When I build a site I want to remove any unneeded external JavaScript files in the html to help improve the performance of the site.
So when I create a basic content page using an article layout with no modules I am surprised to see these 3 lines
<script src="/media/system/js/core.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/media/system/js/mootools-core.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/media/system/js/caption.js" type="text/javascript"></script>This happens on both joomla 1.5 and 1.6 When I looked around the web for a solution I keep finding the answer to be use regular expression on the final output to remove it. While this will remove it, I wanted to understand why this is added. It should in theory only be added when it is needed. If I add a module that does need mootools then I do not want to be removing the script file.
It will break the module. Not being a core hack is probably the only good thing about this method. Since Joomla will only add files that are told to be included, so I decided to work out why they were being told to be included when nothing on the page needs them.
The Reason
Digging in to why, this is what I found: In the com_content component it is calling
JHtml::_('behavior.caption');
This one line is causing those 3 JavaScript files to be added to the page It is either an overlooked bug, or removing it causes other bugs to be visible.
How to fix
All you need to do is comment out a line in a core component com_content. This is a core hack any update will revert this change and you will have to manually update it. ok on to the fix.
In the file: "/components/com_content/controller.php" find: "public function display($cachable = false, $urlparams = false)" we just comment out:
JHtml::_('behavior.caption');
so it will become
//JHtml::_('behavior.caption');
Thats it!
What Next
Add a comment below if this worked for you or you had any problems implementing this hack.