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• Last Updated: 07/15/2020
• ( 9 minutes reading )

How to configure the LiteSpeed Cache plugin for Joomla 3

Introduction

The LiteSpeed Cache plugin for Joomla comes with an optimal configuration, and you should feel the difference immediately. The configuration options do provide some exciting tweaks which advanced users can really appreciate and play around with, resulting in even more speed and performance for their Joomla website. In this article, we are going to go over all of the available tweaks along with the benefits you can bring to your site by taking advantage of them. Let’s being!

 

Getting Started

Naturally, before you can change any settings, your Joomla needs to be at least 3.x+, and you need to have the plugin installed. Suppose you are not sure how please check our installation guide. If you have it installed, then please log into your Joomla Administrative Area. To do so, please visit “joomlasite.com/administrator” and replace “joomlasite.com” with your actual domain name. 

 

Joomla Admin Login Page

 

On the login page, please enter your Username and Password in the respective fields and press the “Log in” button.

Once you are inside your admin area, then please click on the “System” drop-down menu located on the top left corner and select “Global Configuration” from the available choices.

 

Access Joomla Global Configuration

 

This action will redirect you to a page where you will see a list of all available components on the left. To open the settings relevant to this tutorial, please click on the “LiteSpeed Cache” option.

 

Access Joomla LiteSpeed Cache plugin settings

 

Upon doing that, the page will be refreshed, and you will see all the available LiteSpeed plugin settings presented within 7 separate tabs.

 

Joomla LiteSpeed Cache plugin configuration settings

 

In the next few sections, we will go over each tab and give you information on what kind of changes you can perform.

 

Basic Tab

Utilizing all the available settings under this tab, you will be able to enable/disable caching as a whole, set the TTL for the cache, and set conditions in which a cache purge will occur.

  • Enable LiteSpeed Cache - Use this toggle switch to Disable/Enable the LiteSpeed cache plugin.
  • Public Cache TTL (minutes) - Use this text field to set the time in minutes in which your Public Cache will be kept before being purged. The default 2000 minutes should be enough unless you are making regular changes on your site, or not making any changes at all. You should reduce or respectively increase this number depending on the situation.
  • Purge All on Plugin Update - This toggle switch will allow you to Enable/Disable full cache purge on plugin update. Should be left disabled as the plugin update should not really interfere with your website cache.
  • Purge All on Language Update - This toggle switch lets you Enable/Disable full cache purge on language update. You want to have this active, as you want to flush the cache whenever you change the language on your site.
  • Logging Level - The default setting here is No, and you should keep it as such unless you are troubleshooting issues related to the plugin on your site.

 

Joomla LiteSpeed Cache plugin Basic settings

 

Exclude Rules Tab

There may be situations where you want to exclude specific pages from being cached. Utilizing the settings under this tab will allow you to remove these pages from the cache as a whole and will remain as such unless you remove them from this tab.

  • Exclude Components - In this content box, you can add components that do not function well when they are cached. To add them, simply click within the box, and a list will appear presenting all available options. Selecting a component will make it appear immediately in the content box. To remove it from the box, simply hit the (X) mark on the far right side of the component itself.
  • Exclude Menus - This box is analogical to the above. However, it has all the available menus on your site.
  • Exclude URLs - This box allows you to enter individual URLs that you want to exclude from the cache. Each URL should be on a separate line. You can also use regular expressions if needed.

 

Joomla LiteSpeed Cache plugin Exclude Rules


Advanced Tab

If you are running an e-commerce website, this tab gives you the option of setting up the ESI (Edge Side Includes) technology. In addition to that, you can use secure links to purge cache whenever you need, without having to log inside your admin or set them as cron jobs to automate the process!

