Using gzip compression

The Domino® Web server can serve files compressed by gzip (GNU zip). You must add the compressed file to the appropriate server directory. This feature is on by default.

In Domino® Administrator, you can enable, disable, and configure gzip compression using either NOTES.INI settings or settings on the Web Site document. These two methods of configuring gzip compression are mutually exclusive. When you use the NOTES.INI file settings to configure gzip compression, the settings apply at the server level. When you use the settings in the Web Site document to configure gzip compression, the settings apply to individual Web sites.

The NOTES.INI settings apply only if the Web server is configured from the Web Configuration view. The NOTES.INI settings do not apply when the Web server is configured to use the Web Site document from the Internet Sites View. The Server document setting Load Internet configurations from Server\Internet documents determines which configuration view is used by the Web server.

The Domino® Web server serves files compressed by gzip (GNU zip) given the following conditions:

• If the Server document setting Load Internet configurations from Server/Internet documents is disabled, the server's NOTES.INI file must not contain the following setting: HTTPDisablePreCompressedGzipFiles=1. This setting disables checking for file system compressed files. If the Server document setting Load Internet configurations from Server/Internet documents is enabled, the setting Compress output in each Web Site document determines whether the server checks for compressed files.
• The name of the compressed file is the name of the original file with an additional extension of .gz. For example, the gzip counterpart of c:\notes\data\domino\html\foo.html is c:\notes\data\domino\html\foo.html.gz. (A browser sees this file as http://<servername>/foo.html.)
• The gzip file must be present in the same directory as the original file. The original file is served if it is newer than the gzip file or compression is disabled and the gzip file is smaller than the original file.
• The browser or other client must send the request header Accept-Encoding: gzip (the default for most browsers).
• The MIME Content-type of the file must match the MIME types specified by the NOTES.INI setting HTTPIncludeMimeTypes if using the Web Configuration View or the setting Include Mime Types if using Internet Sites. The server default is text/* (all subtypes of type text) and application/* (all subtypes of type application).
• The MIME Content-type of the file does NOT match the MIME types specified in the NOTES.INI setting HTTPExcludeMimeTypes if using the Web Configuration View or the Exclude Mime Types setting if you are using Internet Sites. The server default is application/x-gzip (gzip files) and application/x-zip* (zip files).
• The server does not support sending a range of bytes for a file that has a gzip counterpart. The server does not send Accept-Ranges: bytes in the HTTP header and sends the entire compressed file.