Featured 6.1.0 Modification : File Compression

Discussion: http://www.ubbdev.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=30&t=000049

If you run on a dedicated server and have had your head stuck in the sand for the last, oh, 4 hours, you've missed one of the more useful modifications to come out in a long while for UBB™ forums and forums in general. No more enduring sneering chants of "We've got compression, yes we do! We've got compression, how about you?" You too can have file compression for your forum and watch as the bandwidth and download time plummets!

First, a thank you to <a href="http://ubbforums.infopop.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_profile&u=00025023">Wild</a> for pointing out this module to the rest of us slow people, too bad we didn't know about it a year ago when it came out. <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

What :: This is a perl module you can install on your server to provide up to 70% bandwidth savings in a matter of minutes. Developed by Mark Nottingham <mnot@pobox.com>, it is simple to install and is very recommended once you weigh the caveats. The compression => bandwidth savings + increase in download speed is great, but with it comes a increase in CPU usage as the server has to work to compress the files. Weigh this con against the pro and give it a shot on your server, you may be pleasantly surprised at the increase in speed.


How :: Obtain the files and instructions for installing it on Unix servers from here: http://www.mnot.net/cgi_buffer/

Requirements:

cgi_buffer.pm is a Perl ( http://www.perl.com/ ) library, and has been tested with Perl 5.004, on Linux. There should be no great issues using it with Windows platforms, but the author has little experience using CGI on them, and CANNOT SUPPORT WINDOWS INSTALLATIONS.

The following libraries need to be installed; see CPAN ( http://www.cpan.org/ ) for more information:

* MD5
* IO::String
* Compress::Zlib

Servers with recent installations of ActiveState perl (5.6.1 preferred - http://www.activestate.com - including Windows servers) already have these modules installed. Obtain the cgi_buffer files from the above address and install.

If you have a windows server (Win2K/IIS5 has been tested), just copy the cgi_buffer.pm file to your C:perllib directory and you're set as far as installation.

Open ultimatebb.cgi, uncomment use strict; and use vars etc etc (lines #30 and #35) and add this:
require cgi_buffer;
immediately after your use strict; so that it looks like this:

use strict;
require cgi_buffer;
use Fcntl ':flock';
use UBBCGI qw(:cgi);
use UBBCGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser set_message);

use vars qw(%etc etc

If you are getting errors that include "Status: 304 Not Modified " add :
$cgi_buffer::generate_etag = 0;
immediately after require cgi_buffer; so that it looks like this:

use strict;
require cgi_buffer;
$cgi_buffer::generate_etag = 0;
use Fcntl ':flock';
use UBBCGI qw(:cgi);
use UBBCGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser set_message);

use vars qw(%etc etc

That should be all you need to do, tho you may want to clear cache... <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

You may also use the Apache Module mod_gzip if you are running an Apache server. If you are on a Windows server the native ISAPI compression module is already installed and performs better than either method, you will need to set it to compress cgi/pl tho.

Resources:

Win2K: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treevie...ze/perflink.asp
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q255/9/51.ASP

Apache: http://www.remotecommunications.com/apache/mod_gzip/ http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/articles/howto/mod_gzip_1.html

UBBDev: http://www.ubbdev.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=000990