Don't just minify & combine CSS/JavaScript files ending up with large, bloated and slow loading pages: Strip the "fat" first and get a faster website :)
Faster page load
Happier Visitors
More Conversions = More Revenue
There are often times when you are using a theme and a number of plugins which are enabled and run on the same page. However, you don't need to use all of them and to improve the speed of your website and make the HTML source code cleaner (convenient for debugging purposes), it's better to prevent those styles and scripts from loading.
For instance, you might use a plugin that generates contact forms and it loads its assets (.CSS and .JS files) in every page of your website instead of doing it only in the /contact page (if that's the only place where you need it).
"Asset CleanUp" scans your page and detects all the assets that are loaded. All you have to do when editing a page/post is just to select the CSS/JS that are not necessary to load, this way reducing the bloat.
The plugin works best in combination with a cache plugin such as WP Rocket.
Main plugin's benefits include
Decreases the number of HTTP requests loaded and eliminate render-blocking resources (important for faster page load) by unloading useless CSS/JS
Preload CSS/JS, Local Fonts & Google Fonts files to instruct the browser to download the chosen assets as soon as possible
Minify CSS files (including inline code within STYLE tags)
Minify JavaScript files (including inline code within SCRIPT tags)
Combine remaining loaded CSS & JavaScript files
Inline CSS Files (automatically & by specifying the path to the stylesheets)
Defer combined JavaScript files by applying "defer" attribute to the SCRIPT tags
Site-wide removal for Emojis, Dashicons for guest users and Comment Reply if they are not used
Reduces the HTML code of the actual page (that's even better if GZIP compression is enabled)
Makes source code easier to scan in case you're a developer and want to search for something
Remove possible conflicts between plugins/theme (e.g. 2 JavaScript files that are loading from different plugins and they interfere one with another)
Better performance score if you test your URL on websites such as GTmetrix, PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom Website Speed Test
Google will love your website more as it would be faster and fast page load is nowadays a factor in search ranking
Your server access log files (e.g the Apache ones) will be easier to scan and would take less space on your server
Google Fonts Optimization / Removal
Combine all Google Font requests into fewer (usually one) requests, saving one round trip to the server for each additional font requested
Choose between three methods of delivery: Render-blocking, Asynchronous via Web Font Loader (webfont.js) or Asynchronous by preloading the CSS stylesheet
Option to preload Google Font Files from fonts.gstatic.com (e.g. ending in .woff2)
Apply "font-display" CSS property to all loaded Google Font requests
Enable preconnect resource hint for fonts.gstatic.com in case you use Google Fonts; don't let the browser wait until it fetches the CSS for loading the font files before it begins DNS/TCP/TLS
Remove all Google Font requests including link/font preloads, @import/@font-face from CSS files & STYLE tags, resource hints
Local Fonts Optimization
Preload local font files (ending in .woff, .woff2, .ttf, etc.)
Apply "font-display" CSS property value to LINK / STYLE tags (Pro version)
Remove useless links, meta tags and HTML comments within the HEAD and BODY (footer) tags of the website
Really Simple Discovery (RSD) link tag
Windows Live Writer link tag
REST API link tag
Pages/Posts Shortlink tag
Post's Relational Links tag
WordPress version meta tag (also good for security reasons)
All "generator" meta tags (also good for security reasons)
RSS Feed Link Tags (usually they are not needed if your website is not used for blogging purposes)
oEmbeds, if you do not need to embed videos (e.g. YouTube), tweets and audios
Valid HTML Comments (exceptions from stripping can be added and Internet Explorer conditional comments are preserved)
Each option can be turned on/off depending on your needs. Instructions about each of them are given in the plugin's settings page.
Disable partially or completely XML-RPC protocol
This is an API service used by WordPress for 3rd party applications, such as mobile apps, communication between blogs and plugins such as Jetpack. If you use or are planning to use a remote system to post content to your website, you can keep this feature enabled (which it is by default). Many users do not use this function at all and if youre one of them, you can disable it.
Plugin works with WordPress Multisite Network enabled!
Asset CleanUp Pro
This plugin is the lite version of Asset CleanUp Pro that comes with more benefits including managing assets (CSS & JS files) on all WordPress pages, unloading plugins site-wide or via Regex(es), apply "async" and "defer" attributes on loaded JavaScript files which would boost the speed score even higher, move the loading location of CSS/JS files (from HEAD to BODY to reduce render-blocking or vice-versa if you need specific files to trigger earlier) and premium support. Click here to purchase Asset CleanUp Pro!
NOTES
People that have tested the plugin are so far happy with it and I want to keep a good reputation for it. In case something is not working for you or have any suggestions, please write to me on the forum and I will be happy to assist you. BEFORE rating this plugin, please check the following post http://chrislema.com/theres-wrong-way-give-plugin-feedback-wordpress-org/ and then use your common sense when writing the feedback :)
GO PRO
Unload CSS/JS files on all WordPress pages including Categories, Tags, Custom Taxonomy (e.g. WooCommerce product category), 404 Not Found, Date & Author Archives, Search Results)
Unload targeted plugins site-wide or via Regex(es), thus resulting in not only their CSS/JS stripped, but also their backend PHP code, HTML output printed via wp_head() or wp_footer() action hooks, cookies that are set, etc.)
Defer CSS by appending it to the BODY to load it asynchronously (Render blocking CSS delays a web page from being visible in a timely manner)
Move JavaScript files from HEAD to BODY and vice-versa (CSS files moved to the BODY are automatically deferred)
Defer JavaScript loaded files (by applying "defer" attribute to any enqueued JS file)
Async JavaScript loaded files (by applying "async" attribute to any enqueued JS file)
Inline JavaScript files (automatically & by specifying the path to the stylesheets)
Apply "font-display:" CSS property to @font-face from existing local files to improve the PageSpeed score for "Ensure text remains visible during webfont load"
Get File Size of the Loaded CSS/JS
Premium support and updates within the Dashboard
Give Asset CleanUp a try! If you want to unlock all features, you can Upgrade to the Pro version.
