CDN Integration

Introduction

Content Delivery Networks cache static files at edge locations worldwide, reducing latency for global users.

Key Concepts

CDN: Network of servers distributing content globally.

Origin: Your server where content originates.

Deep Dive

Basic CDN Setup

python
# settings.py
STATIC_URL = 'https://cdn.example.com/static/'
MEDIA_URL = 'https://cdn.example.com/media/'

AWS CloudFront + S3

python
# pip install django-storages boto3

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = os.environ['AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID']
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = os.environ['AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY']
AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME = 'my-bucket'
AWS_S3_REGION_NAME = 'us-east-1'
AWS_S3_CUSTOM_DOMAIN = 'd1234.cloudfront.net'

AWS_S3_OBJECT_PARAMETERS = {
    'CacheControl': 'max-age=31536000',  # 1 year
}

# Separate storage for static and media
STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'myapp.storage.StaticStorage'
DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE = 'myapp.storage.MediaStorage'

python
# storage.py
from storages.backends.s3boto3 import S3Boto3Storage

class StaticStorage(S3Boto3Storage):
    location = 'static'
    default_acl = 'public-read'

class MediaStorage(S3Boto3Storage):
    location = 'media'
    file_overwrite = False

Cache Headers

python
# Immutable assets (hashed names)
AWS_S3_OBJECT_PARAMETERS = {
    'CacheControl': 'max-age=31536000, immutable',
}

# Mutable assets
class MediaStorage(S3Boto3Storage):
    object_parameters = {
        'CacheControl': 'max-age=86400',  # 1 day
    }

Best Practices

1. Use long cache times: With hashed file names.
2. Separate static and media: Different cache strategies.
3. Enable compression: CloudFront/CDN-level gzip.

Summary

Use CDN for global distribution of static files. Configure long cache times with hashed names. Use django-storages for S3/CloudFront integration.