007AJ Performance and Caching — Documentation

Guide to installing, setting up and using 007AJ Performance and Caching 1.0.1 for WordPress.

1. Installation

Requirements: WordPress 6.3 or newer and PHP 7.4 or newer. Multisite networks are not supported.

From a zip file

1. In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
2. Choose 007aj-performance-caching-1.0.1.zip and click Install Now.
3. Click Activate. Nothing on your site changes yet.

2. Getting started

1. Open 007AJ Performance and Caching in the dashboard and read the Setup check.
2. If it reports nothing risky, press Enable page cache. If it reports a problem (another cache plugin, a foreign advanced-cache.php, a host that already caches pages, a read-only wp-config.php, a multisite network), nothing is changed and you are told why.
3. Open your site in a private window and look at the response header X-AJPC-Cache: the first visit is MISS, the next is HIT.

3. Page cache

• Pages are saved on disk and served by an advanced-cache.php drop-in, with a cache lifetime you set. An optional separate cache for phones and tablets is off by default.
• Never cached: logged-in users, commenters, password-protected posts, carts and checkout (including WooCommerce), POST requests, pages with query strings (tracking parameters such as utm_ are ignored), the REST API, wp-admin, AJAX and feeds.
• Purged automatically when you publish, edit or delete content, when comments change, and when menus, widgets, theme, customizer settings, plugins or key site options change. Purge all and Purge this page are in the admin bar. When a comment is anonymised or removed, the saved copy of that post's pages is removed too.
• Browser-caching and compression rules are written to .htaccess on Apache and LiteSpeed (with a backup). For nginx, copy the snippet shown on the Tools tab; the plugin never writes nginx files.
• Exclusions by page address, cookie and user agent. There is no per-post "do not cache" box and no per-language cache.

4. Safety, backups and Safe mode

• A backup of wp-config.php and .htaccess is made before each edit. Edits sit between BEGIN AJPC / END AJPC markers, are syntax-checked, and are verified by asking your own site for a page. If it does not answer normally, everything is rolled back automatically.
• An existing advanced-cache.php from another plugin or host is never overwritten.
• Deactivating the plugin removes all its file changes and the cached pages. Deleting it keeps your settings and backups unless you tick Also delete all settings and backups (off by default).

5. Optimize

Everything on the Optimize tab is off until you choose. Safe minifies HTML, CSS and JavaScript and removes emoji scripts. Balanced adds deferred JavaScript, lazy-loaded images and iframes, and query strings removed from asset addresses. Each preset can be undone with one click, and Turn all optimizations off is always on the same screen.

• Minified copies are written to wp-content/cache/ajpc-assets/. Your theme and plugin files are never edited.
• Deferred JavaScript is dependency-aware: scripts that others rely on (jQuery by default), scripts with inline code attached and anything you list under exclusions keep their normal loading.
• Skipped for logged-in users (unless you choose otherwise), the admin area, page-builder editors, previews, feeds, REST and AJAX. Add ?ajpc-off=1 to any address to see the page without optimizations. The X-AJPC-Opt header shows what was done.
• If any step fails, the original page is sent unchanged.

6. Advanced speed

On the Advanced speed tab. Every option is off until you turn it on, and all of them are skipped for logged-in users, the admin area, page-builder editors, previews, feeds, REST and AJAX.

• Combine CSS files and JavaScript files.
• Delay JavaScript until the first interaction or a timeout you set; scripts whose address, id or code contains a word on your “Never delay these” list stay immediate.
• Reduced stylesheets leave out rules the page does not use. This reads the page's markup only, so it cannot see elements that scripts add later; an “Always keep” list protects class and id names.
• Critical CSS per page type, with the full stylesheet loaded afterwards. It is estimated from the first part of the page markup (about 12 KB) and is not measured in a browser. If a page flashes unstyled content, paste CSS in the box provided or switch it off.
• Hints: preload, prefetch and preconnect links, and font-display: swap.
• Host Google Fonts locally: your server downloads the font stylesheets and files that your theme or plugins already request from Google, stores them under wp-content/cache/ajpc-assets/fonts/ and serves them from your site. See External Services.
• If any step fails the original page is sent. Regenerate optimized files rebuilds the generated files.

