GZip Using PHP?

[vfaith]

I have gzipped my site http://vfaith.com with the following line added above everything in the index.php file:

<? ob_start("ob_gzhandler"); ?>

The results are:

Original Size: 59 K
Gzipped Size: 9 K
Data Savings: 84.75%

Has anyone else done this? I have implemented the code on my other sites with fantastic results; however, since I am new to the Pligg templating system, I am unsure of what other files are primary in the system. If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know.

Read more about gzip with php before you add the above code HERE

[AshDigg]

Thanks for the tip. I added it to the top of my config.php file and will continue to test it.

[kbeeveer46]

Sounds interesting. Thanks for the thread.

[ps3preorder]

interesting. i went to the test page. adding the extra ob_start("ob_gzhandler"); shows over 80% saving, yet the load time did not change at all?

[disier]

same here is still load in 5.8 seconds

[vfaith]

My server is linux based running apache. Could that make any difference? I am not sure what all files in the Pligg template system need the code added to it. I will be testing it out over the next couple of days and let you know what I discover.

RainelleToday.com saw an tremendous increase in the loading speed when I added it to the template there.

[vfaith]

I went through the root and added the gzip code to all the php files which improved the load speed of the site (seen best improvement on dial up connection) however, the sidebar still loads slower than anything else.

Does anyone have any ideas on the sidebar? I am using the default template.

[SeanW]

Have a look at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_deflate.html you can do it at the httpd level and not touch any PHP code.
http://prefetch.net/code/deflate-stats.html is a good script to figure out how much bandwidth you're really saving. Apparently awstats can do it, too.


Sean