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The author of the following blog article claims:

There are 4 relatively easy ways by which you can speed up the time it takes a browser to download a page:

  * Make fewer HTTP requests
  * Add a far-future expires header
  * Gzip your page’s components
  * Minify your JavaScript, CSS and HTML

All by calling a PHP script at the top of the page.

Source: http://aciddrop.com/2008/01/21/boost-your-website-load-time-with-3-lines-of-code/

What do you all think?
Does it really work? I mean, I know EE has built-in ability to cache and optimize performance. Some of the comments state that it works well with WordPress.
hhmm ... my EE install could use a speed-booost!

Interesting. I’ve tried the PHP script mentioned, but I get the following error message:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '&' in /home/.newark/vanwunnik/vanwunnik.com/cms/core/core.functions.php(637) : eval()'d code on line 3
Notice: Undefined variable: compressor in /home/.newark/vanwunnik/vanwunnik.com/cms/core/core.functions.php(637) : eval()'d code on line 2
Fatal error: Call to a member function finish() on a non-object in /home/.newark/vanwunnik/vanwunnik.com/cms/core/core.functions.php(637) : eval()'d code on line 2

Now I’m relative new to EE, but I’ve enabled PHP in the templates on output and added the “require_once(...);” code at the top of the page (header template) and the finish call at the bottom of the page (footer template) as described at the Aciddrop website.

Did somebody got it working? And how? I’m curious if this further speeds up expression engine?

Anyone else try this?
I’m getting similar errors as above.

ExpressionEngine can already GZIP your output, so the only thing this script would add is minifying, if you have PHP 5.  And if you have a slow site, whitespace is not killing you, and chances are, the size of content is not killing you either.  This script will do nothing if your site is slow because of PHP or MySQL overhead from an overloaded server.  It would in fact be counterintuitive, as you’re just adding even more PHP overhead, and doubling on caching mechanisms.  Also, GZIP can cause problems for Internet Explorer when the content is below 4kb, so even EE’s native GZIP shouldn’t be enabled without giving consideration to your content.

wow, I didnt know it would affect a EE site like that. Thanks Mr.Jones for the indepth look.