Microsoft AJAX CDN – Now with SSL Support

Back in September I blogged about the new Microsoft AJAX CDN (Content Delivery Network) service that the ASP.NET team is now providing.  The CDN provides edge caching support for AJAX libraries (including jQuery and ASP.NET AJAX).  The service is available for free, does not require any registration, and can be used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.  It offers a great way to speed up your external facing web-sites.

SSL Support Now Provided

One of the features in September that we said was coming (but which was not available at the initial launch) was SSL support for scripts served off of the CDN.  This is necessary for scenarios where you have SSL enabled pages on your site, and you want to reference a script library from the Microsoft CDN and avoid a “This page contains both secure and non-secure items” warning message being displayed to end-users visiting your site.

SSL support is now enabled with the scripts hosted on the Microsoft AJAX CDN.  Simply use an “https” moniker with any script references on your site that point to the CDN, and they will now be served over SSL.  For example, below is how you can reference jQuery over SSL:

   <script src="https://ajax.microsoft.com/ajax/jquery/jquery-1.3.2.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>   

The Microsoft AJAX CDN documentation has recently been updated with more details about it.  You can visit it here to learn more. It lists all of the libraries currently offered via the CDN.  We are steadily adding more libraries to it and will update the page as new ones become available.

Hope this helps,

Scott

P.S. In addition to blogging, I’m also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

17 Comments

  • Nice, that was needed.

  • will SSL support be available from the ScriptManager when using in CDN mode?

  • CDN is quite an interesting idea. Good to know that you now provide SSL too.

    Thanks

  • Nice, SSL is more and more popular nowadays. Many web sites prefer SSL for security reason.

  • Great news! This was the reason we couldn't use the CDN. Updating my code right away ;)

  • What makes Microsoft AJAX CDN superior from code.google.com/apis/ajaxlibs and/or yui.yahooapis.com?

  • World Wide there are still many users with line speeds unsuited to 400KB library downloads. Such downloads render page load and response times as unacceptable and may see the user leave without viewing the web content.

    Caching such libraries on these edge servers is such a small step forward.

    These libraries are relatively small (when comparing browser size to web page size). Caching on the brower would be much quicker and save huge amounts of bandwidth on the web over the long term.

    If MS IE9, for example, held libraries locally for Script Manager, jQuery, and some of the commercial component libraries such as Infragistics, Telerik, ComponentOne, DevExpress and one or two others this would totally blow away the corcern of slow loading pages when using such libraries.

    Unfortunately, many large company developers are spoiled by their high spec systems and 25Mb/s plus internet speeds. Remember, at the moment these people are still in the minority.

    Imagine using a meta tag with a construction similar to:



    Browser manufacturers could decide which libraries/components they would support and it would be fairly straight forward to support multiple versions.

    Libraries could be updated via the normal update process, or automatically when the user acceses a particular library that is not already cached by the browser.

    This idea was first put forward in Dec-2008 here:

    http://theludditedeveloper.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/browser-support-for-jquery-infragistics-telerik-component-one-and-other-component-suppliers/

    The CDN does not offer the performance gains achieved by local browser cached libraries.

  • This is a very nice addition to the cdn, i wasn't using it since our visitors would have errors on non https from our https website but this could really help.

  • Good news

    PS: starting to hate pingbacks

  • Still waiting for jQuery UI!!

  • This is Great! What about the jQueryUI will you add support for this in the future?

  • Please consider adding jqueryui.

  • Hi Scott

    Now many nodes does the CDN have?

    Lucifer

  • AJAX being an important part of web development means a lot to web developers and its support with SSL has made website more secured thanks for posting important stuff

  • this is good to hear

  • Thanks very much - Every little helps!!

  • Hi Scott

    I recently posted a question on the ASP.Net forums regarding the locations of Microft's CDN server locations (http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/1261d177d0e5efdf):

    "I have a client with branches spread over multiple african countries such as Botswana and Zambia. Problem is, in Africa download speeds are really slow, and even slower when the website you are connecting to is outside of your country's border (local ISP's "throttle" your bandwidth for international downloads, meaning that your download time increases about ten times).

    I am contemplating the possiblity of utilising Microsoft's CDN, but do not want to go through all the trouble if they do not have servers in the countries I am targeting.

    Google does not seem to have any answers. Can somebody provide some info on Micrsoft's CDN server locations?"

    Unfortunately I am not able to perform speedtests from my current location and asking my customers or users to perform these tests is only an absolute last resort (in fact, I don't think its a viable option, but I digress).

    Could you or Microsoft possibly provide a list of countries in which your CDN edge cache servers are hosted?

    Regards

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