Minification Build Workflow?

nico

I started a thread in the OD Topic [HTML]http://devnet.interwoven.com/forums_vb/showthread.php?t=38275&forumid=12[/HTML] regarding when to minify/optimize files and most of the answers seemed to point me to workflow. I'm considering the h5bp ant build script [HTML]https://github.com/h5bp/ant-build-script[/HTML] however I would like to know how and what you are using for optimized, minified solutions for your sites I'm more concerned with fron't end type files like html, js, css but i know we all work with other type of files like .aspx, .jsp, etc.

How do these build solutions integrate with cms's like Teamsite?

What is your process? full build of staging then deploy? What about one off files?

I just don't know where to begin.

Thanks,
Nico
TS672
Win

Rick Poulin

What is your process? full build of staging then deploy? What about one off files?

As nipper suggested in the other thread, your best bet is to minify in workflow so that you have more control over the process and (if you so choose) can keep records on the authoring side for auditing/versioning/tracking and whatnot.

If that's the route you choose, then it's really quite simple. Build an external task that looks at the files attached to the job and execute the minification on those only. Thus, when you first publish your site, you submit everything. Afterwards, whether it's a one off or a full push doesn't matter -- it'll convert whatever you send through for publishing, and only those files. (Obviously, your loop through the file list can easily ignore any files that don't end with an appropriate suffix, or folder paths, etc.. so if you don't have JS/CSS/whatever attached, then the task does nothing except move on with the job).

Just make sure you either detach the originals from the job, or if you're using an area comparison instead of a filelist deploy, use appropriate filters in your ODconf.

-- Edit: the above is all about minifying static files: JS, CSS, static HTML, etc. --
Looking at the tool you linked, you should be aware that running this on code (i.e. aspx) is a terrible idea, because it won't understand it properly. There are language-specific tools to "prettify" your code, but I would never automate that because of the high risk of misinterpretation. It's on you to write your code correctly in the first place. That's why you have a CMS and are not cranking out HTML through Dreamweaver. The only exception to this is if you're generating static html from TPLs or SitePub -- then you could potentially run the minification on the output.

For optimizing ASP, I would instead recommend that you get a tool that inspects the output and gives you a list of what you could do better, which you then fix manually in your code. These normally are browser plugins. (e.g. YSlow for Firefox is a good one)