Discourse CDN integration

Introduction

Discourse is 100% open source discussion platform. It offers some very good community features, such as:

  • Email digest.
  • User management.
  • Backups.
  • Spam management.

If you choose this platform for designing a forum, think of using a CDN service to enhance its performance. Below, you may find detailed instructions on how to integrate CDN with Discourse.

Before you start

  • Before you take any steps please back up your files and database.
  • In the following, we will integrate a CDN service using the CDN domain 12345.r.cdnsun.net Please visit the Services/How-To section to obtain your CDN domain.
  • To integrate a CDN service on https:// website the CDN service must have SSL enabled.
  • If your website embeds custom fonts then please first enable CORS for them.
  • Before you take any steps please make sure that your CDN domain is ready-to-use here.

Create CDN Static service

Please refer to Creating a CDN Static service for more details.

Enable CDN in Discourse

  1. Go to your Discourse installation directory, e.g. /var/discourse.
  2. In the file containers/app.yml replace the following: 
    #DISCOURSE_CDN_URL: //discourse-cdn.example.com
    with the following: 
    DISCOURSE_CDN_URL: //12345.r.cdnsun.net
  3. Run ./launcher rebuild app.
  4. That's all.

Notes

  • View HTML source code of your web pages to verify that you are using CDN, you should see source attribute of your images, CSS, JavaScript, etc. beginning with your CDN domain.
  • Don't see your CDN domain in the source code of your web pages? If your website is using any cache plug-in/mechanism then you might want to clear/flush its cache.
  • Having trouble with custom fonts? Please refer to Using custom fonts with CDN - setting CORS for more details.
  • Still having trouble? Check your CDN URLs using our content check tool or please refer to Debugging a CDN service for more hints.
  • Can you improve this guide or write a new one for software we haven't covered? Help us expand our CDN integrations section and earn $50 in CDN credit! Contact us to contribute.

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