  • ESI Feature Enabled - Use this toggle switch to Enable/Disable the ESI technology for your website. This fantastic feature will mix private and public caches to form single pages and serve them as quickly as possible to the visitor. Especially effective for e-commerce websites.
  • Render Login Module as ESI - Use this toggle switch to Enable/Disable the ESI technology for the login screens.
  • Homepage Public Cache TTL (minutes) - Use this text field to set the TTL for the Public Cache in minutes for your Homepage. 2000 minutes should be enough unless you are making regular changes on your homepage, or not making any changes at all. You should reduce or respectively increase this number depending on the situation.
  • Separate View For Mobile Device - This toggle switch should be set to “Disabled” unless you have a separate view (theme) for the mobile version of your Joomla site.
  • Admin IP Addresses - This setting is impressive in terms of security. The IP address which you specify inside the content box will be authorized to execute cron jobs related to the LiteSpeed Caching plugin.
  • Web Interface Secure Words - This text field is usually populated by a long, randomly generated string that is used as a secure string when executing scripts related to the LiteSpeed Cache plugin. You can change it to whatever you need and then use this word to execute the desired script in your browser or via a cron job.

 

Joomla LiteSpeed Cache plugin Advanced settings

 

Logged-in Users Tab

Within this tab, you will find settings that allow you to manipulate the cache’s behavior in regards to logged-in users. By default, this type of cache is disabled.

  • Show Cached Content for Logged-in Users - This toggle switch allows you to enable cache for logged users as well. If a user is registered on your site, they are already visiting it on a regular basis (hopefully), thus serving them cached content is not really necessary. We recommend keeping this disabled unless you would like the logged-in users benefitting from the cache.
  • Separate Cache Copy for Logged-in Users - When this toggle switched is set to “Enabled”, logged-in and logged-out users will have separate cache instances. How is this useful, you may ask - well, it is a great option to use if you have personalized content for individual users - for example - a special greeting or a shopping cart for logged-in users.
  • Exclude Menus - This setting is similar to the “Exclude Menus” option from the “Exclude Rules” tab. However, it will only affect logged-in users. If this exclude is already present in the previous setting, there is no need to exclude it here as well.
  • Exclude URLs - Similar to the “Exclude URLs” option from the “Exclude Rules” tab. This time, however, it will only affect logged-in users. If this exclude is already present in the previous setting, it is not necessary to exclude it here.

 

Joomla LiteSpeed Cache plugin Logged-in Users settings


Recache Tab

The settings under this tab will change the behavior of the cache by adding a recache feature. Recaching will generate the cache for a specific page without a visitor having to access it.

  • Auto Recache - This feature is disabled by default, as it can be detrimental to the server’s resources. We recommend the “Disabled” setting if you are using a low-resource shared hosting plan. You can increase it to “Moderate” if you are using a shared hosting package with a fair amount of resources and “Aggressive” if you are very confident with your hosting solution, and it has access to a lot of resources! This feature will be activated only when the cache of a specific page is purged.
  • Auto Recache Max - The default value in this text field is 5 seconds, and it determines the time the recache will spend on reaching a specific page. Note that this time may not suffice to recache a particular page, however, it will reduce the resource consumption of your server. You can bump it up to 10 seconds or more if you are using a more robust hosting server, and you do not suffer any performance issues.
  • Recache Component Generated URLs -  If an URL is generated by a specific component, not from a menu, then this dropdown menu will allow you to select it and enable recaching for it.

 

Joomla LiteSpeed Cache plugin Recache Settings

 

Permissions Tab

As with every Joomla site, you have a permissions page. The default settings are completely fine here, and unless you wish to set specific permissions, do not change them at all.

 

Joomla LiteSpeed Cache plugin Permissions settings

 

Support Tab

The last tab from the page does not really have any settings or configurations you can tweak. What it does contain are links to sources, containing information about the LSCache plugin. You should definitely check them out if you want to learn even more about this amazing plugin.

 

Joomla LiteSpeed Cache plugin Support tab

 

There you have it! The configuration options under the LSCache plugin for Joomla. We hope that the information we provided helped you in tweaking the plugin as per your specific needs, and we hope that this also affected your website in a positive way! Be sure to check the rest of our Joomla-based tutorials in our Jooma Learning Center!

 

 

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Sebahat
Content Marketing Specialist

Sebahat is a young and bright woman who has become an invaluable part of our team. She started as a Customer Care Representative, mastering that role and, along the way, growing into a tech-savvy individual who is well acquainted with every support layer of the company. Driven by her aim to improve our customers’ experience constantly, she is committed to enhancing the extraordinary support we deliver.

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