[Tickets #11017] Re: precompress files in /static

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Ticket URL: http://bugs.horde.org/ticket/11017
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  Ticket             | 11017
  Updated By         | Michael Slusarz <slusarz at horde.org>
  Summary            | precompress files in /static
  Queue              | Horde Base
  Version            | 4.0.13
  Type               | Enhancement
-State              | New
+State              | Feedback
-Priority           | 2. Medium
+Priority           | 1. Low
  Milestone          |
  Patch              |
  Owners             |
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Michael Slusarz <slusarz at horde.org> (2012-02-20 20:17) wrote:

> In static/ are put the minified .js and .css files, which are sent  
> to the user's browser.  If the webserver is configured properly, the  
> minified .js/.css files are cached on the user's side and the server  
> load on subsequent requests is minified this way.  So far so good.
>
> Another possible optimization is to pre-compress the files in  
> /static, so that for each file a .js/css plain and .js.gz/.css.gz  
> version exists.

Do you mean automatically creating the files to then compress them?   
This can't happen because the payload for any given page is not known  
until the page is created.

> The instructions for some webservers, how to call the precompressed  
> files vary.  For Apache httpd you can find instructions that procees  
> .gzip files, for Nginx you have just to say "gzip_static on;" and  
> the server starts preferring files with .js.gz extenstion and when a  
> file .js is requested.

We **really** don't want to get into the business of trying to track  
the ways various httpd servers can compress data.  I wouldn't mind a 1  
or 2 sentence blurb on this in PERFORMANCE, but we are not going to  
provide individual examples.  That is up to the server admin to figure  
out.

If others want to provide real-life examples on the wiki, that is the  
more appropriate place to put this information since it is not  
directly Horde-related.

> Please extend the Horde configuration to ask the site  
> adminsitrators, if they want to have in /static pre-compressed .js  
> and .css files, and if yes, if they want .gzip or .gz extension for  
> those files. (or just create the .gz files in addition to the rest  
> and that's all.

This is not a Horde configuration issue, since it is not something we  
can control out of the box.

> Please mention this bug in  
> http://www.horde.org/apps/horde/docs/PERFORMANCE , or write some  
> alternative text to enable serving of pre-compression files on the  
> webserver.

Still don't know what you mean by "pre-compression".  I know certain  
servers (e.g. lighttpd) cache the gzip'd versions, but this is beyond  
the scope of Horde or Horde's configuration.