7. Images

• Compress JPEG and PNG files on your own server with PHP's GD library, on upload or from the Media Library / Images tab. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
• Before a file is replaced, the original is copied to wp-content/ajpc-backups/images/. Restore original puts it back byte for byte, for one image or all. A file is replaced only if the new one is smaller and passed a check.
• Skipped, with the reason shown in the Media Library: animated images, GIF, CMYK JPEG, 16-bit PNG, PNG with a colour profile, damaged files, files over 5000 pixels or 10 MB, and anything that would not get smaller.
• Optional WebP copies, shown to browsers that accept WebP through WordPress image functions. Optional largest size and camera-data (Exif, GPS) removal for JPEG.
• Unlimited background bulk runs (WP-Cron batches) with progress, pause and resume, and a quality setting.
• AVIF copies where the server's GD supports AVIF; a minimum saving so copies that are not smaller are never kept.
• <picture> markup that serves AVIF/WebP for every image on the page, and optional server rules for Apache/LiteSpeed (with backup and live check) and an nginx snippet.
• A daily re-scan, and an image sizes helper: report, create missing sizes, move unused size files aside and put them back.

8. Database clean-up

On the Database tab you pick what to remove: post revisions, auto-drafts, posts and pages in the trash, comments in the trash, spam comments, expired transients, orphaned post meta and orphaned comment meta. Press Count first: a dry run that changes nothing. Then tick the kinds, confirm that you have a database backup, and press Delete.

Revisions, auto-drafts, trashed posts, trashed comments and spam are removed only when older than the number of days you set (revisions and auto-drafts: at least 1 day). Published content, approved and pending comments, the Media Library and private content types are never touched.

Scheduled clean-up and table optimizing

A schedule (daily or weekly) removes only the kinds you tick and only items older than the days you set; the last 10 runs are logged. It is off until you switch it on and tick at least one kind. Table optimizing runs OPTIMIZE TABLE on this site's tables that have at least 1 MB and 5% unused space, by button or on the schedule. Scheduled deletions cannot be undone either.

9. Extras

• Heartbeat control for admin screens, the post editor and the public site: Default, Slower (every 15 to 120 seconds) or Off. Off in the editor stops the post-lock updates, the session-expired login prompt and the classic editor's autosave through the heartbeat.
• Clean-up switches: pingback methods of XML-RPC and the X-Pingback header (XML-RPC itself stays on), shortlink, RSD link, WordPress version tag, and a revision limit for new saves.
• Cache preload: visits the home page and the pages found in your sitemap and navigation menus, 1 to 30 pages per minute (at most 500 pages), so they are cached before visitors arrive. Requests go only to your own site, wait while the server load is high, and need the page cache to be on. Preload depends on WP-Cron.
• A dashboard widget with cache and image numbers (counted at most every 5 minutes; administrators only).

10. CDN and purge

CDN address rewrite

Points the addresses of static files at the CDN address you enter. Default file types: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, webp, avif, svg, ico, css, js, woff, woff2, ttf, otf, eot, from the folders wp-content and wp-includes; you can edit the lists of folders, file types and exclusions. It rewrites images, srcset, video and audio, stylesheet and preload links, classic script addresses and url() values in inline styles. Links to pages, text inside scripts, module scripts, scripts or stylesheets with an integrity hash and the contents of CSS files are not changed. The admin area, previews and page-builder editors always get the normal addresses. Your CDN must fetch the files from your site under the same paths (a pull zone). The plugin never contacts the CDN.

Cloudflare purge

When the plugin removes cached pages it can ask Cloudflare to drop its copies of the same addresses, or everything. You enter an API token with the permission Zone → Cache Purge → Purge for one zone. Use Test connection first.

Host and server caches

When the plugin purges it can also call the purge function of Kinsta, WP Engine, SiteGround, Cloudways (through the Breeze plugin) or LiteSpeed Cache (or send the LiteSpeed purge header), and send HTTP PURGE requests to your own site's address for Varnish or nginx caches that accept them. Kinsta and Cloudways are purged only when the whole cache is emptied; the other hosts also purge single pages. These integrations follow the hosts' public documentation. Pantheon and Flywheel are detected and shown, not purged.

11. Object cache

Installs a persistent object-cache drop-in for a Redis or Memcached server that you run. The plugin does not install either server and uses plain sockets, so no PHP extension is needed.

