What should I do with this massive 800kb JavaScript file?

Question

What should I do with this massive 800kb JavaScript file?

After learning that concatenating and possibly gzipping a javascript file could enhance the speed of an application, I decided to test it out.

It seemed like most of my pages (although not all) were downloading around 1mb of javascript, so why not compress and aggregate it?

To my surprise, the performance seems to have worsened. Firebug is indicating that the "DomContentLoaded" took 1.17s on any random page of the application. Is this normal? Quite alarming.

Essentially, my application's javascript now combines all files for the site. Each file searches for a main id, and if found, executes some code. Otherwise, it proceeds to the next function block.

I have incorporated several libraries along with my application code. Here are the libraries I'm utilizing. Should I have aggregated these as well?

<include>**/font/font.js</include>
<include>**/json/json2.js</include>
<include>**/jwplayer/jwplayer.js</include>
<include>**/underscore/underscore.js</include>
<include>**/jquery/jquery-1.7.1.js</include>
<include>**/jquery/jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js</include>
<include>**/jquery/jquery.cookie.js</include>
<include>**/jquery/jquery.jcrop.js</include>
<include>**/jquery/jquery.tmpl.js</include>
<include>**/jquery/farbtastic.js</include>
<include>**/simpleyui/simpleyui.js</include>
<include>**/audio-player/audio-player.js</include>
<include>**/tiny_mce/tiny_mce.js</include>
<include>**/jscharts/jscharts.js</include>

The major sizes contributing to my footprint are in jquery-1.7.1.js (100k), jquery-ui-1.8.16.custom.min.js (206k), jwplayer.js (83k), simpleyui.js (103k), jscharts.js (100k), and tiny_mce.js (186k). Surprisingly, these amounts are minified.

I've tried experimenting with gzipping the content upon request, but unfortunately, it slowed things down. It seems like rackspace cloud's CPUs might not be very fast, adding significant time to the request. Disabling gzipping on demand appears to improve performance.

EDIT: After testing, placing the javascript at the bottom of the page doesn't show any difference. Removing all libraries such as jquery, audio-player, jwplayer, etc., solely takes about 1 second.

My application code, which comprises more files but less overall code, typically takes around .2 to .3 seconds.

I strongly believe the issue lies more in execution speed rather than download speed now.

What recommendations would you suggest to enhance the performance of my pages?

javascript performance gzip minify

Answer 1

Answer №1

To optimize page performance, it's important to only load the necessary javascript libraries for each specific page.

For our current project, we've been working on reducing reliance on external javascript libraries by encapsulating functionality components and using a dependency manager to load only the required libraries for each page. By doing this, we eliminate unnecessary library requests and streamline the loading process.

The goal is to minimize dependence on external libraries whenever possible.

In addition, we've made an effort to decrease reliance on jQuery by transitioning our code to utilize the DOM directly. For instance, replacing jQuery('#myId') with document.getElementByID() and jQuery('table.myTableClass') with getElementsByTagName(). This optimization has significantly improved loading times for some pages that no longer require any dependencies at all.

Another strategy is to use Sizzle, a standalone CSS selector engine, if you only need CSS selectors instead of utilizing the entire jQuery library. By incorporating Sizzle, which is only 4KB compared to the 80+ KB of jQuery, unnecessary bulk can be eliminated from your application. The same principle can likely be applied to other libraries to enhance overall efficiency.

Answer 2

To optimize page performance, it's important to only load the necessary javascript libraries for each specific page.

For our current project, we've been working on reducing reliance on external javascript libraries by encapsulating functionality components and using a dependency manager to load only the required libraries for each page. By doing this, we eliminate unnecessary library requests and streamline the loading process.

The goal is to minimize dependence on external libraries whenever possible.

In addition, we've made an effort to decrease reliance on jQuery by transitioning our code to utilize the DOM directly. For instance, replacing jQuery('#myId') with document.getElementByID() and jQuery('table.myTableClass') with getElementsByTagName(). This optimization has significantly improved loading times for some pages that no longer require any dependencies at all.

Another strategy is to use Sizzle, a standalone CSS selector engine, if you only need CSS selectors instead of utilizing the entire jQuery library. By incorporating Sizzle, which is only 4KB compared to the 80+ KB of jQuery, unnecessary bulk can be eliminated from your application. The same principle can likely be applied to other libraries to enhance overall efficiency.

Answer 3

Answer №2

I make sure to load libraries from reputable CDNs such as Google CDN. This method allows for better caching and enables parallel downloading, especially since the content is sourced from a different domain than your own.

Answer 4

I make sure to load libraries from reputable CDNs such as Google CDN. This method allows for better caching and enables parallel downloading, especially since the content is sourced from a different domain than your own.

Answer 5

Answer №3

In my personal experience, I developed a custom class that combines and minifies all JavaScript files into one single file to optimize webpage load times. By reducing the number of individual files requested, the page loading speed is significantly improved.

The process involves:

Reading all JS files
Concatenating all content together
Utilizing JSMin (specifically this tool: https://github.com/rgrove/jsmin-php/)
Optionally applying Gzip compression (I found no noticeable performance boost as PHP typically handles gzip automatically)
Caching the resulting file on disk to avoid repeating these steps

-UPDATE- Here's the original article that inspired my approach:

Answer 6

In my personal experience, I developed a custom class that combines and minifies all JavaScript files into one single file to optimize webpage load times. By reducing the number of individual files requested, the page loading speed is significantly improved.

The process involves:

Reading all JS files
Concatenating all content together
Utilizing JSMin (specifically this tool: https://github.com/rgrove/jsmin-php/)
Optionally applying Gzip compression (I found no noticeable performance boost as PHP typically handles gzip automatically)
Caching the resulting file on disk to avoid repeating these steps

-UPDATE- Here's the original article that inspired my approach:

Answer 7

Answer №4

To optimize the performance of static files, I suggest pre-gzipping the files before serving them. While gzipping may use extra CPU resources, doing it in advance will reduce the impact when generating the files.

It's important to also test how quickly the client can unzip the files so that there are no unexpected delays.

In my hosting environment, I indicate whether a file is gzipped or not by using specific suffixes like "html.en" and "html.en.gz." The Apache server then serves the appropriate version based on headers received. Consider configuring your server similarly for efficient delivery.

Answer 8

To optimize the performance of static files, I suggest pre-gzipping the files before serving them. While gzipping may use extra CPU resources, doing it in advance will reduce the impact when generating the files.

It's important to also test how quickly the client can unzip the files so that there are no unexpected delays.

In my hosting environment, I indicate whether a file is gzipped or not by using specific suffixes like "html.en" and "html.en.gz." The Apache server then serves the appropriate version based on headers received. Consider configuring your server similarly for efficient delivery.

What should I do with this massive 800kb JavaScript file?

Answer №1

Answer №2

Answer №3

Answer №4

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