Question

Hey guys.. I am writing a Windows application in C# that minifies CSS files and packs JS files as a batch job. One hurdle for the application is, what if the user selects a JavaScript file that has already been packed? It will end up increasing the file size, defeating my purpose entirely!

Is opening the file and looking for the string eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d) enough? My guess is no, as there are other JS packing methods out there. Help me out!

Answer 1

One might suggest that you compare the size of the pre and post packed JS and return/use the smaller of the two.

UPDATE based on question in comment by GPX on Sep 30 at 1:02

The following is a very simple way to tell. There may be different, or more accurate, ways of determining this, but this should get you going in the right direction:

var unpackedJs = File.ReadAllText(...)
var unpackedSize = jsContent.Length;
var packedJs = ... // Your Packaging routine
File.WriteAllText(pathToFile, unpackedSize < packedJs.Length ? unpackedJs : packedJs)