The #1 free and open source CDN built to make life easier for developers.

Overview

cdnjs/packages is the GitHub repository that contains the package JSON files that control all the libraries available on cdnjs.cloudflare.com.

cdnjs relies on user-submitted pull requests and automatic updating to populate and update libraries. With hundreds of contributors and thousands of commits, it is very important that new libraries are added to cdnjs using the correct procedure.

Libraries that are actively maintained on npm or in a git repository with tagged releases can be configured to be automatically updated.

Libraries that do not have a way to provide automatic updates are no longer supported in cdnjs as we are moving away from the need to maintainers to work with the repository that contains the full set of assets for cdnjs, which can be found in cdnjs/cdnjs.

Policy, rules and guidelines

cdnjs will host any production version of any JavaScript (JS) or Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) library, subject to appropriate licence permissions.

cdnjs will host a specific subset of file types, which include JS, TS, CSS, SCSS, JSON, WASM, SWF, images, audio. The full list of supported extensions can be requested through the cdnjs API: api.cdnjs.com/whitelist

New libraries are required to meet a basic popularity level to be hosted on cdnjs, to avoid wasting maintainer time. For NPM packages, the base level for popularity is 800 downloads or more per month. For GitHub repositories the requirement is normally 200 stars. These requirements are at the discretion of cdnjs maintainers when adding libraries to cdnjs.

Configuring library auto-update

Auto-update overview

Libraries that are actively maintained on npm or in a git repository with tagged releases can be configured to be automatically updated. A cdnjs auto-update script runs at scheduled intervals to check for new versions for cdnjs libraries on the relevant npm packages and git repositories as configured in each library's JSON file in this repository.

Each cdnjs library has a JSON file. This file contains required and sometimes optional information about how the library works. Auto-update is configured in the library's JSON file alongside other library information.

Auto-update config

autoupdate is the top-level property that all autoupdate config options are contained within
- source should be either npm for a NPM-based auto-update package, or git to indicate git-based auto-updating
- target is the NPM package name, or the git url for the git repo to be used for updating
- fileMap contains an array of a single object that houses the information on what files cdnjs should copy
  - basePath is the path in the git repository or NPM package that we will start exploring from
  - files indicates the file(s) to copy and can be named (e.g. lodash.min.js) or globs (e.g. *.js).

Note: If a globstar or wildcard is used in files, please ensure it is restricted, such as with extensions (e.g. **/*.js). This is to help reduce the chance of abuse of cdnjs and to help reduce the chance we copy files we don't need, causing space issues (see #186).

NPM-based auto-update example

  "autoupdate": {
    "source": "npm",
    "target": "function-plot",
    "fileMap": [
      {
        "basePath": "dist",
        "files": [
          "*.js",
          "utils/*.js"
        ]
      }
    ]
  }

The example parses the function-plot tarball, which has this structure:

|__dist
| |__function-plot.js
| |__utils
| | |__plotter.js
|__bower.json
|__index.js
|__site.js
|__package.json
|__README.md
|__lib
| |__...
|__node_modules
| |__...
|__sandbox
| |__...

The auto-update process will locate dist (specified in basePath) and copy all files matching the specified glob patterns (*.js & utils/*.js) to cdnjs, removing the dist path. The resulting files in cdnjs will be:

|__ajax
  |__libs
    |__function-plot
      |__x.y.z
        |__function-plot.js
        |__utils
          |__plotter.js

...where x.y.z is the library version number, extracted from the package.json on npmjs.

Git-based auto-update example

  "autoupdate": {
    "source": "git",
    "target": "git://github.com/mikehostetler/amplify.git",
    "fileMap": [
      {
        "basePath": "lib",
        "files": [
          "*.js"
        ]
      }
    ]
  }

The example parses the mikehostetler/amplify git repository, which has this structure:

|__demo
| |__...
|__docs
| |__...
|__external
| |__...
|__lib
| |__amplify-vsdoc.js
| |__amplify.core.js
| |__amplify.core.min.js
| |__amplify.js
| |__amplify.min.js
| |__amplify.request.js
| |__amplify.request.min.js
| |__amplify.store.js
| |__amplify.store.min.js
|__src
| |__...
|__test
| |__...
|__.gitignore
|__.jshintrc
|__GPL-LICENSE.txt
|__MIT-LICENSE.txt
|__bower.json
|__build.json
|__header.js
|__package.json
|__readme.md
|__test-jquery-versions.js
|__test-server.js
|__testswarm.json

The auto-update process will locate lib (specified in basePath) and copy all files matching the glob *.js (specified in files) to cdnjs, removing the lib path. The resulting files in cdnjs will be:

|__ajax
  |__libs
    |__amplify
      |__x.y.z
        |__amplify-vsdoc.js
        |__amplify.core.js
        |__amplify.core.min.js
        |__amplify.js
        |__amplify.min.js
        |__amplify.request.js
        |__amplify.request.min.js
        |__amplify.store.js
        |__amplify.store.min.js

...where x.y.z is the library version number, based on the tagged release found in the git repository.

