Paypal Buttons result in slow-loading pages

Hi there,

I’ve noticed that when I add paypal “buynow” buttons to my page, it drastically slows down the loading time of the page that they are on.

Is this a known issue?

Thanks!

Hi Scott,

I have not observed this or heard of it before. Do you have a test page that you could show us as an example?

Also please download this Server Check Tool, upload the PHP file to your WordPress directory, and then load the URL to the file in your browser. It will run a bunch of tests to determine if there’s anything amiss on the server-side.

Hi Raam,

Apologies for not replying back sooner. I’ve done this, how do I find the results?

Thanks

I’ve done this, how do I find the results?

Once you uploaded the PHP file to the WP directory, open it in your browser, the results will be displayed there.

I’ve noticed that when I add paypal “buynow” buttons to my page, it drastically slows down the loading time of the page that they are on.

Could you try the suggestions in this article? Knowledge Base » Common Troubleshooting Tips

Please let us know how it goes. :)

Ahh.. I see. Ran the test and all shows up to be good!

In fairness, there are quite a few buttons involved. This page http://www.nowsayit.com/learn-more can be sluggish at times, but isn’t too bad.

The page which is very slow is the my-account page which has logic to determine which renew/membership buy now buttons to display, meaning that there are 20+ buttons coded on the page (only 8-10 would display at any time based on membership level.)

I would assume that there must be some call being made to paypal based on the button shortcode? Hence, more buttons the longer it takes to load?

Right, each shortcode gets parsed when the page is loaded, and it gets slower if you’re using button encryption.

If these will always be shown to new users, not logged in members, then you could create the buttons over at PayPal, integrated with s2Member follow these instructions: Knowledge Base » Using PayPal created buttons

Those would not work to upgrade existing accounts, since no account info is included in those buttons, while using the shortcodes adds the logged in user’s account info to the button.

Thanks Cristian,

The internal page (the slowest) unfortunately is all upgrading/renew options so there’s not much I can do about that (Other then to eventually move to PayPal Pro and proforms.)

I think I will make the switch for the public (member options) page though. I went through the link you sent above, but I’m missing one thing. Using Paypal to generate the buttons (Buy Now), how can I stipulate the length of the purchase as I can with s2member. I didn’t see that in the documentation.

Thanks!

Hi Scott,

When you create PayPal-hosted buttons, I believe you get to choose the type of button you’re creating. If you choose a Subscription button, it will ask you for details about the length of the subscription.

If you’re not sure about how to create a PayPal-hosted buttons, I recommend checking the PayPal help section.

The internal page (the slowest) unfortunately is all upgrading/renew options so there’s not much I can do about that (Other then to eventually move to PayPal Pro and proforms.)

In order to avoid all those shortcodes in the page, you could instead have a link with a var for the shortcode, and have a hack that’ll parse the shortcode when the link is clicked, that way only one shortcode gets parsed. Use output URL to do the redirection.

Create /wp-content/mu-plugins/s2hacks.php

[hilite pre_code]
'[first shortcode output="url"]',
2 => '[second shortcode output="url"]',
);
if (isset($_GET['button']) && isset($shortcodes[$_GET['button']]))
wp_redirect(do_shortcode($shortcodes[$_GET['button']]));
}
[/hilite]

Then the links would be your site’s URL with [hilite mono]?button=1[/hilite] at the end. http://yoursite.com/?button=1

I hope that helps.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Cristián Lávaque.

Made an edit to the code to add something I missed before.