Prestashop slow back-office (initContent : 12000ms)

Question

I'm running a Prestashop store for over 2 years now, since this morning the back-office is really slow. So I used the debug-mode and I can see that initContent is taking 12s to load... Nothing else seems wrong in the debug log. I didn't install new module or changed any parameters, B-O was working fine yesterday evening.

I've searched a bit and found some "fixes" that doesn't work for me:

• Disables stats modules (already disabled).
• Change permissions on config/xml folder and deletes files in it.

I've read some other things about connexion to Prestashop's servers. Do you guys have any informations about that?

Answer 1

After a years of using Prestashop I think that the main problem in most cases is module "Merchant expertise" (native Prestashop) it is calling "gamification" in the modules folder. So by disabling it, everything works fine at the backend.

Answer 2

Prestashop checks for module list related to back office tabs. You can see a Recommended Modules button in header toolbars of back office pages.

To disable this option create a file /override/classes/controller/AdminController.php with the following content :

class AdminController extends AdminControllerCore
{
    protected function initTabModuleList()
    {
        return;
    }
}

Note that you will not lost other addons related functionalities.

Answer 3

I can confirm on some of my projects that Prestashop Addons check is responsible for this delay.

You can quickly fix this by disabling all connection to Prestashop servers in Tools class.

Create a file /override/classes/Tools.php with the following content :

<?php

class Tools extends ToolsCore {
    public static function addonsRequest($request, $params = array())
    {
        return false;
    }
}

Then delete file /cache/class_index.php.

---

The limitation of the above solution is that you will lost all addons related functionalities (modules updates, themes and modules suggestions...). I'm fine with it but that might not be your case.

So instead of completely disabling addons connections you could reduce the request timeout (from 5 seconds to 2 seconds):

Create a file /override/classes/Tools.php with the following content :

<?php

class Tools extends ToolsCore {
    public static function addonsRequest($request, $params = array())
    {
        if (!self::$is_addons_up) {
            return false;
        }

        $post_data = http_build_query(array(
            'version' => isset($params['version']) ? $params['version'] : _PS_VERSION_,
            'iso_lang' => Tools::strtolower(isset($params['iso_lang']) ? $params['iso_lang'] : Context::getContext()->language->iso_code),
            'iso_code' => Tools::strtolower(isset($params['iso_country']) ? $params['iso_country'] : Country::getIsoById(Configuration::get('PS_COUNTRY_DEFAULT'))),
            'shop_url' => isset($params['shop_url']) ? $params['shop_url'] : Tools::getShopDomain(),
            'mail' => isset($params['email']) ? $params['email'] : Configuration::get('PS_SHOP_EMAIL')
        ));

        $protocols = array('https');
        $end_point = 'api.addons.prestashop.com';

        switch ($request) {
            case 'native':
                $protocols[] = 'http';
                $post_data .= '&method=listing&action=native';
                break;
            case 'native_all':
                $protocols[] = 'http';
                $post_data .= '&method=listing&action=native&iso_code=all';
                break;
            case 'must-have':
                $protocols[] = 'http';
                $post_data .= '&method=listing&action=must-have';
                break;
            case 'must-have-themes':
                $protocols[] = 'http';
                $post_data .= '&method=listing&action=must-have-themes';
                break;
            case 'customer':
                $post_data .= '&method=listing&action=customer&username='.urlencode(trim(Context::getContext()->cookie->username_addons))
                    .'&password='.urlencode(trim(Context::getContext()->cookie->password_addons));
                break;
            case 'customer_themes':
                $post_data .= '&method=listing&action=customer-themes&username='.urlencode(trim(Context::getContext()->cookie->username_addons))
                    .'&password='.urlencode(trim(Context::getContext()->cookie->password_addons));
                break;
            case 'check_customer':
                $post_data .= '&method=check_customer&username='.urlencode($params['username_addons']).'&password='.urlencode($params['password_addons']);
                break;
            case 'check_module':
                $post_data .= '&method=check&module_name='.urlencode($params['module_name']).'&module_key='.urlencode($params['module_key']);
                break;
            case 'module':
                $post_data .= '&method=module&id_module='.urlencode($params['id_module']);
                if (isset($params['username_addons']) && isset($params['password_addons'])) {
                    $post_data .= '&username='.urlencode($params['username_addons']).'&password='.urlencode($params['password_addons']);
                } else {
                    $protocols[] = 'http';
                }
                break;
            case 'hosted_module':
                $post_data .= '&method=module&id_module='.urlencode((int)$params['id_module']).'&username='.urlencode($params['hosted_email'])
                    .'&password='.urlencode($params['password_addons'])
                    .'&shop_url='.urlencode(isset($params['shop_url']) ? $params['shop_url'] : Tools::getShopDomain())
                    .'&mail='.urlencode(isset($params['email']) ? $params['email'] : Configuration::get('PS_SHOP_EMAIL'));
                $protocols[] = 'https';
                break;
            case 'install-modules':
                $protocols[] = 'http';
                $post_data .= '&method=listing&action=install-modules';
                $post_data .= defined('_PS_HOST_MODE_') ? '-od' : '';
                break;
            default:
                return false;
        }

        $context = stream_context_create(array(
            'http' => array(
                'method'  => 'POST',
                'content' => $post_data,
                'header'  => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
                'timeout' => 2,
            )
        ));

        foreach ($protocols as $protocol) {
            if ($content = Tools::file_get_contents($protocol.'://'.$end_point, false, $context)) {
                return $content;
            }
        }

        self::$is_addons_up = false;
        return false;
    }
}

Then delete file /cache/class_index.php.