Apache caching problem - apache

I'm loading some json through apache as per:
http://arguments.callee.info/2010/04/20/running-apache-and-node-js-together/
The JSON however is outdated when I use the apache url. The node.js :8000 url serves the correct data.
How can I make sure apache doesn't cache json?
Thanks.

You can append a "cache killer" on the URL you are fetching asynchronously. That is some value that will always make the URL unique.
var url = "http://example.com/service.json?" + new Date().getTime();

A possible solution would be to setup the expire headers to the past and make sure that the browser does not cache nay json via cache-control haders for json files and
You can try to add this to your apache config file :
<FilesMatch "\.(json|json)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=0, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"
Header set Pragma "no-cache"
Header set Expires "Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT"
</FilesMatch>
The mod_headers module will need to be installed in Apache to use this method.
If you are interested you can have a read at the roots
http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.9

Related

Turn OFF Cache for specific file with Apache

I have a page on a site which uses random() twig, in Firefox and Chrome it is prevented from working because it gets cached as soon as the page loads.
Is there a way to turn off caching of a particular file via the Apache configs, lets call it default.html or even better just turn off caching for the script part of that file but keep caching image files?
I have tried .htaccess but this does not work.
The only way currently that allows the script to work is to turn off caching globally via PHP headers:
<?php
header('Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT');
header('Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate');
header('Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0', FALSE);
header('Pragma: no-cache');
?>
But as I only need to turn off caching for an individual page, turning it off for everything seems crazy.
Figured it out, to target a specific file (in this case index.php), add this code to the bottom of .htaccess
<Files index.php>
FileETag None
Header unset ETag
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=0, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"
Header set Pragma "no-cache"
Header set Expires "Wed, 11 Jan 1984 05:00:00 GMT"
</Files>
Alternatively to target a specific selection of files, ie. I'd like to cache images but nothing else (files that match html, htm, js, css, php will not be cached):
<filesMatch "\.(html|htm|js|css|php)$">
FileETag None
Header unset ETag
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=0, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"
Header set Pragma "no-cache"
Header set Expires "Wed, 11 Jan 1984 05:00:00 GMT"
</filesMatch>
To check the .htaccess was being read I entered a few lines of rubbish at the bottom, found out it wasn't being read, renamed it from htaccess to .htaccess and it worked.

Apache: Disable Cache-Control: max-age?

A book about performance reads that you should use Expires or Cache-Control: max-age but not both .
Expires was easy to configure on my Apache.
Now I would like to disable the unneeded Cache-Control: max-age but I don't how to.
Your mention of both headers suggests that you're using mod_expires.
You cannot select only one header using mod_expires. The code that sets the headers in mod_expires.c unconditionally sets both headers to equivalent values:
apr_table_mergen(t, "Cache-Control",
apr_psprintf(r->pool, "max-age=%" APR_TIME_T_FMT,
apr_time_sec(expires - r->request_time)));
timestr = apr_palloc(r->pool, APR_RFC822_DATE_LEN);
apr_rfc822_date(timestr, expires);
apr_table_setn(t, "Expires", timestr);
However, using mod_header may allow you to set what you want, using something like:
Header unset Cache-Control
There is a case for using both: Cache-Control allows much finer control than Expires, while Expires may help much older clients.

.php not working in htaccess

The code below used to be Ok. But now I found that browsers do not cache .php files. Why? MY site is on share host. The host never reply. All the other extention files such as html, js, css, png, are fine cached, besides .php.
Header unset Pragma
FileETag None
Header unset ETag
# 1 YEAR
<filesMatch ".(ico|pdf|flv|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|swf|mp3|mp4)$">
Header set Cache-Control "public"
Header set Expires "Thu, 15 Apr 2015 20:00:00 GMT"
Header unset Last-Modified
</filesMatch>
# 2 HOURS
<filesMatch ".(html|htm|xml|txt|xsl|php)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=7200, public"
</filesMatch>
<filesMatch ".(js|css)$">
Header set Cache-Control "public"
Header set Expires "Thu, 15 Apr 2014 20:00:00 GMT"
Header unset Last-Modified
</filesMatch>
Because PHP files can generate different output each time they run, servers don't send cache commands for the output: it might be different next time.
You can force caching by including Cache-control headers in the output generated by PHP, or by specifying the ContentType header from your PHP script.
Which of these is a better approach depends on what your script is doing. Either way, you can implement fine control over caching if your aplication requires it.

Can browser display objects from its cache without receiving a 304 status code?

I'm trying to understand if is it possible to avoid request for some embedded objects, loading them directly from cache without asking to web server if the object is valid or not (i don't want web server response to me with 304 http status code) Is it possible ? Does the expire header works for this way? How?
Of course: Request:
<script scr="my_js.php"></script>
Response:
<? header("HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified");
header("Expires: Mon, 31 Dec 2035 12:00:00 gmt");
header("Cache-Control: max-age=".(60*60*24*365));
echo "//this is a simpe example"; ?>
Solved
Browser loads resources from his cache without asking them to the web server only the first time you open the page (new tab or new browser window).
The other times browser ALWAYS ask information to the server about the resources saved in his cache. Then, the web server response with 200 or 301.
Yes, setting a distant expiry header and the asset will not be downloaded again until that expiry.
If you remove the Last-Modified and ETag header, you will totally eliminate If-Modified-Since and If-None-Match requests and their 304 Not Modified Responses, so a file will stay cached without checking for updates until the Expires header indicates new content is available!
Source.
From my htaccess ...
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header unset Pragma
FileETag None
Header unset ETag
# cache images/pdf docs for 10 days
<FilesMatch "\.(ico|pdf|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|js)$">
Header set Expires "Mon, 31 Dec 2035 12:00:00 gmt"
Header unset ETag
Header unset Last-Modified
</FilesMatch>
# cache html/htm/xml/txt diles for 2 days
<FilesMatch "\.(html|htm|xml|txt|xsl)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=7200, must-revalidate"
</FilesMatch>
</IfModule>
it seems doesn't works .... for example firebug's net panel show me always 200 status code and access.log file report me that external objects are always requested by the browser.

mod_headers set cookie expire date

Currently, I'm using this code in my Apache config to save a cookie on an image request:
<FilesMatch "^image\.jpg$">
Header set Set-Cookie: "cookiename=value"
</FilesMatch>
How can I set the cookie expiry date? I tried googling it but came up with nothing..
Thanks,
should look into http header than apache directive. Take a look here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie#Expires_and_Max-Age