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FAQ: CDN
Technically no, a CDN is a high performance cache that stores static assets (your theme files, media library etc) in various locations throughout the world in order to provide low latency access to them by readers in those regions.
First create an S3 account (unless using origin pull); it may take several hours for your account credentials to be functional. Next, you need to obtain your "Access key ID" and "Secret key" from the "Access Credentials" section of the "Security Credentials" page of "My Account." Make sure the status is "active." Next, make sure that "Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)" is the selected "CDN type" on the "General Settings" tab, then save the changes. Now on the "Content Delivery Network Settings" tab enter your "Access key," "Secret key" and enter a name (avoid special characters and spaces) for your bucket in the "Create a bucket" field by clicking the button of the same name. If using an existing bucket simply specify the bucket name in the "Bucket" field. Click the "Test S3 Upload" button and make sure that the test is successful, if not check your settings and try again. Save your settings.
Unless you wish to use CloudFront, you're almost done, skip to the next paragraph if you're using CloudFront. Go to the "General Settings" tab and click the "Enable" checkbox and save the settings to enable CDN functionality. Empty the cache for the changes to take effect. If preview mode is active you will need to "deploy" your changes for them to take effect.
To use CloudFront, perform all of the steps above, except select the "Amazon CloudFront" "CDN type" in the "Content Delivery Network" section of the "General Settings" tab. When creating a new bucket, the distribution ID will automatically be populated. Otherwise, proceed to the AWS Management Console and create a new distribution: select the S3 Bucket you created earlier as the "Origin," enter a CNAME if you wish to add one or more to your DNS Zone. Make sure that "Distribution Status" is deployed and "State" is enabled. Now on "Content Delivery Network" tab of the plugin, copy the subdomain found in the AWS Management Console and enter the CNAME used for the distribution in the "CNAME" field.
You may optionally, specify up to 10 hostnames to use rather than the default hostname, doing so will improve the render performance of your site's pages. Additional hostnames should also be specified in the settings for the distribution you're using in the AWS Management Console.
Now go to the General tab and click the "Enable" checkbox and save the settings to enable CDN functionality and empty the cache for the changes to take effect. If preview mode is active you will need to "deploy" your changes for them to take effect.
Anything I need to do when using Amazon Web Services with limited permissions (S3, CloudFront, SNS)?
We recommend that you use IAM to create a new policy for AWS services that have limited permissions. A helpful tool: AWS Policy Generator
You also find a S3 configuration sample in the "ini" folder in the plugins directory.
First create an account. Next, in the "Content Delivery Network" section of the "General Settings" tab, select Rackspace Cloud Files as the "CDN Type." Now, in the "Configuration" section of the "Content Delivery Network" tab, enter the "Username" and "API key" associated with your account (found in the API Access section of the rackspace cloud control panel) in the respective fields. Next enter a name for the container to use (avoid special characters and spaces). If the operation is successful, the container's ID will automatically appear in the "Replace site's hostname with" field. You may optionally, specify the container name and container ID of an existing container if you wish. Click the "Test Cloud Files Upload" button and make sure that the test is successful, if not check your settings and try again. Save your settings. You're now ready to export your media library, theme and any other files to the CDN.
You may optionally, specify up to 10 hostnames to use rather than the default hostname, doing so will improve the render performance of your site's pages.
Now go to the General tab and click the "Enable" checkbox and save the settings to enable CDN functionality and empty the cache for the changes to take effect. If preview mode is active you will need to "deploy" your changes for them to take effect.
Login to your CDN providers control panel or account management area. Following any set up steps they provide, create a new "pull zone" or "bucket" for your site's domain name. If there's a set up wizard or any troubleshooting tips your provider offers, be sure to review them. In the "Content Delivery Network" tab of the plugin, enter the hostname your CDN provider provided in the "replace site's hostname with" field. You should always do a quick check by opening a test file from the CDN hostname, e.g. http://cdn.domain.com/favicon.ico. Troubleshoot with yoru CDN provider until this test is successful.
Now go to the "General" tab and click the checkbox and save the settings to enable CDN functionality and empty the cache for the changes to take effect.
If the file exists in your document root (i.e. http://domain.com/favicon.ico), the plugin can take care of that for you using custom upload options. If the file is in your theme directory you can also have the plugin uploaded from there.
Yes, you can specify which file types you would like served by CDN and they will be uploaded and always downloaded from that location. This includes the smilies, JavaScript files et al. By default we take care of them all.
Yes, any CSS and JS you manage with the plugin are minified before being uploaded to your CDN. You don't have to make any special changes to your theme. We encourage you to make sure that your provider supports HTTP compression as the benefit of having your static assets available from more than one POP alone is not enough.
That depends on how you use your blog and where most of your readers read your blog (regionally). Here's a short list:
No, that is taken care of for you. Your CSS files will originate from your CDN provider and all paths to any images in your CSS will be changed from relative to absolute, making sure that they load just fine. Do nothing differently, yet reap all the benefits.
The media library import tool is for old or "messy" WordPress installations that have attachments (images etc in posts or pages) scattered about the web server or "hot linked" to 3rd party sites instead of properly using the media library.
The tool will scan your posts and pages for the cases above and copy them to your media library, update your posts to use the link addresses and produce a .htaccess file containing the list of of permanent redirects, so search engines can find the files in their new location.
You should backup your database before performing this operation.
If the domain name of your site has changed, this tool is useful in updating your posts and pages to use the current addresses. For example, if your site used to be www.domain.com, and you decided to change it to domain.com, the result would either be many "broken" images or many unnecessary redirects (which slow down the visitor's browsing experience). You can use this tool to correct this and similar cases. Correcting the URLs of your images also allows the plugin to do a better job of determining which images are actually hosted with the CDN
As always, it never hurts to back up your database first.