Code Authors

Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 1:33 pm

A lot of custom themes contain a lot of different images which can take a considerable amount of time to load.

Whilst most browsers will cache images, you can help by placing something like this in your htaccess file

Code:

<IfModule>
ExpiresActive On
# ExpiresDefault A86400
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access plus 5 minutes"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 5 minutes"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/plain "access plus 15 minutes"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType video/x-flv "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 5 minutes"
ExpiresByType text/javascript "access plus 5 minutes"
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access plus 5 minutes"
</IfModule>

which is what we do with RavenNuke.

Another way to speed up things is to compress your style sheet using an online utility like this one here at CSS Drive I managed to cut my own forum style sheet file size down by 34% which means as the file size is smaller, it loads a little quicker - though most browser cache this any way, every little helps.
This is especially so if you are using a none standards compliant theme where you will need all the help you can get.

Site Admin Joined: Jan 06, 2006 Posts: 99

Might also want to check with your host to see if they have the following module loaded:

LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so

At least I am guessing this is the one being referenced.

Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:28 am

Yes thats correct. The <IfModule> test should atleast stop the dreaded 500 error if you cannot use those directives in htaccess.
BUT it is always best to check with your host first as they ma not even allow the use of htaccess directives at all in which case the 'test' itself might cause a failure.