Version 0.3.5

Web Optimizer (Web Optimizer) is an application that automates all client optimization actions for an arbitrary site. At the moment it exists as a separate application (which you need to install on the site yourself). The application has been tested and installed on CMS such as Drupal 5 and 6, Joomla 1.0 and 1.5, Wordpress 2.7 and many others.

Detailed installation guide .
Download version 0.3.5 .
Download mini installer version 0.3.5 .

List of changes

Just want to thank everyone who takes part in testing and talks about the problems that arise. The point, indeed, is moving forward, and is moving at a very good pace. Improvements over version 0.3:

• Improved calculation of installation directories and Web Optimizer. Now it can be installed in an arbitrary directory.
• Based on the already published algorithm for CSS Sprites, the current logic has been reworked and file association has been improved.
• Added a list of files to exclude when creating CSS Sprites.
• Added "aggressive" mode when creating CSS Sprites. When it is turned on, all images with repetition on separate axes ( repeat-x and repeat-y ) will be merged into one corresponding file (without the influence of the absolute size of their container). This can speed up page loading in some cases and “break” the design in others. Actually, therefore, this default setting is disabled.
• Added alternative methods to reduce JavaScript files based on the Packer by Dean Edwards (YUI will be in future versions).
• Added a list of files to exclude when combining JavaScript files.
• After numerous complaints, “unobtrusive” JavaScript is turned off by default in the configuration. Instead, it will simply merge the files from the head page. This setting can still be turned back on if client logic allows it.
• Added mini-installer (one PHP-file in 4 KB), which you need to copy to the site root and open it in the browser after that. He will download the latest version of the application and run its installation. It is convenient enough if you do not want to mess around with downloading and unpacking the archive.
• Added localization. Available languages: EN and RU. Those wishing to create a translation of the application for other languages, please write in comments or in private.
• Installation and operation of Web Optimizer was successfully tested on the following systems:
  
  • Joomla 1.0.15
  • Joomla 1.5.0
  • Joomla 1.5.9
  • Joomla 1.5.10
  • Drupal 6.10
  • Drupal 5.16
  • Wordpress 2.7.1
  • Typo3 4.2
  • Simpla
  • PHP Nuke 8.0
  • and some others
• The configuration file has been changed to config.webo.php for compatibility with PHP-Nuke and some other systems.
• Naturally, a large number of minor shortcomings and factual inaccuracies were corrected.

Small FAQ

After a large number of questions I want to highlight a certain number of problem points (mostly they concern JavaScript-logic). Based on these tips, a guide on how to use Web Optimizer will be formed in the future.
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First, as mentioned above, not all systems make it easy to switch to using “Unobtrusive” JavaScript. If you hear this term for the first time, it is better to get acquainted with the corresponding series of articles . Using this approach can significantly increase the speed of loading the site, but requires compliance with some rules when using client logic on the site. Since now this setting is disabled by default, this will not bring problems with the standard installation of Web Optimizer.

Secondly, in some cases (rather rare), the JavaScript code may not be written very correctly, as a result of which, when parsing and reducing it according to the specification (using JSMin), problems arise due to the inoperability of certain parts. In this case, it is recommended to check the current scripts using JSLint and / or use alternative mechanisms to minimize the code (Packer, YUI Compressor), or maybe even disable script compression (if gzip enabled, then it will be enough).

Thirdly, sometimes the situation is spoiled bytes left by Notepad in the beginning of the file when it is edited in UTF-encoding. In some cases, they are able to break the layout, sometimes browsers ignore them, so the problem is not always clear. In the case of “broken” files, it is recommended to check the source (CSS or JavaScript files) for specific characters at the beginning (of course, they are not visible in Notepad, you should check it with any alternative text editor). And remove them from there.

Fourthly, if the site design uses full-color images and does not use transparency, it makes sense to turn on the “Save CSS Sprites to JPEG” setting: then the size of the final files will be significantly smaller. If transparency is used, PNG is much better suited.

As usual, any suggestions and comments are welcome. Now for the project you need:

• Functional requirements for further improvement.
• Transfer to Perl, Java, Python - can anyone help?
• Logo and corporate identity development (now the whole web application is 5-7 simple pages, not much is planned in this area). If there are a lot of people willing to make a design for an application, we’ll arrange a contest and choose the best solution according to users :)
• Desire and a little time to install the application on your system. All problems can and should be written in the comments or in private.

The project site is currently only in Google Code: code.google.com/p/web-optimizator
Download the latest version of the application here: code.google.com/p/web-optimizator/downloads/list
Any problematic issues can be sent here: code.google.com/p/web-optimizator/issues/list
The source file for localization is located at: web-optimizator.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/libs/php/lang/en.php
Twitter feed with latest news: twitter.com/wboptimizer