What are some best practices for optimizing network load when implementing scripts like adding smilies to text areas with PHP?

When adding smilies to text areas with PHP, it's important to optimize network load by minimizing the number of requests made to the server. One way to achieve this is by combining all the smiley images into a single sprite sheet and using CSS to display the appropriate portion of the sprite sheet for each smiley. 

<?php
// Define an array mapping smiley codes to their corresponding image positions in the sprite sheet
$smilies = array(
    ':)' => '0 0',
    ':D' => '-20px 0',
    ':(' => '-40px 0',
    // Add more smiley codes and their positions as needed
);

// Function to replace smiley codes with image tags using the sprite sheet
function addSmilies($text) {
    global $smilies;
    
    foreach ($smilies as $code => $position) {
        $text = str_replace($code, '<img src="smiley_sprite.png" style="background-position: ' . $position . '">', $text);
    }
    
    return $text;
}

// Usage example
$text = "Hello world! :)";
$textWithSmilies = addSmilies($text);
echo $textWithSmilies;
?>

Keywords

PHP network optimization smilies text areas scripts

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