WPCalibrate Performance Cache

WPCalibrate Performance Cache is an enterprise-grade WordPress performance and caching plugin designed for lightning-fast sub-50ms page delivery, Core Web Vitals acceleration (LCP, INP, CLS), and rock-solid e-commerce protection.

Engineered by WPCalibrate, it combines deterministic filesystem page caching, targeted cache invalidation, automated background sitemap warming, pure-PHP CSS/JS minification, non-destructive WebP generation, database cleanup, CDN re-writing, and native WooCommerce HPOS/Block checkout safeguards.

Table of Contents

• About
• Key Features
• Architecture & Methodology
• How to Use & Quick Start
• Module Documentation
  • 1. Full-Page Cache
  • 2. File Optimization
  • 3. Media Acceleration & WebP
  • 4. Cache Preloader
  • 5. Database Optimization
  • 6. CDN Integration
  • 7. WooCommerce Safeguards
  • 8. Diagnostics & Compatibility
• Automatic Dashboard Updates from GitHub
• Installation
• System Requirements
• Changelog
• Support & Community
• License

About

Modern WordPress dynamic pages require dozens of database queries and heavy PHP execution for every single page request. Under traffic surges, this causes slow Time-to-First-Byte (TTFB), high CPU usage, and lost conversions.

WPCalibrate Performance Cache replaces this overhead by serving pre-rendered static HTML directly from the server filesystem without touching MySQL or heavy PHP processes for anonymous visitors, while seamlessly bypassing the cache for logged-in users, WooCommerce shopping carts, and checkout flows.

Key Features

• Sub-50ms TTFB: High-speed filesystem-based full-page cache with atomic file writes and file concurrency locking (flock).
• Safe Tuning Presets: Switch instantly between Safe, Balanced, and Advanced profiles without overwriting your custom exclusion rules blindly.
• Intelligent Targeted Invalidation: Updates only the modified post, its parent, front page, and associated taxonomy archives—keeping the rest of your site cache warm.
• Background Cache Preloader: Resumable sitemap-driven crawler that pre-renders published pages in non-blocking batches.
• Frontend Asset Optimization: Pure-PHP HTML minification, CSS and JavaScript minification, script defer, and user-interaction JavaScript delay.
• Media Optimization: Native lazy loading, YouTube preview placeholders (saving up to 1MB of upfront player scripts), dimension injection to eliminate CLS, and non-destructive local WebP generation.
• Scheduled Database Cleanups: Prunes post revisions, auto-drafts, spam/trashed comments, and expired transients.
• Universal Static CDN Rewriter: Rewrites static assets (CSS, JS, images) to your CDN pull-zone (Cloudflare, Bunny.net, KeyCDN, CloudFront).
• Deep WooCommerce Compatibility: Built from the ground up for WooCommerce 10.2+ / 11.2+, High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS), and Cart/Checkout Blocks. Never caches sensitive transactional endpoints.
• System Diagnostics & Conflict Detection: Detects conflicting caching plugins, checks filesystem permissions, inspects object cache status, and generates a one-click redacted support report.
• Automatic GitHub Dashboard Updates: Seamless update detection directly in the WordPress Plugins dashboard whenever a new release is published on GitHub.

Architecture & Methodology

[ Visitor HTTP Request ]
          │
          ▼
[ Safety Gate ] ──► (Logged in? Cart? Checkout? POST? Nonce?) ──► YES ──► [ Bypass Cache (Dynamic WP) ]
          │
          ▼ NO (Anonymous GET)
[ Deterministic Cache Key ] (Normalize URI, strip utm_*, gclid, preserve lang & currency)
          │
          ├──► Cache File Exists & Valid? ──► [ Instant Static HTML Delivery (<50ms TTFB) ]
          │
          └──► MISS ──► Generate Page ──► Atomic Temp-file Write + flock() ──► Cache Stored

1. Deterministic Cache Key Normalization: Normalizes scheme, domain, paths, and trailing slashes. Strips marketing query parameters (utm_*, fbclid, gclid) to prevent cache fragmentation while preserving functional keys (lang, currency).
2. Atomic Writes & File Concurrency Locking: Cache entries are written to a temporary location (wp-content/cache/wpcalibrate-performance-cache/tmp/), locked with flock, and atomically renamed. This eliminates race conditions or partial file reads during concurrent traffic spikes.
3. Non-Destructive Media Pipeline: WebP conversions generate sidecar files (image.jpg.webp) without altering or overwriting your original uploads.

How to Use & Quick Start

1. Select an Optimization Preset:
   • Go to WPCalibrate > Performance Cache in your WordPress admin.
   • Choose Safe (recommended default) or Balanced from the preset bar.
2. Verify Cache Delivery:
   • Open your website in an Incognito / Private browser window.
   • Inspect network headers using Developer Tools (F12). Look for X-WPCalibrate-Cache: HIT.
3. Warm the Cache:
   • Click Preload Cache in the header or visit the Preload tab to warm your sitemap in background batches.
4. Enable Media Optimization:
   • Under the Media tab, enable WebP Image Generation and YouTube Placeholders.
5. Schedule Database Maintenance:
   • Under the Database tab, enable weekly automated database maintenance.

