Yevgeni Frolov

Performance: Automatically minify java script files with Visual Studio.

One of simplest ways to reduce network load is to minify java script files downloaded to a clients. By minifying I mean removing all “Enters”, “Tabs”, “Spaces”, Comments etc.  all those that help us to turn our scripts into a readable story. Since I’m a typical lazy software developer – I hate doing those manually, especially if it should be done each release… Another spoiler is that minifying java script converts it into barely readable bunch of string – not so pleasant to debug… So I’ve found...

Web Performance: Data compression with IIS 7.0

In one of my previous posts I’ve described a way to enable data compression in IIS 6.0 server. It was not a straightforward mission, but in IIS 7.0 the situation was CHANGED , and I mean it  - it’s a totally a different story. Enable basic data compression In IIS 7.0 basic data compression can be enabled by checking two checkboxes on configuration panel at IIS 7.0 management tool, without any need in changing configuration files. It can be enabled at each level of server hierarchy (Common server...

Web Performance: AXD files compression.

In my previous post I’ve described how to enable data compression on IIS 6.0 server. The problem I’ve discovered while analyzing HTTP traffic with Fiddler and YSlow is that somehow IIS does not compresses WebResource.axd files. In ASP.NET websites with extensive use of Ajax this issue reduces site’s performance significantly, because of size and amount of axd files in use. Screenshots below demonstrate results of enabling of IIS standard data compression during my tests( here can be found some explanations...

Web Performance: Expiration data - IIS 6.0

In scenarios when your server is overloaded with an enormous amount of requests, you can (and probably should) use a great feature of IIS 6.0 - expiration date. This way after 5 minutes of “intensive”work number of web requests can be reduced significantly. Lets see simple example of web page with and without expiration date enabled. Page request without expiration date enabled: The page performs 46 requests on first page visit and 40 requests when it’s cached. The explanation is very simple - when...

Web Performance: Enable data compression on IIS 6.0 server.

In my previous post I've introduced YSlow - an Firebug’s add-on that helps to analyze and improve web site performance. One of the easiest ways to improve web application performance is to enable data compression. Enabling data compression on IIS 6.0 server can save up to 80% of network utilization by the price of up to 10% and often less than 1% of CPU ratio without changing single line of code. Apparently, enabling data compression on IIS 6.0 is not that straight forward task as it looks. Most...