Enabling CSS optimization

CSS optimization in Drupal is accomplished through two steps—aggregation and compression. This optimization provides a significant boost to performance both on the server as well as for the user. This recipe details the steps to be performed to enable this feature in Drupal.

Getting ready

CSS optimization is a requirement only when a site is ready to go live. Until such time, it is recommended that it be left switched off as CSS changes during development will not take effect unless the Drupal cache is cleared.

How to do it...

Optimization and other performance-related features are sequestered within admin/settings/performance (Home | Administer | Site configuration | Performance). This performance configuration page should have a section titled Bandwidth optimizations which should contain options for CSS and Javascript optimization. Look for the setting named Optimize CSS files and set it to Enabled as in the following screenshot:

Tip

Public File system

As the screenshot...