While most optimizations to Drupal are done within other layers of the software stack, there are a few
buttons and levers within Drupal itself that yield significant performance gains.
Page Caching
Sometimes it’s the easy things that are overlooked, which is why they’re worth mentioning again. Drupal
has a built-in way to reduce the load on the database by storing and sending compressed cached pages
requested by anonymous users. By enabling the cache, you are effectively reducing pages to a single
database query rather than the many queries that might have been executed otherwise. Drupal caching
is disabled by default and can be configured at Configuration -> Performance.
Bandwidth Optimization
There is another performance optimization on the Configuration -> Performance page to reduce the
number of requests made to the server. By enabling the “Aggregate and compress CSS files into one”
feature, Drupal takes the CSS files created by modules, compresses them, and rolls them into a single file
inside a css directory in your “File system path.” The “Aggregate JavaScript files into one file” feature
concatenates multiple JavaScript files into one and places that file inside a js directory in your “File
system path.” This reduces the number of HTTP requests per page and the overall size of the
downloaded page.
buttons and levers within Drupal itself that yield significant performance gains.
Page Caching
Sometimes it’s the easy things that are overlooked, which is why they’re worth mentioning again. Drupal
has a built-in way to reduce the load on the database by storing and sending compressed cached pages
requested by anonymous users. By enabling the cache, you are effectively reducing pages to a single
database query rather than the many queries that might have been executed otherwise. Drupal caching
is disabled by default and can be configured at Configuration -> Performance.
Bandwidth Optimization
There is another performance optimization on the Configuration -> Performance page to reduce the
number of requests made to the server. By enabling the “Aggregate and compress CSS files into one”
feature, Drupal takes the CSS files created by modules, compresses them, and rolls them into a single file
inside a css directory in your “File system path.” The “Aggregate JavaScript files into one file” feature
concatenates multiple JavaScript files into one and places that file inside a js directory in your “File
system path.” This reduces the number of HTTP requests per page and the overall size of the
downloaded page.
