Re: Accessibility/SEO and IDs?

The Apache web server has support for one or two different compression
modules.  I forget most of the details, but it's possible to have
Apache gzip the outgoing stream automatically.

As for removing whitespace, etc., you can check out a Perl script I
attached to the JSDoc project on SourceForge.

JSDoc is a documentation tool for Javascript.  It's at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/jsdoc.

I wrote a perl script that compresses Javascript source quite
thoroughly and submitted it as an attachment to an RFE. 
Unfortunately, SourceForge is down right now, so I can't give you a
direct link, but you can go to the JSDoc homepage, click on RFE and
then look for 'Here's a Javascript compressor'.

I have never seen an equivalent tool for HTML.

Ian

On 3/23/06, Moran Ben-David <[email protected]> wrote:
> It seems that there is a need out there for essentially programtically
> optimizing html pages.  Just like compilation converts, say, C code to
> machine code, optimizing html would optimize it with all the various
> heuristics (shortening id's, gzipping ahead of time, removing whitespace,
> removing comments, etc).
>
> Anyone have such a practice in place?  I.e. a separation between source html
> and optimized html?  If so, do you use an automating product?
>
> I'm just curious as to whether this is common practice among expert web
> people and which tools are common for this process.
>
> moran
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
> > Of Anthony Ettinger
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 7:54 PM
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: Re: [wdf-dom] Accessibility/SEO and IDs?
> >
> > you should try to keep your markup lean, i very rarely need  more than
> > 3 or 4 id's on a page.
> >
> >
> > On 3/22/06, Anthony Ettinger <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > You are right, it makes a difference...I certainly wouldn't give ids
> > > names like "something_logn_and_ireitating_here"..
> > >
> > > However, it does make it easier for someone reading the code. If you
> > > have to put 3 lines of comments around it for it to make sense, then
> > > you've lost the original goal.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 3/22/06, Jim Auldridge <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > > I should correct my earlier e-mail about ID attributes and SEO.  It
> > > > turns out that the HTML standards may soon include header and footer
> > > > (etc) elements based on the amout of sites using DIVs with those IDs.
> > > > It was a search engine company that provided that information to the
> > > > standards folks, which is where I confused the issue.  My apologies.
> > > >
> > > > In regards to Anthony's statement, "since it's an id, it should only
> > > > be on the page once....if your page load time is effected by the id
> > > > attribute, you've got bigger problems," I don't think that is
> > > > completely accurate.  True, a given ID should only appear once in a
> > > > document, but your document can have as many IDs as it does elements.
> > > > So shortening their names can certainly shorten the total size of
> > > > outputted content.  This is a valid thought on the part of site owners
> > > > with cheaper hosting whose sites could receive bursts of traffic.
> > > > Serving 100 extra bytes several thousand times can add up.  If it adds
> > > > up enough, it can cost you down time or extra money.  Just a thought.
> > > >
> > > > Jim
> > > >
> > > > On 3/22/06, Anthony Ettinger <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > > > On 3/22/06, Chris <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > > > > If you work in a team, there's the benefit of whoever does the
> > CSS, or
> > > > > > ties in backend code, etc, has a better chance of discerning one
> > chunk
> > > > > > of HTML from another and its purpose.
> > > > > >
> > > > > >  From a user's perspective, remember that every ID can be targeted
> > as an
> > > > > > anchor, i.e.: blah.html#list_of_shopping - that can be useful if
> > for
> > > > > > example, you want to link someone to a specific section of a long
> > page
> > > > > > they want to read. Personally, I'll occasionally View Selected
> > Source in
> > > > > > Firefox to get IDs like that and add them into a link I send to
> > people
> > > > > > on occasion. That's an extremely geeky use of the capability, but
> > the
> > > > > > point is, there are uses... probably some far less geeky than my
> > own. So
> > > > > > you may as well make them user-friendly.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Lastly, you're going to run into overlap with short IDs... but if
> > small
> > > > > > HTML is of the utmost importance for some reason, the shorter IDs
> > may be
> > > > > > a better fit.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > -Chris
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Seb Frost wrote:
> > > > > > > Is there any reason (other than to make your own
> > work/maintenance easier) to
> > > > > > > use semantic IDs on your webpages?
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > In other words, does <div id="header"> benefit anyone other than
> > the coder
> > > > > > > over <div id="h">?
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > I'm all for cutting down on any bytes that don't need to be sent
> > to the
> > > > > > > browser, and if working by myself I'd quickly get used to
> > shorthands like
> > > > > > > this, and they wouldn't proove to be a maintenance headache at
> > all, for me.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > But is there a benefit to longer IDs?  Will search engines pick
> > up on <ul
> > > > > > > id="list_of_shopping"> or is <ul id="l"> just as good?
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > cheers
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Seb
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
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> > > > > microformats are on the rise, but I would stop short of saying it
> > > > > makes a difference in Google serps.
> > > > >
> > > > > The main concern should be readability. id="header" makes much more
> > > > > sense than id="h".
> > > > >
> > > > > since it's an id, it should only be on the page once....if your page
> > > > > load time is effected by the id attribute, you've got bigger
> > problems
> > > > > :-)
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > Anthony Ettinger
> > > > > Signature: http://chovy.dyndns.org/hcard.html
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