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This post details the One Pica Image CDN extension to the Magento eCommerce platform. The One Pica Image CDN extension uses the first method of choosing between multiple CDN’s or CDN load balancing, which I call switching (refer to my previous blog post Introduction to Choosing Between Multiple CDN’s and CDN Load Balancing for more details on load balancing techniques.)

Magento is the leading open source eCommerce platform. The Magento platform's primary goal is to put control back in the hands of the online merchant while eliminating constraints on the merchant's business processes and flow. To help achieve that goal, Magento is committed to nurturing the growth of the Magento ecosystem by building strong and lasting partnerships that continue to develop and extend the core Magento offering. One example that's relevant to the CDN market is the One Pica Image CDN extension. One Pica strives to build scalable and flexible enterprise systems for all of their clients, large and small, and to give back to the Magento community to promote its success.

The One Pica Image CDN extension enables Magento's customers to host category and product images on a CDN with ease. The extension automatically distributes category and properly-sized product images to a CDN when they are referenced in the Magento templates. This code extends the functionality of category and product image getUrl() to determine the existence of the file on the CDN, push the image to the correct location if it isn't found, and return the CDN-specific URL. Installation nto an operational store will work immediately as images already present will be uploaded to the CDN on demand. As a result users can install, enable, and disable the extension without consequence and at any time. Changing from one CDN provider to another is relatively easy - the user simply alters the extension settings within the Magento eCommerce platform.

The extension currently integrates with the following CDN’s: Amazon S3, Coral CDN, Mosso/Rackspace Cloud Files, and any CDN, server or service that supports FTP, FTPS, or SFTP. Integration with Amazon's S3 service includes and uses the wrapper called PHP-AWS. The Mosso (now called Rackspace Cloud) integration includes and uses the wrapper written by Mosso. Coral CDN is a free, open source, peer-to-peer content distribution network that works simply by appending ".nyud.net" to the hostname of any URL. The FTP/FTPS/SFTP integration utilizes the respective PHP wrapper.

Last week Gregory Segall, President of One Pica, said “With every engagement, we strive to create the utmost scalable and flexible end-product. The ImageCDN extension is a perfect example of that. In just 2 months, nearly 800 enterprise e-commerce sites are using the extension. That’s great penetration considering the extension was ‘officially’ released in early October 2009."

While it doesn’t load balance, react to CDN failures, or apply to all types of CDN delivery (only caching is supported), the One Pica Image CDN extension offers great flexibility for Magento users. Users get to choose their CDN, can change CDN’s at anytime, and can do it all as a part of the Magento eCommerce platform. It uses the first method - switching, but it offers great flexibility if you’d like to take the quick and easy step towards experimenting with multiple CDN’s within Magento.