Performance

End users who need to work with FCKeditor want the most short loading and response time from it. They want to start reading and editing the content quickly. This is a big problem for almost all on-line text editors. There are many files that have to be downloaded from the server to make the editor work:

• The called page and all images and scripts not related to the editor.
• If using Javascript integration, the JS file with the scripts to create the editor
• The page that works as the editor area (it's loaded in a IFrame)
• All the JS files with the scripts for the editor engine (more than 10 for version 1.x)
• The language file
• The editor's skin files
• All images that are used as the toolbar buttons (every button has it's own image)

All these calls generate a lot of work and traffic throw the client's browser and the server. And worth, as many files are called, even if small size, as much time to wait.

Two solutions have been developed for version 2.0 to solve this problem: accurate loading order and scripts compression.

Loading Order

From version 2.0, the editor separe it's loading into steps:

• The called page (that holds the editor) and the script to loaded the editor is loaded.
• The basic scripts to create the editor are loaded
• The editor's skin and language files are loaded
• The editor is created
• The content is loaded in the editor
• [ At this point the user can start reading and writing with some limitations (drag-and-drop is disabled - cut and paste are disabled - the toolbar is not yet available ]
• The editor's engine scripts are loaded
• The toolbar is created and shown to the user (even if the buttons images are not yet loaded)
• [ At this point the editor has all it's feature enabled ]
• The toolbar icons are loaded.

Scripts Compression

The editor's scripts (JS files) are now pre-processed before packing any new version. This are the processing steps:

• Remove all comments from the code.
• Remove all unuseful blank spaces, tabs and carriage returns
• Merge the scripts in fewer files.

With this process we can reduce the file sizes up to 50%. Another good think is that the editor code can now be fully commented (I avoid code commenting on version 1.x to reduce the files size).

The original code will still be available in the package in a folder called "_source".