Module Documentation

1. Full-Page Cache

• Page Cache Enabled: Toggle master full-page caching on/off.
• Cache Lifespan (TTL): Configurable expiration from 1 hour to 7 days (default: 10 hours).
• Separate Mobile Cache: Generates isolated cache entries for mobile devices when using mobile-specific themes.
• URL Exclusions: Custom wildcard paths (e.g. /my-custom-portal/*) to permanently bypass caching.
• Query String Rules: Whitelist or ignore specific GET parameters.

2. File Optimization

• HTML Minification: Strips whitespace, HTML comments, and unnecessary line breaks.
• CSS Minification: Removes comments and whitespace from inline and linked stylesheets.
• JS Minification: Compresses inline scripts and non-deferred assets.
• JavaScript Defer: Adds defer attribute to non-critical scripts.
• Delayed JavaScript Execution: Defers non-critical JS until user interaction (scroll, click, touch, mouse movement).

3. Media Acceleration & WebP

• Native Image Lazy Loading: Injects loading="lazy" and decoding="async".
• YouTube Placeholders: Replaces embedded iframes with lightweight static thumbnails until clicked.
• CLS Dimension Injection: Automatically calculates and injects missing width and height attributes to prevent Cumulative Layout Shift.
• Local WebP Generation: Automatically converts uploaded and media library images to lightweight WebP sidecars using server GD or Imagick.

4. Cache Preloader

• Automatically reads your sitemap.xml or queries published posts.
• Runs in non-blocking batches via WP-Cron.
• Displays a real-time progress bar with pause, resume, and cancel controls.

5. Database Optimization

• Prunes post revisions while retaining the last $N$ revisions per post.
• Cleans auto-drafts and trashed posts.
• Deletes spam and trashed comments.
• Clears expired and orphaned transients.
• Automatic weekly or daily scheduling.

6. CDN Integration

• Rewrites local static asset URLs to your CDN pull-zone hostname (e.g., https://cdn.example.com).
• Excludes sensitive files, admin assets, and dynamic paths.

7. WooCommerce Safeguards

• Full support for High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS).
• Full support for WooCommerce Cart and Checkout Blocks.
• Automatically excludes /cart/, /checkout/, /my-account/, order-pay, order-received, Store API, and any request containing WooCommerce session cookies (wp_woocommerce_session_*, woocommerce_items_in_cart).

8. Diagnostics & Compatibility

• Detects conflicts with third-party caching plugins (WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, WP Rocket, LiteSpeed).
• Verifies write permissions on cache directories.
• One-click copyable System Diagnostics Report with all passwords, license keys, and cookies securely redacted.

Automatic Dashboard Updates from GitHub

This repository is equipped with native GitHub release update detection.

When a new version is released:

1. WordPress detects the new release automatically under Dashboard > Updates or Plugins.
2. Click Update Now to update the plugin directly from your WordPress admin dashboard.
3. The built-in updater handles folder extraction and activation seamlessly.

Installation

From WordPress Dashboard

1. Download wpcalibrate-performance-cache.zip from the Latest Release.
2. Go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin in your WordPress admin.
3. Select the ZIP file and click Install Now.
4. Click Activate Plugin.

Via FTP / SSH

1. Extract wpcalibrate-performance-cache.zip.
2. Upload the wpcalibrate-performance-cache/ folder to /wp-content/plugins/.
3. Activate the plugin in the WordPress Plugins screen.

System Requirements

Changelog

[1.0.2] - 2026-10-17

• Fix: Resolved Support tab fatal error caused by undefined class constant typo MARKPLACE in SupportManager. Corrected to SupportManager::MARKETPLACE.
• Feature: Added visual Architecture Request Lifecycle workflow diagram to the Overview guide.
• Feature: Added direct module shortcuts (Cache Rules, Media, Preloader, Database) to the Overview tab.
• Feature: Added native GitHub release auto-updater service for seamless dashboard updates.
• Improvement: Added dedicated CSS styling for Support tab contact cards and System Report deep link.
• Testing: Added automated unit test suite (tests/test-support-and-tabs.php) verifying all 12 admin tabs.

[1.0.1] - 2026-10-17

• Fix: Constrained sidebar menu icon to standard 20x20px dimensions with white filter (filter: brightness(0) invert(1)) via global admin_head styling.
• Feature: Added comprehensive Plugin Guide in Overview tab detailing Purpose, How to Use, and Methodology/Architecture.

[1.0.0] - 2026-10-17

• Initial production release.
• Deterministic page caching with atomic writes.
• Targeted invalidation on post, taxonomy, menu, and widget updates.
• Resumable sitemap-driven cache preloading.
• Pure-PHP HTML, CSS, and JS minifiers with defer and interaction-triggered JS delay.
• Media lazy loading, YouTube preview placeholders, CLS dimension injector, and non-destructive WebP generation.
• Database maintenance for revisions, auto-drafts, spam comments, and transients.
• Universal static CDN rewriter.
• Full WooCommerce HPOS and Cart/Checkout Blocks compatibility.
• WP-CLI commands (purge, preload, status).

Support & Community

• Official Website: https://wpcalibrate.com
• Marketplace: https://marketplace.wpcalibrate.com
• Email Support: support@wpcalibrate.com
• WhatsApp Support: +44 7474 795976

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later (GPL-2.0-or-later).