AMP Optimizer
AMP Optimizer is a tool to simplify creating AMP pages and improve AMP rendering performance. AMP Optimizer implements AMP performance best practices and supports AMP server-side-rendering. By default, it will perform the following optimizations:
- Server-side render AMP layouts.
- Automatically import all missing AMP component scripts.
- Automatically add any missing mandatory AMP tags.
- Auto detects and preloads hero images from amp-img, amp-iframe, amp-video, or amp-video-iframe.
- Remove the AMP boilerplate (when possible).
- Remove not needed whitespace.
- Extract and move CSS keyframe animations to the bottom of the page.
- Optimize AMP framework and custom font loading
- Generate CSP for inlined
amp-script
code.
The performance optimizations can improve page rendering times by up to 50%. You can read more about the potential performance gains in this blog post. To give it a try, check out the online playground.
Good to know:
- AMP Optimizer will produce valid AMP.
- AMP Optimizer can be used in combination with AMP Packager to create SXGs.
Usage
API
Install via:
npm install @ampproject/toolbox-optimizer
Minimal usage:
const AmpOptimizer = require('@ampproject/toolbox-optimizer');
const ampOptimizer = AmpOptimizer.create();
const originalHtml = `
<!doctype html>
<html ⚡>
...
</html>`;
ampOptimizer.transformHtml(originalHtml).then((optimizedHtml) => {
console.log(optimizedHtml);
});
You can find a sample implementation here. If you're using express to serve your site, you can use the AMP Optimizer Middleware.
CLI
AMP Optimizer can be used via the AMP Toolbox CLI:
npm install @ampproject/toolbox-cli -g
amp optimize myFile.html
or run without installation via npx
:
npx @ampproject/toolbox-cli optimize myFile.html
Options
Options are passed when creating a new AMP Optimizer instance:
const ampOptimizer = AmpOptimizer.create({
verbose: true
});
...
Available options are:
autoAddMandatoryTags
Automatically inject any missing markup required by AMP.
- name:
autoAddMandatoryTags
- valid options:
[true|false]
- default:
true
- used by: AddMandatoryTags
autoExtensionImport
Automatically import any missing AMP Extensions (e.g. amp-carousel).
esmModulesEnabled
Enables the smaller ESM module version of AMP runtime and components:
<script async nomodule src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js"></script>
<script async src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.mjs" type="module" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
Warning: This is incompatible with AMP Packager unless using a prerelease version containing this commit.
- name:
esmModulesEnabled
- valid options:
[true|false]
- default:
true
- used by: RewriteAmpUrls
extensionVersions
Specify version numbers to use for automatically imported Extensions. If not defined, default to latest.
Example:
const ampOptimizer = AmpOptimizer.create({
extensionVersions: {
'amp-twitter': '0.1',
},
});
format
Specifies the AMP format of the input file. Defaults to AMP
.
imageBasePath
Specifies a base path used to resolve an image during build,
this can be a file system path or URL prefix. You can also pass a function
(imgSrc, params) => '../img/' + imgSrc
for dynamically calculating the image path.
- name:
imageBasePath
- valid options:
STRING|FUNCTION
- default: undefined
- used by: Markdown
imageOptimizer
Enable automated image srcset
generation by providing a function for calculating srcset
URLs for a given image src
. The function should return a URL pointing to a version of the src
image with the given width
. If no image is available, it should return a falsy value.
Example:
const ampOptimizer = AmpOptimizer.create({
imageOptimizer: (src, width) => `${src}?width=${width}`,
});
- name:
imageOptimizer
- valid options:
FUNCTION
- default: undefined
- used by: OptimizeImages
lts
Use long-term stable URLs for downloading the AMP runtime and components.
- name:
lts
- valid options:
[true|false]
- default:
false
- used by: RewriteAmpUrls
markdown
This transformer adds out-of-the-box markdown support. This allows
using AMP Optimizer to convert HTML documents created from Markdown
files into valid AMP. A typical conversion flow would be:
README.md => HTML => AMP Optimizer => valid AMP
The only thing this transformer does is converting <img>
tags into
either amp-img
or amp-anim
tags. All other Markdown features are
already supported by AMP. The transformer will try to resolve image
dimensions from the actual files. Images larger than 320px will automatically
get an intrinsic layout. For image detection to work, an optional dependency
probe-image-size
needs to be installed via NPM.
