A nano-sized preconnect
hint wrapper.
ES5 (.js) version
ES6 (.mjs) version
preconnect is a very small script that allows you to programmatically invoke a preconnect
hint to any host to mask connection latency. The script is designed so that you can invoke this hint whenever is appropriate for your application.
Since preconnect is Just JavaScript™, you can install it with npm as a production dependency:
npm i preconnect --save
If you're not the npm type, grab one (or both) of the minified versions in this repo's dist
folder. There are two minified versions:
preconnect.min.js
is the Babel-fied ES5 build. It assigns a variable namedpreconnect
on thewindow
.preconnect.min.mjs
is the untransformed minified ES6 build. Itsdefault
export
is a function eponymously namedpreconnect
.
import preconnect from "preconnect";
const preconnecter = new preconnect({
// Injects `dns-prefetch` hints in addition to `preconnect` hints
getDns: true
});
// Preconnects to a link as the user hovers over it
document.getElementById("some-link").addEventListener("mouseover", event => {
preconnecter.add(event.target.href);
}, {
// Execute this event handler code only once avoid multiple injections of hints
once: true
});
In the above example, an early connection is established to the host specified in an <a>
element's href
value. This could potentially speed up navigation to that host for the user, improving the perceived performance of the navigation.
When you instantiate a new instance of preconnect, you can pass in an options object. There are two options:
getDns
(default:false
)
Inject adns-prefetch
hint in addition to apreconnect
hint. Some browsers don't supportpreconnect
, but some of those browsers do supportdns-prefetch
. Enabling this ensures those browsers still receive some kind of benefit.timeout
(default:0
)
This script can userequestIdleCallback
to take advantage of idle browser time. This helps to reduce monopolization of the main thread so that the page is more responsive to user input. This option specifies, in milliseconds, the deadline by whichrequestIdleCallback
must inject the resource hint elements into the document<head>
. A value of0
(the default) disables the use ofrequestIdleCallback
entirely.
If you'd like to contribute, please file an issue first so we can discuss. Because I'd like to keep this script very small and simple, new features aren't likely to be added unless the weight they add can be justified.
My name is Jeremy Wagner. I'm an independent web performance consultant. I write about web stuff, and sometimes I even get to talk about web stuff. I also ramble on Twitter @malchata and make web performance videos on YouTube.