JavaScriptStrip
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Purpose

JavaScriptStrip is a fast, compact (31k) Windows 32 Utility for JavaScript to make  scripts loaded with the tag <script type ="text/JavaScript" src="MyFile.js"> more compact by removing comments, unnecessary blanks, and line feeds from script source code. It also replaces variable names with randomly generated "aliases". The compaction afforded by stripping "white space" and scrunching variable names can result in 25%-40% file size reduction. In addition, with all the code on a single line and with meaningless variable names, your code becomes much less accessible to potential imitators. 

Caveats

• All variables to be renamed must be declared in a var statement or else appear as arguments in a function declaration.
• All statements must end in ; and control structures must be properly delimited with { }.
• Variable names may not be identical to words appearing in string literals, regular expressions or names of document elements referenced in script.
• To avoid being changed, string literals may not contain // /* */ or consecutive blanks. Instead, create such strings by concatenation:
    "http:/" + "/miniappolis.com"

  JavaScriptStrip uses regular expression pattern matching to find and replace occurrences of variable names with aliases. Thus it replaces any occurrence of the variable name string within word boundaries. Similarly, it is not sensitive to whether // /* */ or multiple spaces occur within quotation marks. These limitations dictated by performance considerations cause no problems if you are aware if them. For example, avoid calling a variable HTML if you want to use the string HTML somewhere in a literal or regular expression; sHTML is a good alternative name.

Use

In Windows Explorer, drag and drop the icon of the file(s) to be stripped onto JavaScriptStrip's icon. Alternatively you can copy a shortcut to JavaScriptStrip.exe into the C:\Windows\SendTo folder. Then when you select the files to be stripped, right-click in the Explorer window and choose "SendTo JavaScriptStrip." Advantage: this approach makes JavaScriptStrip available from any folder. Double-click on the program's icon to see a help and copyright message.

Output

• MyFile.js is the stripped file.
• MyFile.bak is a backup of your original file.  To prevent your original file from being overwritten by the output, give it an extension other than .js, e.g. MyFile.txt.
• MyFile.varkey.txt lists the original variable names and functions and shows new alias names for the variables.

Options

When you drop or send one or more filenames to JavaScriptStrip, a dialog box prompts you for options.  Enter the letters of any options you want and click "OK", or else click "Cancel" to accept the default values.  The option letters may be entered in UPPER or lower case.  Any separators you might enter (space, comma etc.) are ignored. The options are:

• F  :  put each function on a separate line (default:  strip all carriage returns and line feeds).  Useful for debugging when error messages indicate in which line an error has occurred.
• L  :  leave in  carriage returns and line feeds (default:  strip all out).  Useful for proofreading.
• R  :  repeatable random variable alias names (default: each time  the program is run variables are given different aliases; with this option the variables receive the same nonsense name each time the program is run).  Useful for debugging and proofreading.
• Sdd, where d stands for any digit 1-9 :  specify the minimum and maximum length of alias names (default: minimum 1, maximum 6 characters).  Useful to optimize either  compactness (small numbers) or obfuscation (large numbers). For example, specifying the option S47 would make all variable names 4-7 characters long.  Note: since both UPPER- and lower-case letters are used for randomly-generated aliases, even names as short as 1-2 characters permit large numbers of unique variable names, e.g. 52 + 52² = 2756 unique names.
• V : retain original variable names (default: assign all variables random alias names).  Useful for debugging, and for only compacting the list, without variable name aliasing.

Pre-run / Debugging Checklist

• Script has already been debugged and thoroughly tested.
• Script filename does not end in .js
• All variables are declared in var statements or appear as function arguments.
• All statements are terminated with ;
• All structures (function, if ... else, for, switch etc.) are properly enclosed in { }.
• No variable names are identical to words that occur in string literals or regular expressions, or to names of form elements referenced in the script.
• No string literals contain any of the sequences // /* */ or two spaces.

Download and Installation

Click either this link for a zip file with the application and this help screen (19k), or else this link for the uncompressed JavaScriptStrip.exe (25k) file. Save JavaScriptStrip.exe to a folder of your choice. In Windows Explorer, right-click on on JavaScriptStrip.exe's icon to create a shortcut to this application. Copy this link to the C:\Windows\SendTo folder to make it available from any folder. To uninstall, delete JavaScriptStrip.exe.

Close Help Window  |  JavaScriptStrip Home Page  |  Feedback to Developer

Freeware ©2001 by William H. Fletcher, fletcher@miniappolis.com
All rights reserved, including those of (re)distribution. Ver. 13 March 2001.
Download and details: http://miniappolis.com/utilities/JavaScriptStrip.html