jsLex Motivation

I started jsLex over a year ago and have been adding features and fixing bugs for all those that asked. The project initially started out as a way to find out what was taking up all the size in my JavaScript files. That’s where the name came from, JavaScript Lexiconical Analyzer or jsLex for short. Even though that feature is still in there and very useful, the project has continued to evolve. Next, I added the JavaScript metricing that makes it possible to find performance bottlenecks with large Ajax application using any web browser.

Now, this version of the project has taken the project to the next level. Over the last year I have talked at many conferences about ways to optimize Ajax applications; reduce the number of requests and reduce the size of the requests. Many others out there have done even more to educate people on ways to do this using a variety of techniques. The issue with using many of the techniques, they are almost always command line driven. I’m a IDE user, so things not integrated into Eclipse are a pain in the ass.

Choose Source LocationBefore the last conference I was speaking at, I started to build a simple Ajax application. When I was finished there was 12 JavaScript files and 3 CSS files. So I figured I’d try one of the techniques in my presentation. Funny, even after 10 plus years of tool development for web applications, doing the simplest things to increase the performance of a website doesn’t exist. Just one source management or refactoring menu in any tool (Format).

The tools have advanced, things like Aptana and others provide a great set of foundational features. Commercial tools have also advanced things like Nexaweb’s Studio (Full disclosure I work for Nexaweb) make building Rich Web application easier. But more still needs to be done before Web and Ajax development is as manageable as say Java

So in this version of jsLex, I concentrated on creating a set of tools that make refactoring and managing Web assets easier. Integrating YUI Compressor into Eclipse gives users the ability to simply select the resources to concatenate and compress. Users can perform the actions directly from the HTML file selecting a set of script tags or selecting a set of JavaScript files in a resource view.

What is jsLex!

jsLex gives developers a set of tools that makes it possible to create highly optimized Web applications.

Developers can access tools that focus on two areas of Web application performance.

  • Web Site Optimization – Instead of ant files and command lines, jsLex gives developers wizards that they can access via Eclipse and Aptana making tasks such as; JavaScript and CSS concatenation, creation of sprites and compression of JavaScript and CSS as simple as right clicking on a file. Click for more information…
  • JavaScript Profiling Tools – provides developers with a complete picture of the performance issues with-in their Ajax application. By auto injecting profiling markers with jsLex’s ant task or Eclipse wizards, don’t need to modify their code to track down bottlenecks, minimizing coding erros. Click for more information…

The Impact!

YSlow! is a tool that shows Web developers how to improve their Web application’s performance. Giving a grade (F-A) to a Webpage, developers need to figure out how to fix the issues in their Webpage. Using the new version of jsLex you can change the following items into an A in a matter of seconds.

F 1. Make fewer HTTP requests
F 2. Use a CDN
F 3. Add an Expires header
F 4. Gzip components
A 5. Put CSS at the top
A 6. Put JS at the bottom
A 7. Avoid CSS expressions
n/a 8. Make JS and CSS external
F 9. Reduce DNS lookups
F 10. Minify JS
A 11. Avoid redirects
B 12. Remove duplicate scripts
F 13. Configure ETags

Items in Bold are things jsLex makes dealing with easier

More Information

I will be adding more to these tools. Just sign up for the jsLex Yahoo Group and enter bugs or feature requests.

Bob (Buffone)