propshaft VS brotli

Ruby On Rails, thanks to propshaft, closes a chapter. Welcome to 2023, where deploying JavaScript and CSS is a breeze. Welcome to the no-build era.

No mention of propshaft which is the true replacement for sprockets: https://github.com/rails/propshaft

Learning about new ways to manipulate data in Ruby is always fun. This article details a way to access hash values as if they were methods via the ActiveSupport::OrderedOptions class. Initially, it wasn't clear why someone would reach for this over the default syntax, but the author pointed out that syntax can be helpful in keeping configuration files clean and readable. Apparently, this can be observed in the wild in the Propshaft (an asset pipeline library) codebase, which uses it to define config.assets in Railtie.

Propshaft is an asset pipeline library for Rails. It uses OrderedOptions to define the config.assets settings, instead of creating a new configuration object. You can read the complete source on Github.

Propshaft has a smaller scope than sprockets and requires you to rely on the js-bundling and css-bundling gems to handle the building of CSS and JS assets. Read the docs for an extensive upgrade guide.

[They have a replacement in the works for sprockets](https://github.com/rails/propshaft), but I'm ignoring it for now. Just coping with js-bundling and css budling is enough for me.

What an exciting couple of months it has been for the Rails community! Rails 7 was released in December of 2021 and this month we are welcoming Propshaft. David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), the creator of Rails, released a post on Feb. 11 introducing the community to the new and improved asset pipeline for Rails. While Propshaft likely won't be the default until at least Rails 8, it promises a simpler solution to asset management over its predecessor, Sprockets. Sprockets, the current default asset pipeline library, has grown increasingly heavy over the years as it has attempted to shoulder all things related to bundling, minifying, transpiling, and compressing. Enabled by the new era of tech that makes Rails 7 possible, Propshaft is touted as being "absolutely tiny" in comparison and aims to provide the following: a configurable load path for your assets, digest stamping for long-expiry cache and better performance, a development server that removes the need to pre-compile assets, and basic compilers instead of full transpilers. Sprockets will require relatively long-term support and will remain the default for now but fret not! You can create a Rails 7+ app using Propshaft, or upgrade an existing app and start using it now.

There’s more info on the GitHub repository, stating

Oh and there's a new option https://github.com/rails/propshaft which will replace sprockets in the future, didn't use it though, but looks promising

Using tools like Brotli, you can boost your application’s load time. You can use the ngUpgrade library to mix AngularJS and Angular components to enhance runtime performance, bringing in hybrid applications that can be used with techniques like ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation, aiding in faster browser rendering.

JPEGLI = A small JPEG

The suffix -li is used in Swiss German dialects. It forms a diminutive of the root word, by adding -li to the end of the root word to convey the smallness of the object and to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment.

This obviously comes out of Google Zürich.

Other notable Google projects using Swiss German:

https://github.com/google/gipfeli high-speed compression

Gipfeli = Croissant

https://github.com/google/guetzli perceptual JPEG encoder

Guetzli = Cookie

https://github.com/weggli-rs/weggli semantic search tool

Weggli = Bread roll

https://github.com/google/brotli lossless compression

Brötli = Small bread

The brotli repo on github has a dictionary generator: https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/research/dictio...

I have a hosted version of it on https://use-as-dictionary.com/ to make it easier to experiment with.

An additional element that we can finally remove from our stack is the minification of JavaScript and CSS files. Thanks to algorithms like brotli (with a very Swiss flavour) we no longer need to minify and compress our files before distributing them. Cloudflare, Nginx, or Apache will take care of everything for us.

As you navigate the intricate world of JavaScript compression and web development, having a trusted partner by your side can make all the difference. That's where Coding Crafts comes in. At Coding Crafts, we take pride in being a top-tier software development company in USA. Our team of experts specializes in web development, optimization, and everything in between. As the best IT company in USA, we are dedicated to delivering cutting-edge solutions that drive performance and efficiency. Our expertise extends to choosing the right compression technique for your web application, ensuring that your website performs optimally. In conclusion, the choice of JavaScript compression technique depends on various factors, including your specific goals, browser and server support, and performance requirements. Whether you opt for Brotli, GZIP, or Zopfli, Coding Crafts is here to provide the guidance and expertise you need to enhance your web application's performance and user experience. For more information on how Coding Crafts can assist you with your web development and optimization needs, contact us today. Resources "Brotli - GitHub Repository": https://github.com/google/brotli "Zopfli - Google Developers": https://developers.google.com/speed/articles/zopfli "Introduction to GZIP Compression - MDN Web Docs": https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Overview#gzip_compression "Brotli vs. GZIP vs. Zopfli: Which Compression Method is Best?" - KeyCDN Blog: https://www.keycdn.com/blog/brotli-vs-gzip-vs-zopfli

We serve your site from a global cache location close to your visitors to make sure your site loads fast. In addition, we use an advanced HTML and text compression algorithm called Brotli. Compressed content is now cached, so we can send it directly to your visitors instead of compressing each request individually. In our tests this often improves loading speed by up to 2x, which will have a very positive impact on your Lighthouse scores like LCP. This will be especially noticeable on larger sites, so you can scale your site without worry.

For anyone who wants to try this, zstd -T0 uses all your threads to compress, and https://github.com/facebook/zstd has a lot more description. Brotli, https://github.com/google/brotli, is another modern format with some good features for high compression levels and Content-Encoding support in web browsers. You might also want to play with the compression level (-1 to -11 or more, zstd's --fast=n).

One reason these modern compressors do better is not any particular mistake made defining DEFLATE in the 90s, but that new algos use a few MB of recently seen data as context instead of 32KB, and do other things impractical in the 90s but reasonable on modern hardware. The new algorithms also contain logs of smart ideas and have fine-tuned implementations, but that core difference seems important to note.

It seems to be using a lib called brotli - https://github.com/google/brotli. Can you compile from source?

(++) Play Youtube videos and playlistsRelease date: Feb 3 20223dyd, [email protected] libraries: brotli https://github.com/google/brotli (1.0.7)

Alright, the minifying is done. What else? Did you know you can serve HTML, CSS and JS compressed? A lot of websites still use gzip, but there’s also Brotli. Brotli is specifically made for the web and compresses a lot better than gzip in most cases.