An Update on CDNJS

When you loaded this blog, a file was delivered to your browser called jquery-3.2.1.min.js. jQuery is a library which makes it easier to build websites, and was at one point included on as many as 74.1% of all websites. A full eighteen million sites include jQuery and other libraries using one of the most popular tools on Earth: CDNJS. Beginning about a month ago Cloudflare began to take a more active role in the operation of CDNJS. This post is here to tell you more about CDNJS’ history and explain why we are helping to manage CDNJS.
What CDNJS Does
Virtually every site is composed of not just the code written by its developers, but also dozens or hundreds of libraries. These libraries make it possible for websites to extend what a web browser can do on its own. For example, libraries can allow a site to include powerful data visualizations, respond to user input, or even get more performant.
These libraries created wondrous and magical new capabilities for web browsers, but they can also cause the size of a site to explode. Particularly a decade ago, connections were not always fast enough Continue reading
