectively enable, disable, or refresh a cache entry.

Note: disable cleans the cache beforehand.Cache entry line (e.g. Catalog View) This line is a cache entry; more information is available in the

Cache Entry Interface section. Click a line to edit this configuration.

Cache Entry Config Interface:

By clicking a line, you will access this configuration:

Component details

Components Description Required

Block Class Class of the block to be cached YBlock Template Template associated with the block to be cached YFriendly Entry This label is used as an indication for a non-technical

user on the current block.N

Helper Class This is the class used to create the adapted elements for the cache. For technical users, refer to the section "Cache Blockhtmlhelper"If you don't know what to put here, put: nitrogento/cache_blockhtml_generic_static_implor nitrogento/cache_blockhtml_generic_dynamic_impl(the difference is explained in the section // TODO)

Y

Cache Lifetime Cache lifetime expressed in seconds YStore Stores on which the cache entry is active (all, for all

stores)N

Activated Flag indicating whether the cache entry is active or not

N

Additional configuration of the blockhtml cache:

From your Magento BackOffice, go to System>Configuration, then:

You should arrive at:

Configuration details

Configuration ActionActivate learning mode Used to activate the learning mode for

blockhtml cache config

Learning Grid Interface

Note: this interface is available if you have activated "learning mode" configuration and if you are in "advanced" view.

Once you have activated this configuration, you will have the time to display the rendering of each block. (Be careful, some blocks can contain other blocks). From here, you can decide to add more to the cache. It’s a good idea to have good technical knowledge of Magento or to get advice from someone that does before adding entries to the cache.

Component details

Component DescriptionPut in Static Cache Config/ Put in Dynamic Cache Config action

Used to respectively add a static/dynamic cache entry (details below)

Cache entry line (e.g. Catalog View) This line is a cache entry; more information is available in the Cache Entry Interface section. Click a line to edit this configuration.

Static cache entry: is a cache entry that considers certain parameters just not the page URL (quite appropriate for constant blocks on all sites (e.g. Footer))

Dynamic cache entry: is a cache entry that considers the same parameters as the static cache entry and, not only that, the URL of the requested page with its parameters in GET.

If there is any hesitation, always take the dynamic cache entry.

Fullpage Cache

What is this?

The fullpage cache is a process aimed at caching a complete site page to avoid having to consistently redo expensive processing server side.

Once the page has been cached, pages can be very rapidly served to customer browsers.

This type of cache is well suited for example when pages don’t change from one visit to the next (homepage, login page, product page, etc.)

Keep in mind that the Full Page Cache is disabled when:

Customer is logged in There is one or more items in the cart There are products in the Magento comparator There are messages in sessions

Access

From your Magento BackOffice, go to System> Nitrogento>Cache>Fullpage

Grid Config Interface

Component details

Component DescriptionAdd Config button Used to add a fullpage cache entry configurationFlush Cache Fullpage Objects Used to clean the fullpage cacheEnable/Disable/Refresh actions Used to respectively enable, disable, or refresh a

cache entry.Note: disable cleans the cache beforehand.

Cache entry line (e.g. Homepage) This line is a cache entry; more information is available in the Cache Entry Interface section. Click a line to edit this configuration

Cache Entry Config Interface

By clicking a line, you will access this configuration:

Component details

Components Description RequiredFriendly Entry This label is used as an indication for a non-technical user on the N

current page.Full Action Name This is the identifier that allows Magento to recognize a page. (Note:

for a non-technical, do not touch this field)O

Helper Class This is the class used to create the adapted elements for the cache. For technical users, refer to the section "Cache FullpageHelper". If you don't know what to put here, put: nitrogento/cache_fullpage_generic_impl

O

Cache Lifetime Cache lifetime expressed in seconds OStore Stores on which this cache entry is active (all, for all the stores) NActivated Flag indicating whether the cache entry is active or not N

Htaccess

What is this?

The cache of your site's customer browsers can be activated via the parameters that reside in .htaccess.

In order to simplify this configuration, Nitrogento directly integrates a menu in Magento. These optimizations reduce download times for certain elements (by compressing them) and keep them in the cache when the browser passes over a known element (expire / etags).

