[Phpmyadmin-devel] Concatenating js files

[Rouslan Placella]

Hi all,

I've written a patch[0] that will concatenate js files on the server 
side before sending them to the client. This will reduce the number of 
http requests for js files to one per page. So, effectively, there will 
be one request for js files when a user first loads a pma page and 
subsequently there will 0 or 1 request (depending if we already have the 
needed js file already loaded client side) for any additional page the 
user navigates to. The patch would also close feature request[1] #3583340.

The performance benefits should be pretty obvious. You can see a 
screenshot[2] of the firebug network panel that I took before and after 
the patch. In the screenshot, I started on the main page and went to 4 
different server status pages afterwards. This was on a local 
installation, remote installations should benefit even more...

The reason that I'm bringing this issue up on the mailing list is that 
there is also a drawback. Debugging js files will become somewhat more 
complex, since we would have to figure out which file a problem might be in.

So the question is: are we willing to pay the price for this performance 
boost?

Bye,
Rouslan

[0]: https://github.com/roccivic/phpmyadmin/tree/js-file-loader
[1]: 
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3583340&group_id=23067&atid=377411
[2]: http://www.placella.com/temp/js-file-loader.png