There are various platforms, which allow you to build software applications. While building an application on ASP.NET, there are different approaches which can be used to improve the performance of the application. Some of the most commonly-used approaches are:
- Make fewer HTTP requests
- Use Content Delivery Network
- Make scripts and styles external
- Minify JavaScript and CSS
- Avoid redirects.
- Compress HTTP responses.
Making Fewer HTTP Requests
To optimize the performance of your Web application, you need to send fewer HTTP requests between the client and the server. You can reduce the number of HTTP requests by reducing the number of components that are required to render a page, such as images, style sheets, scripts, and flash. Such components can be combined into a single file. For example, you can combine all the scripts into a single script and, similarly, combine all CSS into a single style sheet.
Using Content Delivery Network
To enhance the performance of a Web application, you can host the content used by your Web application, such as images, style sheets, and scripts, on a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN is a collection of Web servers distributed across multiple locations. CNDs help deliver content more efficiently to the users. This is because a user’s request is served from a server with the fewest network hops or the fastest response time.
Making Scripts and Styles External
JavaScript and CSS that are embedded in HTML documents get downloaded every time the HTML document is requested. This reduces the number of HTTP requests that are needed, but increases the size of the HTML document. To overcome this problem, you can put JavaScript and CSS in external files. Using external files generally produces faster page loads because the JavaScript and CSS files are cached by the browser. Thus, it reduces the size of the HTML document without increasing the number of HTTP requests.
Minifying JavaScript and CSS
Minification is the practice of removing unnecessary comments, white spaces, and characters from the files to reduce their size, thereby improving the load time of the Web page. JavaScript and CSS can be minified to improve the response time of the Web application.
Avoiding Redirects
Redirects help user to point to a new page from an old page. In addition, it guides the user to a correct page. However, inserting a redirect slows down user experience. This is because each redirect creates an additional HTTP request and, thus, increases the round-trip time.
Compressing HTTP Responses
The response time of a Web application can be improved by using compression to reduce the size of the HTTP response that is sent to the client. However, this can work only if the client provides support for compression.
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