Laravel HTML Minify Middleware

A lightweight and efficient Laravel middleware package that automatically minifies HTML responses, reducing page size and improving load times. The package intelligently removes unnecessary whitespace, comments, and optimizes your HTML output while preserving functionality.

Features

Automatic HTML Minification: Minifies HTML responses on-the-fly with zero configuration required
Smart Detection: Only processes HTML responses, automatically skipping JSON, AJAX requests, and other non-HTML content
Safe Minification: Preserves content in sensitive elements like <pre>, <textarea>, and <script> tags
Framework-Aware: Compatible with Livewire, Knockout.js, and other JavaScript frameworks
Configurable Transformers: Choose which transformations to apply or create custom ones
Performance Optimized: Minimal overhead with efficient regex-based transformations
Laravel 10, 11, and 12 Support: Works seamlessly with modern Laravel versions

What Gets Minified?

The package includes three built-in transformers:

Remove Comments: Strips HTML comments while preserving framework-specific comments (Livewire, Knockout.js)
Remove Whitespace: Eliminates unnecessary whitespace between tags and multiple spaces
Trim Scripts: Removes extra whitespace from within <script> tags

Before Minification:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>My Page</title>
        <!-- This is a comment -->
    </head>
    <body>
        <div class="container">
            <h1>   Welcome   </h1>
            <script>
                console.log('Hello World');
            </script>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

After Minification:

<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title>My Page</title></head><body><div class="container"><h1>Welcome</h1><script>console.log('Hello World');</script></div></body></html>

Requirements

PHP 8.2 or higher
Laravel 10.x, 11.x, or 12.x

Installation

Install the package via Composer:

composer require backstage/laravel-minify-html-middleware

The package will automatically register its service provider.

Publish Configuration

Publish the configuration file to customize the transformers:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="laravel-minify-html-middleware-config"

This will create a config/minify-html.php file with the following default configuration:

<?php

return [
    'transformers' => [
        Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\RemoveComments::class,
        Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\RemoveWhitespace::class,
        Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\TrimScripts::class,
    ],
];

Usage

Global Middleware

To minify all HTML responses in your application, add the middleware to the global middleware stack in bootstrap/app.php (Laravel 11+):

<?php

use Illuminate\Foundation\Application;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Exceptions;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Configuration\Middleware;
use Backstage\MinifyHtml\Middleware\MinifyHtml;

return Application::configure(basePath: dirname(__DIR__))
    ->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
        $middleware->append(MinifyHtml::class);
    })
    ->withExceptions(function (Exceptions $exceptions) {
        //
    })->create();

For Laravel 10, add to app/Http/Kernel.php:

protected $middleware = [
    // ...
    \Backstage\MinifyHtml\Middleware\MinifyHtml::class,
];

Route Middleware

To apply minification to specific routes or route groups, register the middleware with an alias:

Laravel 11+ (bootstrap/app.php):

->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware) {
    $middleware->alias([
        'minify' => \Backstage\MinifyHtml\Middleware\MinifyHtml::class,
    ]);
})

Laravel 10 (app/Http/Kernel.php):

protected $middlewareAliases = [
    // ...
    'minify' => \Backstage\MinifyHtml\Middleware\MinifyHtml::class,
];

Then apply it to specific routes:

Route::get('/dashboard', function () {
    return view('dashboard');
})->middleware('minify');

// Or to a group
Route::middleware(['minify'])->group(function () {
    Route::get('/about', [AboutController::class, 'index']);
    Route::get('/contact', [ContactController::class, 'index']);
});

Conditional Minification

The middleware automatically determines if a response should be minified based on several conditions:

✅ Request method is GET or HEAD
✅ Response contains HTML (checks Accept header)
❌ Request is JSON
❌ Request is AJAX (XMLHttpRequest)
❌ Request is a precognitive request
❌ Response has no DOCTYPE declaration in the first 100 characters

This ensures that only actual HTML page responses are minified, avoiding issues with API responses or partial HTML fragments.

