CDN + Minify Problems Summary Thread

[MGBrose]

I'm creating this thread for us to develop a more thought out to the CDN+ Minify Problems.

I just want to forward this saying I'm learning as I go along here with CDN's so if anything I write is incorrect please IPB Staff or members here let me know and I can update it.


CDN Problems with Minify
So lets address the 2 primary problems that we can have with CDN's [*]Purging a QueryString safely calls for versioning 1) AntiCache Header/Query String When IPBoard applys minify to css/js it takes all the seperate files and combines them into 3 files a css "bucket" and 2 js "buckets". By Default they will look something like this:

[*]AntiCache Header/Query String on minified CSS/JS Files

http://content.community.invisionpower.com/public/min/index.php?ipbv=484fbb5e8626cdc6c8728e5647f33c2e&f=public/style_css/css_35/ipb_help.css,public/style_css/css_35/calendar_select.css,public/style_css/css_35/ipb_common.css,public/style_css/css_35/ipb_styles.css


http://content.community.invisionpower.com/public/min/index.php?ipbv=484fbb5e8626cdc6c8728e5647f33c2e&g=js


http://content.community.invisionpower.com/public/min/index.php?ipbv=484fbb5e8626cdc6c8728e5647f33c2e&charset=iso-8859-1&f=public/js/ipb.js,cache/lang_cache/1/ipb.lang.js,public/js/ips.hovercard.js,public/js/ips.quickpm.js,public/js/ips.board.js

The difficulty here for whether or not a CDN will support minify falls on 2 aspects.

Does the CDN accept query-strings? Does the CDN have a querystring length limit? (I believe MaxCDN does for example)

http://content.community.invisionpower.com/public/min/index.php?ipbv=484fbb5e8626cdc6c8728e5647f33c2e&charset=iso-8859-1&f=public/js/ipb.js,cache/lang_cache/1/ipb.lang.js,public/js/ips.hovercard.js,public/js/ips.quickpm.js,public/js/ips.board.js

For CDN's like Amazon Cloudfront there is no way to clear this file from the CDN, (even with the invalidate feature). And the reason is that the CDN still perceives the minified file as valid even if it has been removed from your server(deleted from minify cache default in cache/tmp). The only way to properly purge the minified files on Amazon is to use file versioning, and it's probably the best way to do it on any CDN. The solution I'm going after involves a htaccess redirect. It's my thinking that we can fool a CDN into versioning our minified content via a simple htaccess redirect. And then serving our css /js from that url. So the idea would be to add a version number in the URL that you decide on, I personally like dates. So what I'd go for is rewriting domain.com/public/min/ to something like domain.com/public/7.22/min

RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^public/7.22/min/(.+)$ public/min/$1 [L,NC]

another option could be to rewrite the /public/ base url to be --> /7.22/public/

RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^7.22/public/(.+)$ public/$1 [L,NC]

I'm still trying to get this to work though, I was unable to mess with this too much on my livesite. So I'm rebuilding my dev site over the next few days and I should be able to update my results more here. Any other ideas for versioning/getting around this problem? Any Htaccess /cdn guru input would be much appreciated!

QueryString Length Solutions: The solution here could be to shorten the length of the query to remove everything &charset and after. I know their is a paid plugin called reminify for this, but I imagine only a small php modification is needed to modify the string length. If anyone finds it be sure to post it here. 2) Purging a QueryString (my problem in particular) The next problem we have once we get files into the CDN is purging them when we need to make updates to our sites. With minify directly applies to making css/js modifications. Now why is this a major issue? Well the major problem is with the querystring itself, if your CDN pulls

[Grumpy]

There's a simpler trick to adding version #s.
Just make another js file in your template with any name/version/etc you want. It can be blank file. Then your IPB's request line will include this file, thus changing the query and thus effectively versioning your minis.

[MGBrose]

So just to makesure I understand correctly, in my include js file heres what I have right now

ression="PUBLIC_DIRECTORY"}/js/ipb.js,cache/lang_cache/{$this->lang->lang_id}/ipb.lang.js,{parse expression="PUBLIC_DIRECTORY"}/js/ips.hovercard.js,{parse expression="PUBLIC_DIRECTORY"}/js/ips.quickpm.js<if test="hasjsmodules:|:count($jsModules)">,{parse expression="PUBLIC_DIRECTORY"}/js/ips.{parse expression="implode('.js,' . PUBLIC_DIRECTORY . '/js/ips.', array_unique( array_keys( $jsModules ) ) )"}.js</if>' charset='{$this->settings['gb_char_set']}'></script>

<script type='text/javascript' src='{$this->settings['js_base_url']}min/index.php?ipbv={$this->registry->output->antiCacheHash}&amp;charset={$this->settings['gb_char_set']}&amp;f={parse exp

Your saying all I need to do is:
create a blank file via ftp at the destination/location in this case /public/js/versionnumber722.js

then modify the above code after:
{parse expression="PUBLIC_DIRECTORY"}/js/ipb.js,
add
{parse expression="PUBLIC_DIRECTORY"}/js/versionnumber722.js,
and I imagine same steps for css aswell?

[Grumpy]

Yes and no.

I was recollecting what I did with css. But didn't realize when I wrote that the same doesn't exist for JS.

Look & Feel -> Manage Skin Sets & Templates -> Manage Templates in Sylo -> CSS -> Add CSS File
Then your css minified address will already include your new css.

But for js, seems what you said is the only way... which is not any less work than .htaccess method. :P

[MGBrose]

Yes and no.

I was recollecting what I did with css. But didn't realize when I wrote that the same doesn't exist for JS.

Then your css minified address will already include your new css.

But for js, seems what you said is the only way... which is not any less work than .htaccess method. :tongue:

yeah but, I can't get the htaccess method to work, so I'm going to give yours a shot, thanks for the advice! :thumbsup:

[Grumpy]

If you're going to edit skins, you can add random parameters to the query line just like the ipbv there.
So, you could add something like &myv=1.0 at the very end.

[MGBrose]

If you're going to edit skins, you can add random parameters to the query line just like the ipbv there.

I'll definitely try this for some reason my minify system is completely borked and I can't figure out why. Hopefully I can get invision to take a look at it cause im absolutely stumped.

[MGBrose]

If you're going to edit skins, you can add random parameters to the query line just like the ipbv there.

AND THAT is the perfect solution. Grumpy you are AWESOME!

I'm so excited! :hyper:

[MGBrose]

Update the guide on how to properly run Minified CSS/JS on your cdn is now live here: http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/articles.html/_/server-resource-management/cdn-minify-guide-r625