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Suggestion wpForo Performance Analysis Report fix

hmeonot · 2025-12-13T09:22:52Z

# wpForo Performance Analysis Report## Critical Bottlenecks Found (0.94s TTFB)---**To:** wpForo Development Team**From:** Development Team @ hmeonot.org.il**Date:** December 13, 2025**Subject:** Performance Analysis Report - Critical Bottlenecks Found---## Executive Summary| Metric | Value ||--------|-------|| **wpForo TTFB** | 0.94 seconds (before optimization) || **Main bottleneck** | functions.php - 60.6% of load time || **Forum size** | Only 28 posts, 5 topics, 565 profiles || **Environment** | PHP 8.3, LiteSpeed Enterprise, Redis |The forum is **extremely small**, yet wpForo still takes nearly 1 second. This proves the issue is in the code architecture, not data volume.---## Issue #1: wpforo_is_bot() - Uncached Regex (High Impact)**Location:** functions.php lines 465-490**Problem:**```phpfunction wpforo_is_bot() {$user_agent = wpfval( $_SERVER, 'HTTP_USER_AGENT' );$bots = 'googlebot|bingbot|msnbot|yahoo|...' // ~800 characters, ~40 alternatives!return (bool) preg_match( '#(' . $bots . ')#iu', (string) $user_agent );}```This function:- Runs a **complex regex with ~40 alternatives** on every request- Has **no caching** - recalculates even for the same user- Is called multiple times per page load**Suggested Fix:**```phpfunction wpforo_is_bot() {static $is_bot = null;if ($is_bot !== null) {return $is_bot;}$user_agent = wpfval($_SERVER, 'HTTP_USER_AGENT');if (empty($user_agent)) {return $is_bot = false;}// Check common bots first (short-circuit)$ua_lower = strtolower($user_agent);$common_bots = ['googlebot', 'bingbot', 'yandex', 'baiduspider'];foreach ($common_bots as $bot) {if (strpos($ua_lower, $bot) !== false) {return $is_bot = true;}}// Full regex only if common bots not found$bots = 'bot|crawl|slurp|spider|mediapartners';return $is_bot = (bool) preg_match('#(' . $bots . ')#i', $user_agent);}```---## Issue #2: wpforo_phrase() - Redundant String Operations (High Impact)**Location:** functions.php lines 280-340**Problem:**```phpfunction wpforo_phrase( $phrase, $echo = true ) {$phrase_key = addslashes( strtolower( trim( (string) $phrase ) ) );// ...}```This function:- Calls addslashes(), strtolower(), and trim() on **every phrase lookup**- Is called **hundreds of times** per page- addslashes() is unnecessary for array key lookup**Suggested Fix:**Pre-compute lowercase keys once when phrases are loaded, then use direct lookup:```phpclass WPForo_Phrase_Cache {private static $phrases = null;private static $keys_map = [];public static function init($phrases) {self::$phrases = $phrases;foreach ($phrases as $key => $value) {self::$keys_map[strtolower(trim($key))] = $key;}}public static function get($phrase) {$key = strtolower(trim($phrase));if (isset(self::$keys_map[$key])) {return self::$phrases[self::$keys_map[$key]];}return $phrase;}}```---## Issue #3: wpforo_kses() - Massive Arrays Rebuilt Every Call (Medium Impact)**Location:** functions.php lines 1766-2186**Problem:**```phpfunction wpforo_kses($content, $type = 'post') {// ~200 allowed tags defined here - REBUILT ON EVERY CALL$allowed_tags = ['svg', 'path', 'circle', 'rect', 'polygon', 'polyline','feBlend', 'feColorMatrix', 'feComposite', // ... ~100 more];// ~150 allowed attributes defined here - REBUILT ON EVERY CALL$allowed_attrs = ['fill', 'stroke', 'width', 'height', // ... ~150 more];}```These arrays are **rebuilt from scratch on every call** instead of being cached statically.**Suggested Fix:**```phpfunction wpforo_kses($content, $type = 'post') {static $allowed_html = null;static $allowed_svg = null;if ($allowed_html === null) {$allowed_html = ['a' => ['href' => true, 'title' => true, 'target' => true],// ... rest of tags];$allowed_svg = ['svg' => ['class' => true, 'width' => true, 'height' => true],// ... rest of SVG tags];}// Use cached arrays instead of rebuildingreturn wp_kses($content, array_merge($allowed_html, $allowed_svg));}```---## Issue #4: wpforo_deep_merge() - O(n^5) Complexity (CRITICAL!)**Location:** functions.php lines 2219-2247**Problem:**```phpfunction wpforo_deep_merge( $default, $current = [] ) {foreach( $default as $k => $v ) {if( is_array( $v ) ) {foreach( $v as $kk => $vv ) {if( is_array( $vv ) ) {foreach( $vv as $kkk => $vvv ) {if( is_array( $vvv ) ) {foreach( $vvv as $kkkk => $vvvv ) {if( is_array( $vvvv ) ) {foreach( $vvvv as $kkkkk => $vvvvv ) {// 5 LEVELS OF NESTED LOOPS!```This is **O(n^5) complexity** - exponentially slow with nested arrays.**Suggested Fix:**```phpfunction wpforo_deep_merge($default, $current = []) {if (!is_array($default)) return $current;if (!is_array($current)) return $default;return array_replace_recursive($default, $current); // O(n), built-in PHP}```**Performance comparison:**- Original: O(n^5) - 5 nested loops- Fixed: O(n) - single recursive call---## Issue #5: No Lazy Loading - All 20+ Classes Initialize on Every Request**Location:** wpforo.php lines 237-282**Problem:**```phpprivate function init_base_classes() {$this->settings = new Settings(); // DB...