The MathJax CDN is shutting down on April 30, 2017!

The MathJax CDN is shutting down on April 30, 2017!

by Khari Kambon -
Number of replies: 6

Just posted March 31, 2017: For those Moodlers who are using the MathJax CDN with the MathJax filter in Moodle:

The MathJax CDN is shutting down on April 30, 2017!

This means you will have to us an alternative CDN provider or install MathJax locally on your server.  Note that if you choose the option of using an alternative CDN provider you will have to manually adjust to the version number when new versions become available. (No longer automatic using ".../mathjax/latest/"

Fortunately our organization caught this message early and took actions to avoid disruption. Help others by spreading the word!

See details here: https://www.mathjax.org/cdn-shutting-down/

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In reply to Khari Kambon

Re: The MathJax CDN is shutting down on April 30, 2017!

by Damyon Wiese -

I saw this last weekend and made a fix for it in Moodle.

See: https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-58461

This issue is up for integration for next week so if you install any weekly release from next week onwards - before April 30 you will get the fix in time. 

The fix is an upgrade to the settings to point to the cloudflare CDN version. Unfortunately the cloudflare CDN does not include the accessibility extensions so we will shift to shipping those with Moodle (and part of the config upgrade is to point to the local version of those extensions). 

You could also install Mathjax locally and update your config to point to the local version.


This is the second time MathJax has changed something about their CDN with very short notice (it was about 4 weeks last time too) - I'm not sure there are any better ways to handle this in future. 


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In reply to Damyon Wiese

Re: The MathJax CDN is shutting down on April 30, 2017!

by Khari Kambon -

thanks for the quick action and the update and info. Damyon! I also noticed the message about Cloudfare's CDN not including extensions.  We are not yet prepared to go the local installation route for various reasons, so we just switched to the new CDN for the time being.  We have the accessibility extension menu showing using http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.0/MathJax.js

mathjax a11y ext. menu


Do you know if there was a switch to include this ext. or do you think this inclusion is only temporary?  On the MathJax site it says they were "working to get more extensions included". I could be wrong, but I think this accessibility menu  extension was included in version 2.7 (but not 2.6) even before they announced the CDN switch.

Will your update for Moodle mean it will be required for users must to use a local MathJaX installation to point to in order to function? Just want to be prepared. thanks!

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In reply to Khari Kambon

Re: The MathJax CDN is shutting down on April 30, 2017!

by Damyon Wiese -

When I tested only switching the main url - and used the browsers network tab it was still loading the accessibility extensions from the old CDN and so will stop working when they shut it down. This will only cause the accessibility extensions to stop working.


The solution I added in the tracker issue was to install a local copy of the accessibility extensions and tell mathjax to use that instead (so the main stuff comes from cdnjs.cloudflare.com and the accessibility stuff comes from the local copy shipped with moodle). 



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In reply to Damyon Wiese

Re: The MathJax CDN is shutting down on April 30, 2017!

by Khari Kambon -

ah, I see, thanks for clarification!

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In reply to Damyon Wiese

Re: The MathJax CDN is shutting down on April 30, 2017!

by Stuart Anderson -

Thanks Damyon.  Can I please confirm that if I wanted to fix an existing moodle install WITHOUT upgrading, then the only change required is to update the URL in "moodle/filter/mathjaxloader/settings.php"?  i.e. the URL is only hard coded into the one place?

Thanks.

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In reply to Stuart Anderson

Re: The MathJax CDN is shutting down on April 30, 2017!

by Stuart Anderson -

Apologies.  Ignore me.  I didn't spot that it can be directly configured in the front end admin settings.


--Stuart

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