- name:
markdown
- valid options:
[true|false]
- default:
false
- used by: Markdown
minify
Minifies the generated HTML output and inlined CSS.
Warning: this setting is not recommended when running AMP Optimizer in your backend on every request as execution time can increase by up to 7x.
optimizeAmpBind
Enables a considerably faster scanning method in amp-bind
, by injecting a i-amphtml-binding
attribute on all elements with a bound attribute.
- name:
optimizeAmpBind
- valid options:
[true|false]
- default:
true
- used by: OptimizeAmpBind
optimizeHeroImages
Enables hero image optimization. Hero images will either be auto detected or you can explicitly mark these by adding the data-hero
attribute:
<amp-img data-hero src="foo.jpg" ...>
The maximum number of hero images that can be marked up using data-hero
is 2
. This number can be increased using the maxHeroImageCount
parameter.
Hero images are optimized by server-side rendering the img
element inside the amp-img
element. This can siginificantly improve image rendering performance and reduce the largest contentful paint (LCP) metric from Core Web Vitals.
- name:
optimizeHeroImages
- valid options:
[true|false]
- default:
true
- used by: OptimizeHeroImages
preloadHeroImage
Deprecated, use optimizeHeroImages instead.
verbose
Enable verbose mode with more detailed logging output.
- name:
verbose
- valid options:
[true|false]
- default:
false
Features
Image optimization
AMP Optimizer helps you serve optimized images. For this to work, you need to provide a function that maps an image src
to a resized srcset
source value. The image resizing needs to either happen at build time (e.g. for static sites) or via a image hosting service such as thumbor.
Here is an example implementation that appends the image width to the src
:
const ampOptimizer = AmpOptimizer.create({
imageOptimizer: (src, width) => {
const index = src.lastIndexOf('.');
if (index === -1) {
return null;
}
const prefix = src.substring(0, index);
const postfix = src.substring(index, src.length);
return `${prefix}.${width}w${postfix}`;
};
})
Using this implementation, AMP Optimizer will transform the following amp-img
declarations:
<amp-img src="image1.png" width="400" height="800" layout="responsive"></amp-img>
<amp-img
layout="fill"
srcset="image-1x.png 1x,
image-2x.png 2x"
></amp-img>
into:
<amp-img
src="image1.png"
width="400"
height="800"
layout="responsive"
srcset="image1.470w.png 470w, image1.820w.png 820w, image1.1440w.png 1440w"
></amp-img>
<amp-img
layout="fill"
srcset="image-1x.png 1x,
image-2x.png 2x"
></amp-img>
Important when using layout=responsive
use the width
and height
attribute to specify the minimum image dimensions. For example, for a full-bleed hero image on mobile, specify the width aswidth=320
.
Auto add incomplete markup
It's possible to pass incomplete documents and AMP Optimizer will add any
missing tags and extension imports required by a valid AMP document.
const originalHtml = `
<h1>Hello World!</h1>
<amp-twitter width="375"
height="472"
layout="responsive"
data-tweetid="1182321926473162752">
</amp-twitter>
`;
const opts = {
canonical: '/example.html',
};
ampOptimizer.transformHtml(originalHtml, opts).then((optimizedHtml) => {
console.log(optimizedHtml);
});
Automated Markdown conversion
AMP Optimizer supports converting Markdown to AMPHTML. A typical conversion flow would be:
README.md => HTML => AMP Optimizer => valid AMP
The AMP Optimizer converts <img>
tags into <amp-img>
or <amp-anim>
tags when in Markdown mode. Enable Markdown mode via markdown : true
. AMP Optimizer will try to resolve image dimensions from the actual files. Images wider than 320px will automatically get an intrinsic
layout.
All other Markdown features are already supported by AMP.
You can pass an additional option imageBasePath
to specify a base path used to resolve an image during build, this can be a file system path or URL prefix.
