Cache Assets

This extension offers a command php flarum cache:assets that allows you to compile and save Javascript, Css and locale Javascript/Css ahead of any user request to either the forum or admin. It also takes into consideration the css needed for fof/nightmode.

This is an extension that is extremely suitable for Continuous Deployment scenarios.

Installation

Install with composer:

composer require blomstra/cache-assets:*

Go to your admin area and enable the extension.

Use the command

Run the php flarum cache:assets --help command to see a list of all options, at least one flag is required for the command to do anything:

--js to compile the javascript
--css to compile the less/css
--locales to compile css and js of the language packs

Links

    a month later

    fakruzaruret How does efect website speed?

    Usually when you enable or disable an extension or update the css/less in the admin panel, the existing style and javascript will be removed. When a visitor hits the forum the new css and js will be compiled anew during the request. This impacts one user, but only if any of the actions mentioned above occur.

    This extension compiles the js/css in advance of that user request. But if any of the actions occur again, the compiled css and js will be gone and the next user will be slowed down. Hence that this extension is helpful on forums that do not change their enabled extensions or design after being deployed to the server.

    Hope this makes sense.

      luceos

      Whenever I perform any of the actions mentioned above that require recompiling css or javascript resources, I immediately reload the forum, so it is me who has to wait a fraction of a second longer than usual.

      What does this extension do in addition to the procedure I described?

          Pollux What does this extension do in addition to the procedure I described?

          It caches assets ahead of human interaction. As mentioned before this is ideal in situations that you use Continuous Deployments. You can continue releasing new versions and this package will build the assets on demand, no need for a user to be delayed in their request.

              17 days later

              luceos hi, hoping it's not too off topic, could you clarify how continous deployment could be done with Flarum? I guess the "composer update" could be run in the CI/CD environment and then the files could be copied to servers. Regarding compiled assets, this extension would help in that the assets could be compiled in the CI/CD environment, and then copied, right? What about files that are written by Flarum at runtime, like the avatars?

              Thanks!

                  matteocontrini you can deploy Flarum just like you deploy a Laravel app. Storage folders are not versioned, they are symlinked during deployment (or just not versioned depending on the setup).

                  During deployment, you can either: clone/download repo + composer install + php flarum cache:clear

                  Or with this extension, you can do: clone/download repo + composer install + php flarum cache:assets --js --css --locales

                      7 months later
                      a month later
                      4 months later

                      Moved namespace:

                      bokt/flarum-cache-assets -> blomstra/cache-assets update your composer.json when upgrading.

                      Released 0.5 compatible with Flarum v1.0.

                      14 days later
                      luceos changed the title to Cache Assets .
                      10 months later

                      How did I miss this extension 🤔 it is such a gem.

                      I am assuming this is a best extension to increase website speed. Correct me if i am wrong, is it only for developer usage?

                        Hari it doesn't speed up the website under normal usage. It only makes the first request after a cache clear be as fast as regular requests.

                        It's intended to be used in production for servers that use continuous deployment to update, enable or disable extensions. But for manually managed forums, it doesn't really provide any benefit.

                        By default all assets are re-compiled when a first user visits the website after a cache clear. When enabling/updating extensions via the UI the first user is usually the admin so the performance hit isn't an issue. But with continuous deployment the first hit could be a regular user and it's poor user experience if they need to wait seconds for the page to load while the assets are being re-compiled in the background.

                        Theoretically you could replace this extension with a script that uses curl to load the index and admin pages. It would also cause the assets to be re-compiled immediately without an actual user having to visit the website.

                        I have found this extension to also be helpful if you have massive amounts of javascript and less, because the webserver process could run out of memory or execution time while compiling them. This extension allows the compilation process to run via PHP CLI where limits can be raised or removed.

                        The script becomes even more useful (if not required) if you have multiple nodes answering HTTP requests for your forum, because then each node would have to compile the assets on the first user visit, which would cause extreme slowness right after a new deployment for many users. But I don't think many Flarum installations use this kind of infrastructure at this time.

                          10 months later

                          I thought I'd explain why this extension is useful to me: I precompress JS/CSS with gzip and brotli and copy them to a CDN. With this extension, I can ensure that the files exist before this processing.

                          2 months later