For this project however I will try some, for me,  new things and see how they effect the website’s performance.  The first thing to do will be to consider http requests and see how to make them as few as possible. This I plan to do by taking the three categories CSS, Javascript and Images and rework them slightly so that I hopefully will get very few http request.

For javascript, which I will have a few of, I want to bundle the scripts into one, or possibly two http request. This is done by adding the different calls into one combined call that hold all the javascripts required.  All javascripts will of course be minified to make them as small as possible and I will carefully look over the plugins to make sure redundant javascript is not added by them. I am considering adding the jQuery library from Google repository, but I’ll have to play with that a bit to see how that work out and what the benefits will be when combined with my other time saving efforts.

For CSS I will use a similar setup, taking advantage of the code written by Rakaz that allow the same combination of files  as for javascript files, reducing the CSS files into one single http request. I will use the minified approach here as well and we’ll see how much this will speed things up.

For images I will use sprites, which is essentially one big picture with many images that is used instead of many smaller ones. This will seriously reduce the number of http requests and I will use this throughout the website. The sprite itself will of course be minified as much as possible without reducing the experience. All images are of course plced in the CSS and not in the actual HTML code.

This is all good and it will reduce the number of requests alot, but I can do more.  Javscripts that are not essential should be placed at the end of the document which means that altough it att a second javascript http request it should increase speed for the visitors as it is added after the page loads. The actual pageload will be a little higher due to the second http request, but it will feel faster.

The http request can also be speeded up by dividing them into two hostnames since there are only two http requests at any given time for any given hostname, the other requests will be placed in que. So by splitting the http requests over two hostnames we can process two sets of http requests instead of just one. This will speed things up additionally.

The php function Flush() will be added to force the browser to load the HTML instead of waiting for the http requests to finish as is it’s normal behaviour. This will make sure the HTML is loaded almost instantly without waiting for the http requests which will, once again enhance the experience for the visitors.

In addition to this I plan to put the new Mortfiles website on its own VPS that will be equiped with LiteSpeed and lighttpd to make things really fly. Then I’ll just add Wordpress super cache to make all areas of the website into static files and add server compression to the files and violá…

pretty fast website…for a white guy

Everything You Know About CSS Is Wrong! is an eye-opening exposé on CSS as we know it today. You’ll discover a fresh approach to coding Cascading Style Sheets where old hacks and workarounds are just a distant memory.

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CSS was conceived in an age when web-site design was simple; its creators never anticipated the intricacy of designs that it would be asked to deliver today.

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About Rachel Andrew

Rachel Andrew is a director of web-solutions provider edgeofmyseat.com. Rachel takes a common sense, real-world approach to web standards, with her writing and teaching being based on the experiences she has in her own company every day. Rachel has also authored The CSS Anthology and HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS, 2nd Edition.

About Kevin Yank

Kevin Yank is a world-renowned leader in web development. When not writing best sellers, Kevin is the Technical Director of sitepoint.com and editor of the popular SitePoint Tech Times newsletter. Kevin has also authored Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL, and Simply JavaScript.

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