Hosting

I also have used Wpengine for all my sites for 4 years nearly.

I don’t use the switcher so am I correct in saying I’m fine?

The site is live http://www.floorinsite.com.

Cheers

For those looking for more background, here’s a support article from WP Engine that explains the issues with php sessions, cookies and caching:

http://wpengine.com/support/cookies-and-php-sessions/

<caching-lesson>In a nutshell, php sessions (e.g. $_SESSION or session_start()) store temporary data about a specific visitor (e.g. location). Varnish cache, the most common front-end caching solution for high-volume hosts like WP Engine, stores static copies of pages to serve subsequent visitors without having to hit the database again. This kills session data since the second visitor to the same page will be served a cached copy of the page and never set or read the session data that makes it unique to the visitor. The only way to use php session data with Varnish is to selectively bypass caching on those pages that use the session data.</caching-lesson>

That said, WP Engine has a pretty good reputation for support, so I decided to push the point. It turns out that they will disable caching on any page you wish, all you need to do is submit a support ticket. I’ll assume this includes wildcards.

To that end, it would be really helpful to have a list of URLs that require session data. I know this is relative to the install and configuration, but if we had a starter list or at least some indication of how the session data is used, then we could pass this on to support folks.

Why? The benefits of managed hosting are huge for some (my firm hosts some clients on our own servers and others on managed services like Pantheon, Media Temple and WP Engine). Also, I don’t want to bypass the incredible performance benefits of varnish on an entire site just because one plugin chose to use php (instead of javascript) to store session info. I think it’s totally possible to host this plugin on a managed service with aggressive caching enabled, as long as we can isolate those pages that need to bypass the cache. Can we (I’m looking at you, Paolo) help make this happen?

Hi Greg,

when most of our GeoTheme customers asked them why WPEngine didn’t manage php sessions they were saying for security reasons, please use cookies instead. Which is non-sense.

Now they are saying Varnish can’t handle sessions.

THAT’S not true. The way they setup Varnish doesn’t handle sessions.

http://systemsarchitect.net/reading-php-session-from-varnish-cache/

I don’t understand why we should make our application worst, in order to make it work with 1 Hosting provider, that from what I read around, isn’t that exceptional after all…

http://wptavern.com/wp-engine-addresses-critics-following-damaging-expose-of-its-customer-support
http://chester.id.au/2012/10/24/my-experience-with-wpengine/
http://www.wpenginelostmysite.com/
http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/webhost-trusted-wp-engine-hijacked-business-avoid-them/
http://auditwp.com/wp-engine-seo-failboat/

Thanks

Hi Greg,

we wish GeoDirectory and GeoTheme could work 100% well with any hosting provider, that’s a fact, however it is very improbable due to the number of possible variable in server’s configurations.

WPEngine decided, for extreme caching purposes, to limit their offer. PHP session and cookies are not supported and they clearly say it here.

http://wpengine.com/support/cookies-and-php-sessions/

Before they told many GeoTheme customers, that it was for security reasons, now they say that due to the cache, PHP isn’t excecuted and any PHP code that looks for cookies or handles session variables will not work, simply because it is not running.

Unfortunately they don’t say it could be done, they prefer not to. Reason why I keep saying that WPEngine isn’t for applications, but for blogs and fairly static websites like Business Websites and Portfolios.

WordPress core doesn’t use Sessions, reason why I think WPEngine choose not to, but WordPress alone is a blogging platform. Even an ecommerce site wouldn’t work, because cart are handled with sessions cookies.

What do they suggest: To disable cache for all ecommerce pages!

Sections of the site, such as product pages, the cart, and the checkout page, need to be un-cached for all visitors.

Why would one want to pay $99 to host an ecommerce site if he can’t take advantage of cache and fast loading time? Which is what’s cool about them…

Same goes for GeoDirectory.

That said, I’ll talk to Stiofan and Vikas about this and check with them if we can find a viable alternative in order to make GD work with them too, but I really think it is almost impossible.

Thanks

Hi, guys, not sure what is wrong with WPEngine but location switcher on my site remembers the city user selected and keep it while browsing the site. Not quite sure if the share location works or not properly though. Can anyone share his experience with combining location switcher/share location with the WPEngine?

Hi pix3x,

the answer to your question is i previous replies to this post, here they are summed up: https://wpgeodirectory.com/support/topic/hosting/page/2/#post-4362

WPEngine doesn’t handle PHP sessions. You should ask them to uncache all GD pages of your website for it to work correctly…

Thx