Important: for image size detection to work, an optional dependency
probe-image-size
needs to be installed via NPM.
npm install probe-image-size --save-dev
Example:
const AmpOptimizer = require('@ampproject/toolbox-optimizer');
const md = require('markdown-it')({
html: true,
});
const ampOptimizer = AmpOptimizer.create({
markdown: true,
});
const markdown = `
# Markdown 🤯
Here is an image declared in Markdown syntax:
![A random image](https://unsplash.it/800/600).
You can directly declare AMP components:
<amp-twitter width="375"
height="472"
layout="responsive"
data-tweetid="1182321926473162752">
</amp-twitter>
Any missing extensions will be automatically imported.
`;
const html = md.render(markdown);
const amphtml = await ampOptimizer.transformHtml(html, {
canonical: filePath,
});
You can find a working sample here.
Extending AMP Optimizer with custom transformations
AMP Optimizer supports custom HTML transformations:
const AmpOptimizer = require('@ampproject/toolbox-optimizer');
const {createElement, firstChildByTag, appendChild} = AmpOptimizer.NodeUtils;
class CustomTransformer {
constructor(config) {
this.log_ = config.log.tag('CUSTOM');
}
transform(tree, params) {
this.log_.info('Running custom transformation for ', params.filePath);
const html = firstChildByTag(tree, 'html');
if (!html) return;
const head = firstChildByTag(html, 'head');
if (!head) return;
const desc = createElement('meta', {
name: 'description',
content: 'this is just a demo',
});
appendChild(head, desc);
}
}
const customTransformations = [CustomTransformer, ...AmpOptimizer.TRANSFORMATIONS_AMP_FIRST];
const optimizer = AmpOptimizer.create({
transformations: customTransformations,
});
const transformedHtml = await optimizer.transformHtml(html, {
filePath,
});
Checkout the samples to learn how to customize AMP Optimizer.
Best Practices
Make sure to enable AMP Boilerplate removal
The biggest performance gain results from removing the AMP boilerplate code. However, under some circumstances it's not possible to remove the boilerplate code:
- if the
amp-experiment
, amp-story
or amp-dynamic-css-classes
components are used (code).
To find out, why the AMP boilerplate could not be removed, enable verbose
mode:
const optimizer = ampOptimizer.create({
verbose: true,
});
... or for individual pages:
ampOptimizer.transformHtml(originalHtml, {
verbose: true,
});
Transform AMP pages at build time if possible
Applying the transformations to an AMP file consumes additional server resources. Also, since the entire file is needed to apply the transformations, it also becomes impossible to stream the response while applying it. In order to avoid server overhead, if the set of AMP files to be transformed is known in advance, transformations should be run at build time.
Cache transformed AMPs at runtime
Most websites have a more dynamic nature though and are not able to apply the transformations statically. For such cases it is possible to run the transformations after AMP pages are rendered, e.g. in an Express middleware. In that case, to achieve best performance, it's best to cache transformed pages for subsequent requests. Caching can take place on the CDN level, on the site's internal infrastructure (eg: Memcached), or even on the server itself, if the set of pages is small enough to fit in memory.
Regenerate pages at least once a week
AMP Optimizer inlines CSS styles required by AMP. To make sure, that the inlined CSS stays in sync with the latest AMP release, we recommend to re-generate pages at least once a weekOut-of-sync CSS will not break your page, but it could theoretically cause AMP components to briefly appear with the "wrong" styles, such as being visible when they should be hidden. The good news is that these glitches will only be temporary, because as soon as the AMP JS starts, it will check the inlined CSS and update it if required.
Experimental Features
Warning: these features are experimental and might result in invalid AMP pages.
Paired AMP
When using experimental features resulting in invalid AMP it's best to setup paired AMP mode. Paired AMP mode will add <link rel=amphtml href=${ampUrl}>
to the transformed page, were ampUrl
needs to point to the valid version of this page.
