speedtest/DESIGN_SWITCH.md

Design Feature Switch

LibreSpeed now supports switching between the classic design and the new modern design.

Default Behavior

By default, LibreSpeed uses the classic design (located in index-classic.html).

Architecture

File Structure (Non-Docker)

• index.html - Entry point (lightweight switcher)
• index-classic.html - Classic design at root
• index-modern.html - Modern design at root (references assets in subdirectories)
• frontend/ - Directory containing modern design assets (CSS, JS, images, fonts) - kept for non-Docker deployments

File Structure (Docker)

In Docker deployments, the frontend assets are flattened to root-level subdirectories:

• index.html - Entry point (lightweight switcher)
• index-classic.html - Classic design
• index-modern.html - Modern design
• styling/ - CSS files for modern design
• javascript/ - JS files for modern design
• images/ - Images for modern design
• fonts/ - Fonts for modern design
• No frontend/ directory - Assets are copied directly to root subdirectories

Benefits of Root-Level Design Files

✅ Both designs at same level - no path confusion ✅ results/ accessible from both designs with same relative path ✅ backend/ accessible from both designs with same relative path
✅ No subdirectory nesting issues ✅ Clean separation of concerns ✅ Docker containers have no frontend/ parent directory

Browser Compatibility

The feature switch uses modern JavaScript features (URLSearchParams, XMLHttpRequest). It is compatible with all modern browsers. The new design itself requires modern browser features and has no backwards compatibility with older browsers (see frontend/README.md).

Enabling the New Design

There are two ways to enable the new design:

Method 1: Configuration File (Persistent)

Edit the config.json file in the root directory and set useNewDesign to true:

{
  "useNewDesign": true
}

This will make the new design the default for all users visiting your site.

Method 2: URL Parameter (Temporary Override)

You can override the configuration by adding a URL parameter:

• To use the new design: http://yoursite.com/?design=new
• To use the classic design: http://yoursite.com/?design=classic or ?design=old

URL parameters take precedence over the configuration file, making them useful for testing or allowing users to choose their preferred design.

Design Locations

Non-Docker Deployments

• Entry Point: Root index.html file (lightweight redirect page)
• Old Design: index-classic.html at root
• New Design: index-modern.html at root (references assets in frontend/ subdirectory)
• Assets: Frontend assets (CSS, JS, images, fonts) in frontend/ subdirectory

Docker Deployments

• Entry Point: Root index.html file (lightweight redirect page)
• Old Design: index-classic.html at root
• New Design: index-modern.html at root (references assets in root subdirectories)
• Assets: Frontend assets copied directly to root subdirectories (styling/, javascript/, images/, fonts/)
• No frontend/ directory - Assets are flattened to root level

Both designs are at the same directory level, ensuring that relative paths to shared resources like backend/ and results/ work correctly for both.

Technical Details

The feature switch is implemented in design-switch.js, which is loaded by the root index.html. It checks:

1. First, URL parameters (?design=new or ?design=old)
2. Then, the config.json configuration file
3. Redirects to either index-classic.html or index-modern.html

Both design HTML files are at the root level, eliminating path issues.

Non-Docker

The modern design references assets from the frontend/ subdirectory (e.g., frontend/styling/index.css), while both designs can access shared resources like backend/ and results/ using the same relative paths.

Docker

In Docker deployments, the frontend/ directory is flattened during container startup. Assets are copied directly to root-level subdirectories (styling/, javascript/, images/, fonts/), and index-modern.html references these root-level paths. This eliminates the frontend/ parent directory in the container.