Access

From your Magento BackOffice, go to System> Nitrogento>Htaccess

Config Interface

Component details

Component DescriptionSave Config button Used to save the deflate config in the .htaccess file of the Magento store

root folder (make sure it is accessible in read and write).Activate htaccess deflate Activates the compression of text elementsActivate htaccess expire Instructs the customer browser to cache received elements, time can be

defined by resources. Default values are usually practicable by most sites.

Activatehtaccess etags The Entity tag is used by the knowledge server when the resource has been modified.

nbs-system-blog Additional information is available from: http://www.nbs-system.com/blog/technique/faq/optimisations-grace-au-fichier-htaccess/

Reindexation URL Booster

What is this?

This functionality helps your Magento store to achieve a x2 to x10 boost of speed on the url reindexation process. The configuration is easy, it’s safe to use, it just optimizes the way Magento manage the indexation by not generating useless URLs.

Configuration of Reindexation

You can enable / disable this feature from the system/configuration BO menu and going into advanced->Nitrogento->Index Url Optimization and choose to include or not disabled and not visible products. We highly recommend you put all these settings to yes to get the most benefit out of this feature.

CDN

What is this?

This functionality transfers your media (img, js, css) to a CDN (self) and rewrites your media URLs with the CDN URL. Consequently, the server that executes the php and the one that delivers static content can be different.

Configuration of CDN

Using a CDN has two main goals:

Speeding up loading by allowing your browser to simultaneously pull resources from multiple hosts. The value is browser-dependent but, on average, browsers are set to pull resources with no more than 8 simultaneous connections per server (per CNAME).

Providing resources that are “close to your user” means that your content is delivered from a place that optimizes transfer speed and latency because it’s geographically located “close to your user”.

Both are important, even if the first point is more so than the second. For example, on a demostore, there are 53 elements to get. If you spread them around 4 CDN, you will get 8 resources per hostname and therefore get 32 elements at once and the 21 other ones in a second pass, instead of doing 7 passes.

Component details

Component DescriptionUse self CDN Enables self CDN or notBase URL Specifies the absolute path of your Magento siteCDN url Specifies the absolute path of your CDN siteNumber of CDN Number of CDN, it will replace the [X] (with

brackets) value of your CDN url

AdditionalCDN configuration

There are many ways to setup your CDN system. Nitrogento actually only automates a “classic CDN” but Akamaï and MaxCDN should soon be supported. Here is a simple way to set up your own CDN.

First, choose whichever Httpd service you like. Apache is good, but Lighttpd, Nginx, Zeus, and others can also do a very decent job. Let’s assume you choose Apache.

Declare the CNAMES pointers in your DNS. This could look like this:

www IN CNAME nitrogento.fr.cdn 3600 IN A 195.5.236.93cdn1 3600 IN CNAME cdncdn2 3600 IN CNAME cdncdn3 3600 IN CNAME cdncdn4 3600 IN CNAME cdn

If you are using named (bind), you should remember to change the zone serial number and then issue an rndc reload [your-zone-name]

Next, you need to configure Apache to handle your CDN Vhost. Files are usually in /etc/apache2. Edit your config file and configure it. Here is an example. Remember to change values to suit your needs, settings, hostname, and directory path:In your vhost, make all your cdn url target your base magento app dir. Maybe you’ll need to restart your apache server after that.

Advanced configuration of the module

Custom block caching & hooks

Tip for blocks

Before caching a block, verify in the code that its method _prepareLayout() does not load any collections, in fact, this method will be systematically called whether the block is cached or not. The result will be that caching this block will not improve performance by very much. If you want to load a collection, prefer overwriting the method _beforeToHtml()

General information on the Magento Cache

Magento uses the API Zend_Cache to cache components. To cache a component you must provide it with a cache key (which will be used to identify a component in the cache) and a lifetime (beyond which the object will no longer be taken from the cache then reloaded).

BlockhtmlHelper Cache

To build a cache key, each Nitrogento blockhtml cache entry config must define a helper; this helper must overwrite the abstract class:

NBSSystem_Nitrogento_Helper_Cache_Blockhtml_Abstract

Methods to overwrite Description ExamplesbuildCacheKey(Mage_Core_Block_Abstract $block)

This method is used to build the cache key

Product page: to cache the block, a generic cache key must be built to which the product identifier is added.

buildCacheTags(Mage_Core_Block_Abstract $block)

This method is used to provide a group identifier to be able to easily delete cache entries.

