Compress and Cache your Static Assets

htaccessPosted on

2 min read

With the help of compressing responses, your site download time will decrease significantly.

With Apache deflate (which is improved from Gzip) module you can quickly boost your site performance with some simple line.

You must use the IfModule statement to don’t break your site if the module isn’t supported.
<IfModule mod_filter.c>
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/atom+xml \
                                application/javascript \
                                application/json \
                                application/rss+xml \
                                application/vnd.ms-fontobject \
                                application/x-font-ttf \
                                application/x-web-app-manifest+json \
                                application/xhtml+xml \
                                application/xml \
                                font/opentype \
                                image/svg+xml \
                                image/x-icon \
                                text/css \
                                text/html \
                                text/plain \
                                text/x-component \
                                text/xml
</IfModule>

With the use of the expire module, you can set your assets browser cache time thus on the second download you can disable download of files like your site’s favicon.

<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive on
ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 week"

# CSS
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 2 week"

# Data interchange
ExpiresByType application/json "access plus 0 seconds"
ExpiresByType application/xml "access plus 0 seconds"
ExpiresByType text/xml "access plus 0 seconds"

# Favicon (cannot be renamed!) and cursor images
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 week"

# HTML components (HTCs)
ExpiresByType text/x-component "access plus 1 month"

# HTML
ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 0 seconds"

# JavaScript
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 week"

# Manifest files
ExpiresByType application/x-web-app-manifest+json "access plus 0 seconds"
ExpiresByType text/cache-manifest "access plus 0 seconds"

# Media
ExpiresByType audio/ogg "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType video/mp4 "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType video/ogg "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType video/webm "access plus 1 week"

# Web feeds
ExpiresByType application/atom+xml "access plus 1 hour"
ExpiresByType application/rss+xml "access plus 1 hour"

# Web fonts
ExpiresByType application/font-woff "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-fontobject "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-font-ttf "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType font/opentype "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/svg+xml "access plus 1 month"
</IfModule>

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