Minification is a term used to describe the removing of unnecessary characters from code without changing it’s functionality. It’s primary use is for shrinking the overall size of the file it compresses. Minification is used on web languages like HTML, CSS, PHP and Javascript. To minify a page or script can greatly reduce the size of the overall file. This reduces how long it takes to load.
Minification Removes
- White space characters
- New line characters
- Comments
- Block delimiters
Why We Need Minification
When Coders and Programmers are working on their code it often times is much easier to read for humans with spaces and comments about sections of code. Computers do not need any of these spaces or comments and therefore can process the data much quicker without them.
Minification Plugins
How Minification Works
For WordPress users, there are plugins that provide a function that strips out all of the unneeded spaces. Essentially, all the work is done behind the scenes and takes little time to implement.
Warnings About Minification
Like any pre-built functionality, integration into every site is different. You should not expect your code to be interpreted 100% accurately upon installation. Heavily customized WordPress templates with lots of plugins, for example, may inhibit the minify plugin from working. In some cases we have scene CSS and Javascript files break and become unusable once minified. These problems can be fixed and they do not cause permanent damage, it will take some time to find errors that need to be fixed.
David writes for a couple different websites that work with hosting and consumer reviews. He brings real-world application to harder to understand concepts in order to help people learn about specific subject matter. He also knows HTML, CSS and PHP to help out with building and configuring sites.
