Optimize Settings
Optimize Settings is where you see what Dirigible Optimize does and put back a WordPress feature it switched off. Most cards list what Optimize does, each item with a check mark, and the checkbox that undoes it sits under that item; the check mark greys out while the box is checked (the Public REST API card works the other way: its checkbox adds a lock). The Revisions card has its own Save button. Leave a box unchecked to keep the default.
Open the page
- In the WordPress admin menu, click Optimize, just above Dirigible. You need an Administrator account. (It used to be under Dirigible → Optimize Settings; old links still work.)
- Check or uncheck a box. It saves straight away, and a message in the bottom corner confirms it, such as "RSS feeds turned on." If a change can't be saved, the box goes back to how it was and the message says why.
Images
The card lists what Optimize does to uploads: Image resizing (longer than 3,000 pixels), PNG and GIF to JPG, Compression (and removing hidden camera and GPS details) and, where the server supports it, PDF compression. Below the list, a line totals what compression has saved. Details: Images and PDFs.
- Keep PNG and GIF uploads as they are, under PNG and GIF to JPG, stops the JPG conversion.
- Older images: Compress older images compresses the images already in the Media Library, in the background, with a progress bar. See Compress older images.
- While another image optimization plugin is active, the card says so instead, and Optimize leaves uploads to it.
Dirigible Analytics
On by default. Count visits with Dirigible Analytics counts visitors, page views and where visits come from, on the site itself. The numbers appear under Analytics in the admin menu and in a panel on the Dashboard. Details: Dirigible Analytics.
- Unchecking it takes the script off the pages and stops counting. Numbers already counted are kept.
- If the box is greyed out, the site's
wp-config.phpturns analytics off (DIRIGIBLE_DISABLE_ANALYTICS, usually on a staging copy).
Public REST API
The card lists what's open: Open to visitors (the WordPress REST API works for visitors as WordPress ships it, so plugin features that load data on the page, such as event calendars, filters and live search, work for everyone) and User accounts hidden (the Dirigible theme hides your user accounts and usernames from visitors either way). Checking the lock greys out Open to visitors.
- Check Lock down REST for logged-out users only if bots are hammering the site's REST API. Visitors who aren't logged in then get an error from it, and plugin features that rely on it may stop working for them. Logged-in editors and the block editor aren't affected, and Dirigible's own event calendars, ticket counts and documentation hub keep working.
- When WooCommerce is active, public REST stays open no matter what, and the card says so.
Earlier versions of Dirigible Optimize locked the REST API for visitors unless you checked Allow REST API access for logged-out users. That checkbox is gone: every site is now open unless you lock it down.
Language and RSS Feeds
Most Dirigible sites are in English and don't use RSS, so Optimize skips both. Check a box to put the WordPress behaviour back.
| Checkbox | With the box unchecked (Optimize's default) |
|---|---|
| Use the Site Language | The site and the admin run in English, whatever Settings → General → Site Language says, and WordPress loads no translation files, which saves work on every page. Check it for a site in another language. |
| Turn RSS feeds back on | Feed addresses such as /feed/ and /comments/feed/ show "Feeds are disabled on this site," and pages carry no feed links. Check it for RSS-to-email newsletters, podcasts or feed readers. |
Pages cached before you change either box keep their old language, feed links or "Feeds are disabled" answer until the cache is cleared. On Rocket.net, purge the site's cache after saving.
Pingbacks and Trackbacks
When you publish a post, WordPress normally visits every site you linked to, checks media links, and notifies Ping-o-Matic. Other sites can also send pingbacks and trackbacks that land in your comments. Optimize turns this off in both directions.
Check Send and accept pingbacks and trackbacks to restore them.
Editor
Three trims to the block editor. Check a box to put the WordPress behaviour back.
| Checkbox | With the box unchecked (Optimize's default) |
|---|---|
| Show WordPress.org patterns in the inserter | The Patterns tab shows only the theme's and child theme's patterns. The editor skips about 300 KB of downloads from WordPress.org. |
| Offer blocks to install from the inserter | A block search with no results doesn't suggest plugins to install, and the editor loads 130 KB less JavaScript. |
| Check every 10 seconds instead (under Editing checks once a minute) | Those screens check once a minute, like the block editor. A "someone else is editing" notice can take up to a minute to appear. Post locks still work. |
YouTube Videos
The card lists Click to load and Faster pages: the Dirigible theme shows each YouTube video as its thumbnail with a play button, and loads YouTube's player only when a visitor presses play. Checking the box below greys both out. Details: Click-to-Load YouTube Videos.