Product page: here, common cache tags are added, then the cache tag specific to the product is added; consequently, if the product is modified/deleted BO side, this entry will be removed from the cache.

isBlockCachable(Mage_Core_Block_Abstract $block)

Verification made Nitrogento side to indicate whether the block is cacheable or not.

Product page: we can cache or retrieve this block from the cache if, for example, no message is displayed on this page. This method is used for filtering.

FullpageHelper Cache

To build your cache key, each Nitrogento fullpage cache entry config must define a helper; this helper must overwrite the abstract class:

NBSSystem_Nitrogento_Helper_Cache_Fullpage_Abstract

Little peculiarity, here the helper does not manage the cache key, the cache key of a page is actually its complete url.

Methods to overwrite Description ExamplesbuildCacheTags() This method is used to provide

a group identifier to be able to easily delete cache entries.

Product page: here, common cache tags are added, then the cache tag specific to the product is added; consequently, if the product is modified/deleted BO side, this entry will be removed from the cache.

isPageCachable() Verification made Nitrogento side to indicate whether the block is cacheable or not.

CMS page: CMS pages are all cached, if you want to make an exception for a page in particular, this is the method that can manage it.

Example of a concrete case of adaptation

Problem

My store named "boutique1" runs with Magento and wants to install the Nitrogento module.

It has the following specificities:

- A sticker, indicating whether the product displayed is already in the customer's shopping cart, is placed on the product pages.

- We don't want the CMS page of the url http://www.boutique1.fr/mapagecms1 to be cached.

Naive resolution of the problem

We could simply disable the config entries for the blockhtml portion of the product pages and those for the fullpage portion of the CMS pages, but we would lose out in terms of performance.

Technical resolution of the problem

I'm creating a Boutique1_NitrogentoExt module that will overwrite helpers chosen from Nitrogento.

The Boutique1_NitrogentoExt.xml file must include a dependence on the NBSSystem_Nitrogento module; you should see something like this:

<?xmlversion="1.0"?><config>

<modules><Boutique1_NitrogentoExt><active>true</active><codePool>local</codePool><depends><NBSSystem_Nitrogento></depends></Boutique1_NitrogentoExt></modules></config>

You create an helper to manage the product sticker problem:

<?phpclassBoutique1_NitrogentoExt_Helper_Cache_Blockhtml_Catalog_Product_View_Impl extends NBSSystem_Nitrogento_Helper_Cache_Blockhtml_Catalog_Product_View_Impl{public function buildCacheKey($block) {return parent::buildCacheKey($block) . '_' . $this->isCurrentProductInCart();}

private function isCurrentProductInCart() {if(Mage::registry('current_product')) {returnin_array(Mage::registry('current_product')->getId, Mage::getModel('checkout/cart')->getQuoteProductsIds()) ? 1 : 0; }else{return0; } }}

Nitrogento 1.1 new features

Events/Rewrites mechanism

As Nitrogento is loaded before magento configuration,we ‘va added the same mechanism o rewrites/events natively provided by Magento but that configuration must be written in your local.xml file.

Nitrogento 1.1, provides a local.xml.sample in the folder etc of Nitrogento to help you with the syntax.

Excludes some urls from being handled by the cache.

You can excludes some url from being handled by the cache. You have to configure the node in the local .xml (here is a sample from the local.xml.sample):

<cache_fullpage><pathinfo_excludes><![CDATA[install,rma/adminhtml_rma,helpdeskultimate_admin,api]]></pathinfo_excludes></cache_fullpage>

Nitrogento 1.2 new features

Clean old cache entries cron

Nitrogento v1.2 provides a cron that clean every two hours old cache entries(this mechanism use the native magento cron feature so make sure that the cron.php is running on your system).

Ignoring useless GET parameters

Nitrogento cache FPC mechanism use current url as key of page contents. But some search engines lik google adds some get parameters in your commercial urls (gclid) for instance. If you want to ignore them you’ll need to add this in your local xml (here is a sample from the local.xml.sample):

<cache><query_string_filters><![CDATA[gclid]]></ query_string_filters ></cache>

Note this feature is usefull, if you don’t use it, your cache may fill in quickly with useless cache entries.

