Web Optimizer 0.5 "cheetah", RC3

We are here again with a new version of the client optimization automation application - Web Optimizer. More than a month has passed since the release of the last stable version, more than 300 real sites experienced phenomenal acceleration, but this did not seem to be enough for us. And we made a good product even better.

So, meet: version 0.5, codenamed cheetah (cheetah), Release Candidate 3.

Download: code.google.com/p/web-optimizator/downloads/list
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What's new?

Naturally, the entire month we did not sit on our hands and wrote, tested, updated and tested again. Changes from version 0.4.5:

• One of the main bonuses is the inclusion in the Web Optimizer of the latest version of the library for formatting and optimizing CSS-code - CSS Tidy (probably, in the near future, its new version will be released, 1.4, otherwise everyone has been waiting). Fixed several obvious and not very errors (in particular, related to CSS3 selectors).
• The logic of the Web Optimizer itself has been significantly reworked for maximum performance. According to the latest tests, the time of its work for a separate page is 3-10ms (on average, the Joomla site! Requires 200-500ms to complete all server logic).
• Fixed a problem with the "white screen" when using CSS Sprites (associated with the "departure" of GDLib when trying to create too large an image). Now, with a lack of memory, it’s just creating a not so big sprite as we would like. Apparently, in future versions, the algorithm of memory consumption will be significantly improved.
• Fully updated user interface (thanks to fade ). We continue to collect money to thank the author of the design. It's not too late to make a contribution.
• Auto-change PHP CMS files is enabled by default. If it is impossible to make such a change in the last step, a complete list of the necessary changes for the files is displayed.
• Added the ability to create a "secure" installation: Web Optimizer can be in an arbitrary directory and be closed using .htpasswd . In more detail, this topic is disclosed in the article about the settings .
• In the settings of Web Optimizer added links to relevant articles in which the claimed technology is covered in full scale.
• Added fairly simple caching for HTML documents. It helps in the case of simple sites to take the load off the server (HTML documents created are reliably cached). Available settings: caching time, regular expression for disabling caching, USER AGENTS list for forcing caching, the ability to make a quick reset of the document.
• Thanks to the collaboration with ort , the stability of the operation and the distribution of images among static hosts has been significantly improved. All compatibility issues found with LiveStreet 0.3 have been fixed.
• Added the ability to optimize background images through the smush.it API.
• Static archiving for CSS / JS files is added by default. This means that if you fill the server with compression, then it will not have to compress these files every time before returning to the client - the gzip versions will be stored on the server next to the regular ones and given away if necessary. Even if PHP runs the compression, it will still give out the ready-made compressed files, and not run ob_gzhandler every time.
• The data:URI algorithm has been improved: the maximum file size has been slightly increased and exceptions have been added for some types ( .htc , .cur , .eot , etc.).
• Added the ability to put the generated JS file in front of </body> . Also added is the ability to take out the loading of counters and advertisements to the very bottom of the document in order to avoid the blocking influence of scripts.
• Added cache clearing from admin panel.
• Added the ability to correctly compress HTML in one line.
• Added systems:
  • Textpattern 4.0
  • Kohana 2.3
  • phpBB 3.0
  • Yii 1.0
  • SMF 1.1.8
  • IPB 2.3.6
  • Bitrix
  • cogear 1.0
• Well, a hundred or other not so large fixes and improvements.

What's next?

Apparently, the main priority for the new version will be maximum compatibility with the most diverse options supported by CMS and maximum performance with any settings and any server environment (not all sites have a dedicated server with 1GB of RAM?). At the moment there is a very interesting task of optimizing the creation of CSS Sprites (as practice has shown, they are consistently created in 95-99% of cases) in the case of limited memory. If anyone is going to help - write in the comments, private and on the specified contacts . But let's not how it happened with the layout for the new interface, when 5 layout designers one after another left the race.

Errors and documentation noted

Documentation and description of the application will be growing and growing. at the moment an article has already been published with a description of the settings ; an article with a step-by-step installation guide is ready for publication. In preparation, an article describing the known problems under the most popular CMS.

Part of the documentation (mainly on the principles of work) is available in English here: code.google.com/p/web-optimizator/w/list

Some known problems and methods for solving them have already been described in a previous article . If you have detected incorrect Web Optimizer behavior for your site, you can post a description of the error (Google account is required) or view all known (or resolved) issues . At the moment, the average time to solve a problem is about a day (usually several hours).

You can also try to solve the problem online, using the specified contacts .

Monetization

Currently available paid installation and configuration of the application for your site. Order here . There is also a possibility that a separate, commercial branch of the application will be released, which will be sold in some way (the licensing policy is discussed).

If you have any specific commercial proposals, they can always be voiced by the specified contacts .

Efficiency

Several results of using Web Optimizer (for a “clean” installation of the system, without any preliminary optimizations) are given here . The YSlow score rises to 89-97, the client download speed is 2-3 (less often 3-5) times. Web Optimizer itself after creating cached files spends only 3-10ms to check and update the output HTML document (with default settings, correct HTML compression into one line is quite a resource-intensive operation and can take another 50-100ms).

Well, everything seems to be. See you soon :)

Download Web Optimizer: code.google.com/p/web-optimizator/downloads/list
Support the project financially: sprites.in/donate