Board Optimization - Page Output Compression - Whitespace stripper.

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[buro9]

Originally Posted by Paul M

The full version screws up nicely formatted posts when you edit them, so I have used the "lite" version which doesn't do this.

Yes, I think I'll switch them around and suggest the lite version for all... and then those who want the aggressive version can opt for that if they wish.

[AlexanderT]

Originally Posted by buro9

On average I've been witnessing it strip about 8% of total page bytes from every generated page.

We all GZIP don't we? The benefits of this is that all gaps between HTML become the same pattern, and so they compress better for GZIP'ing.

David, can you show me examples of your findings? I generally don't believe that the compression ratio is that much affected by the mere presence of whitespace. But of course I could be wrong

[buro9]

Originally Posted by AlexanderT

David, can you show me examples of your findings? I generally don't believe that the compression ratio is that much affected by the mere presence of whitespace. But of course I could be wrong

Hehe, that was a nice challenge, but one I enjoyed.

To offer a proof I've done the following:
wget my forum index.php both compressed using the now default non-aggressive regexp, and also without this hack applied.

The sizes of the two files:
37,732 bytes = Compressed file
41,348 bytes = Uncompressed file

A 9% reduction in filesize.

I then ran gzip from within SSH, this should be the same as PHP gzip'ing them or a close approximation thereof:

6,748 bytes = Compressed + GZIP
8,102 bytes = Uncompressed + GZIP

A 20% reduction in final filesize.

The additional reduction of the size is higher than merely the white space being stripped and is an indicator that doing this does offer a benefit to GZIP.

So the compressed page (exactly the same HTML but without white space) ends up being 20% lighter with GZIP'ing than the non-compressed page.

Of course, the mileage varies on every page and with each style that you use. I should point out that the above was run against my current forum homepage which is not the default vBulletin style and that I've hacked my page quite a lot. So the filesize of your page and the amount it compresses and the amount it GZIPs are all factors depending on your configuration and the amount of whitespace in a page, etc.

The worst I've seen from this hack is a mere 3% reduction in file size on some of the smaller pages (such as the error messages).

The biggest benefit isn't the saved 1k of traffic... but the speed at which the rendering increases. Whether that is because the file transfered quicker, of the DHTML engine didn't have to work so hard ignoring whitespace, etc... I simply do not know... but it does appear to render faster and that is my prime goal

[buro9]

Of course... all of the above is simply a bigger advert for turning on GZIP than using this hack

If anyone doesn't have GZIP turned on in their vBulletin... I suggest you do that first

[AlexanderT]

Ok, convinced. Thanks

[Jolten]

Unfortunately, this will also strip white space when editing posts. That's NOT good.

[buro9]

Originally Posted by Jolten

Unfortunately, this will also strip white space when editing posts. That's NOT good.

This is indeed true.

However the basic non-aggressive one will one strip excess space between ">" and "<".

Unless you have HTML in your posts this shouldn't matter.

Does this impact anything? Such as the WYSIWYG editor? I've been running it for a little while on my site and I haven't noticed any detrimental effects when editing posts.

If you can give a detailed example I'll have a look and see what can be done about it.

My site runs with a history of all edits (an edit log), so I can diff between changes to see how this effects it.

[dethfire]

this lowered my homepage size by 3kb, it's a quick hack so worth the small effot

[Jolten]

Essentially it strips all returns out of posts when editing. In general, it's not a big issue but for long posts it's a little tiresome to have to go insert returns again. I did have the more aggressive version installed. I'll try the lesser one and see if that helps a little.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by Jolten

Essentially it strips all returns out of posts when editing. In general, it's not a big issue but for long posts it's a little tiresome to have to go insert returns again. I did have the more aggressive version installed. I'll try the lesser one and see if that helps a little.

Originally Posted by Paul M

The full version screws up nicely formatted posts when you edit them, so I have used the "lite" version which doesn't do this.

...

[HuangA]

This hack have a good concept; but it is not the best way to preserve bandwidth...

For example; if your site is not webmaster oriented, your members will be unlikely to post as much HTML/other contents that needs trimming, thus it wouldn't affect your site as much. If your site is webmaster oriented, you will want to preserve the code the way it is (for demonstration and code representation purpose). The members will have a hard time trying to learn:

<?
	if ( !$happy ) {
		print $sad_string;
	}
?>

if they don't know php and all they see is

<? if (!$happy){print $sad_string;}?>

And that's only a basic example, think what chaos it'd do with stuff like:

 if (!$a):$b or die(print($c))

is presented to a newbie?

[buro9]

Oh absolutely.

But bandwidth preservation wasn't the #1 priority... delivery to the rendering engine and reduction of work for the rendering engine was.

If you have a site that is going to use CODE tags, etc... then use the now defaulted 'lite' version.

For those of you who do not post code, etc in CODE tags, and care not for <pre> tags... then the aggressive version will suit your needs and save a few more spaces.

[buro9]

And if you want to save bandwidth:
* Turn on GZIP
* Remove images where you consider them excess
* look at removing any redundent tags in the templates... you optimise the HTML

Etc.

Removing a few images will do more than this does... but this will help it display faster

[Mickie D]

for those having problems with the edit posts and new threads posts, PMS etc etc i have made this little addition that will switch to the light version if you view them pages (i think it works lol)

PHP Code:

    $thisscriptis = array(
        'editpost',
        'register',
        'newreply',
        'newthread',
        'sendmessage'
    );

    if (!in_array(THIS_SCRIPT, $thisscriptis))
    {
        $patterns = array('/\>\s+\</', '/^\s*/m');
        $replace = array('> <', '');
        $vartext = preg_replace($patterns, $replace, $vartext);
    }
    else
    {
        $vartext = preg_replace('/\>\s+\</', '> <', $vartext);
    } 


thanks to mystic for the code fix i forgot to add


i wrote that out really quick so sorry if its not coded proppa but you get the idea

[h75]

I clicked Install !!!!!!!!!!!!! terrific! :laugh: :banana: