Static Asset Domain Replace

[Work in progress]

Joomla plugin to add a domain name to static assets.

Makes heavy use of advanced Regex.

Features:

• Replace only certain types of resources (e.x. only those in <script src> or only <img src> tags)
• Replace only files with specific extension (e.x. only .jpg or only .min.js)
  • (.min.js and .js are considered different extensions by this plugin)
• Use relative //, http:// or https:// for the replaced urls
• Very simple and easy-to-modify code:
  • I tried to make this as straightforward and uncomplicated as possible, no external libraries or hidden functions.
  • No guarantee on your interpretation of the Regex though, that might still be complicated.
• Operates on the final html output of a page
  • Doesn't modify any locations inside Joomla, only operates on the frontend output html of the site.
• Works with caching plugins (just set the order before or after in Joomla)

Note: this plugin doesn't replace relative local urls, since that would require extracting information about the parent path. Meaning templates/something.js won't get replaced, but /templates/something.js will.

Why this plugin exists:

Alternative to "CDN for Joomla" (My use case)

All I needed to do was change the domain of the static assets in tags like <script> and <link> or <style> to a CDN pull zone domain. So that's all this plugin does.

Since the "CDN for Joomla" plugin didn't have HTTP/s scheme support in the free version, this may be an improvement.

For example, I have a javascript static resource (let's say jQuery,) that I wanted to serve from my CDN instead of my site. Since I use CloudFlare, the paths are the same on the CDN and the primary host. (/images on the CDN is /images on the origin)

Something like this in the html of the page:

<script src="/templates/robosaneed24/js/jui/jquery.min.js?8f126dd35f491b86b38f69083a398410" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/media/jui/js/jquery-noconflict.js?8f126dd35f491b86b38f69083a398410" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/media/jui/js/jquery-migrate.min.js?8f126dd35f491b86b38f69083a398410" type="text/javascript"></script>

Using this plugin (domain: www-cdn.robosane.net, enable in script tags, filetypes: min.js, js) Now gets served from the CDN instead:

<script src="https://www-cdn.robosane.net/templates/robosaneed24/js/jui/jquery.min.js?8f126dd35f491b86b38f69083a398410" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="https://www-cdn.robosane.net/media/jui/js/jquery-noconflict.js?8f126dd35f491b86b38f69083a398410" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="https://www-cdn.robosane.net/media/jui/js/jquery-migrate.min.js?8f126dd35f491b86b38f69083a398410" type="text/javascript"></script>

If your CDN is in a subfolder, just change the domain to something like your-cdn.domain.com/subfolder and it'll work since it's just a regex replace.

I'm using this approach because it also separates the cookie domains from the CDN, so if you're a performance snob like me, or just prefer not to send passwords through the CDN (but still want to use one), then this plugin may help.

To explicitly set the domain for static assets

Even if you're not serving from a separate domain, you can have the plugin insert whatever domain you want.

For example, you could change all the local resources to be http/s or not, or just ensure that they're all set.