Use of Mobile Themes or Packages In MagentoIf you have configured exceptions in packages or themes for have a special theme depending on the user agent (for mobile devices for instance), you’ll have to add in your local xml this node (here is a sample from the local.xml.sample):

<global> [STANDARD AND CUSTOM CONFIGS HERE] <nitrogento> <device_detector> <class>NBSSystem_Nitrogento_Helper_Device_Detector</class> </device_detector> </nitrogento></global>

Note : This Detector class make differences between (normal computers, mobiles and tablets), if yours needs are to makedifferents themes or packages for Android or iPhone or whatever, you’ll have to create your own Device_Detector, this one has to implement NBSSystem_Nitrogento_Helper_Device_IDetector.

Optimize File Cache BackendThis lines are usefull if you are using the standard cache backend file. You can optimize this backend by using this one instead : (NBSSystem_Nitrogento_Helper_Cache_Backend_File)

To configure it ou’ll have to edit app/etc/local.xml changing global/cache/backend to NBSSystem_Nitrogento_Helper_Cache_Backend_File, you’ll find more infos at : https://github.com/colinmollenhour/Cm_Cache_Backend_File

And the reason why it’s usefull and if you want to go frther in cache backends : http://info.magento.com/rs/magentocommerce/images/imagine2012-tech-cache-showdown.pdf

NOTE : NBSSystem_Nitrogento_Helper_Cache_Backend_File is the Cm_Cache_Backend_File renamed

Disabling Cache on a given page from the frontendThis can be done adding the GET param nitrogento_refresh_cache_on_page and setting his value to 1

For instance : the url http://127.0.0.1/nitrogento/index.php/furniture.html?

nitrogento_refresh_cache_on_page=1 will refresh the cache on furniture page category of the demostore. (if you have one installed)

Checking your settings & scores with Gtmetrix, Yslow, and/or Pagespeed

First, you have to know that Pagespeed auto detects the use of a CDN but Yslow doesn’t. If you want your CDN to be understood from Yslow, you either have to use one that is very well known or declare it in your settings.

In Firefox, this is done by opening a new tab, type: about:config

Then move to extensions.yslow.cdnHostnames and type your CDN CNAME, separate using a comma.

Example: cdn.nitrogento.com,cdn1.nitrogento.com,cdn2.nitrogento.com,cdn3.nitrogento.com,cdn4.nitrogento.com

In GTmetrix, you will have to create an account and then go to: http://gtmetrix.com/dashboard.html#prefs-modal

Results

Activating every optimization of Nitrogento should allow you to load 300 Kb in 1.2 seconds with 26 requests on a Magento demostore, instead of 2.7 seconds, 359 Kb, and 52 requests.

Usually, FPC and Block caching allow serving 6 to 8 times more pages per day on the same server.

Returning visitors should get their page faster since their browsers' cache will be loaded; we usually obtain a 4 Kb download with only 2 HTTP requests instead of 5 Kb and 52 HTTP requests.

We usually recommend using Funkload to bench your websites performances, more efficient than siege, takes Apdexindice into consideration and is far more realistic than Apache Bench.

You can find more precise benchmarks on www.nitrogento.com

Contacts / Support

If you have a problem with this extension, you can open a ticket in our incident support system by sending an e-mail to support@nitrogento.com. Please provide as many specifics regarding your issue as you can and attach a screen shot whenever possible.

This e-mail is only provided for support purposes and is not meant to provide help with product configuration; consequently, any requests on how to configure Nitrogento will not be answered via this path.

You can direct other questions or provide your feedback here: contact@nitrogento.com

Other sources of optimizations

NBS System also published a full Howto regarding Magento Webserver performances optimization here : http://www.nbs-system.co.uk/blog-2/magento-optimization-howto-en.html

Credits & copyrights

Nitrogento is a Magento extension created based on an original concept of NBS System in 2010-2012. NBS System is in charge of any questions related to this extension and owns all code, concepts, names, brands, logos, websites, domain name and rights for this product.

Matthieu Bouchot (The Ecommerce Academy) and Agence DnD developed the extension for NBS System.