UPDATE:
New theme, new code. Click here to read about the way I use cache, and limit HTTP requests now.
Disclaimer: This is an experiment, and would probably not apply to most websites (if any). My mission: Load my homepage in 1 HTTP request without compromising layout or functionality. Just to be clear, the motivation is not to gain any performance from this, just to see if I can do it.

So, back to the point. Drupal has a lot of css, js and image files by default. To load them all you have to ask the server to serve them to you, simple as that. So if you have to ask less times, the page would load faster. In theory. This blog has over 40 requests on the front-page, out of the box. Luckily, Drupal has a number of tools you can use to minimize requests, and among them is the optimization you can find in core. You can find it under the “performance” settings (depending on what version you are on, this is located under “configuration->development” or “site configuration”). Cool. But this still leaves me at more than 10 HTTP requests. I want less! So what next.

Tags: planet drupalperformancefunexperimentdrupal 7http requests