Martin Crockett

Here are 23 ways to optimise your website.

i-marco.nl (6)

1. Reducing graphic file sizes
2. Reducing the amount of images
3. Forcing the browser to perform more simultaneous server requests
4. Script tags in your header? Move them to the bottom.
5. Even less HTTP requests: merging CSS and Javascript
6. Adding GZip compression

Yahoo! (14)

1. Make Fewer HTTP Requests
2. Use a Content Delivery Network
3. Add an Expires Header
4. Gzip Components
5. Put CSS at the Top
6. Move Scripts to the Bottom
7. Avoid CSS Expressions
8. Make JavaScript and CSS External
9. Reduce DNS Lookups
10. Minify JavaScript
11. Avoid Redirects
12. Remove Duplicate Scripts
13. Configure ETags
14. Make AJAX Cacheable

Use CSS shorthand properties
e.g. body { background: url("bg.gif"); background-color: #fff; background-repeat: repeat-x; }

Cache your content
Make use of caching plugins, in this case for WordPress, like wp-cache.

Use a trailing slash at the end of directory or root URLs
This avoids the server roundtrip: “the trailing slash tells the server to use the default document list for that folder and load that page. Without it the server first looks for a matching document name, then a folder with that name and use default doc list, finally performing a redirect (302) to that document. So using the trailing slash saves a certain amount of server load and aids the speed the document will load.”

Further reading:
On a quest for ultimate website performance
Yahoo! Developer
Faster Page Loads - Bundle Your CSS and Javascript
CSS shorthand
Web Site Optimization
PHP Packer
Clean CSS

Does anyone really use the XFN XHTML Friends Network?

It seems like a large number of Drupal users (myself included) are having issues with upgrading Drupal 5.x to 6.0.
I attempted an upgrade with a local development website running 5.6 and encountered numerous SQL errors. It may be that I didn’t play by the rules so I’ve done a little research on how to streamline the process.

I watched a very good screencast Upgrading from 5.x to 6.x by Greg Knaddison and taken a number of notes from it below.

• Lots of reading recommended. Several locations mentioned.
• Contributed modules may affect how the upgrade process will take place.
• Backup entire website.
• Backup database.
• Decent chance that there will be some problems.
• Look at recent log entries and see if there are any errors. You don’t want a whole lot of these before you upgrade.
• Check status report.
• Use the update_status module to check all the modules are currently up to date (Note: ensure you disable and uninstall update_status before upgrading to Drupal 6). It’s highly recommended that all are updated before attempting an upgrade from 5.x to 6.0.

If there’s a module that your site depends on, you cannot update your site to Drupal 6.0. The same goes for the theme. This needs to be 6.0-ready.

• Log in as in admin and set to offline mode.
• Delete all files/folders that do not have modified content/functionality in them.
• Delete the update_status module folder.
• Upgrade all other modules to their version 6.0 counterparts.

Greg recommends copying and pasting any SQL errors into a text file and searching for them to see if anyone else has a fix or patch. :-O

I find it curious the Drupal team released 6.0 without many popular modules and themes updated. The net result of this is that there will be quite a staggered uptake from 4.x and 5.x branches.

I’m going to wait and see how this one plays out before further upgrade activity.

Further reading:
WARNING - do not update to 6.0
Upgrade problems - For problems with upgrading an existing Drupal site.

Early thoughts
Pros: it seems they fixed the most ridiculous thing with Drupal where it truncated your content with a ‘Read more’ link.
Cons: Clumsy upgrade. Theme engine still convoluted.