Problems with assets files in installs with a separate webserver

[anonymous-matomo-user]

For scalability I'm running the webserver on a separate server from the php backends. That worked well so far as I'm rsyncing every piwik update to the webserver too. No problems with static JS and CSS files.

But the new assets are compiled and built on the php backends as static files which the webserver tries to deliver on his own but he doesn't have the compiled assets yet. For now I've solved this situation by another rsync which transfers the tmp folder too but I would like some other solution which at least allows me to have the assets delivered by php too (even if it only does a passthrough of its compiled assets) so that the php-backends come into play again.

[julienmoumne]

Attachment: proxy.patch

[mattab]

But the new assets are compiled and built on the php backends as static files which the webserver tries to deliver on his own but he doesn't have the compiled assets yet.

When a server doesn't have the assets, it should generate them. It is important to ensure config files are synched, as assets files depend on which plugins are enabled.

Why are assets not created automatically on all your servers?

[anonymous-matomo-user]

Because the webserver is only delivering static files and dynamic requests are answered from php backends through fastcgi on other servers. The problem is the mixture of static and dynamic files here. Static files are generated from the dynamic requests but static files are not handled by the servers returning the php output.

[robocoder]

It's doable. Instead of the page linking to the static files, the page could link to .php files that would serve the minified content, e.g., /tmp/assets/{hashcode}.js.php.

(I contemplated something similar, to handle the permissions issue on /tmp/assets.)

[mattab]

Is there still a permission issue with assets with the new fixes?

Rather than serving the file from a .php script (we should then ensure that caching works for all etc. which will add complexity), how does the system work to decide which requests go where? is it based on the filename?

[robocoder]

The permission problems should now be fixed.

Making the asset cacheable won't be too hard ... I can lift code that I already wrote in js/index.php.

[anonymous-matomo-user]

Thanks vipsoft for taking this one!

Matt: yes, its filename based but just forwarding the js to the php-backends won't help. They are raw fastcgi php listeners, not full webservers.

[mattab]

why don't we call the static CSS file [hash].php ? same for JS? filename extension doesn't matter for browsers, and this would maybe work?

[anonymous-matomo-user]

It will be parsed as php by all webservers then. Isn't php always sending some headers which avoid caching in the browser and last modified headers and similar won't be sent for dynamic content? (wouldn't matter for me but just wanted to throw this in)

[robocoder]

Proposal:

Refactor AssetManager.php into a base class + factory method, and introduce a single config option:

; if blank, disables merging of assets; css and js files are served individually
; merge - js and css assets are minified and merged; by default, content is served directly
; proxy - js and css assets are minified and merged; content is served via a php proxy script
asset_manager = merge

Files:

• core/AssetManager.php
• core/AssetManager/Merge.php
• core/AssetManager/Proxy.php

For the PHP proxy, lift code from js/index.php which sends the Last-Modified header, handles If-Modified-Since (in the request), and Accept-Encoding (on-the-fly compression).

[julienmoumne]

Is there really a need to have two mechanisms for handling assets inclusion ?

Wouldn't the php proxy method be sufficient or is there any advantages I don't see in allowing standard includes of merged assets ?

[robocoder]

I don't mind if the php proxy serves all use cases. (I wasn't that keen on serving content directly out of tmp.)

Where should the proxy be located? CoreHome? e.g.,

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="index.php?module=CoreHome&action=getCss" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="index.php?module=CoreHome&action=getJs"></script>

[mattab]

+1 for keeping one mechanism only. Proxy proposal in CoreHome looks good.

[julienmoumne]

I implemented the proxy solution proposed by vipsoft.

I had to factorize the code from /js/index.php (cache and compression management) in core/Piwik.php. The content-type is provided as a string, there is always the possibility of using a magic mime database.

[anonymous-matomo-user]

I've applied the patch, thanks a lot for it! I had one problem though ... All my systems are running with zlib.output_compression = On which leads to garbled (probably double compressed) output of the css and js files. As a workaround I added ini_set('zlib.output_compression',0); here if output compression is enabled in core/Piwik.php.

IMO it would be best if either thats set (dunno if that works everywhere) or additional output compression by piwik is disabled when that variable is detected.

[robocoder]

re: zlib.output_compression; yeah, we should test for that; if enabled, let php handle the Accept-Encoding header using its built-in support.

Thanks again Julien.

[mattab]

(In [2876]) Gzipped files should be written to /js/ refs #1527

[julienmoumne]

Test for zlib.output_compression added.

Compressed files moved to /tmp/.

Vary: Accept-Encoding header added.

gzdeflate used instead of gzcompress because of MSIE misinterpretation of compression RFCs.

[robocoder]

Except for some typos (e.g., "satic" and "futur") and excess blank lines, it looks good. Go ahead and check in.

Oh...js/index.php might be missing a closing curly brace. (Hard to tell from the patch.)

[anonymous-matomo-user]

Any chance to include that in 1.0? Whats the issue why it was moved scheduled to 1.1?

[robocoder]

matt and I haven't had time to code review.

you're welcome to apply the patch against 0.9.9 and test it out.

[anonymous-matomo-user]

The patch works fine in my environment, applied against 0.9.9. I got some rejects but these were just for the file headers.

[julienmoumne]

(In [3048]) fixes #1527 - merged assets are now returned to browser using a custom php proxy script, refs #660 - asset manager updated in two ways: - inclusion directive via proxy, - hash management dropped

[robocoder]

(In [3054]) refs #1527 - add check for finfo_open, in case PECL extension not installed and not php 5.3.x

[robocoder]

(In [3140]) refs #1507, refs #1527 - revert hack from #1507, and fix unit test on Windows per Julien's email

[julienmoumne]

(In [3147]) refs #1527 - bypassing a unit test on windows, as far as I know, it is not possible to remove reading rights on a windows file using PHP

[robocoder]

(In [3365]) refs #1527 - minor fix detecting when zlib.output_compression is enabled

[robocoder]

(In [3976]) refs #1527 - refactoring test for php output compression