Correct way to bundle in MVC4

Question

I'm a bit confused on the correct way to bundle script and style files. Currently, my BundleConfig.cs looks like this:

bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/jquery").Include(
            "~/Scripts/jquery-{version}.js"));

bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/jqueryui").Include(
            "~/Scripts/jquery-ui-{version}.js"));

bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/jqueryval").Include(
            "~/Scripts/jquery.unobtrusive*",
            "~/Scripts/jquery.validate*"));

// Use the development version of Modernizr to develop with and learn from. Then, when you're
// ready for production, use the build tool at http://modernizr.com to pick only the tests you need.
bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/modernizr").Include(
            "~/Scripts/modernizr-*"));

bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/Content/css").Include("~/Content/site.css"));

bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/knockout").Include(
            "~/Scripts/knockout-{version}.js",
            "~/Scripts/knockout-{version}.debug.js",
            "~/Scripts/knockout-sortable.js"));

bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/Content/themes/base/css").Include(
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.core.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.resizable.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.selectable.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.accordion.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.autocomplete.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.button.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.dialog.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.slider.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.tabs.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.datepicker.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.progressbar.css",
            "~/Content/themes/base/jquery.ui.theme.css"));

bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/bundles/BootStrapcss").Include(
            "~/BootStrap/css/bootstrap.css",
            "~/BootStrap/css/bootstrap-fileupload.css"));

bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/bundles/BootStrap").Include(
            "~/BootStrap/tpg-main.css",
            "~/BootStrap/tpg-internal.css"));

bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/BootStrapjs").Include(
            "~/BootStrap/js/bootstrap-fileupload.js",
            "~/BootStrap/js/bootstrap.js"));

BundleTable.EnableOptimizations = true;

Should stay with what I have, or bundle all my script files into one ScriptBundle, and all my styles into one StyleBundle? I want to achieve the best performance possible.

Answer 1

If you are always using all of the files than go ahead and stick them in two bundles; one for the javascript and one for the styles. Fewer bundles means fewer requests to the server to fetch the resources, which may result in marginally better performance on the first hit; subsequently the files will be cached by the browser.

If you are not always using all of the files than it makes more sense to break them out into more bundles.