New Option: "When list is grouped by location, keep the assets from each of the plugins in the following state": 'Contracted' mode is now available and if you have many plugins, the list can be contracted when the CSS/JS manager list is loaded
New Option: "File Size:" available for each CSS/JS, either local or external
Combine CSS/JS "Apply combination only for logged-in administrator (for debugging purposes)" is no longer available and has been replaced with two options: "Apply it only for guest visitors (default)" & "Apply it for all visitors (not recommended)"
"Overview" new options: 1) Added option to remove all load exceptions for a handle in "Overview" page when the load exceptions are not tied to any bulk unload rule; 2) Clear redundant unload rules if the site-wide rule is already applied
"Autoptimize" compatibility: Make sure the HTML source code is always altered before "Optimize HTML Code?" is triggered in Autoptimize
New Feature in the CSS/JS Manager: The handle rows can be contracted/expanded (their status is saved when the form is submitted); This is useful to make the whole area smaller (less scrolling) as there will likely be CSS/JS files that you know you will never edit for a long time (if ever) and it's better to have them contracted
New Option in "Settings" - "Plugin Usage Preferences": Hide Dashboard's "Asset CleanUp Pro" menu from the left sidebar in case you don't use the plugin too often or wish to have a cleaner sidebar (read more: https://assetcleanup.com/docs/?p=584)
Compatibility with Ronneby Theme: Alter the style/script tag later (e.g. by appending plugin markers) after plugins such as "Ronneby Core" alter it (in this case it prevents the URLs from the LINK tags to be stripped)
When listing dependencies in the CSS JS managing list (e.g. the "children" of a "parent"), show the unloaded ones in the red font; Dependency handles are linked as anchors for easier navigation between them
WP Rocket compatibility: Make sure HTML changes made by Asset CleanUp Pro are always applied (via "rocket_buffer" filter hook) before WP Rocket saves the HTML content to the cached file
Fix: After updating the the CSS/JS manager on any page, the page preloads for the guest visitors; Make sure the response from wp_remote_get() is always checked to avoid PHP errors logged to error_log (even though the errors are harmless for the front-end view, the error log files can get too big)
Fix (unstyled CSS/JS management area in front-end view): Make sure the plugin's own style is properly loaded asynchronously in Firefox in any situation
Once a page is updated, the plugin preloads that page for both the admin and the guest visitor, making sure any new changes would take effect, saving the admin's time and making sure any first visitor coming to that page will access it faster (not having to wait for the caching to re-built)
If the attribute "data-wpacu-skip" is applied to any CSS/JS, then no alteration (e.g. no minify and no addition to any combine list) will be applied to that file (apart from the actual unload or attributes such as async/defer)
'Remove All "generator" meta tags?' improvement: Higher accuracy in stripping META tag generators if the option is enabled in case some of their attributes have no quotes around them (rare cases)
If 'Remove "REST API" link tag?' is enabled, the /wp-json/ reference is also removed from the "Response headers" when accessing the page via remove_action()
Compatibility with extra page builders: "X" & "PRO" themes (Theme.co), "WP Page Builder" & "Page Builder: Live Composer" plugins: whenever their editor is ON, no unloads or any other changes to the HTML source (including minification) are performed to make sure the editor is loading its files and works smoothly
Compatibility with "Redis Object Cache" plugin: The global variable $wp_object_cache from the WordPress core is no longer used and it's replaced with a custom solution
Compatibility with "404page your smart custom 404 error page" plugin and similar plugins that are making pages as 404 customizable ones
For debugging purposes, the admin can use /?wpacu_no_cache to view how the website would load without the CSS/JS cache applied (the files will still be referenced from the caching directory but they will be dynamically generated instead)
Sometimes, large inline STYLE/SCRIPT tags' content has to be minified; if it's between 40KB and 500 KB it will be cached; any tags' content over 500KB will not be minified as it would use too many resources; it's advisable to put very large tag content into a .js external file as it would affect the TTFB (time to the first byte) when the page is loaded
Any inline CSS/JS associated with a handle (generated via wp_add_inline_style() and wp_add_inline_script() respectively) are automatically added to the combined file
Combined CSS/JS files are all stored in /wp-content/cache/asset-cleanup/("css" or "js")/ to avoid duplicated files that used to be stored in "logged-in" directory which is no longer created; This reduces the total disk space especially when the same CSS/JS is created (sometimes these files are quite large) for both guests & logged-in users
If "Combine loaded CSS (Stylesheets) into fewer files" is enabled, the LINK tags that are preloaded (at least two of them) will also be combined, thus reducing the number of HTTP requests
The method loadHTML() from DOMDocument is processing tags faster as the initial HTML source passed to it as a parameter goes through several filters, making it much smaller which makes a different in page speed when it comes to large HTML sources
Prevent certain DOMDocument calls (which can be slow on large HTML documents) when they are not necessary (e.g. when preloading CSS stylesheets and the RegEx which is faster can do the same task with the same accuracy)
Strip LINK tags that are pointing to empty content (including any inline code associated with the enqueued style added via wp_add_inline_style() function) if "CSS Files Minification" is enabled, making sure any empty tags are also stripped when "Inline CSS Files" is enabled, this saving HTTP requests and having less DOM elements
In some cases, the PHP function strtr() has proven to be faster than str_replace() to make replacements, thus it has been applied to some methods that are dealing with the alteration of the HTML source
Notify the admin that unloading 'jquery-migrate' won't unload it's "child" as well, 'jquery' (as it's a special case)