- Check Load the YouTube player with the page to turn click-to-load off for the whole site: every video, including videos on events, loads YouTube's full player as the page opens. Use it to rule out click-to-load when a video misbehaves, then uncheck it again.
- Pages cached before you change the box keep what they showed until the cache is cleared. On Rocket.net, purge the site's cache after saving.
- The card appears only when the site runs the Dirigible theme 5.31.66 or later.
To turn click-to-load off for one block only, use the no-facade class described on the theme's page.
jQuery
Many plugins use jQuery, a script library. The card lists what Optimize does with it on the public site (never in the WordPress admin):
| Item | With its box unchecked (Optimize's default) |
|---|---|
| No jQuery Migrate | Pages skip jQuery Migrate, a compatibility script for plugins written for much older versions of jQuery. Check Load jQuery Migrate if an older plugin stops working, such as a slider or a form add-on. |
| jQuery deferred | jQuery loads after the page has been read, so it doesn't hold up the first view. It only does this when every script on the page that uses jQuery can wait too, Gravity Forms included; otherwise it loads as before. Check Don't defer jQuery to load it at the top of every page, as WordPress ships it, if a plugin stops working. |
| Plugins' jQuery scripts deferred too | Off by default. Check Defer other plugins' jQuery scripts too to make other plugins' jQuery scripts wait as well, so jQuery waits on more pages. Test sliders, carts and forms afterwards: a plugin that expects jQuery straight away can stop working. It does nothing while Don't defer jQuery is checked. |
- These used to be the Remove jQuery Migrate and jQuery Defer settings under Appearance → Customize → Scripts & Embeds → Performance. Each site keeps what it had chosen there: Off becomes Don't defer jQuery, and Aggressive Defer becomes Defer other plugins' jQuery scripts too.
- The card appears once the Dirigible theme has been updated to hand jQuery over. Until then the theme keeps handling it, with its Customizer settings.
- Deactivating Optimize turns all three off: jQuery loads as WordPress ships it, with jQuery Migrate, at the top of every page (with an older Dirigible theme, the theme's Customizer settings apply instead).
- Pages cached before you change a box keep loading jQuery the old way until the cache is cleared. On Rocket.net, purge the site's cache after saving.
Shop Cart
On WooCommerce sites only. The card lists Cart panel styles load after the page: when the header shows the cart, the styles for its panel (the drawer that slides out when someone clicks the cart) load a few seconds after the page has loaded, or as soon as a visitor points at, taps or tabs to the cart, instead of with every page. The cart button looks the same, and a panel opened before its styles arrive stays blank until they do. Cart, Checkout and My Account, and pages with another WooCommerce block, are left as WooCommerce ships them. Details: Faster pages with the header cart.
- Check Load the cart panel's styles with the page to load them at the top of every page, as WooCommerce ships them. Use it if the cart button or its panel looks wrong, then purge the site's cache.
- If the header cart is off, the card says there's nothing to change.
- If a WooCommerce update changed the panel's styles in a way Optimize wasn't built for, the card says it's not in effect: the styles load as WooCommerce ships them until Optimize is updated. It also says when the site's WordPress, WooCommerce or theme is too old for it.
Revisions
The card lists the limit in force, such as Up to 10 revisions per post, and where it's set. Each post keeps its newest 10 revisions by default, and WordPress deletes older ones when the post is saved. Pick Default, Keep up to … revisions per post or Keep every revision, then click Save revision limit. Trim existing revisions now trims every post to the limit in the background, keeping autosaves. Only Administrators can lower the limit or trim. Details: Revisions.
Daily PageSpeed Score
The card lists Tested every day, 90 days of scores and On the Dashboard: Google PageSpeed Insights tests the home page once a day, and the card shows the score, three speed figures and a 90-day chart, which clients also see on their Dashboard. Click Test now → to run a test straight away. Details: Daily PageSpeed score.
- Turn off daily PageSpeed tests stops the tests and hides the chart on the Dashboard.
What isn't on this page
Some trims have no checkbox, such as turning off emoji scripts and XML-RPC. See What Optimize turns off. To undo those, deactivate the plugin.
