Experimenting with mod_pagespeed

Configuring mod_pagespeed_examples

mod_pagespeed ships with a directory of sample HTML, JavaScript, Image, and CSS files to demonstrate the rewrite passes that it executes. These also form the basis of an installation smoke-test to ensure that the configured system is operating correctly. Assuming the files are installed in /var/www/mod_pagespeed_example, the following configuration file fragment will enable them to be served using reasonable caching headers.

# These caching headers are set up for the mod_pagespeed example, and
    # also serve as a demonstration of good values to set for the entire
    # site, if it is to be optimized by mod_pagespeed.

    <Directory /var/www/mod_pagespeed_example>
      # To enable to show that mod_pagespeed to rewrites web pages, we must
      # turn off Etags for HTML files and eliminate caching altogether.
      # mod_pagespeed should rewrite HTML files each time they are served.
      # The first time mod_pagespeed sees an HTML file, it may not optimize
      # it fully.  It will optimize better after the second view.  Caching
      # defeats this behavior.
      <FilesMatch "\.(html|htm)$">
        Header unset Etag
        Header set Cache-control "max-age=0, no-cache, no-store"
      </FilesMatch>

      # Images, styles, and JavaScript are all cache-extended for
      # a year by rewriting URLs to include a content hash..  mod_pagespeed,
      # can only do this if the resources are cacheable in the first place.
      # The origin caching policy, set here to 10 minutes, dictates how
      # frequently mod_pagespeed must re-read the content files and recompute
      # the content-hash.  As long as the content doesn't actually change,
      # the content-hash will remain the same, and the resources stored
      # in browser caches will stay relevant.
      <FilesMatch "\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|js|css)$">
        Header unset Etag
        Header set Cache-control "public, max-age=600"
      </FilesMatch>
    </Directory>

Trying out mod_pagespeed using mod_proxy

Ideally, you will experiment with mod_pagespeed on an Apache server that is already serving its own content. However, to experiment with mod_pagespeed on an Apache server that does not serve its own content, you can set up Apache as proxy:

# Proxy configuration file to enable mod_pagespeed to rewrite external
    # content.  In this configuration we use assume a browser proxy,
    # pointing to HOSTNAME:80.

    LoadModule proxy_module /etc/apache2/modules/mod_proxy.so
    # Depends: proxy
    LoadModule proxy_http_module /etc/apache2/modules/mod_proxy_http.so

    <IfModule mod_proxy.c>
      ProxyRequests On
      ProxyVia On

      # limit connections to LAN clients
      <Proxy *>
        AddDefaultCharset off
        Order Deny,Allow
        Allow from all
      </Proxy>
      ProxyPreserveHost On
      ProxyStatus On
      ProxyBadHeader Ignore

      # Enable/disable the handling of HTTP/1.1 "Via:" headers.
      # ("Full" adds the server version; "Block" removes all outgoing Via: headers)
      # Set to one of: Off | On | Full | Block
      ProxyVia On
    </IfModule>

Set the browser proxy to point to that proxy server, and you will then be able to view any Internet site rewritten by Apache and mod_pagespeed.