Zenphoto
The simpler media website CMS
ZenphotoThe simpler media website CMS
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Hello.
I manage an archive of performance images for a small community orchestra. I've been using Zenphoto since I think 2007.
It currently contains 2,376 images in 105 albums.
I manage their website on a DreamHost shared hosting plan. Thse site is plain HTML except for the Zenphoto gallery. (Meaning Zenphoto is the only software using the database, and I installed Zenphoto manually.)
Although technically it works, performance has become intolerably slow.
Here's the link to the top level so you can see what I mean: https://www.parkwayconcertorchestra.org/Zenphoto/
I'm up to date with Zenphoto.
I have refreshed the database tables (from within the Zenphoto dashboard).
I have enabled the caching plugin.
I'm using the Basic theme.
Is there anything more I can do to improve performance?
Have I hit the limits of my hosting capabilities?
If so, is it possible to have multiple instances of Zenphoto, reducing the number of albums and images each instance has to manage?
The only warning I noticed when upgrading was that the albums table evidently isn't fully UTF-8, but I have no idea how to implement the recommended "repair."
If it makes any difference. I create new albums by uploading a folder of images manually via SFPT, them add details from within Zenphoto.
Thank you so much for any suggestions or insights you can offer.
PS, if you can tell me how to get the distracting light blue timestamp info off the album tile that would be most welcome as well.
Steve
Comments
The number of albums and images does not sound that huge to already reach limits. Are all images cached? If you add via FTP they are likely discovered on first visit and then the image are resized to fit the theme. Depending on the px size of the image and the power of the server that can slow down:
Please review how image caching:
https://www.zenphoto.org/news/caching/
In any case disable random album thumbnails on your albums and pick a fixed one. If you have lots of uncached images that also slows down.
But it is also important how many visits/traffic you have.
Sadly I cannot view the Zenphoto site under the link you posted at all as that results with a "page not found" page.
My colleague noted to me that the actual Zenphoto albums are hidden unter the "Scrapbook" link.
I am not sure what cache plugin you enabled. Probably the cache manager but that is for generating image cache filesmanually. Other than that it does nothing. Please see the link noted above how image caching works.
I see that the execution of one album takes 10+ seconds. That is really slow.
You should enable the static_html_cache as that lowers the load of script execution. If even that does not help you might have some web server that is really slow in general. It might not even be webserver but could be the database server.
UTF8 is probably not really that much of an issue or showstopping especially if the text content is primarily English.
Of course you could install serveral Zenphoto installs on the same server but I would really not advice that. Causes extra work and does not lower the load on a possibly slow server at all.
Thank you for your time. Yes, cacheManager was the plugin I referenced. Yes, 10+ sec is what I experience as well, which is why I reached out! Interacting with the dashboard as a logged in user is equally sluggish (including 10-20 sec delay to log in our log out). I consulted DreamHost support before bothering you and they didn't indicate any issues with the database server. At the risk of sounding clueless, how do I enable the static_html_cache plugin? The support article you linked to says "Optionally there is also the included static_html_cache plugin" but I can't find that in the Plugins>All tab of the admin dashboard, nor does it show up as an option in the Cache section of the Overview page. Sorry to bother you with what should probably be obvious for a long-time user. It has always just worked wonderfully and effortlessly, so I have never really needed to get into it too deeply!
You should really find it on one of the pages of the plugins tabs. It should also appear on the sub selection "Admin".
But something is really slow on your server. We have nowhere as much images and albums but our site is on a normal hosting fpr under 10 euros, too. Nothing fancy like our own server or so.
With your guidance I found and enabled the static_html_cache plugin. I also noticed a series of debug log entries indicating an album was missing so I re-uploaded that album manually and now the debug log has stopped complaining. But performance hasn't improved, either while logged in as an admin or logged out. I have refreshed the database again from within the Zenphoto dashboard, and I have cleared the metadata. I can't think of what else to do. Setup indicated it couldn't verify that mod_rewrite was available but I'm convinced it is so I set that option in the theme and the gallery works, it's just painfully slow. I'm seeing 8-10 second delays in showing an album's thumbnails or moving to a new images with the "next" button. My .htaccess file's permissions are currently 0664. Is that appropriate? I couldn't find anything in the Zenphoto documentation that clearly states what rules should be in an .htaccess file. If I were to reach out to my host again, can you suggest what specifically I should ask them? Being only slightly conversant in databases and apache .htaccess rules I don't know the best language to use other than it's slow. Thank you for your time.
Looking at the source code of your site (the 2025-2026 season album) the static_html_cache plugin is not yet active. You would see a note in the source code at the very bottom if it is.
Setup cannot always 100% detect if it is working or not. If you know it is you can enabled it. It has no impact on speed.
That is actually fine and what theserver sets. You can try to set it more tight. That applies to all permissions Setup suggests. On some servers tighter ones work and on others they don't.
Wrong permissions could technically be a reason for issues. These are the recommended ones for the other files: https://www.zenphoto.org/news/permissions-for-zenphoto-files-and-folders/
Another thing is if you can please look at your options table in the database. We had some users in the past where frequently duplicated option entries were generated although it should not be possible if the table is setup properly. There was some "unique" statement missing for some reason. If table that grows and grows it certainly can harm performance.
In general look at your table if it is maybe unexpectedly large or you see lots so duplicates.