Asset Preloading and Resource Hints with HTTP/2 and WebLink ¶
Symfony provides native support (via the WebLink component)
for managing Link HTTP headers, which are the key to improve the application
performance when using HTTP/2 and preloading capabilities of modern web browsers.
Link headers are used in HTTP/2 Server Push and W3C's Resource Hints
to push resources (e.g. CSS and JavaScript files) to clients before they even
know that they need them. WebLink also enables other optimizations that work
with HTTP 1.x:
- Asking the browser to fetch or to render another web page in the background;バックグラウンドで別の Web ページをフェッチまたはレンダリングするようブラウザに要求する。
- Making early DNS lookups, TCP handshakes or TLS negotiations.初期の DNS ルックアップ、TCP ハンドシェイク、または TLS ネゴシエーションを行います。
Something important to consider is that all these HTTP/2 features require a secure HTTPS connection, even when working on your local machine. The main web servers (Apache, nginx, Caddy, etc.) support this, but you can also use the Docker installer and runtime for Symfony created by Kévin Dunglas, from the Symfony community.
Preloading Assets ¶
Imagine that your application includes a web page like this:
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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>My Application</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/app.css">
</head>
<body>
<main role="main" class="container">
<!-- ... -->
</main>
</body>
</html>
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Following the traditional HTTP workflow, when this page is served browsers will make one request for the HTML page and another request for the linked CSS file. However, thanks to HTTP/2 your application can start sending the CSS file contents even before browsers request them.
To do that, first install the WebLink component:
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$ composer require symfony/web-link
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Now, update the template to use the preload() Twig function provided by
WebLink. The "as" attribute is mandatory because browsers need it to apply
correct prioritization and the content security policy:
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<head>
<!-- ... -->
<link rel="preload" href="{{ preload('/app.css', { as: 'style' }) }}">
</head>
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If you reload the page, the perceived performance will improve because the server responded with both the HTML page and the CSS file when the browser only requested the HTML page.
Note
You can preload an asset by wrapping it with the preload() function:
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<head>
<!-- ... -->
<link rel="preload" href="{{ preload(asset('build/app.css')) }}">
</head>
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Additionally, according to the Priority Hints specification, you can signal
the priority of the resource to download using the importance attribute:
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<head>
<!-- ... -->
<link rel="preload" href="{{ preload('/app.css', { as: 'style', importance: 'low' }) }}">
</head>
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How does it work? ¶
The WebLink component manages the Link HTTP headers added to the response.
When using the preload() function in the previous example, the following
header was added to the response: Link </app.css>; rel="preload"; as="style"
According to the Preload specification, when an HTTP/2 server detects that
the original (HTTP 1.x) response contains this HTTP header, it will
automatically trigger a push for the related file in the same HTTP/2 connection.
Popular proxy services and CDNs including Cloudflare, Fastly and Akamai also leverage this feature. It means that you can push resources to clients and improve performance of your applications in production right now.
If you want to prevent the push but let the browser preload the resource by
issuing an early separate HTTP request, use the nopush option:
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<head>
<!-- ... -->
<link rel="preload" href="{{ preload('/app.css', { as: 'style', nopush: true }) }}">
</head>
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Resource Hints ¶
Resource Hints are used by applications to help browsers when deciding which resources should be downloaded, preprocessed or connected to first.
The WebLink component provides the following Twig functions to send those hints:
dns_prefetch(): "indicates an origin (e.g.https://foo.cloudfront.net) that will be used to fetch required resources, and that the user agent should resolve as early as possible".dns_prefetch(): 「必要なリソースを取得するために使用されるオリジン (例: https://foo.cloudfront.net) を示し、ユーザー エージェントはできるだけ早く解決する必要があります」.preconnect(): "indicates an origin (e.g.https://www.google-analytics.com) that will be used to fetch required resources. Initiating an early connection, which includes the DNS lookup, TCP handshake, and optional TLS negotiation, allows the user agent to mask the high latency costs of establishing a connection".preconnect(): "必要なリソースを取得するために使用されるオリジン (例: https://www.google-analytics.com) を示します。DNS ルックアップ、TCP ハンドシェイク、およびオプションの TLS ネゴシエーションを含む早期接続を開始します。ユーザー エージェントは、接続を確立するための高いレイテンシ コストを隠すことができます。」prefetch(): "identifies a resource that might be required by the next navigation, and that the user agent should fetch, such that the user agent can deliver a faster response once the resource is requested in the future".prefetch(): 「次のナビゲーションで必要となる可能性のあるリソースを識別し、ユーザー エージェントがフェッチする必要があることを示します。これにより、将来リソースが要求されたときにユーザー エージェントがより迅速に応答できるようになります」.prerender(): "identifies a resource that might be required by the next navigation, and that the user agent should fetch and execute, such that the user agent can deliver a faster response once the resource is requested later".prerender(): 「次のナビゲーションで必要となる可能性のあるリソースを識別し、後でリソースが要求されたときにユーザー エージェントがより迅速な応答を提供できるように、ユーザー エージェントが取得して実行する必要があります」.
The component also supports sending HTTP links not related to performance and any link implementing the PSR-13 standard. For instance, any link defined in the HTML specification:
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<head>
<!-- ... -->
<link rel="alternate" href="{{ link('/index.jsonld', 'alternate') }}">
<link rel="preload" href="{{ preload('/app.css', { as: 'style', nopush: true }) }}">
</head>
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The previous snippet will result in this HTTP header being sent to the client:
Link: </index.jsonld>; rel="alternate",</app.css>; rel="preload"; nopush
You can also add links to the HTTP response directly from controllers and services:
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// src/Controller/BlogController.php
namespace App\Controller;
use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\WebLink\GenericLinkProvider;
use Symfony\Component\WebLink\Link;
class BlogController extends AbstractController
{
public function index(Request $request)
{
// using the addLink() shortcut provided by AbstractController
$this->addLink($request, new Link('preload', '/app.css'));
// alternative if you don't want to use the addLink() shortcut
$linkProvider = $request->attributes->get('_links', new GenericLinkProvider());
$request->attributes->set('_links', $linkProvider->withLink(
(new Link('preload', '/app.css'))->withAttribute('as', 'style')
));
return $this->render('...');
}
}
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