Fix: In rare cases, URLs to the assets are starting with ../ (it's not the best practice as this would only work depending on the page's URL structure); Make sure the file's size is calculated correctly and the right URL for the file is checked in the background to determine if it returns a 200 OK response or not
Fix: Store the assets info (which are shown only within the Dashboard for reference purposes) with the relative location (UR) to the asset, in case the data is later imported from a Staging to Live environment, it won't show any Staging URLs on the Live website on pages such as "Overview", thus avoiding any confusion the admin might have
Fix: Make sure the time dequeueing CSS/JS is calculated correctly
Fix: If "Asynchronous via Web Font Loader (webfont.js)" was chosen for "Combine Multiple Requests Into Fewer Ones", the font weights weren't added to the final generated SCRIPT tag
Fix: Make sure when the handle information is saved, there are no PHP notice errors if the 'src' index is missing as some handles do not have an "src"
Increased the speed of unloading (dequeueing) styles & scripts by ~40ms (caching is used to avoid calling the same PHP code during several action hooks)
Higher accuracy in stripping 'before' and 'after' associated inline SCRIPT after adding the content to the JS combined file
When combining JS content, make sure to extract the right relative path to make it combinable if a local file is loaded and it starts with // in the "src" attribute
Show confirmation message when unloading specific files that are very likely needed such as jQuery, Backbone & Underscore libraries
Alert the admin when there are unload rules from inactive plugins on pages such as "Bulk Changes" & "Overview"
Keep Dashicons loaded if the toolbar (top admin bar) is shown
Prevent front-end optimisation code from triggering while the CSS/JS is fetched, thus saving resources and improving the speed of retrieving the assets
Optimised the plugin to use less calls to MinifyCss & MinifyJs for hardcoded assets reducing considerably the resources used (sometimes timeout errors are generated in hosts with a lower resources allocated)
When a plugin page (e.g. "Settings") is visited within the Dashboard, trigger a maintenance script that will remove inactive handle data information (from handles without any rule attached to it, often from deleted plugins no longer used) from the "wpassetcleanup_global_data" option value (from options table), thus making it lighter
In many hosting environments, the total number of fields submitted is maximum 1000 (set by default in php.ini); The total number of fields that were sent have been reduced (e.g. hardcoded assets information) as they are only enabled via JavaScript whenever they are relevant to make sure there are less fields sent (to void partial submit and missing data as a result in case the admin has difficulties increase the default 1000 in php.ini)
Do not automatically store hardcoded assets info when the CSS/JS manager list is loaded; Instead, store it IF there's a rule attached to it in order to make the contents of the "wpassetcleanup_global_data" option smaller in size (for a lighter database & faster MySQL queries)
Clear plugin's cache via AJAX after "Settings" is updated within the Dashboard (this is more effective then clearing it when the page reloads as it could take some time to clear the cache if there are lots of files stored there)
Whenever Asset CleanUp's caching is cleared, the Autoptimize (if enabled) caching is also cleared via AJAX (in an asynchronous way) to avoid any broken CSS/JS (rare cases) even for short time
Trigger certain actions (to save database & disk space) when the plugin is deactivated: Clear all its transients from the database & Remove the caching directory if it doesn't have any more CSS/JS; If all the plugin's changes were cleared via "Tools" -> "Reset", then deactivating the plugin will completely clear any of its traces
The plugin's own files that are needed for the plugin's functionality (they are only loading for the logged-in admin), are loaded asynchronously (CSS) and deferred (JS) to ensure the admin doesn't load them as render-blocking especially when managing the pages in the front-end view
The combined CSS tags can now be altered for any reason via add_filter() through the 'wpacu_combined_css_tag' tag name, just like the combined JS tags are via 'wpacu_combined_js_tag'
Fix: Remove request to non-existent CSS file within the Dashboard that generated a 404 Not Found error in the browser's console (harmless, but confusing)
Improved the speed of the generated & printed combined CSS/JS assets by ~30ms (depending on the hosting package and the PHP version used) when the HTML source is altered by avoiding extra useless verifications of the HTML output
When managing the assets, make sure to show "before" and "after" content (so the user is aware how is that inline tag generated) associated with a handle too (not just the "data" one added via wp_localize_script())
When managing the assets, make sure the checkboxes from the load exception area are always disabled if there's no unload rule set, thus avoiding any user error to mistakenly add useless load exceptions to an already loading asset, also avoiding any confusing and get a cleaner list in the "Overview" area
"Overview" page update: If there's any "Load it for the logged-in user" exception for a handle, show it
Fix: Avoid creating redundant CSS files when minify inlined tags is enabled, leading to a large number of files in the caching
Caching: Expired CSS/JS files are cleared differently (in time after visiting various pages) to save resources and errors related to the PHP memory (e.g. shared hosting packages often have limitations in terms of the server's CPU & memory usage)
Allow CSS/JS management for privately published pages
Strip empty STYLE/SCRIPT tags if, after optimization, their content is empty (e.g. the CSS was minified as it had only comments in it)
Show if there are any hardcoded (non-enqueued) LINK/STYLE/SCRIPT tags in the list of CSS/JS list (management of these tags is available in the Pro version)
Make sure the combined CSS/JS file is valid before its tag is generated in the HTML output (in rare cases, the cached CSS/JS files get deleted either by mistake when developers are cleaning up the caching directory OR they weren't properly created in the first place)
Compatibility fix to avoid PHP warning error when "Smart Slider 3" & "WP Rocket" are used and the CSS/JS assets are fetched
