We know that this is not a great time of year to have to say this! As a result of circumstances beyond our control (an American company has gone bankrupt!), every Donorfy Web Widget will stop working on or before 15 January 2025 unless a change is made to it.
Technical users may be able to make this change themselves, others will need support from a web developer.
Thankfully, the change is simple.
In the HTML code of your website, within the Donorfy Web Widget code (for both Stripe and GoCardless Web Widgets), you should see sections of code similar to this:
The URL (or link) in that code needs to be changed from: https://az763204.vo.msecnd.net/…
As per the example below:
Ensure that all instances are updated through the Web Widget code for all of your donate pages featuring a Donorfy Stripe and GoCardless Web Widget.
This must be done as soon as possible; at the latest by 15 January, 2025.
How do I find the code I need to change?
This will depend on how your website was built. In a system like Wix or Squarespace, it might be in a custom code block. In Wordpress, it could be a template file created by your developer. Please note that Donorfy support will not have access to the back-end of your website to help locate this - the best thing is to talk to the developer who built your site.
For goodness sake! At Christmas?!
We get it, and we’re sorry - no-one wants to have to deliver a message like this in the middle of Christmas campaigns and parties.
Why the short notice?
The company that provides our Content Delivery Network, or CDN, is called Edgio (formally Verizon). They communicated to us recently that they would be closing their service in the second half of next year. They then filed for bankruptcy, and Microsoft contacted us to say that, as a result, the closure of the Edgio service had been brought forward to 15 January 2025. They have conspicuously failed to guarantee that it will not happen earlier.
What’s a CDN, anyway?
A CDN holds copies of website code strategically positioned closer to users. This can dramatically speed up website delivery, improving your donors’ experience.
What happens if we don’t make the change?
Your web widgets will cease to function, may not display on your page at all, or may not accept donations at all. None of that is good.
How do I know this won’t happen again?
We’ve moved our CDN provision to Microsoft’s in-house CDN (which they call Front Door). Many millions of web sites and applications use Front Door, and it’s backed by the corporate might of Microsoft. Additionally, we’ve changed the way that the CDN is addressed, so any future change in provider (if, for example, a better option became available) would not require any further action by you.
If Microsoft have a good CDN, why weren’t you using it before?
Donorfy pre-dates Front Door (see above)! When we built Donorfy, it didn’t exist - we went with the market leader at the time.
Why can’t Donorfy make this change for us?
The bit of code that needs to change is part of your website. You (or your web developer) added it in when the site was built (or when you moved to Donorfy)
Are Donorfy forms and/or campaign donation pages affected?
No. Donorfy Forms and Campaign Donation Pages are hosted on Donorfy servers, so we can update them ourselves. Which we’ve done.
If I create a new widget, will I need to make this code change?
No. Any new widgets will be generated with the correct, updated URLs.
Testing Your Changes
Load the page containing your updated Web Widget in your web browser - to test the update you will need to complete a live donation - ie. using a 'live' bank card or sort code and account number depending on the type of donate page being tested.
If you find that the fields for card number etc. do not look like the other fields on your form you need to:
- Style the placeholder divs - e.g. adding a border, background colour, etc, and/or
- Use the InitialiseForm function to style them - see this for more information.
Troubleshooting
If you have problems with the widget please refer to this article.
Any further questions?
If you are still trying to figure it out, please contact our support team. We will do our best to help and point you in the right direction.
Again, we are sorry that this is being communicated at such short notice; please remember the change needs to be made by the 15th of January at the latest!
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