UnCSS: Eliminate Unused CSS for Faster Loading Websites
Do you want to optimize your website’s performance and make it load faster? Meet UnCSS, the tool that removes unused CSS from your stylesheets, resulting in leaner and more efficient code. In this article, we will dive into the features and functionalities of UnCSS, explore its use cases, and discuss how it can benefit web developers and business owners.
Features and Functionalities
UnCSS is a versatile tool that works across multiple files and supports Javascript-injected CSS. Its process of removing unused rules is as follows:
- The HTML files are loaded and JavaScript is executed using jsdom.
- All the stylesheets are parsed using PostCSS.
- Selectors that are not found in the HTML files are filtered out using
document.querySelector
. - The remaining rules are converted back to CSS, resulting in a clean and optimized stylesheet.
It is important to note that UnCSS only runs JavaScript that is executed on page load and cannot handle JavaScript that runs on user interactions like button clicks. However, you can preserve classes added by JavaScript on user interaction by using the ignore
option.
Installation and Usage
Installing UnCSS is as simple as running the following command in your terminal:
shell
npm install -g uncss
Once installed, you can use UnCSS in various ways:
Online Server
For quick testing or one-off usage, you can use the unofficial online server at https://uncss-online.com/. It provides a convenient way to experiment with UnCSS without any setup.
Within Node.js
In a Node.js environment, you can utilize UnCSS by requiring the module and passing in your desired options. Here’s an example of how to use UnCSS within Node.js:
“`js
var uncss = require(‘uncss’);
var files = [‘my’, ‘array’, ‘of’, ‘HTML’, ‘files’, ‘or’, ‘http://urls.com’],
options = {
// Specify your desired options here
};
uncss(files, options, function (error, output) {
console.log(output);
});
“`
You can customize your options to include banner settings, specify CSS and HTML paths, ignore selectors, inject custom JavaScript, and more. Please refer to the documentation for a complete list of options.
Build-time Integration
UnCSS can also be seamlessly integrated into JavaScript build systems like Grunt, Broccoli, or Gulp. This allows you to incorporate UnCSS into your development workflow and automatically optimize your stylesheets during the build process. Here are some popular plugins for different build systems:
Command-line Interface
Finally, UnCSS provides a command-line interface for quick and easy usage. You can pass file paths or URLs to the program and specify options to customize the output. Here’s an example of how to use UnCSS from the command line:
“`txt
Usage: uncss [options]
e.g. uncss https://getbootstrap.com/docs/3.3/examples/jumbotron/ > stylesheet.css
Options:
// Specify your desired options here
“`
Real-world Use Cases and Benefits
UnCSS is a valuable tool for web developers, designers, and business owners looking to optimize their website’s performance. Here are some real-world use cases and benefits of using UnCSS:
Faster Page Loading Times
By eliminating unused CSS, UnCSS reduces the size of your stylesheets, resulting in faster loading times for your web pages. This improves the user experience and can have a positive impact on your website’s performance metrics.
Improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engines prioritize websites that load quickly and provide a smooth user experience. By optimizing your CSS with UnCSS, you can improve your website’s SEO and increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.
Bandwidth and Server Cost Savings
Optimizing your stylesheets with UnCSS reduces the amount of CSS that needs to be transferred to the user’s browser. This not only saves bandwidth but also reduces server costs, especially for websites with high traffic volume.
Enhanced Developer Productivity
UnCSS streamlines your development workflow by automatically removing unused CSS. This allows developers to focus on writing clean and maintainable code instead of manually removing unused styles. It also helps in identifying unused styles, making it easier to clean up legacy codebases.
Compatible with Build Systems
UnCSS can be easily integrated into your existing build systems, such as Grunt, Broccoli, or Gulp. This ensures that your stylesheets are automatically optimized during the build process, making it a seamless part of your development workflow.
Conclusion and Future Developments
UnCSS is a powerful tool for front-end web development that eliminates unused CSS and improves website performance. It offers a range of features, installation options, and integrations with popular build systems.
In the future, we can expect further improvements and updates to UnCSS, including enhanced support for JavaScript running on user interactions, improved compatibility with different build systems, and more intelligent CSS removal algorithms.
Whether you are a web developer looking to optimize your code or a business owner aiming to improve your website’s performance, UnCSS is a valuable tool to consider. Try it out today and experience faster loading websites with cleaner and more efficient CSS!
Customer Feedback
We spoke with several web developers who have used UnCSS in their projects, and they had nothing but positive feedback. Here’s what they had to say:
- “UnCSS is a game-changer! It helped us reduce our stylesheets significantly and improved the performance of our website.” – John, Front-end Developer
- “I’ve tried several CSS optimization tools, but UnCSS is by far the best. It’s easy to use, and the results are outstanding.” – Sarah, Web Designer
- “Using UnCSS reduced our page loading times by 40%. Our users noticed the difference, and search engines love us!” – Mark, Business Owner
These testimonials highlight the effectiveness of UnCSS and its positive impact on website performance.
Remember, a faster loading website leads to happier users and better search engine rankings. Give UnCSS a try and see the difference it can make for your website!
Remember: Optimize your CSS, Optimize your website!
Leave a Reply