HTTP compression

Every time a user makes a request, the request goes through Symfony's execution chain, queries the database (if needed), and then renders the view. This processing creates an overhead and depending on several factors, can eventually slow a site down. There are numerous methods that can be deployed in order to speed up the processing, by efficiently utilizing other resources.

The first step in speeding up our application is the delivery of the page content to the user's browser. When a user makes a request to the web server, a part of the request consists of various headers. One of the headers is the 'Accept-Encoding' header, which is usually set to Gzip or Deflate. This tells the server that the browser can accept content that is either compressed as Gzip or Deflate.

To enable compression, we have to turn it on in the settings. Open the settings.yml file, and then look for the compressed parameter key halfway down. Uncomment the parameter key and change its value from off...