• It installs only after a successful connection test, keeps a backup of any other drop-in (object-cache.php.ajpc-backup) and refuses to replace it unless you confirm.
• A new key counter starts at install, so entries from an earlier installation are not used. You can flush and remove from the same tab.
• If the server cannot be reached, WordPress keeps working: the drop-in falls back to a cache for the current request only and remembers the failure for 30 seconds. A server that accepts the connection but never answers can delay the first request by about one second.
• A Redis password is stored in wp-content/ajpc-object-cache-config.php (file mode 0600, not in the database, because the drop-in loads before the database). Memcached is used without a login.
• Entries are PHP-serialized, like other WordPress object caches: only connect to a server you trust and that is not reachable by others.
• It talks to one server, by address or socket file, with an optional Redis user name, password and TLS. Redis cluster mode and Memcached logins (SASL) are not supported.

12. Web Vitals

Off until you switch it on. For the share of visits you choose, a script in the visitor's browser measures LCP, the longest interaction, CLS, FCP and TTFB and sends those five numbers and the window width to your own site once, when the visitor leaves the page. It is not loaded for logged-in users, and visitors whose browser sends “Do Not Track” or “Global Privacy Control” are not measured. Your site stores only daily counts per value range and per small, medium and large screen, for 90 days, with a history chart. No page address, IP address, browser name or identifier is stored and no cookie is set or read. Interaction time is approximated by the longest interaction and the 75th percentile is estimated from value ranges. Anyone can send numbers to the route, so the figures are an indication, not proof. Delete all collected numbers removes them.

13. Privacy and personal data

By default the plugin collects no visitor data, sets no cookies and stores no IP addresses. Cached pages are stored only for visitors who are not logged in and have no cart, comment or password cookie.

For logged-in administrators it keeps a “notice dismissed” flag and short-lived result messages linked to their user ID. WordPress's Export Personal Data and Erase Personal Data tools include and remove them. The plugin adds suggested text under Settings → Privacy → Policy Guide that covers the services in section 17, the settings file for the object cache and Web Vitals.

Stored in your database: settings and the Cloudflare API token (not autoloaded, never shown again; deleted with “Remove token and settings” or when you delete the plugin with the data option ticked). Optimized files are under wp-content/cache/ajpc-assets/.

14. Deactivating and deleting

Deactivate: removes the drop-in, the WP_CACHE line, the .htaccess rules and the cached pages, the object-cache drop-in (restoring any backed-up drop-in) and the optimized files. Your settings stay.

Delete: keeps your settings and backups unless you tick Also delete all settings and backups on the Page cache tab first (off by default). Image originals saved in wp-content/ajpc-backups/images/ are part of those backups.

15. What it does not do

• Multisite networks are not supported in either edition.
• Database clean-up, manual or scheduled, has no undo and makes no backup.
• CDN rewrite is HTML only.
• Critical CSS is estimated, and reduced stylesheets cannot see markup added by scripts.
• Web Vitals: interaction time is approximated, the 75th percentile is estimated from ranges, and there is no per-page data.
• No before-and-after speed measurement is built in, and this page makes no speed claims.
• The preload depends on WP-Cron.

16. Troubleshooting

"Enable page cache" was blocked

The Setup check lists the reasons. Fix the item (for example deactivate the other cache plugin) and try again. Nothing was changed.

An optimization broke something

Press Undo or Turn all optimizations off on the Optimize tab, or add the script or page to the exclusions. If you cannot open wp-admin, create the empty file wp-content/ajpc-safe-mode.flag.

I do not like the result of image compression

Press Restore original on the image in the Media Library, or Restore all originals on the Images tab. A file you edited after optimizing is never overwritten by a restore.

The preload does nothing

It needs the page cache to be on and Safe mode to be off, and it runs on WP-Cron. If WP-Cron is switched off on your site, use the Run one step now button or your own cron job.

I use a multisite network

Multisite is not supported. The plugin will not enable page caching on a network and the other features were written for single sites only.

A file does not load from the CDN

Add it to the CDN exclusions or switch the rewrite off. Fonts requested from inside a CSS file keep their address, because CSS files are not rewritten.

Redis or Memcached shows as not reachable

WordPress keeps working. Check the server address and port and run the connection test again; the Object cache tab shows the state.

The page looks unstyled for a moment

Switch off Critical CSS, or paste CSS for that page type in the box on the Advanced speed tab.

17. External Services & Data

The plugin connects to an outside service only when you turn the matching feature on, and sends nothing until then.

Servers you run yourself are not outside services: the Redis or Memcached address you enter, HTTP PURGE requests to your own site's address, the setup self-check and the optional preload (your own pages). Nothing is sent to 007aj.com or anyone else by those. The plugin does not track visitors and sets no cookies.

18. Support

Email admin@007aj.com. Please include the plugin version (shown under Plugins) and what you expected to happen.

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