Dropbox CDN


About the “Dropbox CDN”:
This is a WordPress Plugin that will allow you to use your Dropbox ‘Public’ folder as a free Content Delivery Network (or CDN). I would only suggest this plugin for users who aren’t afraid of getting their hands a little dirty.

Download version 1.1

Compatability:
This is tested on the most recent version of WordPress. The minimum for this plugin is WordPress 2.7.1.

Please note that, as of now, this plugin only supports themes who use the filters ‘template_directory’, ‘template_directory_uri’, ‘stylesheet_directory’, ‘stylesheet_directory_uri’, and ‘stylesheet_url’ to determine the paths to the theme’s template and stylesheet files.

To install this plugin within WordPress
1. Login into your wp-admin section
2. From the Plugins menu choose ‘Add New’
3. Search for ‘Dropbox CDN’
4. Click on the ‘Install’ link for this plugin
5. Follow the steps on the settings page

To install this plugin manually:
1. Download the .zip file
2. Unpack into wp-content/plugins/ folder
3. Activate the plugin
4. Follow the steps on the settings page

Change Log:
-Version 1.1-
Added support for ‘stylesheet_url’

-Version 1-
Initial Release

Known Issues
Some themes aren’t supported – not sure of a way that I can get around this
Internet provider (work/school/etc) blocking dl.dropbox.com domain – looking into a way to take care of this
wpTouch incompatibility – Looking into a fix for this mobile theme to still work

{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }

mmln November 28, 2010 at 5:29 pm

I use buddypress plugin with child theme. When dropbox CDN plugin is enabled, home page doesn’t display properly. I am guessing it is not reading the parent theme files (I uploaded the child theme files).
Any solution to this problem ?

Chris K November 28, 2010 at 7:09 pm

@mmln
It would depend on the theme you are using. As I mentioned in the alert at the beginning of the post, the theme must use the supported methods of getting the path to the CSS. Is this a theme I can download from somewhere to check out? Give me the following and I’ll see what I can do:

Your URL
The Theme you are using
WordPress & BuddyPress versions

Joseph November 30, 2010 at 12:39 pm

Does it work with multisite as well?

Buzzknow November 30, 2010 at 4:40 pm

Hi, its really simple and nice plugin … using dropdbox for CDN really brilliant idea!

thanks a lot, no need to pay s3, lol …

Chris K November 30, 2010 at 7:06 pm

@Joseph,

I haven’t tried this yet, however, as each multisite has it’s own options and exists to WordPress as an individual site, as long as you go into the ‘Backend’ for each of the sites and setup the proper URL to the files in our Dropbox Public folder for each site, it shouldn’t have any problems. If you do have some issues let me know so I can get in touch with you to see what’s happening.

Thanks,
Chris

Michael December 3, 2010 at 12:06 am

Hello, how can I find out that my theme supports the filters mentioned above?

Chris K December 3, 2010 at 5:43 am

@Michael
The easiest way to find this is to look at the header.php file for the theme and look for this function wherever a ‘stylesheet’ is loaded. If you aren’t sure what you are looking for, go ahead and shoot me the name of the theme and I can take a quick look.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I think I might look into a way to throw up a notice in the plugin settings if the theme currently activated supports the hooks I’m using.

Savage December 3, 2010 at 12:39 pm

Can’t get it to work with the Suffusion theme…. I’m guessing because it’s a pretty indepth theme and probably doesn’t support the hooks you’re using/looking for.

Chris K December 3, 2010 at 1:11 pm

@Savage
I will check out that theme this weekend and see what I can find out.

Michael December 4, 2010 at 1:16 am

@Chris K
My theme is Recipress from Diamond Designers: http://www.diamondsdesigners.com/wordpress-themes/recipress/
Thanks a lot

Chris K December 4, 2010 at 8:11 am

@Savage
Being an ‘InDepth’ theme isn’t the problem…Some of the best themes out there are ‘In Depth’ themes. Take the Mystique theme. There are plenty of options built into the theme’s Admin area, however, the styles and CSS are still managed by css that are coded using the proper hooks. The Suffusion theme has NO calls for CSS in the files I saw, meaning it’s generating ALL of the styles on the fly, and therefore this plugin cannot be used. This plugin is designed to deliver STATIC files, ones that don’t change. Unfortunately it looks like this plugin will not work with this theme. Sorry.

Chris K December 4, 2010 at 8:25 am

@Michael
The version I just released, 1.1, should support this theme if you follow the steps in the setup process. Let me know if you have any issues and I’ll check it out. Make sure you get 1.1 though.

mmln December 4, 2010 at 6:24 pm

@Chris K
Hi chris,
I use BuddyPress Widget Theme 1.2.1
this is a child theme of buddypress default theme. I use the latest released wp & bp.
BP – 1.2.6
WP – 3.0.2

Diego January 4, 2011 at 9:58 pm

Hi!

I’m using Atahualpa theme for my blog and your plugin doesn’t work.
I saw the header.php and is not using the default functions to get the paths.
What I can do?

Chris K January 9, 2011 at 9:45 am

@Diego

Unfortunately, if the theme does not use the proper hooks that this plugin needs, then it cannot work with the plugin. I appologize for the frustration this may cause, but due to the way that WordPress works with hooks, if the theme does not use it, the theme doesn’t know where to insert the proper alterations to the theme directories.

Rajesh Namase January 22, 2011 at 9:50 am

Hi Chris,
I am using Mystique Wordpres theme 2.4.2, and I want to use this plugin. Is mystique theme supports these plugin.

Eken January 23, 2011 at 4:59 am

How do I know that this plugin is working for my site (http://blog.ekendraonline.com) ??? I have followed all the procedure.

rohan @techlunatic.com January 27, 2011 at 2:31 am

i am using the thesis theme , can you advice how to use this plugin or whether it is supported in thesis , the way thesis is coded?

Chris K January 29, 2011 at 10:03 pm

To find out if the plugin is working, you can use the ‘Page Info’ feature of Firefox and look for the CSS and javascript files of your theme to have a url of dl.dropbox.com……

Chris K January 29, 2011 at 10:04 pm

The Thesis Theme holds many of it’s design options in the database. Unfortunately, this will not help with that type of theme.

Chris K February 2, 2011 at 8:48 am

@Rajesh

This plugin works fine with this version of the Mystique theme. I’m using it @ sudoaptgetlife.com, my other blog.

Danny Michel February 2, 2011 at 11:13 pm

Doesnt work bro. I have the supported hooks, but it doesnt work

Chris K February 3, 2011 at 5:33 am

@Danny

I looked at your site and your plugin wp-minify is taking all your CSS and modifying it and then using it’s own version of your CSS. That appears to be undoing any modifications my plugin is using. Take a look:
Your CSS is going to: http://nybodyart.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-minify/min/?f=wp-content/themes/nyb/style.css,wp-content/plugins/contact-form-7/styles.css&m=1296716751

This tells me that even though your theme is using the proper hooks, the wp-minify is altering the location where the theme is looking for the CSS for the display.

Lawrence Meckan February 4, 2011 at 6:28 am

Any chance you could figure out how to make this work with W3 Total Cache?

I’ve also encountered the same problems as Danny with WP-Minify

Lawrence Meckan February 4, 2011 at 7:43 am

Follow up post: It also breaks against the HeadJS loader plugin, which is something else that might need a fix.

Leave a Comment

{ 4 trackbacks }