Minify JavaScript with JavaScript?

Question

Since I've heard people whining how PHP can't handle it, how about minifying JavaScript with JavaScript itself? I want something that I can just copy and paste and use right away--my JS file is about 17KB and I know I can reduce it to about 15KB easily.

And I want to be able to do it right on the server. I don't want to have to go to a website such as jscompress.com every time I make changes to my script.

Again, I would like something like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="scripts.php?file_to_minify=scripts_template.js"></script>

And then I would just let JS minify it on the PHP file.

Now, I do have second thoughts...Would this even work???

Your help is appreciated. Thanks!

I'm confused.. you can do what you propose in your code sample.. but that would be using PHP to minify the script. However didn't you say you don't want to use PHP? — Brian Glaz, Jul 08 '12 at 03:23
Say I have a function in JS on the scripts.php page called "minify_js". What I would do is simply this minify_js( echo(file_get_contents($_GET['file_to_minify'])); ?>); I'm not sure if this would work though, which is why I'm asking if it would. — RickyAYoder, Jul 08 '12 at 03:26
@RickyAYoder - What could you possibly gain by sending unminified code to the browser, and then minifying it on the client side??? — Joseph Silber, Jul 08 '12 at 03:27
Reducing 17K to 15K is most likely ... pointless. In any case, this is what HTTP deflate compression (and caching) is for. — , Jul 08 '12 at 03:27
You should just look for a tool that watches for when you make changes to your JS source directory and runs a minifier, writing the output to a minified directory. I know they exist, although I haven't needed them myself as such is part of a separate build process for me. — Scott Sauyet, Jul 08 '12 at 03:33
Well, my goal is to have something automatic. I have another post that didn't get me what I was looking for exactly... Check the following link to read more about what I'm looking for: something that's easy, something that updates itself as I go, and something that uses PHP or JS. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11000261/how-to-minify-js-in-php-easily-or-something-else/11004660#11004660 — RickyAYoder, Jul 08 '12 at 03:34
@Scott Sauyet that's sounds like EXACTLY what I want, but I don't know where to find one. — RickyAYoder, Jul 08 '12 at 03:41
@RickyAYoder - I don't either exactly as I've never had the need, but I know that tools like LESS and SASS often incorporate such watchers in them. In fact, those would probably work directly without using any of the other features of LESS/SASS, although that might be a bit of overkill. — Scott Sauyet, Jul 08 '12 at 13:07

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 10 '12 at 10:18

Personally, I would look to have a local version of my site, with all source/configuration files under version control. You could then have a release script that would prepare your files for upload, including minifying your javascript using a command line tool.

This ensures that you don't lose anything if you make a mistake, also it makes build of your site repeatable. This should be requirement for a production site, and is useful for a personal/hobby site (no-one likes losing changes/breaking things with no way back).

Minify JavaScript with JavaScript?

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