Make the admin aware in case a certain CSS/JS asset is loaded within Internet Explorer conditional comments (Read more: https://www.sitepoint.com/internet-explorer-conditional-comments/)
From now on, "disk" is the default method for storing the cached information of the assets
Fix: Make sure the path to /wp-includes/ (or other internal directories) is the right one when the blog URL is like mysite.com/blog/
Fix: Sometimes, warning errors were printed in the "Settings" page after an update (within the Dashboard): "Warning: array_search() expects parameter 2 to be array, null given"
Added "Debugging" tab to "Tools" page, allowing the option to download the error log file & view other debugging options
Improvement: Sometimes, 200 OK (success) is returned, but due to an issue with the page, the assets list is not retrieved; Notify the admin about this
Fix: Sometimes, warnings (harmless, but obtrusive) were given when updating plugin's settings and previewing pages: "Warning: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given"
Updated Minify CSS library for PHP 7.4 support (avoid any PHP errors from "implode" function)
Improvement: "display=" is now also applied to Google Fonts loading via WebFontConfig within inline SCRIPT tags
FileSystem is always using the "direct" method for altering CSS/JS files, thus avoiding (e.g. by mistake via a different plugin using the same WordPress FileSystem class) any reading/writing error for the cached files
When fetching assets, make sure some plugins such as Fast Velocity Minify (that could interfere with the HTML output) are deactivated
When updating a post/page/homepage, the caching is now cleared after the page is updated via an AJAX call (asynchronously), thus reducing the memory usage and the time spent until the page reloads
Debugging feature: If /?wpacu_clean_load is used, it will show the unoptimized version of the page (great for locating specific files that were perhaps combined and cached by various plugins)
New Feature: Stop triggering Asset CleanUp Pro (early stop) on specific front-end pages
New Feature: Easier way to deactivate options for debugging purposes on page load via /?wpacu_debug (printing an options area at the bottom of any front-end page for the logged-in admin)
Improvement: Removed plugin's meta boxes when a block is edited in Oxygen (as the meta boxes are not relevant there)
Improvement: Compressed images for a lighter plugin
Improvement: Do not trigger Asset CleanUp Pro if TranslatePress Multilingual plugin is in edit mode (front-end view)
Improvement: Storage info for cache directory shows the total size/number of all files (not just CSS/JS ones)
Improvement: On page request (within the Dashboard), /wp-admin/?wpacu_get_cache_dir_size will retrieve information about the caching directory (e.g. all its files and their sizes get listed)
Bug Fix: Avoid any PHP errors or very high CPU usage with some hosting packages in case a "circular reference" error is detected (e.g. an @import from a CSS file that is having the URL path to the same CSS file)
Bug Fix: CSS/JS URLs starting with // were giving unreachable error when checked if they are valid or not (e.g. from //fonts.googleapis.com/)
Bug Fix (plugin compatibility): Remove call_user_func_array() PHP error if SiteGround's "Remove Query String From Static Resources" is enabled
Bug Fix: Prevent errors in some BuddyPress pages as $post->post_type is undefined
New Feature: Make exception (from any unload rule) and load an asset if the user is logged in
Adjust the text below "CSS & JS Manager" & "Bulk Changes" to keep it on the same line
Improvement: Added the total number of handles for stylesheets and scripts in "Overview" page
Improvement: Sometimes, specific plugins are used to alter the HTML source (e.g. features such as minify HTML); Make sure no META tags are left in the BODY tag as it would give validation errors in https://validator.w3.org/
Bug Fix: In rare cases, the version of a CSS/JS could be an array, not just a float/integer number; Prevent notices from showing up when 'ver' is an array and make sure the proper query string is passed to the link/path of the source file
Improvement: Added "Overview" page which has the list of all the changes made to a specific CSS/JS file (handle), offering a much easier way to understand the changes made and do any debugging
UI Improvement: The height of the CSS/JS asset row (when managing the list) is smaller, depending on the settings, making it easier to do scrolling
UI Improvement: Adjust the total height of the "Note" textarea based on the content added, thus reducing the spacing between assets for easier scrolling/management
Code Improvement: Split a few large files into multiple ones for easier management
Backend Performance Improvement: Prevent Asset CleanUp's (own) CSS/JS from loading in edit post/page when the files aren't needed (e.g. no meta boxes are showing up because they were hidden)
Extra compatibility with AMP pages: Do not move from HEAD to BODY any SCRIPT tags containing //cdn.ampproject.org/
Bug Fix: Do not alter any Google Fonts links if there is no "family=" within it ("Smart Slider 3" fix)
Bug Fix: Prevent PHP notice errors from showing up in error log reports (not affecting the plugin's functionality)
Improvement for debugging purposes: Change the "Settings" values on page-request (via query string)
Debugging Improvement: When /?wpacu_show_handle_names is used, it will print the handle name as a "data" attribute tag within the LINK/SCRIPT; Great for debugging and to find out if any of the assets are hardcoded
Make sure Asset CleanUp's combine CSS/JS works if "HTML Minify" is enabled in W3 Total Cache
Bug Fix: Sometimes, when external URLs (from a different domain) were present in the assets management list, when checking them via JavaScript for their status, the browser returned some errors interfering with "Add Media" not allowing the user to upload new images from the edit post/page area
New Feature: Check if the CSS/JS files are reachable; Once the Assets List is loaded for management, AJAX calls would be made to check if the files are not returning 404 not found errors and anyone that returns an "error" gets highlighted (e.g. it's good in situations when a file was enqueued, but later deleted and forgotten thus ending up with 404 Bad Requests in the browser)
UI Improvement for "Bulk Changes": When a checkbox is ticked, highlight the area of the targeted handle (applies for any results in all the tabs)
