On-the-Fly WebP and AVIF Image Conversion
GoogleWebPImages connects nopCommerce's storefront image delivery to Magick.NET, intercepting requests for jpg, jpeg and png files and converting them to WebP or AVIF on the fly based on browser support, caching each converted file next to the original and falling back to the original image for unsupported browsers.
What It Does
- Format conversion — Converts intercepted .jpg, .jpeg and .png requests to WebP or AVIF using Magick.NET.
- Browser capability detection — Reads the Accept header (image/avif, image/webp) with a User-Agent version fallback for major browsers.
- AVIF preference — Serves AVIF over WebP when both the browser and the settings allow it.
- Lossy compression control — Toggle lossy vs lossless encoding with a quality value from 1-100, defaulting to 90.
- On-disk caching — Converted files are stored next to the original as .webp/.avif siblings and reused on later requests.
- Stale cache detection — Regenerates the converted file when the source image's last-write time is newer.
- Conditional requests — Emits a Last-Modified header and honors If-Modified-Since with 304 Not Modified responses.
- Cache-Control rewriting — Derives the header from the app's StaticFilesCacheControl setting (default private, max-age=604800).
- Graceful fallback — Any conversion or send failure falls through to the normal static file pipeline, serving the original image.
- Native library management — Download Libraries action fetches the platform-specific Magick native runtime for win-x64, win-x86, linux-x64 and osx-x64.
- Environment diagnostics — Reports OS, 64-bit process status, native library folder and Magick DLL path on the config page.
- Debug logging — Toggle plus Clear log file and Download log file actions, shown only when enabled.
How It Works
- Install the plugin; middleware is inserted into the pipeline only when WebP or AVIF is enabled and the native library is present.
- Enable WebP and/or AVIF, set the compression quality, and download the native library for the host platform.
- Storefront image requests are intercepted; supporting browsers receive a converted, cached WebP or AVIF file.
- Non-supporting browsers, and any conversion failure, receive the original, unmodified image.
- Admins review environment diagnostics and debug logs from the configuration page.
Specs & Requirements
- nopCommerce — 5.00, 4.90, 4.80, 4.70, 4.60, 4.50, 4.40, 4.30, 4.20, 4.10
- Plugin type — Misc plugin implemented as ASP.NET Core middleware (INopStartup) with an admin menu event consumer
- Requires — A Magick.NET native library for the host OS and architecture (win-x64, win-x86, linux-x64, osx-x64), downloaded and installed into the plugin runtimes folder
