After implementing the RadStyleSheetManager in my master pages using the given code snippet, I noticed a significant improvement in the performance of my web application. In Internet Explorer 8, the number of dynamically generated WebResource.axd files had become overwhelming, causing issues with conflicting style sheets and affecting the overall user experience.
With multiple Telerik controls and grids on a single page, up to 26 different WebResource.axd files were being loaded, surpassing IE8's limit of 31 active style sheets at once. This led to some styles being overridden or lost due to the excessive loading of WebResource.axd files.
The implementation of RadStyleSheetManager effectively resolved this issue by consolidating all the styles into one WebResource.axd file, thus reducing the count to just 1. As a result, all user-defined style sheets are now loaded without any conflicts. However, I am curious about the caching mechanism for the combined WebResource.axd file and its impact on performance.
While having only one HTTP request instead of 26 suggests an increase in performance, I want to ensure that the WebResource.axd file is cached efficiently to avoid unnecessary reloads. It's crucial to confirm that this optimization isn't compromising the overall performance of the application.