CSS Gzip
Based off of Javascript Aggregator this module will gzip your aggregated css files. For Drupal 6.x
Advantages
- It's compatible with Apache 1.3 (works great with cheap hosting).
- Compresses the content once and saves the result (less CPU load on server).
- Uses level 9 compression because it's only run once per file (smaller file size).
- In general, all you need to do is enable the module and it works (no core hacking/modifying .htaccess).
Disadvantages
- Requires Clean URL's in order to work (mod_rewrite).
- Tested on Apache, other http servers not tested.
- Requires download method to be public (check in admin/settings/file-system)
If your using private downloads, Gzipping of js & css can be achieved with the Boost module. I also recommend using the Parallel module as well for this use case (private downloads).
What about mod_deflate?
mod_deflate usually compresses the file for every request, the result is not cached. Thus choosing between mod_deflate & this module comes down to testing & benchmarking. The file size difference between the two compression methods is minimal. It's my own opinion that you want this module instead of mod_deflate. Discussion:#416808: I have mod_deflate - should I rather use CSS Gzip?, Compression -- Drupal side or Apache side or both?
How do I know it's working?
The YSlow Firefox add-on has a tab called components; you can check for gzip compression there. See YSlow User Guide -> Components View.