Improvement: Automatic compatibility added for "WP AMP Accelerated Mobile Pages for WordPress and WooCommerce" (premium plugin)
Improvement: For easier reference (determining where a handle is coming from: a plugin, the theme etc.), more information such as the source and the version number is added next to each handle in "Bulk Changes"
Improvement: Once the management CSS/JS list gets loaded, AJAX calls would be made to determine if the source (URL) would return a successful response or not. If a 404 is retrieved or any other error code, then the source URL would be in red color along with a notice the page might load unreachable (bad requests) CSS/JS
PHP 7.4 Compatibility Fix: Removed deprecated errors for "Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is deprecated"
WordPress 4.3 CSS Fix: In the new WP version, some buttons and drop-downs (selects) were unaligned and showing incomplete text
Compatibility with "AMP (Official AMP Plugin for WordPress)" and "AMP for WP Accelerated Mobile Pages" plugins: If the page is of AMP type, no Asset CleanUp settings/rules will be triggered to avoid validation errors; Moreover, NOSCRIPT tags added by Asset CleanUp are moved to the BODY tag (they are no longer stored in the HEAD tag) to avoid further validation errors in case other AMP plugins/scripts are used and Asset CleanUp Pro doesn't detect them
New Feature: Skip "Test Mode" on page request for debugging purposes via /?wpacu_skip_test_mode - e.g. useful when you have to check a website and you don't have admin access and "Test Mode" is enabled (you can check if anything is broken there while the page loads fine for other visitors)
Improvement: Changed the way the assets list is showing up for management by reducing the size of each row (with CSS/JS file details) so it's easier for scrolling (e.g. load exceptions are showing up only if you chosen a bulk unload option, reduced the height of some of the areas, such as "Handle:", "Source:" and notes area).
Improvement: The number of total submitted fields is smaller now as the assets list area is not as cluttered since irrelevant fields are not submitted anymore with an empty value (this is not only useful for aesthetic reasons, but it's limiting the risk of submitting over 1000 fields where max_input_vars from php.ini is limited to only 1000 inputs)
Improvement: No matter what type of layout to show the assets list is chosen from "Assets List Layout:", it will show the total number of CSS/JS for each group (e.g. total files from the theme, total files from all the active plugins, etc.)
Improvement: Option to choose how the caching information (asset details including its location in the caching directory) is retrieved in "Plugin Usage Preferences" (useful to reduce database queries in case one has a large database that is slow in retrieving information)
Improvement: If all CSS/JS from a plugin (when the assets list is grouped by location) are bulk unloaded (e.g. on all posts, site-wide), then "Unload on this page" (Check All | Uncheck All) is replaced with 'Make exception from bulk unload, "Load it on this page"' (Check All | Uncheck All)
Improvement: When assets are fetched to show in the load manager, prevent WP Rocket from running as well as Query Monitor from outputting information
"Duplicate Post" compatibility fix: Make sure Asset CleanUp's meta values are taken into account when a post is cloned
Bug Fix: Hide any PHP notice errors (reported in the error log in some environments) for cached CSS/JS as the 3rd parameter ("src" as it is) wasn't added to the returned array
New Feature in "Optimize JavaScript": Move jQuery Inline Code After jQuery library is called
Combine Google Fonts Improvement: Strip any extra characters (like double comma ,,) from existing LINK tags pointing to fonts.googleapis.com (more info: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/preload-google-fonts/)
Bug Fix: Prevent notice errors from showing up on certain hosting environments in Misc.php (in case fetching plugins' icons from WordPress.org fails) and CleanUp.php
Added more tutorials to "Getting Started" -> "Video Tutorials"
Improvement: Hardcoded LINK/SCRIPT tags that have relative URLs (no site url added to them) are also checked for optimization (e.g. )
Cache Dynamic Assets Improvement: It also checks for www.domain.com?query type of URLs without forward slash / after the domain's extension);
Inline JS automatically is no longer enabled by default (new installations); A note was added about what it means to inline JS files so the user will be extra careful
Bug Fix: 'Ignore dependency rule and keep the "children" loaded' wasn't working properly for SCRIPT tags in 1.3.4.4 due to the wrong parameter passed to strip the HTML tag
Improvement for "Google Font Remove": Added more patterns to detect Web Font Loader CDN requests
WP Rocket Compatibility Fix: If the CSS/JS files' path get changed by "WP Rocket" (path contains "/wp-content/cache/busting/"), make sure they are getting unloaded by Asset CleanUp Pro if 'Ignore dependency rule and keep the "children" loaded' option is checked along with the unload rule
New Feature: Rewrite cached static assets URLs with the CDN ones if necessary (located in "Settings" -> "CDN: Rewrite assets URLs")
Strip Google Fonts references from JavaScript (.js) files (if the removal option is active)
Append "display" parameter to Google Font URLs within JavaScript files (if any option for "font-display:" is chosen)
Bug Fix: Make sure all values from "Site-Wide Common Unloads" show the correct status (enabled/disabled) in "System Info" from "Tools"
New Assets Management Feature: Until now, the list was loaded automatically on edit post, page, custom post type, and taxonomy. You can choose to fetch the list when clicking on a button. This is good when you rarely manage loaded CSS/JS and want to declutter the edit page on load and also save resources as AJAX calls to the front-end won't be made to retrieve the assets' list.
New Feature: Cache Dynamic Loaded CSS & JavaScript to avoid loading the whole WP environment and save resources on each request (e.g. /?custom-css=value_here or /wp-content/plugins/plugin-name-here/js/generate-script-output.php?ver=1)
Reduced the number of database queries to fetch cached information making the pages preload faster (when the caching is rebuilt) thus reducing the loading time especially if PHP 5.6 is still used (which is slower than PHP 7+ when it deals with database connections).
