Chapter 14. Leveraging HTTP to Enhance Performance

The performance of a Web application depends upon many factors. As a Web developer, the focus of your responsibility is usually the application itself and the programming practices you employ. It is beneficial, however, to have a working knowledge in all areas of technology that affect the performance of your applications.

HTTP has many provisions for the purpose of enhancing the performance of the Web. You will benefit from a great deal of these without making any special effort in your development, but some things require specific attention. It is important to users of your application as well as those sharing the same network that you take performance into account from the very beginning of your design phase.

This chapter explores several primary areas that you should focus on during your development and tuning cycles. By paying close attention to the information presented here and developing good habits, you will be able to enhance the performance of your applications more intuitively and avoid the frustrations of resolving major performance problems after an application has already been deployed.