Smooth CDN Connector connects the place where you already upload files, such as WordPress, with Smooth CDN. Instead of building a custom media pipeline, you can keep using your existing publishing workflow and send those files to the CDN for delivery.
WordPress or another connected system remains where files are managed. Smooth CDN handles the delivery layer for files that are sent through the connector.
The current production integration is WordPress. The same connector model can be extended to other platforms later, but this page describes the current WordPress plugin behavior and the shared delivery model.
Core model
- Connect WordPress or another upload source to a Smooth CDN project.
- Send or offload managed files into Smooth CDN.
- Deliver files from stable CDN URLs instead of relying only on local origin delivery.
- Optimize supported assets on the CDN side, including images, audio, video, and PDFs.
- Optionally mark selected assets as protected.
Connector-backed projects use the project type cdn_connector.
The current Smooth CDN Connector integration is built for WordPress. It is intended to make CDN setup feel like a plugin workflow instead of a separate infrastructure project.
Product overview for the current integration is available at /cdn-connector/wordpress.
Installation and connection
- Install and activate the Smooth CDN Connector plugin in WordPress.
- Connect the plugin to your Smooth CDN account and choose or create a target project.
- Open the plugin settings and decide how assets should be synced, optimized, offloaded, or protected.
WordPress integration flow
- Connect WordPress to Smooth CDN.
- Choose which assets should be served through the connector workflow.
- Enable optional offload for local files when the origin should do less delivery work.
- Enable optimization for supported assets when smaller or more efficient delivery is needed.
- Mark selected assets as protected when they should not be fully public.
What the plugin is optimized for
- fast CDN setup with minimal operational overhead
- better asset delivery speed than local-origin-only file serving
- moving WordPress away from being the only file delivery boundary
- keeping WordPress publishing workflows intact while delivery moves to Smooth CDN
Smooth CDN Connector is focused on practical file handling decisions: where files are served from, whether they should be optimized, whether they should be offloaded from local origin storage, and whether access should remain public.
Optimization
Supported asset types can be optimized on the Smooth CDN side. This lets teams improve delivery behavior without treating the connector as a simple file mirror.
That includes media-heavy workflows where WordPress or another connected system uploads video files that should also be delivered through Smooth CDN.
For broader delivery behavior and supported formats, see CDN reference.
Offload local files
The connector can offload locally hosted files into Smooth CDN so WordPress no longer has to serve every file directly from the same local origin path.
This is useful when the CMS should remain the authoring environment, while the CDN becomes the delivery-facing layer.
Protected assets
Selected assets can be marked as protected. In that mode, use a token-aware consumer instead of assuming every CDN URL is public.
Authorization: Bearer <token>https://cdn.smoothcdn.com/<user>/<project>/<version>/<asset>?t=<token>Protected delivery follows the same token-based model described in CDN access control.
Delivery model
Connector-managed assets are still delivered through normal Smooth CDN URL patterns:
https://cdn.smoothcdn.com/<user-slug>/<project-slug>/<version>/<asset-path>Version usage depends on the target project setup. See asset URL structure for the general delivery pattern.