Web pages that refer to multiple CSS or JavaScript files often suffer from slower page loads, since the browser must request each referenced file individually. Most browsers will only make two simultaneous requests to a single server. The latency involved in opening multiple requests and waiting for them to finish before making new requests can result in a user-visible delay, and that can make your users sad.
Minify is a PHP library that attempts to fix this problem by combining multiple CSS or JavaScript files into one download. By default, it also removes comments and unnecessary whitespace to decrease the amount of data that must be sent to the browser. Most importantly, it does all of this on the fly and requires only a few simple changes to your existing web pages.
Before Minify:
<html>
<head>
<title>Example Page</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="example.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="monkeys.css" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="prototype.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="example.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<p>
Blah.
</p>
</body>
</html>
After Minify:
<html>
<head>
<title>Example Page</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="example.css,monkeys.css" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="prototype.js,example.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<p>
Blah.
</p>
</body>
</html>
Minify takes about 15 seconds to download and install, has no dependencies other than PHP 5.2.1 or higher, works on any web server, and requires only minor modifications to your existing web pages. And it's free!
Visit the Minify website to learn more or, if you're already sold, download it now.
