95 lines
4.3 KiB
Markdown
95 lines
4.3 KiB
Markdown
|
# Performance
|
||
|
|
||
|
## Best Practices
|
||
|
|
||
|
### Realtime Components
|
||
|
|
||
|
When writing code for realtime features we have to keep a couple of things in mind:
|
||
|
1. Do not overload the server with requests.
|
||
|
1. It should feel realtime.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Thus, we must strike a balance between sending requests and the feeling of realtime.
|
||
|
Use the following rules when creating realtime solutions.
|
||
|
|
||
|
1. The server will tell you how much to poll by sending `Poll-Interval` in the header.
|
||
|
Use that as your polling interval. This way it is [easy for system administrators to change the
|
||
|
polling rate](../../administration/polling.md).
|
||
|
A `Poll-Interval: -1` means you should disable polling, and this must be implemented.
|
||
|
1. A response with HTTP status `4XX` or `5XX` should disable polling as well.
|
||
|
1. Use a common library for polling.
|
||
|
1. Poll on active tabs only. Please use [Visibility](https://github.com/ai/visibilityjs).
|
||
|
1. Use regular polling intervals, do not use backoff polling, or jitter, as the interval will be
|
||
|
controlled by the server.
|
||
|
1. The backend code will most likely be using etags. You do not and should not check for status
|
||
|
`304 Not Modified`. The browser will transform it for you.
|
||
|
|
||
|
## Reducing Asset Footprint
|
||
|
|
||
|
### Page-specific JavaScript
|
||
|
|
||
|
Certain pages may require the use of a third party library, such as [d3][d3] for
|
||
|
the User Activity Calendar and [Chart.js][chartjs] for the Graphs pages. These
|
||
|
libraries increase the page size significantly, and impact load times due to
|
||
|
bandwidth bottlenecks and the browser needing to parse more JavaScript.
|
||
|
|
||
|
In cases where libraries are only used on a few specific pages, we use
|
||
|
"page-specific JavaScript" to prevent the main `main.js` file from
|
||
|
becoming unnecessarily large.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Steps to split page-specific JavaScript from the main `main.js`:
|
||
|
|
||
|
1. Create a directory for the specific page(s), e.g. `graphs/`.
|
||
|
1. In that directory, create a `namespace_bundle.js` file, e.g. `graphs_bundle.js`.
|
||
|
1. Add the new "bundle" file to the list of entry files in `config/webpack.config.js`.
|
||
|
- For example: `graphs: './graphs/graphs_bundle.js',`.
|
||
|
1. Move code reliant on these libraries into the `graphs` directory.
|
||
|
1. In `graphs_bundle.js` add CommonJS `require('./path_to_some_component.js');` statements to load any other files in this directory. Make sure to use relative urls.
|
||
|
1. In the relevant views, add the scripts to the page with the following:
|
||
|
|
||
|
```haml
|
||
|
- content_for :page_specific_javascripts do
|
||
|
= webpack_bundle_tag 'lib_chart'
|
||
|
= webpack_bundle_tag 'graphs'
|
||
|
```
|
||
|
|
||
|
The above loads `chart.js` and `graphs_bundle.js` for this page only. `chart.js`
|
||
|
is separated from the bundle file so it can be cached separately from the bundle
|
||
|
and reused for other pages that also rely on the library. For an example, see
|
||
|
[this Haml file][page-specific-js-example].
|
||
|
|
||
|
### Code Splitting
|
||
|
|
||
|
> *TODO* flesh out this section once webpack is ready for code-splitting
|
||
|
|
||
|
### Minimizing page size
|
||
|
|
||
|
A smaller page size means the page loads faster (especially important on mobile
|
||
|
and poor connections), the page is parsed more quickly by the browser, and less
|
||
|
data is used for users with capped data plans.
|
||
|
|
||
|
General tips:
|
||
|
|
||
|
- Don't add new fonts.
|
||
|
- Prefer font formats with better compression, e.g. WOFF2 is better than WOFF, which is better than TTF.
|
||
|
- Compress and minify assets wherever possible (For CSS/JS, Sprockets and webpack do this for us).
|
||
|
- If some functionality can reasonably be achieved without adding extra libraries, avoid them.
|
||
|
- Use page-specific JavaScript as described above to dynamically load libraries that are only needed on certain pages.
|
||
|
|
||
|
-------
|
||
|
|
||
|
## Additional Resources
|
||
|
|
||
|
- [WebPage Test][web-page-test] for testing site loading time and size.
|
||
|
- [Google PageSpeed Insights][pagespeed-insights] grades web pages and provides feedback to improve the page.
|
||
|
- [Profiling with Chrome DevTools][google-devtools-profiling]
|
||
|
- [Browser Diet][browser-diet] is a community-built guide that catalogues practical tips for improving web page performance.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
[web-page-test]: http://www.webpagetest.org/
|
||
|
[pagespeed-insights]: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
|
||
|
[google-devtools-profiling]: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/profile/?hl=en
|
||
|
[browser-diet]: https://browserdiet.com/
|
||
|
[d3]: https://d3js.org/
|
||
|
[chartjs]: http://www.chartjs.org/
|
||
|
[page-specific-js-example]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/13bb9ed77f405c5f6ee4fdbc964ecf635c9a223f/app/views/projects/graphs/_head.html.haml#L6-8
|