Combine JS files improvement: If there are multiple files that have "defer" or "async" attribute set (or both) and they are not preloaded, then they will be grouped into fewer files; Before, only SCRIPT tags without these attributes were combined
Improvement to reduce disk space: Make sure already minified (100%) static .js files aren't cached
Google Fonts Optimization: Requests that are for icons (e.g. https://fonts.googleapis.com/icon?family=Material+Icons) are also combined to reduce HTTP requests
"Optimize CSS Delivery" from WP Rocket works together with "Inline Chosen CSS Files" from Asset CleanUp Pro
Prevent plugin from loading when Themify Builder (iFrame) is used
Bug Fix: Sometimes, the position of an asset (HEAD or BODY) is reported incorrectly if it was enqueued in specific action hooks; Extra checks are made to fix that as sometimes developers do not use wp_enqueue_scripts() which is the proper hook to use when enqueuing items that are meant to appear on the front end
Bug Fix: If CSS files get inlined, make sure @import without "url" is updated correctly in all situations
Bug Fix: In rare cases, managing assets for the Homepage is not working properly. Reason: $post is overwritten by external plugins or the theme because the developers have forgotten to use wp_reset_postdata() and reset it to its initial value (which should be 0 in this case).
New Feature: Remove Google Font Requests (including link/font preloads, @import/@font-face from CSS files & STYLE tags, resource hints)
Minify/Combine CSS Improvement: Any @import found including a local CSS in another CSS file is fetched (and minified/optimized if necessary) and added to the parent file (this reduces HTTP requests, saving additional round-trip times to the overall page load) - Read more: https://gtmetrix.com/avoid-css-import.html
Hardcoded CSS/JS (not enqueued the WordPress way) from the same domain (local) get minified/optimized
Bug Fix: In rare cases, when viewing the homepage assets in the Dashboard, the wrong page is checked (e.g. a post instead of the actual homepage) because specific themes/plugins do not use wp_reset_postdata() to restore $post global to its original value (none in this instance)
Bug Fix: If Google Fonts loading type is async (optional with preload) then make sure it's applied even if there's only one LINK request
Combined CSS files are now grouped by the LINKs media attribute (before, only "all" (default) stylesheets were combined); e.g. if there are three "print" stylesheet and four "only screen and (max-width: 1024px)", then two separate combined CSS files will be created for each media type
Make sure the "media" attribute is always added to the STYLE tag if a certain one (besides 'all') was set
If Google Fonts loading type is async (optional with preload) then make sure it's applied even if there's only one LINK
Bug Fix: If the relative path to a font/background image in a CSS file started with ./ the full path to the file wasn't updated when copied to the cache
New feature: Inline Chosen CSS files (usually small ones) saving the overhead of fetching them resulting in fewer HTTP requests (more: https://varvy.com/pagespeed/inline-small-css.html / https://gtmetrix.com/inline-small-css.html)
New Option to load Google Fonts: Asynchronous by preloading the CSS stylesheet
Reduced redundant CSS/JS files cached for logged-in users, thus making clearing the caching faster and reducing the total disk space (sometimes, on certain hosting environments with lower memory limit clearing the whole caching resulted in "PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of (X) bytes exhausted")
Option to disable "Freemius Analytics & Insights?" in "Settings" -> "Plugin Usage Preferences" (good if you do debugging & often deactivate the plugin or you just don't like plugin feedback popups)
Changed the vertical "Settings" menu by renaming "Minify CSS & JS Files" & "Combine CSS & JS Files" to "Optimize CSS" & Optimize JavaScript; Added the status of the minify/combine below the menu titles to easily check what optimizations were done
Improved the way JS files are combined; If "Defer loading JavaScript combined files" is enabled in "Optimize JavaScript", make sure that any external script between the first and last combined JS tags has "defer" attribute applied to it to avoid any JS errors in case a "child" JS file is loaded before a combined "parent" one.
Option to minify inline content between from STYLE and SCRIPT (without any "src" attribute) tags
Optimize minify CSS/JS feature to use less resource when dinamicaly generating the optimized (cached) files; Minification is performed via a new library (ref: https://www.minifier.org/)
Option to choose between "Render-blocking" and "Asynchronous via Web Font Loader (webfont.js)" when loading the combined Google Font requests
Bug Fix: Sometimes the dynamically created drop-down from "Hide all meta boxes for the following public post types" (in "Settings" -> "Plugin Usage Preferences") via jQuery Chosen plugin was returning an empty (0px in width) selector
New Feature: Google Fonts Optimization: Combine multiple font requests into fewer requests; Option to add "font-display" CSS property (PageSpeed Insights Reference: "Ensure text remains visible during webfont load")
New Option To Conveniently Site-Wide Unload Gutenberg CSS Library Block in "Settings" -> "Site-Wide Common Unloads"
Better way to clear cached files as the system doesn't just check the version number of the enqueued file, but also the contents of the file in case an update is made for a CSS/JS file on the server, and the developer(s) forgot to update the version number
When CSS/JS caching is cleared, the previously cached assets older than (X) days (set in "Settings" -> "Plugin Usage Preferences") are deleted from the server to free up space
New Information was added to "Tools" -> "Storage Info" about the total number of cached assets and their total size
Prevent specific already minified CSS files (based on their handle name) from various plugins from being minified again by Asset CleanUp (to save resources)
Bug Fix: When the asset's note was saved, any quotes from the text were saved with backslashes that kept increasing on every save action
Preload CSS/JS Compatibility Update: If "WP Fastest Cache" is enabled with "Minify CSS" or "Minify JS" option, Asset CleanUp preloading works fine with the new (cached) URLs