Configuration

Customizing Transformers

You can customize which transformers are applied by modifying the config/minify-html.php file:

<?php

return [
    'transformers' => [
        // Use only specific transformers
        Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\RemoveComments::class,
        Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\RemoveWhitespace::class,
        // Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\TrimScripts::class, // Disabled

        // Add custom transformers
        App\HtmlTransformers\CustomTransformer::class,
    ],
];

Disabling Specific Transformers

Remove or comment out any transformer you don't want to use:

<?php

return [
    'transformers' => [
        // Only remove whitespace, keep comments
        Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\RemoveWhitespace::class,
    ],
];

Creating Custom Transformers

You can create your own HTML transformers by implementing a simple transform method:

<?php

namespace App\HtmlTransformers;

class RemoveMetaTags
{
    public function transform(string $html): string
    {
        // Remove all meta tags
        return preg_replace('/<meta[^>]*>/i', '', $html);
    }
}

Then add it to your configuration:

<?php

return [
    'transformers' => [
        Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\RemoveComments::class,
        Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\RemoveWhitespace::class,
        Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\TrimScripts::class,
        App\HtmlTransformers\RemoveMetaTags::class,
    ],
];

Example: Uppercase Title Transformer

<?php

namespace App\HtmlTransformers;

class UppercaseTitle
{
    public function transform(string $html): string
    {
        return preg_replace_callback(
            '/<title>(.*?)<\/title>/i',
            function ($matches) {
                return '<title>' . strtoupper($matches[1]) . '</title>';
            },
            $html
        );
    }
}

Built-in Transformers Explained

RemoveComments

Removes HTML comments while preserving special comments needed by frameworks:

// Removes: <!-- This will be removed -->
// Keeps: <!--Livewire--> and <!-- ko --> (Knockout.js)

RemoveWhitespace

Intelligently removes whitespace while preserving content in:

<pre> tags (preformatted text)
<textarea> tags (form inputs)
<script> tags (JavaScript code)

The transformer:

Temporarily hides protected elements
Removes multiple spaces, tabs, and newlines
Removes spaces between tags (> < becomes ><)
Restores protected elements

TrimScripts

Removes leading and trailing whitespace from within <script> tags without affecting functionality:

<!-- Before -->
<script>
    console.log('Hello');
</script>

<!-- After -->
<script>console.log('Hello');</script>

Performance Benefits

HTML minification can reduce your HTML file size by 10-30% on average, depending on your code formatting:

Faster Page Loads: Smaller HTML files download quicker
Reduced Bandwidth: Lower data transfer costs
Improved SEO: Faster page loads contribute to better search rankings
Better Mobile Experience: Crucial for users on slower connections

Example size reduction:

Before: 45 KB
After: 32 KB
Savings: 28.9% reduction

Framework Compatibility

Livewire

The package preserves Livewire comments and attributes, ensuring full compatibility:

<!-- Livewire components work perfectly -->
<div wire:model="name">
    <!-- Livewire comment preserved -->
</div>

Inertia.js

Works seamlessly with Inertia.js responses as they are JSON and automatically skipped.

Alpine.js

Alpine.js directives and attributes are preserved:

<div x-data="{ open: false }">
    <button @click="open = !open">Toggle</button>
</div>

Troubleshooting

HTML Not Being Minified

Check your response type: Ensure the response has an Accept: text/html header
Verify middleware is registered: Confirm the middleware is in your global or route middleware
Check request method: Only GET and HEAD requests are processed
DOCTYPE declaration: Make sure your HTML includes <!DOCTYPE html> early in the response

Broken Layout or Functionality

Whitespace-dependent CSS: If your layout relies on whitespace between inline elements, add those elements to the ignoreElements array in a custom transformer
Template literals in scripts: Complex JavaScript might need special handling
Pre-formatted content: Ensure <pre> and <textarea> tags are being preserved

Debugging

Temporarily disable transformers one by one to identify which transformation is causing issues:

<?php

return [
    'transformers' => [
        // Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\RemoveComments::class,
        Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\RemoveWhitespace::class,
        // Backstage\MinifyHtml\Transformers\TrimScripts::class,
    ],
];

Testing

Run the package tests:

composer test

Run tests with coverage:

composer test-coverage

Run static analysis:

composer analyse

Fix code style:

composer format

Changelog

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Security Vulnerabilities

Please review our security policy on how to report security vulnerabilities.

Credits

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

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src		src
tests		tests
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.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE.md		LICENSE.md
README.md		README.md
composer.json		composer.json
phpstan-baseline.neon		phpstan-baseline.neon
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Laravel HTML Minify Middleware

Features

What Gets Minified?

Requirements

Installation

Publish Configuration

Usage

Global Middleware

Route Middleware

Conditional Minification

Configuration

Customizing Transformers

Disabling Specific Transformers

Creating Custom Transformers

Example: Uppercase Title Transformer

Built-in Transformers Explained

RemoveComments

RemoveWhitespace

TrimScripts

Performance Benefits

Framework Compatibility

Livewire

Inertia.js

Alpine.js

Troubleshooting

HTML Not Being Minified

Broken Layout or Functionality

Debugging

Testing

Changelog

Contributing

Security Vulnerabilities

Credits

License

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