Example:
const optimizer = AmpOptimizer.create({
transformations: AmpOptimizer.TRANSFORMATIONS_PAIRED_AMP,
});
const ampFilePath = filePath.substring(1, filePath.length).replace('.html', '.amp.html');
const transformedHtml = await optimizer.transformHtml(html, {
ampUrl: ampFilePath,
});
Versioned AMP Runtime
The ampRuntimeVersion
parameter will rewrite all AMP runtime and extension imports to the specified version. For example:
https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0.js
will be replaced with:
https://cdn.ampproject.org/rtv/001515617716922/v0.js
Versioning the AMP runtime URLs has one main benefit: versioned AMP runtime URLs are served with a longer max-age than the unversioned ones. This means AMP pages served with versioned AMP runtime benefit from better browser caching.
Important: when using versioned AMP runtime URLs make sure to invalidate all caches whenever a new AMP runtime is released. This is to ensure that your AMP pages always use the latest version of the AMP runtime.
You can use @ampproject/toolbox-runtime-version to retrieve the latest version of the AMP runtime. Here is a sample to apply the optimizations including versioning the URLs:
const ampOptimizer = require('@ampproject/toolbox-optimizer');
const ampRuntimeVersion = await runtimeVersion.currentVersion();
const originalHtml = `
<!doctype html>
<html ⚡>
...
`;
const optimizedHtml = await ampOptimizer.transformHtml(originalHtml, {
ampUrl: 'canonical.amp.html',
ampRuntimeVersion: ampRuntimeVersion,
});
console.log(optimizedHtml);
Blurry image placeholders
Add placeholders for amp-img
and amp-video
posters. The placeholders are blurry versions of the corresponding original source. The blur will be displayed as the <amp-img>
is rendering, and will fade out once the element is loaded. The current requirements of appending a blurry placeholder is for the element is to be a JPEG that is either responsive or a poster for an amp-video
.
Important: blurry image placeholder computation is computationally expensive. Make sure to only use it for static or cached pages.
This transformer supports the following options:
blurredPlaceholders
: Enables blurry image placeholder generation. Default is false
.imageBasePath
: specifies a base path used to resolve an image during build.maxBlurredPlaceholders
: Specifies the max number of blurred images. Defaults to 5.blurredPlaceholdersCacheSize
: Specifies the max number of blurred images to be cached
to avoid expensive recalculation. Set to 0 if caching should be disabled. Set to -1 if
all placeholders should be cached (good for static sites). Defaults to 30.
Usage:
const optimizer = AmpOptimizer.create({
blurredPlaceholders: true,
});
Self-hosted AMP components
It's possible to rewrite the AMP framework and component imports to a different domain than cdn.ampproject.org
.
Example:
const ampOptimizer = require('@ampproject/toolbox-optimizer');
const originalHtml = `
<!doctype html>
<html ⚡>
...
`;
const optimizedHtml = await ampOptimizer.transformHtml(originalHtml, {
ampUrl: 'canonical.amp.html',
ampUrlPrefix: '/amp',
});
console.log(optimizedHtml);
Fallback API for amp-geo
Ideally, when self-hosting the AMP framework, amp-geo-0.1.js
should be patched at delivery time to replace {{AMP_ISO_COUNTRY_HOTPATCH}}
with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code where the request originated (reference). If your host does not have this capability, you can instead rely on a web API to return the country at runtime. The web API must be secure (HTTPS), adhere to AMP CORS guidelines, and return JSON in the following format:
{"country": "de"}
where in this example, de
is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for Germany.
Example:
const ampOptimizer = require('@ampproject/toolbox-optimizer');
const originalHtml = `
<!doctype html>
<html ⚡>
...
`;
const optimizedHtml = await ampOptimizer.transformHtml(originalHtml, {
geoApiUrl: 'https://example.com/geo',
});
console.log(optimizedHtml);
Development & Testing
AMP Optimizer uses a snapshot based testing approach. To execute the tests, run in the project root:
npm run test:node
Transformer tests are located in:
- spec/transformers/valid/TransformerName/test-name/
expected_output.html
input.html
The transformation input is defined in input.html
, whereas expected_output.html
contains the expected
outcome of the transformation. Don't edit expected_output.html
manually, instead, after changing
a transformer implementation, run:
npm run test:optimizer:snapshot
to store a new snapshot version in expected_output.html
.