Dirty Hack: Add CDN support into phpBB 3.1.6

It works for phpBB 3.1.x, not just phpBB 3.1.6. For a national forum or global forum, it is a must to have a CDN support.

The way I used is not a formal extension or plugin. It is a hack, actually a dirty hack. If you have no experience for it, you can close this page now.

Now, let’s start.

Backup everything of your phpBB, include files and database.\
URL path example.
Forum url is http://www.myforum.com/
CDN url is http://myforum.kxcdn.com/

Open /includes/functions.php
add following in line 5112

// Add CDN path
$cdn_cache = '//myforum.kxcdn.com/';

Find following around Line 5216

'T_ASSETS_PATH'         => "{$web_path}assets",
'T_THEME_PATH'         => "{$web_path}styles/" . rawurlencode($user->style['style_path']) . '/theme',
'T_TEMPLATE_PATH'      => "{$web_path}styles/" . rawurlencode($user->style['style_path']) . '/template',
       

Replace by

'T_ASSETS_PATH'         => $cdn_cache."assets",
'T_THEME_PATH'         => $cdn_cache."styles/" . rawurlencode($user->style['style_path']) . '/theme',
'T_TEMPLATE_PATH'      => $cdn_cache."styles/" . rawurlencode($user->style['style_path']) . '/template',

Find following around Line 5230

'T_STYLESHEET_LINK'      => "{$web_path}styles/" . rawurlencode($user->style['style_path']) . '/theme/stylesheet.css?assets_version=' . $config['assets_version'],
'T_STYLESHEET_LANG_LINK'    => "{$web_path}styles/" . rawurlencode($user->style['style_path']) . '/theme/' . $user->lang_name . '/stylesheet.css?assets_version=' . $config['assets_version'],

Replace by

'T_STYLESHEET_LINK'      => $cdn_cache."styles/" . rawurlencode($user->style['style_path']) . '/theme/stylesheet.css?assets_version=' . $config['assets_version'],
'T_STYLESHEET_LANG_LINK'    => $cdn_cache."styles/" . rawurlencode($user->style['style_path']) . '/theme/' . $user->lang_name . '/stylesheet.css?assets_version=' . $config['assets_version'],

Save and overwrite the original file.

Open /includes/functions_content.php
Find following around Line 902

return preg_replace('#<!\-\- s(.*?) \-\-><img src="\{SMILIES_PATH\}\/(.*?) \/><!\-\- s\1 \-\->#', '<img class="smilies" src="' . $root_path . $config['smilies_path'] . '/\2 />', $text);

Replace by

return preg_replace('#<!\-\- s(.*?) \-\-><img src="\{SMILIES_PATH\}\/(.*?) \/><!\-\- s\1 \-\->#', '<img class="smilies" src="' .'//forum.kxcdn.com/forum/'.$root_path. $config['smilies_path'] . '/\2 />', $text);