Gzip compression

Question about gzip from the server

[Meno]

I know that ob_start("ob_gzhandler"); will compress html output from php. My question is: will it compress included .css an .js files? (I'm basically trying to get php to gzip jquery to make my site load faster.) I saw one source that said I had to add something to an htaccess file to make php gzip the .js files, but I'm not sure if ob_start("ob_gzhandler"); is allready doing it.

[janharders]

are the .css and .js included with require (that is: included on the server and delivered as normal part of the document) or included on the clientside with <script> and <link>?

if they're included on the clientside, they won't be gzipped just because the php-script gzipped the document that includes them.

[Meno]

they are included on the client side. is there a way to gzip the client included files?

[edited by: Meno at 6:22 pm (utc) on June 27, 2009]

[janharders]

yes - on the server-side :)

I guess the simplest way would be to add gzipped versions, say .css.gz and play with mod_mime, check out [httpd.apache.org...]
Especially AddEncoding ... you might want to do some work with mod_rewrite (or another directive, I'm not really an expert on that) to serve the ungzipped version of the file if the client indicates that he is not cappable to decompress gzip ...

[Meno]

What do you think about this:

php_value output_handler ob_gzhandler

<filesMatch ".js$">
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .js
</filesMatch>

Would that work?

[janharders]

probably would, yes, if php is loaded as mod_php and imho, you don't necessarily need the FilesMatch since you're applying it only to .js anyhow.
Have you tested it?

[Meno]

no. I just read it from a website. I see all sorts of different ways of doing this. Problem is that I don't know jack about apache.

[janharders]

just try it and use Live HTTP Headers (Firefox Plugin) or similar tools to see what is actually happening when you request a file from your server. Wether it works or not depends on the configuration of your server, so there will be some trial and error involved...