minifying js & css with one min file for each jsp page - javascript

I have around 5 major JSPs in my website. Each jsp includes multiple js and css files. I want to minify both the js and css, with one js&css per JSP.
All the plugins which are available speaks about one js & css for entire website, but I would rather want is to have one js/css per JSP. Otherwise on home page loading itself, it would download the full js/css which I donot want.
Can any one please suggest any solution for the same.
Thanks,
Harish

If those files are just static, then it's better to just pack them into one CSS and one JS. That way, the next few pages will only load the cached versions. But yes, you can still do packing per JSP for ligher pages especially for mobile.
As for tools, there are a lot. YUI Compressor and Google Closure Compiler are usually top picks.

Related

Could someone explain how I can combine my JS and CSS files?

I have done my research on combining JS and CSS files. I am still a novice when it comes to all of this so the explanation like some of these minifies and compilers at Github and Google don't really make sense in normal English.
I have the following CSS files:
bootstrap
bootstrap-min
bootstrap-responsive
bootstrap-responsive-min
main
prettyPhoto
These are my JS files:
bootstrap
bootstrap.min
jquery
jquery.prettyPhoto
jquery-migrate-1.2.1
theme
Which tool should I use and if someone could explain step by step that would be great.
If you want to just have one big js and cs file then you can just combine them into ones by copying and pasting the content of each file one after another, in the same order you would include them on a page. Keep in mind that you do not need bootstrap if you are including bootstrap.min file after it. It's the same file, only the one with .min in name is minified version of it. Same goes for js files.
Then if you want... you can run a tool for compression like this one:
http://refresh-sf.com/yui/
and hope everything works fine.
Though combining files is easy that not something you should do to libraries. Moreover for most cases you should not merge these files.
Libraries tend to stay unchanged for long time, thus will be eventually cached by user. Site loading time will be faster.
A good approach is to link these libraries to 3rd party CDNs (Google, JQuery, etc.). They are far better with load balancing and this will increase your page loading time. (There could be some DNS lookup overhead, though).
Larger files tend to skip the cache. So having large file can make your page significantly slower if every next page call will download the library again.
Of course for your custom script joining in single file and minimization will almost always be recommended.

HTML + JS + CSS converter

I have a HTML file with JS (jQuery) and CSS. I want a converter that converts all the files, minimizes it and just puts it all in a index.html for example. Google seems to be using this, they have no external files, not even the image, everything is just in one file and I'm sure pre-compiled before release.
Also is this a good idea?
This is not a good idea, in general.
Splitting out your CSS and JavaScript files means that they can be cached independently. You will likely be using a common CSS and JavaScript across many pages. If you don't allow those to be cached, and instead store them in each page, then the user is effectively downloading a new copy of those files for every page they visit.
Now, it is a good idea to served minified versions of these files. Also make sure to add gzip or deflate transfer encoding so that they are compressed. Text compresses nicely... usually around a ratio of 1/8.
(I should note that there has been one occasion where I have loaded everything into a single file. I was working on a single-page web application for the Nintendo Wii, which had no caching capability at all. This is about the only instance where putting everything into a single file made sense. Even then, it is only worth the effort if you automate it server-side.)
I don't recommend to concat CSS with JS.
Just put your css at the top of the page and js at the bottom.
To minify your CSS and JS you have to use gruntjs
Also I recommend you to read this article: Front-end performance for web designers and front-end developers
If your intention is to load the pages faster:
For images: try to use image sprites or images from different domains because browsers love downloading resources from different domains instead of just one domain.
For scripts as well as css: use online minifiers that can reduce white-spaces and reduce the size (if you are on a web hosting, your host may be already compressing the scripts for you using gzip etc)
For landing pages like index pages: If you have less styles then try inserting them inside the <style></style> tag, this will make the page load very fast, Facebook mobile does it that way.
If it wasn't a good idea, google wasn't be using it!
If you put everything in single file, you'll get less HTTP requests when the browser will check if the newer version of file is available.
You also get read of the problem that some resources are not refreshed, which is the headache for 'normal' developers, but it's a disaster in AJAX applications.
I don't know of any publicly available tool doing it all, surely Google is having its own. Note also that, for example in GWT, many such embedding was done by compiler.
What you can do is to search for:
CSS image embedder - for encoding images into CSS
CSS and JS minifier - for building single CSS/JS and minimizing it
And you need some simple tool that will embed it into HTML.

