JS Compression

What is minification in JavaScript?

Minification, also known as minimization, is the process of removing all unnecessary characters from JavaScript source code without changing its functionality. This includes removing whitespace, comments, and semicolons, as well as using shorter variable names and functions. Minification of JavaScript code can make file size compact.

Minification can speed up webpage loading, thereby improving website experience and satisfying both visitors and search engines.

How is minification different from obfuscation, compression, encryption, or uglification?

• Uglification: This is basically the same as minification. UglifyJS is a JavaScript library for minifying JavaScript files. 'Uglifying' a JavaScript file means using Uglify to minify it. Uglification can improve performance but reduces readability.
• Encryption: This is the process of converting data (called plain data) into encoded data. This encrypted or encoded data is called ciphertext and requires a secret key to decrypt it. Browsers cannot execute encrypted code. Encryption is a security feature and does not necessarily reduce file size.
• Obfuscation: This process is adopted to hide business logic. The code is modified to be unreadable by humans, making reverse engineering difficult. The difference between obfuscation and encryption is that computers can still understand and execute the code. Obfuscation is achieved by changing the names of variables, functions, and members. The reduction in file size also improves performance, although this is not the main goal of obfuscation.
• Compression: Data compression is a process of reducing the number of bits needed to represent data. Data compression can free up valuable space on hard drives, speed up file transfers, and reduce network bandwidth costs. Some files (such as Microsoft Word files) may be compressed to 90% of their original size.