So today I was working on a site based on xcart 4.5 with an aim to speed up page load times. I had previously migrated all the background images into CSS base64 encoded data to save on the number of requests and file sizes etc.
Part of x-carts SEO tools and optimisation is that it will combine all CSS files into one but while it does that, it craftily rewrites specific parts mainly so URLs are correct which plays havoc with base64 encoded CSS images as it attempts to rewrite it all, so this file needs to be separate and defined manually in the template via the <link /> tag and not with the load_defer() function.
Anyway in regards to using a cookie-less Static domain or a Content Delivery Network for CSS, Javascripts, Images etc then you need to do some minor rewriting of x-cart.
Firstly, you need to setup your domain and relevant services to have the correct resources and the domain to work. I was using apache and included the following lines in the vhosts.
We have to check for SSL so we don’t get certificate errors and alerts about unencrypted content. There isn’t much information in regards to x-cart 4.5 and CDN’s but there’s a snippet on the wiki about it in older versions.
So one of the websites I am developing has a static header, there are a few examples of this being used such as Next; the issue comes, when you require lots of information in this header but use a responsive layout, the header is then taking up real estate for your main content (even more so in landscape mode).
So this is where hiding the less vital information such as the company logo and search could come in useful; so I developed a small hacky jquery base script to do this. It isn’t perfect and it’s my first serious javascript on this site so please be kind!
The script hides a div on scroll and displays another to allow you to have a small “show div” button available at all times. if then shows and hides when the display is resizes to a desktop resolution.
Have a go of the demo and feel free to steal the code; if you find any better ways of doing it then don’t hesitate to contact me.
It requires openlogos font too for the debian/distro logo and curl for the public ip. The initial script isn’t mine; it’s just oen I found and them modified.
So this afternoon, I decided to upload and release my latest function mailattch. This function takes php’s mail to a whole new level, allowing files to be attached!
There are currently limitations to it and it isn’t highly tested but everyone is welcome to use it and is release under GPL v3.
I have also pushed a little update to ldir. It’s nothing big, just a shameless link back to here; if you really don’t like it then you’re free to remove it from the function source or you can hide is with CSS via display: none; on the class .ldir_link.
After reading through ldir’s latest release I found a few bugs which have now been fixed in ldir 1.7.10.
I’ve also rewritten the icon file type check, so we assume some common file types are available and then add any new ones to the array on that call, so if that type is found again in that folder, the icon is already known. All in all resulting in a considerably faster speed for listing the same file types or common files.
There are more extensions supported than listed but I chose not to include them all but you can if you wish.
I will also be looking at overhauling the icons and providing them as a pack allowing you to self host which at the moment isn’t possible due to licesning issue.
