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Documentation & User Guides | Fotoware

Hosting CMS Exports on a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

 

By distributing assets that have been exported for use in external systems, such as a CMS, to a content delivery network, users of the external system will get faster access to those resources regardless of their geographic location.

FotoWeb has built-in support for the Amazon Cloud Front CDN in addition to any CDN that supports FTP upload and remove.

Setting up Amazon CloudFront

FotoWeb only supports Amazon CloudFront connected to an Amazon S3 bucket.

Please refer to the Amazon documentation for help getting started with Amazon CloudFront.

 

To configure FotoWeb to use Amazon CloudFront, open the FotoWeb site configuration and go to the Settings tab, then expand the Services node and choose CDN. Tick the Enable CDN checkbox and choose AWS (Amazon Cloud Front and S3).

Next, fill in all the required fields as configured on Amazon Web Services:

Configuring FotoWeb to use Amazon CloudFront CDN

Important notes about Amazon CloudFront
  • If an administrator adds a new CDN connection or modifies the Region, Bucket name or CloudFront Distribution ID settings, users will need to republish exports to make them available on the new CDN.
  • If an administrator changes the Base URL, everyone who uses the exported assets have to update their reference. (FotoWeb uses the base URL to build the URL to the asset so it can be returned to the client when an asset is exported.)
  • If an administrator changes the type of CDN connection or disables it before first revoking the exported assets, FotoWeb is no longer responsible for removing the assets from their original CDN.
  • Revoking an asset usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes. More information can be found in the Amazon CloudFront documentation.

Setting up a CDN based on FTP

FotoWeb can be configured to push exports to an FTP server so that any CDN that supports receiving assets over FTP can be used.

To configure it, open the FotoWeb site configuration and go to the Settings tab, then expand the Services node and choose CDN. Tick the Enable CDN checkbox and choose FTP Server.

FTP CDN settings.png

Host: The FTP host that FotoWeb pushes exports to.

Port: If using a custom port, enter the port number here.

Path: The path on the ftp server where the assets are stored by FotoWeb.

Username/Password: Authentication credentials to connect to the FTP server.

Use Passive FTP: Tick this option to use passive FTP for the connection.

Use Secure FTP (FTPS): Tick this option to secure the FTP connection.

Base URL: This is the base URL to the area where the CDN publishes the assets. FotoWeb uses the base URL to build the URL to the asset so it can be returned to the client when an asset is exported.

Important notes
  • If an administrator changes the Base URL, everyone who uses the exported assets have to update their reference.
  • The FTP delivery from FotoWeb does not support TLS resumption.

Will existing FotoWeb Export work alongside CDN exports?

Yes, files that have been exported before the CDN connection is enabled will point to FotoWeb as before, and FotoWeb will serve up those exports directly.

Is migration of of existing exports to a CDN supported?

No, this does not work because the the exported "hrefs" used within any integration (e.g. a published EPIServer article) is directed towards the FotoWeb server and not the CDN. There is no way for FotoWeb to detect wherever these links have been used and update them. A redirect is also not sufficient. The only way to do this is to re-export the already exported assets and manually update the link wherever it is used.

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