New Option in "Assets List Layout": Sort assets by their preload status (preloaded or not)
Bug Fix: Sometimes, the file writing permission constants were not loaded (e.g. FS_CHMOD_FILE)
Bug Fix: Some transients where left in the database after a "Reset Everything" was performed causing confusing regarding the total number of unloaded assets
Prevent Asset CleanUp from loading any of its rules when Gravity Forms are previewed
New Feature: Option to preload CSS/JS files by ticking "Preload (if kept loaded)" checkbox for the corresponding file (More info: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/audits/preload)
Hide irrelevant Asset CleanUp MetaBoxes when custom post types from "Popup Maker" & "Popup Builder" plugins are edited
Minify/Combine CSS/JS files option from Asset CleanUp will be unavailable if the same feature is used in other plugins (the list includes: Autoptimize, WP Rocket, WP Fastest Cache, W3 Total Cache, SG Optimizer) to save resources and potential conflicts
Remove Shortlink - Addition: Clean it up from the HTTP header as well (not just within the HEAD section of the website)
Do not trigger Asset CleanUp on Elementor & Divi Page Builders AJAX calls from the Edit Area; Only trigger fetching plugin icons from WordPress.org in specific situations (this is especially to save resources on some hosting environments such as the shared ones)
New Feature: Enable Minify CSS/JS on the fly when admin is logged in (for debugging purposes) - via /?wpacu_css_minify
Updated "Tools" -> "System Info": Has database information related to the Asset CleanUp's entries
Option to override "administrator" (default) role, in order to acesss plugin's pages
Do not trigger Asset CleanUp Pro on REST Requests, WPBakery Page Builder Edit Mode, Brizy Page Builder Edit Mode
Avoid notice errors if some "SG Optimizer" features are enabled
Minify CSS: Compatibility with "Simple Custom CSS" plugin
Match sidebar and top bar menus; Allow unloading of CSS/JS on the fly (via URI request) for debugging purposes; Added coloured left border for assets that had their position changed to easily distinguish them
New Feature: Ignore dependency rule and keep the "children" loaded
New Feature: CSS/JS "Notes" (useful to remember why you have unloaded or decided to keep a specific file)
Bug Fix: Posts' Metas (e.g. load exceptions) were not imported
Bug Fix: Make sure specific elements from "Site-Wide Common Unloads" are properly imported/exported
"Import & Export" added under "Tools" For Settings & Load/Unload Rules
"General & Files Management" -> "Assets List Layout" - 2 new options: Group by dependencies & Group by loaded/unloaded status
Option to hide "Asset CleanUp" menu from the sidebar
Minified CSS/JS Improvement: Do not replace the original source path with the minified one if the cache file was deleted via an external action (e.g. the "cache" directory was deleted via cPanel/FTPS)
Bug Fix: array_key_first() didn't have a fallback for PHP 5 causing plugin admin pages to disappear
Do not trigger Asset CleanUp if either of the following page builders are in edit mode: "Thrive Architect", "Page Builder by SiteOrigin" & "Beaver Builder"
Code improvement; Hide meta boxes from Themify builder templates
Prevent plugin from triggering any of its settings when page builders (e.g. Divi, Elementor, Beaver Builder, Oxygen, etc.) are in edit mode for maximum compatibility
Compatibility with SG Optimizer plugin
Option to prevent plugin to trigger any of its settings & unload rules on request via "wpacu_no_load" query string
Do not minify CSS/JS from /wp-content/uploads/ (e.g. files belonging to Elementor or Oxygen page builder plugins)
Added more things to "System Info" including settings and browser information
Apply relative URLs for combined CSS/JS script/stylesheet tags, if URL opened is via SSL and the WordPress site URL starts with http://
Bug Fix: Clear CSS/JS cache was returning a blank white page
Bug Fix: 403 Forbidden error was returned when fetching assets within the Dashboard because of the wrong nonce check
Option to show on request all the settings (no tabs) within "Settings" plugin's area by appending '&wpacu_show_all' to the URL like: /wp-admin/admin.php?page=wpassetcleanup_settings&wpacu_show_all
In case the assets can't be retrieved via AJAX calls within the Dashboard, the user will be notified about it and any response errors (e.g. 500 Internal Errors) would be printed for debugging purposes
Improved "Help" page by adding more explanations about how to upgrade to the Pro version and how to seek professional help in case you're stuck
Option to show on request all the settings (no tabs) within "Settings plugin's area by appending '&wpacu_show_all' to the URL like: /wp-admin/admin.php?page=wpassetcleanup_settings&wpacu_show_all
"Manage in the Front-end?": Add exceptions from printing the asset list when the URI contains specific strings (e.g. "et_fb=1" for Divi Visual Builder)
Option to hide plugin's meta boxes on edit post/page area within the Dashboard
Make sure no irrelevant errors are written excessively to the server's log printed via DOMDocument in case the HTML is not fully valid
New Option in "Assets List Layout": Sort by CSS/JS position (HEAD and BODY tags)
New Feature: Strip HTML Comments
Assets Meta Box update: Changed 'advanced' to 'normal' for $context parameter (e.g. Oxygen Builder 2.2 compatibility); added option to update the $content and $priority of the Asset CleanUp meta boxes via "add_filter" via the following tags (for each meta box): wpacu_asset_list_meta_box_context, wpacu_asset_list_meta_box_priority, wpacu_page_options_meta_box_context, wpacu_page_options_meta_box_priority
Bug Fix: Settings update now trigger on 'init' rather than 'plugins_loaded' for maximum compatibility with all WP installs;
Bug Fix: Make sure Emojis are always disabled when specified in the Settings and there is no DNS prefetch to //s.w.org
Prevent AJAX calls from triggering to retrieve asset list when a new post/page is created as the CSS/JS files should only be fetched when after the post/page is published
Improved the PHP code to use fewer resources on checking specific IF conditions
Added introduction to the "Settings" area about how the plugin is working to give a clear understanding of what needs to be done to optimize the pages
