| Background Auto Minify was developed to streamline web content delivery by removing unnecessary characters from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, thereby reducing file sizes and improving page load times. However, over the years, we’ve seen a steady decline in the use of the service, as many websites now minify at their origin during the build phase (as the recommended practice), since minification is included in most modern web development frameworks.
Through our internal testing and monitoring, we’ve seen that dynamically minifying HTML content may introduce a delay in many situations that outweighs the benefits of minification. For CSS and JavaScript files, where minification occurs on cached files, we've observed a more favorable balance between processing time and performance improvement However, the benefit for page size reduction is less than 0.1% across all minified files on Cloudflare’s network. Nevertheless, the decision to deprecate Auto Minify stems from our commitment to deliver only the most efficient and effective solutions to our users.
As we continue to invest in other ways to reduce page sizes on the edge, such as advancements to compression, we have observed a consistent decrease in users of Auto Minify. We understand that this decision may require adjustments in how you manage your website's performance optimization. We recommend reviewing your current configurations and considering alternative strategies that align with your performance goals.
Immediate steps you can take: -
Enable Cloudflare’s Performance measurement tool for Web Analytics. -
Run a performance test with Auto Minify enabled and then repeat the test with Auto Minify disabled (make sure to purge between tests). -
If your site is faster with Auto Minify disabled, leave it disabled and wait for it to be completely deprecated (enabling and disabling for the test can be done with a configuration rule). -
If your site is faster with Auto Minify enabled, we recommend using additional tools to reduce page weight, like brotli compression. -
Additionally, after you run a Cloudflare Observatory test, you can review the recommendations to see if there are helpful suggestions to improve performance. Auto Minify will be removed on August 5, 2024. We wanted to provide you with sufficient notice so that you can test your site with and without Auto Minify and find an alternative solution if Auto Minify was providing some value to you.
Thank you for your understanding and for choosing Cloudflare. We are committed to continuously evaluating and updating our services to ensure that we meet the performance needs of all our users. We understand that changes like this can be challenging, but we are here to help you. For further information or any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us through the Cloudflare Community post.
Thank you, The Cloudflare Team |
No comments: