How to Minify HTML code?

Question

My idea is to somehow minify HTML code in server-side, so client receive less bytes.

What do I mean with "minify"?

Not zipping. More like, for example, jQuery creators do with .min.js versions. In other words, I need to remove unnecessary white-spaces and new-lines, but I can't remove so much that presentation of HTML changes (for example remove white-space between actual words in paragraph).

Is there any tools that can do it? I know there is HtmlPurifier. Is it able to do it? Any other options?

P.S. Please don't offer regex'ies. I know that only Chuck Norris can parse HTML with them. =]

Answer 1

You could parse the HTML code into a DOM tree (which should keep content whitespace in the nodes), then serialise it back into HTML, without any prettifying spaces.

Answer 2

A bit late but still... By using output_buffering it is as simple as that:

function compress($string)
{
    // Remove html comments
    $string = preg_replace('/<!--.*-->/', '', $string);

    // Merge multiple spaces into one space
    $string = preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $string);   

    // Remove space between tags. Skip the following if
    // you want as it will also remove the space 
    // between <span>Hello</span> <span>World</span>.
    return preg_replace('/>\s+</', '><', $string);      
}

ob_start('compress');

// Here goes your html.    

ob_end_flush();

Answer 3

Is there any tools that can do it?

Yes, here's a tool you could include into a build process or work into a web cache layer: http://code.google.com/p/htmlcompressor/

Or, if you're looking for a tool to minify HTML that you paste in, try: http://www.willpeavy.com/minifier/

Answer 4

You can use the Pretty Diff tool: http://prettydiff.com/?m=minify&html It will also minify any CSS and JavaScript in the HTML code, and the minification occurs in a regressive manner so to not prevent future beautification of the HTML back to readable form.

Answer 5

Is there any tools that can do it?

You can use CodVerter Online Web Development Editor for compressing mixed html code.
the compressor was tested multiple times for reliability and accuracy.
(Full Disclosure: I am one of the developers).