The Professional Way to Manage external css and javascript dependancies

I am creating a site that uses Java Script and CSS from jQuery and jQuery Mobile. Right now I am not hosting any of the files but rather referencing URLs on the jQuery site. This has the disadvantage that I have to load resources from jQuery every time the page loads and I cannot alter the files myself. I want to switch to hosting this stuff locally and would like to go about it in an organized and scalalable fashion. Is there any better way to do this than just copying the code from the links and pasting it into my own local .css and .js files?
Modifying the jQuery source is not ideal as you would be required to maintain it with every new release. If there is additional functionality you would like to add, it is better to create jQuery plugins. As for managing your project with respect to CSS and JavaScript files, most IDEs will generate a series of folders following the convention of JavaScript and CSS files being placed in a scripts and styles directory, respectively, under your project root. On top of this, it is wise to catalog your changes with some form of source control, such as git. There is plenty of documentation on the web on how to use this tool, and explaining how to use any form of source control is far too broad for an answer on StackOverflow. There is a certain level of mental discipline you must maintain, however, especially if you are manually managing the structure of your web project. This will come with time and experience as to what works best for you.

combining javascript files

I've launched a redesign of our website and I'm using quite a bit of Javascript for the first time.
I've learned that I should be combining all my javascript and css into one file (each obviously) but while I know I can combine the css without problems but the javascript I'm not sure of.
I have to load:
jquery.min.js <-- I load the top two from ajax.googleapis.com, is that a good idea
jquery-ui.min.js
javascript for Facebook
some for google plus button
same for twitter
some for google analytics
then some inline stuff to hide divs which javascript users shouldn't see and that type of thing.
you can see it here: traditionalirishgifts.com
So can I just copy and paste the contents of all these files into one big file. Find some way to minify (haven't looked into that fully yet) it. Load this one file right at the bottom of my page before and bingo?
I'd use this tool: http://jscompress.com/
JSCompress.com is an online javascript compressor that allows you to
compress and minify your javascript files. Compressed javascript files
are ideal for production environments since they typically reduce the
size of the file by 30-90%. Most of the filesize reduction is achieved
by removing comments and extra whitespace characters that are not
needed by web browsers or visitors.
You should always be able to merge all your external JavaScripts into one file. You can use a server-side compressor to cache it and serve it as one file. It does put some constraints on the files, like which file should load first etc. Also, if there is a syntax error anywhere it will crash completely.
Keep in mind that 3rd party code like code from google can't be mixed in. Usually there is some kind of authentication going on (or an API key in the URL). If you try to cache that code, it will stop working after a while. So you do need to keep those separate.

Include separate CSS and JS files into the header OR all code in one CSS and one JS file?

I'm trying to optimize my website. I have a few plugins to include (jquery plugins with CSS), and my own javascript code.
Now I have the CSS in separate files for different plugins, as I downloaded them. And if I need one on the actual page, I generate code to include that. The same with the JS files. But when it comes to render a complex page with a lot of stuff, 9 CSS files can be called and 7 or 8 JS files, each of which are HTTP requests.
Should I put the CSS into one big file to reduce the number of included CSS files? But then everything will be interpreted by the browser even if the current page doesn't need so much stuff.
I've thought of a third way: generate CSS and JS files with PHP. Then it'll be always one JS and one CSS file, and only with the things which are needed. Or is it an absurd way?
What do you say, which to use to reduce page load time?
It is better to include all CSS in a file and all JS in a file and the minify them using many online services that minify and compress CSS and Javascript. this will reduce the number of http requests as well as volume of data to be downloaded.
If you generate CSS with php then the CSS and JS should be downloaded with every page and generating them takes some time, but if you pack them in one file it downloads once and the browsers caches it.
if your site has many different sections and packing all css in a file makes a huge file then you can pack CSS in two or three file and in each section load the related one.
reducing number of http request is very important.
I think your last solution is the best one.
Generate one js file and one css file from php, and don't forget to minimized/gziped them :)
Here is a very good article about optimization : http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html
This depends largely on how your users use your page. If most of the users just view one page then it makes sense to only send them the stuff that they need to display that one page (combining everything into as few requests as possible). On the other hand if most of users view multiple pages then it makes sense to send them more than they need so they will already have the CSS&JS on the next page view. But in this case you have to make sure that you are always generating the same CSS&JS with the same URI, so that the browser will not re-download the same content under a different name. You also have to setup proper HTTP caching.
What I usually do is split JS/CSS in two parts. Every page has a "common.css" and "common.js", which has stuff that every page needs (header/footer/... styles for CSS, and then jquery/common js/... for JS). Then every subpage has it's own JS&CSS that has just the stuff you need for that page (if required).
For me, the best way is somewhere in the middle - for CSS files, you better grab them all, join and compress to one file. For JS code - make for example 3+ files: one with compressed and joined external libs, one with your common stuff, and maybe next files for each bigger section - but I dont think its needed. Maybe splitting your JS code on part needed before user login, and after user login.
Remember to minify and consider asynch loading (with LAB.js for example).
Oh, and this php script... I dont think it is good idea - better use/write some script which joins and minifies your statics on compile (or deploy, or even run by hand), so there is no need to generate everythin over and over again.

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