Hi Fanny,
Both JS & CSS Merge are now working. The merged JS & CSS files have a pb.js & pb.css extension respectively. I have attached a couple screen shots from YSlow that show this.

Keep in mind that not all css and js files can be merged. They have to be declared in the head section and they have to use the .css extension.

You'll need to ask the slide show vendor about compression on their dynamic css file.
Although you may be able to save the static text from their dynamic css file with a .css extension, link to it in the head, and then it would be included with the merge process.

John,

I have several questions. Please see YSlow - Components on my homepage.

1. If you see JS components, there are 11 JS files. But only 1 file with pb.js extension. Does it mean 10 others not merged? Are they not declared in head section?

2. Flash file (.swf) is not GZipd.

3. THere are 18 external background images (css images) and 31 images including skin images which are not GZipd and YSlow suggests to try combining them into one using CSS Sprites. How to do it?
Does this indicate static file handler for images not working?

4. Minify JavaScript and CSS is not working for 3 files. Why?

5. How to link Markit Slideshow JS&CSS in the head section? We have to use replacement rules?

Thanks

John, would you like to see above questions, please? thanks for help

Hi Fanny,
I answered most of these questions earlier, but I'll give it another go.

You have 11 JS files in the output because of ScriptResource.axd, WebResource.axd, and JS files that are not linked in the head.

SWF can not be compressed, it is already compressed like an image.

StaticFileHandler for images is working, which you can tell because they have an expires date. Making them into a sprite is a manual process that isn't easy, but what it amounts to is using one image and then positioning it with background positioning to show only the part of that image you want to use. You can read more on that process by searching for "CSS Sprites" on Google, but I don't recommend it since it is so much work and not much payoff in performance.

The Minify checker in YSlow is stubborn sometimes and does not recognize that a file has been miified. If it is gzipped then minifying it doesn't make hardly any difference.

You will have to ask the Markit vendor about their dynamic CSS and see if you can make it into a static css file and link it from the head, but I don't think it would be worth the trouble.

Right now you are getting a high grade on YSlow, so your performance problems are most likely due to your hosting provider. See if they can address the restarts problem or you may want to use a different host.