Skins directory is missing [#217199]

Comment #1

Ghent 🇧🇪🇪🇺

commented 3 February 2008 at 00:02

Title:	Skin file missing, JS not packed.	» Skins directory is missing
Assigned:	Unassigned	» wim leers
Status:	Active	» Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

JS files *should not* be packed. It's slower on the client-side because it has to be decompressed, and the effects of gzipping JS files become smaller. So that change is by intention.

You're right about the skins directory. I have absolutely no idea why that happened: I didn't remove anything. It *is* there in the CVS repository, so I think it was either a glitch or a bug in the packaging scripts. I'll report this in the d.o issue queue. For now, please use the CVS version.

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Comment #2

progga commented 3 February 2008 at 11:06

AFAIK, packed JS files doesn't need any kind of decompression. It's just Javascript with less whitespace and shorter identifier name. In this regard I'll kindly point to what you are saying in your article - http://wimleers.com/article/improving-drupals-page-loading-performance . Especially rule # 10. Thanks.

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Comment #3

wim leers

Ghent 🇧🇪🇪🇺

commented 3 February 2008 at 11:46

You know I'm the one who wrote that article, right? See http://www.julienlecomte.net/blog/2007/08/13/ for what I mean. I'll add that link to my article, too.

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Comment #4

progga commented 3 February 2008 at 12:51

Thanks for the link, it's summary is - no JS-based decompression, only gzip. It's something to ponder about. But according to rule 4 section of your article, neither Drupal 5 nor 6 gzip's CSS and JS. So we are left with nothing :-(
Of course we can do gzip via apache's mod_gzip, but not everybody has access to that. An option in this module to control whether to serve a minified lib or not might be a solution IMHO.

Steve Souders's comment in the link you posted is still saying - "It’s worthwhile to note that 90%+ of today’s browsers support gzip, so combining minification with gzipping is the way to go." and nobody protested. Now I am confused. Thanks for your great article ANW.

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Comment #5

wim leers

Ghent 🇧🇪🇪🇺

commented 3 February 2008 at 12:59

If you can afford it (USD 15 per month), and your site has enough with 30 GB of traffic for static files, you could use my CDN integration module. CDN's automatically GZIP files.

Alternatively, use Apache to automatically GZIP files: http://wimleers.com/article/improving-drupals-page-loading-performance#r....

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Comment #6

progga commented 3 February 2008 at 15:39

I haven't looked at the CDN module yet. If it works with the Coral Cache then that'll be really great.

Would you be kind enough give some hint in the README on compression/minification. Something like:

This module leaves the compression of jcarousel's CSS and Javascript files to the site administrator. For details, please check http://... Administrators of high traffic sites should consider the use of the CDN module.

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Comment #7

wim leers

Ghent 🇧🇪🇪🇺

commented 3 February 2008 at 17:46

Status:

Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

» Active

I don't know what's necessary for integration with the Coral Cache – I thought that worked stand-alone. It works with "normal" CDN's, such as Akamai, CacheFly, etc.

Your suggestion for mentioning it in the README is a valid concern though. Will do so the next time I work on this module :)

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Comment #8

progga commented 3 February 2008 at 19:24

Now I understand what "Steve Souders" meant in his comment. If my understanding is right, then he is saying minifier+gzip is the best combination. In other words, (YUI compressor + mod_gzip/mod_deflate) is the way to go. Hmm.... Do you think even a YUI compressed version of the jcarousel.js file will also take extra time to execute in the browser? If it's only minified as opposed to JS-compressed, shouldn't it decrease download time without increasing execution time? Sorry to keep bothering you. It was a big shock this morning to learn that the packer actually decreases performance.

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Comment #9

wim leers

Ghent 🇧🇪🇪🇺

commented 3 February 2008 at 21:46

Perhaps. But IMO, Drupal modules should ship with minified JS files, to simplify debugging. It's up to Drupal to minify and GZIP them, when the site admin configures it to do so.