Configuring file optimization

By default, when new files are added to cdnjs through the auto-update mechanism we will apply optimizations to certain files. For JavaScript and CSS files, we'll automatically generate minified versions of them and make them available at filename.min.js or filename.min.css. For images, both PNG & JP(E)G, we'll attempt to apply compression to the files to reduce the file size for the images that the CDN will be serving.

If you want to disable any of this optimization for a library, you can do that by utilizing the optimization property in the cdnjs package JSON file. The property is optional, and if present is expected to be an object. Each property within the object is also optional, with the default always being that optimization is enabled.

A library JSON file with all optimization disabled would contain the following:

  ...
  "optimization": {
    "js": false,
    "css": false,
    "png": false,
    "jpg": false
  }
  ...

Setting the js property to false will disable the automatic generation of minified versions of JavaScript files by cdnjs for the library. Setting the css property to false will do the same, but for CSS files. Setting the png property to false will disable any compression that cdnjs would apply to the images, ensuring we serve the exact versions included in the source library. Setting the jpg property to false will do the same, but for JPG/JPEG files.

Creating a new library on cdnjs

Changes to cdnjs happen with the following process:

Fork the cdnjs/packages repository on your GitHub account
Make the required changes to the forked repository
Raise a pull request with appropriate information
Remove your forked repository (or branch if you plan to contribute again) after merge

If these steps are followed, and everything works out, the process for adding a library is usually efficient and your library will go live soon afterwards.

Fork the cdnjs repository

To fork the repository via your browser, visit this link:

https://github.com/cdnjs/packages/fork

Select your GitHub account for the destination and wait for the forking process to complete. Assuming you saw no errors, you should be able to access your fork of cdnjs from your own GitHub account:

https://github.com/your-github-username/packages

Please make sure to fork cdnjs/packages, NOT cdnjs/cdnjs, as we only accept pull requests adding library JSON files to the cdnjs/packages repository. cdnjs/cdnjs is now a robot-only repository and does not accept PRs.

Make changes to your fork

Change are made to your fork of cdnjs. These changes contribute to a pull request, which may be merged after review by the cdnjs maintainers.

Changes to your fork can be made in GitHub using your browser, or on your computer using a git command line or graphical user interface.

If you intend to make a single, simple contribution to cdnjs you will likely find the browser experience more straightforward.
If you intend to make numerous contributions to cdnjs, you may find a local clone of your forked repository a better route.

Follow the existing library conventions

When adding a new library, please refer to existing libraries in the repository, preferring more recently added ones as a source of truth for the preferred structure for a library JSON file.

Making changes using your browser

The GitHub website provides an easy-to-use interface to add libraries.

In your fork of cdnjs, navigate to the packages directory of the repository:

https://github.com/your-github-username/packages/tree/master/packages

From here, you can then click the 'Create new file' button in the bar above the file list.

You can then define the name for the library JSON file, as well as the directory. If you type in a/a-library.json as the name, GitHub will automatically create or move you to the a directory and then create the file named a-library.json.

In the file contents you should include your basic library JSON data, based on the conventions set by existing libraries and following the above guidance on a valid auto-update configuration.

Create a pull request

Once you have added your content to your file, you need to commit this and then create a PR.

If you're using the GitHub browser interface, below the file content will be a set of inputs for controlling the commit.

For the commit message, it should follow the standard following format so we can easily tracking libraries being added:

Add my-library-name w/ npm/git auto-update, where my-library-name is replaced with the name of the library (should match the JSON file name), and npm/git is replaced with the choice matching the auto-update config in the JSON file.

A commit description is not required, though if an issue requesting this library to be added exists, it may be useful to add Resolves <issue link> to the description so that GitHub tracks the PR in the issue.

Please do NOT commit to the master branch, instead choose to create a new branch and again give it a sensible name, such as add-my-library-name.

Finally, press the 'Propose new file' button to commit the new file and begin the process of creating a PR.

On the PR creation page, please fill out the provided template with the requested information about the library and then press the button to create the pull request. cdnjs maintainers will then review your pull request as soon as they can.

Fixing any CI errors

To help with ensuring all library JSON files added to cdnjs are of a standard format and contain a valid auto-update configuration as well as other information about the library, we have an automated CI that will review your JSON file in the PR.

If the CI finds any issues with your JSON file it will mark itself as failed and add an annotation to the JSON file in the pull request 'Files' tab with information about the issues it found.

Please edit your JSON file either in the GitHub browser interface or via your local clone to resolve issues highlighted. If you are unsure, please ask a cdnjs maintainer for help and we'll happily work with you to get your PR ready to merge.

Reviewing and merging

As soon as your PR is passing the CI, and when a maintainer has time, they will manually review your pull request to ensure no issues have slipped past the automated CI.

Once the maintainer is happy that your PR is ready to go, they will merge it. You can then delete your fork (or branch if you plan to contribute again).

Thank you for contributing to cdnjs!

The cdnjs auto-updating logic runs roughly once per hour. It will detect any newly added JSON files and populate the 10 most recent versions it can find into the cdnjs/cdnjs repository.

Once this is done, the files should shortly after be available on the CDN, though it may take a while longer for them to appear on our website as this doesn't automatically update as often.

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