Linking to Your Content

Our CDN service can only fulfill requests for two types of URLs. Each supported URL type is described below.

URL Types	Description
CDN URL	A system-defined URL that provides the following information: Platform Customer account number Service type or origin server identification Relative path to an asset View a sample URL.
Edge CNAME URL	A URL that uses an edge CNAME and a CNAME record to create an alias to a CDN URL. View a sample URL.

URL Types

Description

CDN URL

A system-defined URL that provides the following information:

Platform
Customer account number
Service type or origin server identification
Relative path to an asset

View a sample URL.

Edge CNAME URL

A URL that uses an edge CNAME and a CNAME record to create an alias to a CDN URL.

View a sample URL.

Both types of URLs can be used to request content through our network. The main difference between these two URLs is that an edge CNAME URL allows you to use a custom hostname (e.g., cdn.mydomain.com) to reference content that will be delivered through our network.

CDN and edge CNAME URLs are case-sensitive. Using an improper case in the URL will result in a 404 Not Found error message.

A list of base CDN and edge CNAME URLs is provided from CAN's home page.

Sample URLs

The configuration used in this example is described below.

Configuration Type	Setting	Value
Customer Origin	Directory Name	Business
Edge CNAME	New Edge Cname	cdn.mydomain.com
Edge CNAME	Origin Directory	Type: Customer Origin Points to: /80Indicates that content from a customer origin server is being requested.0001Represents your customer account number./Business

Configuration Type

Setting

Value

Customer Origin

Directory Name

Business

Edge CNAME

New Edge Cname

cdn.mydomain.com

Edge CNAME

Origin Directory

Type: Customer Origin

Points to: /80Indicates that content from a customer origin server is being requested.0001Represents your customer account number./Business

The above edge CNAME configuration is an alias for:

can..transactcdn.com//Business

As a result, both of the following URLs point to the same asset (i.e., Graphs.xml):

URL Type	Sample URL
CDN URL	http://can.0001Represents your customer account number..transactcdn.com/80Indicates that content from a customer origin server is being requested.0001Represents your customer account number./Business/Documents/Graphs.xml
Edge CNAME URL	http://cdn.mydomain.com/Documents/Graphs.xml

CDN URL

A CDN URL will be assigned to your account for each of the following items:

CDN storage (root folder)
Each customer origin configuration (root folder)
Each additional service that has been activated on the platform in question

Certain services may generate multiple CDN URLs.

Name

Description

URL Scheme / Protocol

A valid request must use either the HTTP or HTTPS URL scheme.

CDN Hostname

Each platform/service is associated with a default CDN hostname.

A sample hostname for the CAN platform is provided below.

can..transactcdn.com

CDN URL Path

Identifies the portion of the URL that appears after the CDN hostname.

Base Domain

Identifies the CDN domain that has been assigned to your CDN account.

Content Access Point

The content access point, which appears directly after the CDN hostname, allows our CDN to identify the source for the requested content.

The base format for the content access point is a forward slash followed by a two digit number that precedes the account number. This two digit number is called the origin identifier. Our edge servers use the combination of the CDN hostname and the origin identifier to determine where to route a request.

View a list of content access points.

Request Type	Route To	Syntax
Standard Request	CDN Origin	/00ANThis term represents your customer account number (e.g., 0001) which can be found in the upper right-hand corner of the TCC.
Standard Request	Customer Origin	/80ANThis term represents your customer account number (e.g., 0001) which can be found in the upper right-hand corner of the TCC./CustomerOriginIdentifies a customer origin configuration by its directory name.

Origin Path

The origin path indicates the location of the desired asset. This path starts from the root folder of the origin server identified by the content access point.

Query String

Optional. A query string may be appended to a CDN URL. By default, query strings are ignored for the purposes of caching and event logging.

Learn how to cache query string variations of a request.

Edge CNAME URL

An edge CNAME URLThis type of URL takes advantage of an edge CNAME configuration and a CNAME record to provide a friendlier alternative to a CDN URL. An edge CNAME URL is specific to the platform from which it was configured. is a user-friendly URL that points to a CDN URL. This type of URL is generated when an edge CNAME configuration is created. However, it also requires an update to your DNS configuration.

Learn more.

The following diagram indicates the different components in an edge CNAME URL.

Name	Description
URL Scheme / Protocol	A valid request must use either the HTTP or HTTPS URL scheme.
Edge CNAME	Identifies the hostname defined for an edge CNAME configuration. There is a CDN and a DNS aspect to an edge CNAME. DNS: Your DNS service provider must be configured to point the desired hostname to a CDN hostname. The alias set from your DNS service provider should match the hostname (e.g., can.0001.transactcdn.com) associated with the edge CNAME configuration. CDN: An edge CNAME configuration allows our servers to identify a content access pointThis URL segment of a CDN URL identifies where the request should be directed. This relative path starts directly after the CDN hostname. The proper syntax for a content access point is "/yyAN," where "yy" stands for the origin identifier and "AN" stands for a customer account number. A content access point for a customer origin also includes a directory that identifies it.. Additionally, a path relative to the origin server's root directory may be defined. Our edge servers will automatically rewrite edge CNAME URLs to point to the indicated subfolder when a relative path has been specified in an edge CNAME configuration.
Edge CNAME URL Path	This path indicates the relative path and the filename of the requested asset. This path is specified directly after the hostname. By default, the starting point for this location is the origin server's root directory (e.g., virtual directory). However, this starting point may be set to a subfolder of this location when a relative path has been defined in an edge CNAME configuration.
Query String	Optional. A query string may be appended to an edge CNAME URL. By default, query strings are ignored for the purposes of caching and event logging. Learn how to cache query string variations of a request.