npAssetsOptimizerPlugin

This plugin provides a task to optimize web assets used in your project, typically for better frontend performances:

• CSS files will be combined and compressed using cssmin or the Minify CSS Compressor library
• Javascript files will be combined and compressed using JSMin, JSminPlus or the Google Closure Compiler API
• PNG web images will be optimized with pngout, advpng or pngcrush if installed and available on the system
• Of course you can create your own optimization drivers

Combined javascript and css files will then replace original ones in the response, optionnaly with a timestamp appended as a GET parameter to force browsers to redownload them in case they're served with an Expires header and/or 304 HTTP status code, and if they've changed in the meanwhile.

Of course, the optimizations made and their use is configurable by environments, so you can enable the call for optimized assets only in prod for example. Each optimization process can also be disabled. See the Basic configuration section of this document to find out how to do so.

Everything is done by configuring some YAML by default, but the plugin architecture allows to easily extend the service and optimizers as well. See the Advanced configuration section of this document to find out how.

Prerequisites

Required

• PHP 5.2.4
• Symfony 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4

Optional

• PHP CURL extension enabled and available using the php command line for Google Closure Compiler support
• Optionally, these PNG image optimization programs:
  • pngout (get it)
  • advpng (get it)
  • pngcrush (get it)

Installation

Installation using PEAR

$ php symfony plugin:install -s beta npAssetsOptimizerPlugin

Installation using SVN

$ cd /path/to/your/symfony/project
$ svn co http://svn.symfony-project.com/plugins/npAssetsOptimizerPlugin/trunk plugin/npAssetsOptimizerPlugin

No need to say that if you're using SVN for your project, use the svn:externals property instead.

Basic configuration

Basic configuration of assets optimization is done in the np_assets_optimizer_plugin section of a standard app.yml configuration file. The plugin ships with a commented default one you'll find in the config folder of the plugin directory:

all:
  np_assets_optimizer_plugin:
    enabled: true                          # status of the plugin
    class: npAssetsOptimizerService        # the plugin service class to use
    configuration:                         # optimization service configuration
      javascript:                          # Javascript optimizer configuration
        enabled: false                     # status of optimization
        class: npOptimizerJavascript       # the javascript optimizer class to use
        params:                            # optimizer class configuration
          driver: JSMin                    # javascript optimization driver name
          destination: /js/optimized.js    # destination path for optimized .js file
          timestamp: true                  # adds a timestamp to the combined file url
          files:                           # list of js assets to optimize and combine
            - jquery.js
            - jquery-ui.js
            - application.js
      stylesheet:                          # stylesheets configuration section
        enabled: false                     # status of optimization
        class: npOptimizerStylesheet       # the stylesheet optimizer class to use
        params:                            # optimizer class configuration
          driver: Cssmin                   # stylesheet optimization driver name
          destination: /css/optimized.css  # destination path for optimized .css file
          timestamp: true                  # adds a timestamp to the combined file url
          files:                           # list of css assets to optimize and combine
            - /facebox/facebox.css
            - main
            - skins/foo.css
      png_image:                           # PNG images configuration section
        enabled: false                     # status of optimization
        class: npOptimizerPngImage         # the PNG image optimizer class to use
        params:                            # optimizer class configuration
          driver: Pngout                   # PNG image optimization driver name
          folders:                         # folders to scan for PNG files to optimize
            - %SF_WEB_DIR%/images          # by default, contains the web/images folder

Just create your own np_assets_optimizer_plugin in your application app.yml file to override these default settings.

Note: for the files section of both javascript and stylesheet optimizer configuration sections, the ordering of files is extremely important and should reflect the order used in your own view.yml files. Also, the very same syntax should be used: don't use main.css in the app.yml file where it's main in the view.yml one.

Available drivers

For javascript: JSMin, JSMinPlus or GoogleClosureCompilerAPI.

For stylesheets: Cssmin or MinifyCssCompressor.

For PNG images: Pngout, PngCrush or AdvPNG.