Bug Fix: Prevent CSS files containing "@import" from getting combined (they remain minified) to prevent breaking the layout
Bug Fix: "Do not minify JS files on this page" checkbox from the side meta box (edit post/page area) wasn't kept as selected after "Update" button was used
Bug Fix: Avoid PHP notice errors in case arrays that do not always have specific keys are checked
Security Fix: Updated Freemius SDK to its latest version
New Feature: "Asset CleanUp: Options" side meta box showing options to disable plugin functionality for posts, pages and custom post types; Ideal to use with the "Preview" feature if you wish to see how a page loads/looks before publishing any changes
Bug Fix: Prevent fatal error from showing in PHP 5.4 when the plugin was updated
Re-organised the plugin's links within the Dashboard to make it easier to navigate through
"Combine CSS files into one" feature update - CSS files having media="print" or media="only screen and (max-width: 768px)" (and so on) are not combined
"Combine JS files into fewer ones" feature update - jQuery and jQuery Migrate are combined as a single group (not together with any other files); if only jQuery is loaded (without jQuery Migrate), it will not be added to any group and load independently
Changed the way the combined loaded CSS files caching is stored (/wp-content/cache/asset-cleanup/); Transients are not used anymore to avoid having too many records in the options table
Clear cache now keeps the old merge CSS files in the "cache/asset-cleanup" folder in case a cached page still makes reference to any of the files
Bug Fix: If PHP version is lower than 7, an error is shown when fecthing the plugins' icons in the background to be shown on the management list (when sorted by the assets' location)
WooCommerce & WP Rocket Compatibility - Bug Fix: When both WooCommerce and WP Rocket are active and an administrator user is logged-in and tries to place an order, the "Sorry, your session is expired." message is returned
"Combined Loaded CSS" feature (concatenates all the remaining loaded stylesheets within the HEAD section of the page and saves them into one file) to reduce HTTP requests even further
Improved "Getting Started" area
Made "Settings" as the default page where you (the administrator user) is redirected when activating the plugin for the first time
Only trigger specific actions when necessary to avoid the use of extra server resources
Make sure "ver" query string is stripped on request only for the front-end view; Avoid removing the license info from the database when resetting everything (unless the admin chooses to remove the license info too for a complete uninstall)
Updated the way temporary data is stored (from $_SESSION to WordPress transient) for more effective use of server resources
Bug Fix: When settings are reset to their default values via "Tools", make sure 'jQuery Migrate' and 'Comment Reply' are loading again if added in the bulk (site-wide) unload list (as by default they were not unloaded)
Option to hide WordPress core files from the management list to avoid applying settings to any of them by mistake (showing the core files for unload, async or defer are mostly useful for advanced developers in particular situations)
Improved security of the pages by adding nonces everywhere there is an update button within the Dashboard related to the plugin
Added confirmation message on top of the list in front-end view after an update is made (to avoid confusion whether the settings were updated or not)
The height of an asset row (CSS or JavaScript) is now smaller as "Unload on this page" and bulk unloads (site-wide, by post type etc.) are placed on the same line if the screen width is large enough, convenient when going through a big list of assets
Added "Input Fields Style" option in plugin's "Settings" which would turn the fancy CSS3 iPhone-like checkboxes to standard HTML checkboxes (good for people with disabilities who use a screen reader software or personal preference)
Added notification in the front-end view in case WP Rocket is enabled with "User Cache" enabled
Option to have the "Inline code associated with the handle" contracted on request as it will reduce the length of the assets management page in case there are large blocks of text making it easier to scan through the assets list
Tested the plugin for full compatibility with PHP 7.2 (5.3+ minimum required to use it)
Added option to expand / contract "Styles" and "Scripts" management list and ability to choose the initial state on page load via plugin's "Settings" page
Added "Test Mode" option which will unload assets only if the user is logged in as administrator and has capability of activating plugins.
This is good for debugging in case one might worry that a CSS/JavaScript file could be unloaded by mistake and break the website for the regular (non-logged in) users.
Once the page loads fine and all looks good, the "Test Mode" can be disabled so the visitors will load the lighter version of the page.
Important: If you use the premium extension, please upgrade to 1.0.3
Removed "WP" from the plugin's title
Prevent the LITE plugin from loading if the PRO version is enabled as loading both plugins is not relevant anymore
Avoided loading Asset CleanUp Lite's own CSS and JS within the Dashboard view as they are irrelevant since the're only loaded for the admins that manage the plugin
Bug Fix: When editing a post/page within the Dashboard and the "Update" button was pressed before the "WP Asset CleanUp" meta box was loading, it sent an empty unloaded list to the plugin and it deleted the current settings for that particular post/page
Added "Disable jQuery Migrate Site-Wide?" and "Disable Comment Reply Site-Wide?" (which belong to WordPress core files and often are not used in a WordPress website) to "Settings" page for the convenience of the user
Bug Fix: jQuery Migrate can be properly unloaded now without affecting the load of jQuery
Bug Fix: Remove JavaScript error from window.btoa() in case the page contains non-latin characters
Added "Get Help" page within the plugin's menu to anyone interested in hiring me or any of my colleagues for professional help related to the plugin or any other WordPress task
Now styles that are loaded in the BODY section of the page are unloaded (if selected); Sometimes, in special cases, within "wp_footer" action (or other similar one such as "get_footer"), wp_enqueue_style is called
