X-Cart forums

[Mdennison]

Hi Jon,

Besides signing up for the service and I assume copying the whole skin1 directory to the CDN, is there anything complicated that needs to be done? (besides modifying the smarty.php file)

What is the typical workflow when adding a new product/images and such?
Do you have to manually move the new files to the CDN?

I'm trying to get a feel for what new problems would be created by using this service.

Also, I currently store .flv files on a Media Fire account and then call them via a unique URL in order to play them within a shadowbox in my store.

Would I be able to get rid of the Media Fire account by storing the videos on the MaxCDN? Would my files still have a unique URL that I could browse to, like Media Fire or are the files hidden behind layers and layers of server side processing, making them only available when connecting via FTP, or some API?

Thanks for being patient with me, I'm still trying to figure out how this all works.

[bigredseo]

We use MaxCDN on our web hosting site (http://www.handsonwebhosting.com) and have done so for the past 4 or 5 months. The reaction from our user base was instantly noted and people complementing on the faster speeds from various locations. We're waiting on the Edge servers to come online in Australia as we have a big client base in Australia & New Zealand, but it's prove a very successful launch within the United States and our European customers.

The nice thing about MaxCDN versus many other CDN networks is that it's a PULL system. You don't have to upload your files to another location. It will automatically pull a copy and store it in the cache servers around the world. As long as the pages are being opened, the cache is available to the visitor. If there's no page cached, then it will pull the page directly from the site. No need to upload to another place, just set the subdomain and the A Record for the redirect and you're off and running.

The unique URLs I don't believe is possible at this time (that is in the works currently). Some of our clients have used Amazon's S3 system to allow password protection or time sensitive URLs (electronic downloads etc), but MaxCDN doesn't have this capability at this time.

We're huge fans of MaxCDN and use it on a number of our sites - very VERY easy to work with - it's one of those "set it and forget it" type setups.

[Mdennison]

The unique URLs I don't believe is possible at this time (that is in the works currently). Some of our clients have used Amazon's S3 system to allow password protection or time sensitive URLs (electronic downloads etc), but MaxCDN doesn't have this capability at this time.

Is this something that can be bypassed? Meaning, can all other assets be deployed through the CDN with the exception of items in the Egoods folder?

[koz]

Hi Jon,

First thanks for the code... makes it a ton easier to implement when the code is right there in front of you.

I would like to pick your brain and see if you'd able to share how you blocked cdn.website? I am a bit worried someone might find their way into the cdn subdomain and then try purchasing something. Even though the robots.txt file should block it, i'd like to to ensure its locked down. Suggestions?

Also, it looks like you're having the same problem I am with compression. Your CSS cdn files are NOT compressing while the CSS files on hosted on your box are. I have support ticket into maxcdn about this.. will post if they respond.

Thanks

[Jon]

Not actually sure howmy cdn.websitecm.com is blocked as I haven't done anything specific for that purpose. I'm looking into that now. Certainly you could do it with .htaccess to block accesses to files outside of specific directories or specific file types.

I have compression enabled in my maxcdn settings but like you are not sure exactly why they aren't compressing. Please let me know what you hear back from maxcdn as this has been on my to do list to evaluate but haven't yet had an opportunity.

[bigredseo]

Hello Mdennison, did you ever get an answer on what you were looking for with the eGoods? I'd assume that some .htaccess tricks should be able to allow the rest of your site to be populated through the CDN and then restrict that one folder you have information in. Should be possible.

@Koz,

The CSS *SHOULD* be compressing too. It compresses for our site when we load it up. You might want to check your server files and possibly an .htaccess file to verify that you have the CSS listed as a file that you want to compress.

Something along the lines of:

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css text/javascript application/x-javascript text/html text/plain text/xml image/x-icon

I've tested both our main site files and also the CSS files located on the MaxCDN and both compress.

[koz]

OK I think I've resolved this.

Conor \ Jon,
I will swear that my site was NOT compressing before I called tech support. After I talked with tech support again, they confirmed that gzip compression was turned on and working. I tested again.. it worked. They informed me they did not change anything. No idea why text \ css was not compressing before and then was after I talked with them.


I've also changed the code around a bit. I'm currently pointing my cdn to http://www.mysite.com/skin1 . What this allows me to do is when I call http://cdn.mydomain.com it call up ONLY the skin1 folder. I'm only caching files from /skin1/ and figured this would work well as the /skin1 folder is all ready locked down from directory listing.

[bigredseo]

Good to hear. Only downside that I see with limiting it to the skin1 folder is that you wouldn't get the caching of the other images within your site (product images etc) or the templates_c folder. But if all you're looking for is the general skin to be faster, this may work.

Have you run any comparisons between your live site and your site as it operates through the CDN?

[Ajay]

$smarty->assign("SkinDir","http://CdnUrl.example.com/skin1");
$smarty->assign("ImagesDir","http://CdnUrl.example.com/skin1/images");

Isn't the above code is limiting what cdn can do since it won't cache several files like product images etc?

If you want to take advantage of all cdn for all images (especially product images) what other directories need to be included? And what should be the value instead of smarty->assign("ImagesDir")?

[Jon]

For product thumbnails and images you need to manually make template edits.