Preloading
What is preloading?
Preloading is a web development technique that is used to optimize the loading times of websites by loading certain resources in advance. This improves the user experience by minimizing delays when accessing these resources. Here are the key aspects of preloading:
Definition: Preloading refers to the pre-loading of resources such as scripts, stylesheets, images or other elements of a web page before they are actually needed. The aim is to shorten page loading times and improve performance. One of the most common methods for preloading is the use of the rel="preload" attribute in HTML.
Link rel preload: The rel="preload" attribute allows you to declare fetch requests in the <head> section of the HTML page. This allows you to load resources that your page will soon need early, even before the browser's main rendering process begins. This method is used with the <link /> element to preload resources such as CSS files or fonts.
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Purpose and benefits of preloading
Purpose:
- Faster loading times:
By preloading important resources, they are already stored in the browser's cache before they are needed. This reduces delays when accessing these resources later. - Improved user experience:
web pages can be displayed faster and more smoothly as required content is ready when the user requests it.
Benefits:
- Early loading of resources:
Unlike prefetching, which is optional, preloading ensures that the browser loads the specified resources before the main rendering process. - Improved page load times:
Loading critical resources early can reduce the time it takes to make the page interactive and display content. - Coupling resource delivery and execution:
Declaring a resource with rel="preload" couples the loading and execution of the resource, allowing you to control when the resource is loaded and executed. - Browser support:
Most modern browsers support rel="preload", including Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Older browsers ignore this attribute, which does not cause any complications for compatibility.
Example code:
<link rel="preload" href="/enstyles.css" as="stylesheet" />
<link rel="preload" href="/enfont.woff2" as="font" />
In this example, the browser will load the stylesheet styles.css and the font font.woff2 early, before the main page rendering process begins, to improve page load times and rendering performance.
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