Configuring apache to download .gz files

[subashk]

Actually all JS files are zipped but still rendering is taking almost 15 seconds.

Used YSlow (cool tool) to figure out the issue

Empty Cache

3.0K 1 HTML/Text

459.4K 12 JavaScript Files

7.1K 1 Stylesheet File

0.8K 3 CSS Images

24.2K 24 Images
494.7K Total size

Primed Cache
41 HTTP requests


3.0K 1 HTML/Text

7.3K 12 JavaScript Files

0.0K 1 Stylesheet File

0.0K 3 CSS Images

1.0K 24 Images
11.5K Total size
41 HTTP requests
Weight graphs:

[subashk]

How to make SmartClient use gzip js files instead of js.

I have configured my app web.xml to use CompressionFilter, JSSyntaxScannerFilter, NoCacheFilter, FileDownload, MessagingServlet, FileAssembly and PreCache

And have both gzip and js files, but when I access the page it takes 23 seconds to render the page.

And the total chunk of js files takes 460KB.

Please direct us to exact configuration settings and todo stuff to avoid this slowness.

[Isomorphic]

deployment instructions in SmartClient Reference

Hi skota,

Everything is explained in the Deployment Instructions in the SmartClient Reference, including what files need to be deployed to your application server, descriptions of the behavior of each servlet included in the SmartClient-provided web.xml file, and whether and why you would enable each servlet in a production deployment.

Let us know if you need more information.

[skota]

We will be deploying the files eventually into java application server either in JBoss or Weblogic...

How does this work in that case? Do you have a plugin or we need to configure anything in web.xml to make this happen?

Thanks,
-SK

[Isomorphic]

Question 1 & 2: serving gzipped JS from Apache

If you plan to deploy the SmartClient server at some point to handle dynamic requests, then you can just configure Apache to allow the SmartClient FileDownload servlet to serve the SmartClient framework, which automatically uses compression and sets HTTP "Expires" headers that avoid redundant downloads.

If you need to deploy entirely without the SmartClient server, Apache can be configured to serve compressed JS using mod_gzip:

http://schroepl.net/projekte/mod_gzip/

.. and can be configured to set "Expires" headers using mod_expires:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_expires.html

There is a lot of public information about how to do this, however it is fairly involved. If you plan to deploy the SmartClient server at some point in the future anyway, I wouldn't dive into the Apache configuration necessary for delivering compressed JS.

Question 3: optimizing file size

Once you've set up compression the download will be approximately 1/6 the size and will occur only once. In terms of trimming:

• SmartClient is delivered in modules, so load only the modules you need
• The FileLoader can be used to load or cache SmartClient in the background while the user is logging in or viewing a simple landing page
• Any kind of moving loading indicator dramatically reduces the percieved wait time

It is possible for Isomorphic to trim unused components from a build, however, this should generally be attempted only once your application is complete and the full component usage is clear, and generally the gain is quite small, so it's best to focus on the above strategies.

Question 4: private support

Customers of Isomorphic have the option of private support channels. If you feel like you are giving too much away on public forums, a typical approach is to isolate the issue to a simpler test file. This will become necessary anyway for troubleshooting as your application becomes larger and more sophisticated.

[skota]

Hi,

Question1:
We are serving above URL from apache.

http://apache.cricnjoy.com/simpics/S...rototype2.html

How can we make your engine download the .gz files of the javascript instead of .js files so that we can see faster download speeds.

Question2: (Always seems to load the files and IE not caching?)
I tried to download the above URL in IE and Firefox it is taking around 10-12 seconds before we see the complete application loaded and initialised. Even on refresh it seems to take the same amount of time.

Question3:
Is it possible to optimise the .js and .gz files such that we can use only the components that we use. Are there any guidelines if we can do that.
We want to get the final deployable application footprint as small as possible as our users typically behind the very very low bandwidth.

Question4:
Is there anyway we can post some of our queries specific to our product in private posting? As we are providing our prototype links in the public forum.

Thanks,
-SK