We are developing a website for low end mobile devices like Blackberry OS version 5.X – 7.X.
We are using gzip compression techniques. But when i checked about the blackberry 5.X support for gzip support, I’ve found that they are not specifying the gzip support in their request which turns server to send the uncompressed version it self.
So at this point can I look at delivering the html minified? So that we can save some bandwidth with these versions (those with no support for gzip).
Is it a good idea and why if not so?
Also is there any apache module for doing just minification (removal of whitespace and more) and no compression? or should i do it using php by taking it to a buffer and minifying it with a regular expression?
Please correct me if I am wrong somewhere? Thanks for help.
Update: I found this apache module: pagespeed but couldn’t test as it is only for Cent OS / Fedora / Ubuntu & I’m on a WAMP
You would have to test minifying with your pages to see what happens.
It may not make much of a difference on download speed, and may actually increase the time the server takes to process the request more than you’ve saved on download time.
Many mobile devices, even older blackberries, actually have as fast or faster connections than hardwired connections.
For example, this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_server-side_JavaScript_solutions
is 47560 characters before being minified, and 44729 without. it’s a 6% savings, but when it’s only 48258 bytes to begin with, it’s only saving you 2872 Bytes, or 22980 bits.
In other words, it’s only saving half a second even on a 56k dial up modem. On any modern connection, it’s negligible.