When you run a ADF Faces 11g Rich Client components application, you (or rather your users) are hit with a substantial JavaScript download overhead. It is not surprising, given the richness of the component library. However, especially for internet applications targeted at external users – consumers, customers – it may be very undesirable to have them wait up to several seconds for this download to complete.

The default splash-page that displays during the load of the Javascript surely looks familiar. (note: the resources section of this article has a reference to an article by Frank Nimphius that explains how to get rid of the splash-page -or modify it-; however, that does not take away the download overhead itself unfortunately).

Especially if the first page in the web application does not really use all that much richness to begin with. It is not uncommon to have a homepage that is largely static, pretty and heavily styled through CSS with perhaps a global search item, a couple of navigation links or buttons and maybe some newsfeeds or special offers. Or to start the application with a fairly simple login page.

This article describes how to reduce the (initial) download size More >