Speeding Application Performance
The speed of a given app is critical, because customers won't use apps that load or access features too slowly. Developers can optimize hybrid app speed by optimizing JavaScript code and concatenating and minimizing it to reduce load times. Examples of tools and strategies that can increase app speed include:
- Native Scrolling
The Ionic test app offers developers an option to use native scrolling instead of its default JavaScript scrolling. The option can be enabled per view on an ion-content tag.
- Replacing Collection-Repeat
Replacing collection-repeat with ng-repeat can reduce stutter when used with native scrolling.
- Defining Class Methods
Defining class methods for each instance of baz.Bar is inefficient.
- Compression
Minification removes unnecessary characters but makes code difficult to read. Fortunately, customers don't read code. Developers should compress images and files as compactly as possible to reduce running and loading times. The Ionic app's Gulp-build system saves time but uses more space. Developers can switch to an Ionic-generator that uses Grunt JS and use less than half of the code needed for Gulp.
- Content Delivery Networks
CDNs include services that reduce network latency and speed up apps with various techniques like network routing optimization. CDN networks include Amazon CloudFront, Limelight, Akamai, Edgecast and telecommunications companies like AT&T and Level3.
- Asynchronous Transfer
Large apps can be loaded in stages when loading big data takes too long. In this scenario, the app can start using content before the whole app loads. For example, video streams use asynchronous streaming and begin playing after a little buffering. Hybrid apps can use software like Blaze FEO or Riverbed Stingray Aptimizer to optimize content based on Google's performance rules.
- Instance Variance Declaration
Placing the initialization/declaration variable on the prototype with value type instead of reference type prevents running the initialization code each time the constructor is accessed.
- JavaScript Initialization
Initialization can greatly reduce app speed, but developers can minimize this problem by moving every nonessential JS file to the bottom of the page or by using "async" and "defer" attributes.
The key to increasing app speed is to remove unnecessary characters, compress files, use third-party delivery services, and access parts of images like logos for multiple purposes. Developers can search for technical coding tips to reduce code and reuse code in multiple ways to speed app performance.