atec WebP

atec-WebP works automatically, no configuration required.
Just install, activate and switch on the “WebP active” option. That’s all.

Most other image optimization plugins (such as Smush or LiteSpeed) use batch conversion.
These plugins convert ALL images in the upload folder, including thumbnails.
This is not necessary, as some of these images might never be requested.
atec-WebP works “on demand”, it converts images only when requested. This saves disk space.

In case you are using a CDN the rewrite rules to serve .webp files will not be effective – unless you exclude image files from caching.
Please check the response header to see whether .webp files are actually handled by your server – or delivered by a CDN.

Specifications

• Supports IMG_WEBP_LOSSLESS quality.
• Supports BMP, GIF, PNG & JPEG image format.
• Supports transparent GIF & PNG files (plus BMP with ImageMagick).
• Unsupported files (like animated GIFs and transparent BMP with GD-extension) will be skipped automatically.

Requirements

atec-WebP requires write permission for the /.htaccess file and a webserver that supports rewrite rules (mod_rewrite).
Rewrite rules will be added to the .htaccess file only if you check the “WebP active” option.
The rules will be deleted if you uncheck the option or deactivate the plugin.

Image requests will be redirected to their WebP counterpart, if the WebP version exists, otherwise the request will be redirected to a script in the ./uploads/atec-webp folder. The script converts image files to *.Xwebp.webp files in their respective folder. There will be no extra folders for the converted images, so everythings stays in place. However you can still delete the convert files at any time, as they are easily identified by their .Xwebp.webp extension.

atec-WebP dashboard also provides a feature to delete these files, with no impact on the original files.

Attention

DO NOT disallow script execution in wp-content/uplods folder by a “deny from all” rule, because the conversion script resides in the wp-content/uplods/atec-webp.

3rd party scripts

The plugin uses “basicLightbox” to preview images.
Source code @ https://github.com/electerious/basicLightbox

Third-Party Services

Integrity check

Once, when activating the plugin, an integrity check is requested from our server – if you give your permission.
Source: https://atecplugins.com/
Privacy policy: https://atecplugins.com/privacy-policy/

atec-WebP and Cloudflare compatibility

The plugin does not replace image files in the media library nor does it alter the image attachments in pages or posts.
It works by serving .webp images instead of other images formats by converting those images in the uploads folder and rewriting requests to the original image by the use of .htaccess rewrite rules.
For the plugin to be in effect, the browser must send an ‘accept’ header that includes the ‘image/webp’ mime type.
However, if you use cloudflare, the cloudflare crawler will not send this header, thus the redirect script will not run the rewrite rule.
As a result, the crawler will get the original image and atec-WebP is not interfere.

atec-WebP and LiteSpeed web-server compatibility

LiteSpeed support for .htaccess files depends on the web-server configuration. LiteSpeed must reload the .htaccess after it has been altered by atec-WebP. It can take several minutes for the changes to have effect.