GZip compression for connector in JBoss 7.0.x

[Chuck May]

We are converting a project from 4.2.3 to 7 (currently 7.0.1).  Everything is working except that we can find no reference on how to turn on gzip compression in the connector.  This is how we did it in 4.2.3:

    <Connector port="443" address="${jboss.bind.address}" protocol="HTTP/1.1" SSLEnabled="true"

             maxThreads="150" scheme="https" secure="true"

             clientAuth="false" sslProtocol="TLS"

             emptySessionPath="true" compression="on"

             compressableMimeType="text/html,text/xml,text/plain,text/css,text/javascript"

             keystoreFile="${jboss.server.home.dir}/conf/keystore" keystorePass="*****"/>

and this is what we have so far in 7:

   <subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:web:1.0" default-virtual-server="default-host">

      <connector name="https" protocol="HTTP/1.1" socket-binding="https" scheme="https"

              enable-lookups="false" secure="true">

         <ssl name="ssl" password="seerdms" certificate-key-file="../bin/keystore" protocol="TLSv1"/>

      </connector>

      <virtual-server name="default-host" enable-welcome-root="true">

         <alias name="localhost"/>

         <access-log />

      </virtual-server>

   </subsystem>

I've looked through jboss-as-web_1_0.xsd and seen no reference to the "compression" attribute.  Is there another way to accomplish this?  Seems like I must be missing something but searching the documentation and online has returned nothing so far.

Thanks for any help,

Chuck

[Chuck May]

After more searching, it just seems like the built in compression options were removed in AS7 with no mention in any changelog that I could find.  Specifically it should have shown up in the migration document:

https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/AS7/How%2Bdo%2BI%2Bmigrate%2Bmy%2Bapplication%2Bfrom%2BAS5%2Bor%2BAS6%2Bto%2BAS7

In the end, we just had to add a compression filter to web.xml.  We ended up using the one at:

https://code.google.com/p/webutilities/wiki/CompressionFilter

Pretty straightforward.

[Humberto Ferreira da Luz Jr.]

No news about gzip compression in JBoss AS 7?

[Humberto Ferreira da Luz Jr.]

I created a feature request for the issue: https://issues.jboss.org/browse/AS7-2991

[varkon]

According to that issue (that seems to be fixed in version 7.1.1.Final), compression is now enabled. However, I cannot find any trace of documentation on how to enable it.

Does anybody have any information on that?

Thanks.

[Humberto Ferreira da Luz Jr.]

I thought that could be like this:

<server name="xyz.home" xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:1.0">
    <extensions>
        <extension module="org.jboss.as.clustering.infinispan"/>
        <extension module="org.jboss.as.clustering.jgroups"/>
        <extension module="org.jboss.as.connector"/> 
        ....
        <extension module="org.torquebox.web"/>
    </extensions>
    <system-properties>
        <property name="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol.COMPRESSION" value="true"/>
</system-properties>

But that didn't worked out for me.

[varkon]

I know, I tried that, as well as passing it as a parameter during startup (which should be the same thing).

[Hendy Irawan]

Doing this is not working :

<subsystem xmlns="urn:jboss:domain:web:1.1" default-virtual-server="default-host" native="false">

    <connector name="http" protocol="HTTP/1.1" scheme="http" socket-binding="http"

        compression="on" compressableMimeType="text/html,text/xml,text/css,text/javascript, application/x-javascript,application/javascript" />

    <virtual-server name="default-host" enable-welcome-root="true">

        <alias name="localhost"/>

        <alias name="example.com"/>

    </virtual-server>

</subsystem>

Error :

Caused by: javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException: ParseError at [row,col]:[259,13]

Message: JBAS014788: Unexpected attribute 'compression' encountered

    at org.jboss.as.controller.parsing.ParseUtils.unexpectedAttribute(ParseUtils.java:104) [jboss-as-controller-7.1.1.Final.jar:7.1.1.Final]

    at org.jboss.as.web.WebSubsystemParser.parseConnector(WebSubsystemParser.java:820)

    at org.jboss.as.web.WebSubsystemParser.readElement(WebSubsystemParser.java:325)

    at org.jboss.as.web.WebSubsystemParser.readElement(WebSubsystemParser.java:65)

    at org.jboss.staxmapper.XMLMapperImpl.processNested(XMLMapperImpl.java:110) [staxmapper-1.1.0.Final.jar:1.1.0.Final]

[varkon]

To quote from the jira associated with this thread,

-Dorg.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol.COMPRESSION=on

Seems to enable HTTP compression. I'm only re-posting it here for clarity.

Thanks.

[Humberto Ferreira da Luz Jr.]

Are you sure Dimitris? I tried running jboss like "./standalone -Dorg.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol.COMPRESSION=on", also tried setting it in the system-properties (standalone.xml), but Pagespeed (firefox addon) changed the compression score from 0 to 2 (out of 100). Is there anything else I should be doing?

[varkon]

In truth, I've only set the compression flag to "on".

My requests contain the "Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate" header. After setting the flag, my tests reply with "Content-Encoding: gzip".

[Humberto Ferreira da Luz Jr.]

You're right Dimitris, my requests also contain the gzip header, but have you realized any diference? The size of the pages are really smaller? Pagespeed plugin still points me that the compressing is disabled.

[Hendy Irawan]

Check it out for yourself :

ceefour@annafi:~$ curl --raw --compressed -s http://localhost:9080/ -o - | wc -c

1259

ceefour@annafi:~$ curl --raw -s http://localhost:9080/ -o - | wc -c

2432

So, yes, JBoss 7.1.1 HTTP compression is definitely working for me.

[Samuel Santos]

It seems that JBoss AS 7.1.1 HTTP compression only compress the document itself and not static files (e.g., *.js, *.css, ...):

Is there a way to define which the compressible MimeTypes are?

[emollient mind]

Please add the following system properties for enabling gzip and serving gzipped content

file : standalone.xml  (JBoss AS 7+ )

Position : right after

<extensions>

</extensions>

<system-properties>

        <property name="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol.COMPRESSION" value="on"/>

        <property name="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol.COMPRESSION_MIME_TYPES" value="text/javascript,text/css,text/html,text/xml,text/json"/>  <!-- add other content types you want to gzip -->

</system-properties>

Note : Please install YSlow firebug plugin to see gzip in action else you may not know even if gzipping is working.

Appreciate if any idea on enabling pre gzipped js or css serving to browsers in JBoss AS 7 series

regards