Usage

When you're done with configuration, you can launch the assets optimization task, which is available under the optimize namespace:

$ php symfony list optimize

The application argument is mandatory, whereas the type option allows to set the type of assets to optimize:

$ php symfony optimize:assets frontend --type=stylesheet
$ php symfony optimize:assets frontend --type=javascript
$ php symfony optimize:assets frontend --type=png_image

To optimize all assets in one call:

$ php symfony optimize:assets --type=all

To get full help on how to use this task, just lauch:

$ php symfony help optimize:assets

These tasks must be executed manually every time you make one of these changes:

• adding or modifying a CSS file handled by the plugin
• adding or modifying a Javascript file handled by the plugin
• adding or modifying a PNG image handled by the plugin

When optimized javascripts and css assets are generated, they aim to be used instead of the old ones. So you have to replace the calls to include_javascripts() and include_stylesheets() helpers in your layouts respectivelly by the include_optimized_javascripts() and include_optimized_stylesheets() ones, as shown in the example below:

<html>
  <head>
    <?php include_http_metas() ?>
    <?php include_metas() ?>
    <title>Foo</title>
    <?php include_optimized_stylesheets() ?>
  </head>
  <body>
    <?php echo $sf_content; ?>
    <?php include_optimized_javascripts() ?>
  </body>
</html>

Note1: Obviously, the optimized assets must have been generated before with the task for this to work.

Note2: Don't worry adding the npOptimizer helper to the default_helpers section of your setting.yml file, it will be automatically added at plugin configuration time.

Advanced Configuration

If you want to manage asset optimization by yourself, just extend the corresponding optimizer class; for instance, if you want to compress and combine javascript files your way instead of JSMin, JSminPlus or Google Closure Compiler ones, you can write your own driver by extending the npDriverBase class and implementing its abstract doProcessFile($file, $replace = false) method:

class npDriverMyDriver extends npDriverBase
{
  public function doProcessFile($file, $replace = false)
  {
    // optimize javascript contents here...
 
    if ($replace)
    {
      // replace file here
 
      return $file;
    }
    else
    {
      // fetch contents from $file, optimize it, and return it
 
      return $optimizedContents;
    }
  }
}

Don't forget to declare the new driver to use for javascript assets in your app.yml file. Here we'll take part of the environment feature of symfony and only configure the optimizer for the prod environment:

prod:
  np_assets_optimizer_plugin:
    enabled: true
    class: npAssetsOptimizerService
    configuration:
      javascript:
        enabled: true
        class: npOptimizerJavascript
        params:
          driver: myDriver
          destination: /js/optimized.js
          timestamp: false
          files:
            - jquery.js
            - application.js

Last, generate the new optimized javascript file with the optimize:assets task for the prod environment:

$ php symfony optimize:assets frontend --type=javascript --env=prod

Changelog

v0.8.1 - 2009-12-29

• BC BREAK: added a mandatory application argument to the assets:optimize task, to avoid processing assets optimization from the wrong application configuration
• fixed a bug which prevent to understand the enabled configuration setting for optimizers
• fixed a typo in the file name of the npDriverAdvPNG class

Many thanks to Pascal Borreli for the bug reports.

v0.8.0 - 2009-12-25 (yes, x-mas release!)

• BC BREAK: The accepted type options of the optimize:assets tasks have been renamed and are now all, javascript, stylesheet and png_image
• BC BREAK: Refactored drivers management, they now have their own classes
• Added JSMinPlus javascript optimization driver, based on JSminPlus
• BC BREAK: Driver names now reflects the driver class name:
  • JSMin driver will use the npDriverJSMin class
  • JSMinPlus driver will use the npDriverJSMinPlus class
  • GoogleClosureCompilerAPI driver will use the npDriverGoogleClosureCompilerAPI class
• Added MinifyCssCompressor stylesheet optimization driver, based on Minify
• Added AdvPNG and PngCrush PNG optimization drivers
• Added more unit tests

v0.6.0 - 2009-12-21

• Initial release

Credits

This plugin is maintened by Nicolas Perriault. Patches and feedback are welcome, send them to nperriault at gmail dot com.

Some parts of the code it contains have been heavily inspired by Ryan Weaver's ioCombinerPlugin, many thanks to him for the great inspiration and discussions.