Reduce bloat and better file naming

[yggdrasil]

For v8 I really would like WHMCS to separate the market connect files, that includes the languages and the module. Have it as a separated download or installation.

MarketConnect is a very different customer target to the original WHMCS clients. I surely don't need uploading and upgrading all those extra files for something I have no interested on using.

I also paid the non-branded version but I see that lately WHMCS keeps renaming more and more files to whmcs.ext, in particular CSS and JS on the frontend. Personally I think this defeats the remove the branding option license. Its undesired for most installations as bots and spammers constantly scan WHMCS installations. This is not going to protect against security but I don't think it's a great idea to expose the WHMCS name on every single file. It also looks sloppy from the developing naming side. In the past WHMCS used more generic names for files which was a better fit because naming something WHMCS.js does not really tell me anything about what that file does and its purpose either. Files should be named based on what they do.

Changes like this require almost no effort on WHMCS part or their development team and it would at least improve something. WHMCS is getting huge and I seriously think there are so many redundant files and things that most people don't need. It's not about saving space, but just being more efficient. I don't need thousands of files living on a production server that I will never use.

[bear]

I can't argue against any of the above points. Agreed, absolutely. 
Would also be helpful to not make them, and automatically run things like the SSL check, set to included/enabled by default. Allow things outside the core product (which is: billing, invoicing, provisioning and support) to be optional.

Give us back our freedom of choice, please.

[WHMCS John]

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing your feedback. Can you help me understand the negative impact on your business caused by the additional files added for the new features we create?

You've mentioned that efficiency is important to you, which I appreciate, but how does the presence of these files impede that or slow down your operations?

I wouldn't normally expect a few extra MB or extracting a few dozen extra files to impact the time needed to install or update the software. But I'm keen to learn about your use-case and processes if that is so.

 

 

[bear]

19 minutes ago, WHMCS John said:

Can you help me understand the negative impact on your business caused by the additional files added for the new features we create?

How about that SSL check? Not many here say they wanted it, it causes confusion to end users, and each time it runs it checks every domain in the system, adding to load. Why would that ever need to be on by default rather than on demand if desired by the admin?

[yggdrasil]

1 hour ago, WHMCS John said:

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing your feedback. Can you help me understand the negative impact on your business caused by the additional files added for the new features we create?

You've mentioned that efficiency is important to you, which I appreciate, but how does the presence of these files impede that or slow down your operations?

I wouldn't normally expect a few extra MB or extracting a few dozen extra files to impact the time needed to install or update the software. But I'm keen to learn about your use-case and processes if that is so.

 

 

MarketConnect is not a separated module on which all files live in one single folder you can exclude from your install. Its bundled everywhere as if it were part of the core WHMCS installation which is not, its just a remote API to an Affiliate program without doing anything locally. I’m not interested on Reselling products from a Reseller. If I want certificates from DigiCert, I will sign a contract with them directly. Same for other products.

They now leak into the CSS and JS files. Those files are loaded on each request, bigger CSS files served to every new visitor means a slower page request. More and more lines of code and stuff, we will never use because MarketConnect should have been designed as a separated module from day one.

Its also on the language files, its everywhere now making everything bigger and more complex, having to ignore them while making file comparisons before upgrades…. Even on templates. All that redundant code for something I do not have enabled seems very inefficient and redundant overhead.

[yggdrasil]

1 hour ago, bear said:

How about that SSL check? Not many here say they wanted it, it causes confusion to end users, and each time it runs it checks every domain in the system, adding to load. Why would that ever need to be on by default rather than on demand if desired by the admin?

The idea is not entirely bad but the implementation was just poorly done. Reason why most people want it disabled without having any options on when it should run, how many batches, on which products...link to what...

Edited July 10, 2020 by yggdrasil

[WHMCS John]

Hi @yggdrasil,

Thanks for providing that additional insight. Please do share the stats on the increased overhead and load times you're experiencing, so we can examine and see if there's further ways to optimise without introducing complexity or compromising on the feature-set.

[string]

27 minutes ago, WHMCS John said:

Please do share the stats on the increased overhead and load times you're experiencing

I can give you 2 issues:

• Modules may make AJAX calls to the clientarea service page. If the SSL checker failed to run, or did not checked the site yet, there will be a delay on the AJAX requests. I saw cases where there was a huge delay in each request because the webserver of the domain did not answer. The visitor needs then to wait until the request of the SSL checker hits the timeout.
• Personally I feel uncomfortable when the WHMCS server IP calls thousands of pages each day. Clients may even ask why this IP calls their page each day. Sure, the IP is no secret, but is it really necessary?

For this reasons I added "skip --SslSync" to the cronjob from day one.

Edited July 10, 2020 by string

[yggdrasil]

31 minutes ago, WHMCS John said:

Hi @yggdrasil,

Thanks for providing that additional insight. Please do share the stats on the increased overhead and load times you're experiencing, so we can examine and see if there's further ways to optimise without introducing complexity or compromising on the feature-set.

They are tiny but that is not the point. As you keep adding things to MarketConnect you will need more language phrases, more CSS and more JavaScript line codes. That means the size will keep increasing with no end. I really think this should be a separated module from the rest of the WHMCS which will make easier to organize the files. No need to load extra code when not required.