Faster (and smaller) uploads in Discourse with Rust, WebAssembly and MozJPEG
As of a few weeks ago, image uploads in Discourse are faster AND smaller thanks to a technique that compresses and optimizes the images clientside before they are uploaded. This blog post will describe how this feature works and how we implemented it in Discourse.
As of a few weeks ago, image uploads in Discourse are faster AND smaller thanks to a technique that compresses and optimizes the images clientside before they are uploaded. This blog post will describe how this feature works and how we implemented it in Discourse.
Introduction
Introduction
While Discourse, and forums in general, are mainly about ¶ paragraphs of text, the discourse on the internet is increasingly composed of media. Pictures have become a major part of user posts. It's also worth mentioning that in the 8 years since we started Discourse, smartphone cameras became ubiquitous and can take great pictures in an instant.
While Discourse, and forums in general, are mainly about ¶ paragraphs of text, the discourse on the internet is increasingly composed of media. Pictures have become a major part of user posts. It's also worth mentioning that in the 8 years since we started Discourse, smartphone cameras became ubiquitous and can take great pictures in an instant.
Because of all that, very early into the project we received feature requests about Optimizing images before uploading. This is motivated by staff looking to make it easy for their users to share pictures while being mindful of the time it takes to upload files from spotty mobile connections.
Because of all that, very early into the project we received feature requests about Optimizing images before uploading. This is motivated by staff looking to make it easy for their users to share pictures while being mindful of the time it takes to upload files from spotty mobile connections.
One of the leading experiments of client-side image compression is the Squoosh.app by the cool people at Google Chrome Labs. It was first announced in this talk and it was definitive proof that it was possible...