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HTTP Caching
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============
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Besides server-side caching that we have described in the previous sections, Web applications may
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also exploit client-side caching to save the time for generating and transmitting the same page content.
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To use client-side caching, you may configure [[yii\filters\HttpCache]] as a filter for controller
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actions whose rendering result may be cached on the client side. [[yii\filters\HttpCache|HttpCache]]
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only works for `GET` and `HEAD` requests. It can handle three kinds of cache-related HTTP headers for these requests:
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* [[yii\filters\HttpCache::lastModified|Last-Modified]]
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* [[yii\filters\HttpCache::etagSeed|Etag]]
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* [[yii\filters\HttpCache::cacheControlHeader|Cache-Control]]
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## `Last-Modified` Header <span id="last-modified"></span>
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The `Last-Modified` header uses a timestamp to indicate if the page has been modified since the client caches it.
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You may configure the [[yii\filters\HttpCache::lastModified]] property to enable sending
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the `Last-Modified` header. The property should be a PHP callable returning a UNIX timestamp about
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the page modification time. The signature of the PHP callable should be as follows,
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```php
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/**
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* @param Action $action the action object that is being handled currently
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* @param array $params the value of the "params" property
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* @return integer a UNIX timestamp representing the page modification time
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*/
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function ($action, $params)
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```
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The following is an example of making use of the `Last-Modified` header:
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```php
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public function behaviors()
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{
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return [
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[
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'class' => 'yii\filters\HttpCache',
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'only' => ['index'],
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'lastModified' => function ($action, $params) {
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$q = new \yii\db\Query();
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return $q->from('post')->max('updated_at');
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},
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],
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];
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}
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```
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The above code states that HTTP caching should be enabled for the `index` action only. It should
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generate a `Last-Modified` HTTP header based on the last update time of posts. When a browser visits
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the `index` page for the first time, the page will be generated on the server and sent to the browser;
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If the browser visits the same page again and there is no post being modified during the period,
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the server will not re-generate the page, and the browser will use the cached version on the client side.
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As a result, server-side rendering and page content transmission are both skipped.
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## `ETag` Header <span id="etag"></span>
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The "Entity Tag" (or `ETag` for short) header use a hash to represent the content of a page. If the page
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is changed, the hash will be changed as well. By comparing the hash kept on the client side with the hash
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generated on the server side, the cache may determine whether the page has been changed and should be re-transmitted.
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You may configure the [[yii\filters\HttpCache::etagSeed]] property to enable sending the `ETag` header.
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The property should be a PHP callable returning a seed for generating the ETag hash. The signature of the PHP callable
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should be as follows,
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```php
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/**
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* @param Action $action the action object that is being handled currently
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* @param array $params the value of the "params" property
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* @return string a string used as the seed for generating an ETag hash
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*/
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function ($action, $params)
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```
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The following is an example of making use of the `ETag` header:
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```php
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public function behaviors()
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{
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return [
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[
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'class' => 'yii\filters\HttpCache',
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'only' => ['view'],
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'etagSeed' => function ($action, $params) {
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$post = $this->findModel(\Yii::$app->request->get('id'));
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return serialize([$post->title, $post->content]);
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},
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],
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];
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}
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```
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The above code states that HTTP caching should be enabled for the `view` action only. It should
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generate an `ETag` HTTP header based on the title and content of the requested post. When a browser visits
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the `view` page for the first time, the page will be generated on the server and sent to the browser;
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If the browser visits the same page again and there is no change to the title and content of the post,
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the server will not re-generate the page, and the browser will use the cached version on the client side.
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As a result, server-side rendering and page content transmission are both skipped.
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ETags allow more complex and/or more precise caching strategies than `Last-Modified` headers.
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For instance, an ETag can be invalidated if the site has switched to another theme.
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Expensive ETag generation may defeat the purpose of using `HttpCache` and introduce unnecessary overhead,
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since they need to be re-evaluated on every request. Try to find a simple expression that invalidates
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the cache if the page content has been modified.
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> Note: In compliance to [RFC 7232](http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7232#section-2.4),
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`HttpCache` will send out both `ETag` and `Last-Modified` headers if they are both configured.
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And if the client sends both of the `If-None-Match` header and the `If-Modified-Since` header, only the former
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will be respected.
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## `Cache-Control` Header <span id="cache-control"></span>
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The `Cache-Control` header specifies the general caching policy for pages. You may send it by configuring
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the [[yii\filters\HttpCache::cacheControlHeader]] property with the header value. By default, the following
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header will be sent:
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```
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Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600
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```
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## Session Cache Limiter <span id="session-cache-limiter"></span>
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When a page uses session, PHP will automatically send some cache-related HTTP headers as specified in
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the `session.cache_limiter` PHP INI setting. These headers may interfere or disable the caching
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that you want from `HttpCache`. To prevent this problem, by default `HttpCache` will disable sending
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these headers automatically. If you want to change this behavior, you should configure the
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[[yii\filters\HttpCache::sessionCacheLimiter]] property. The property can take a string value, including
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`public`, `private`, `private_no_expire`, and `nocache`. Please refer to the PHP manual about
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[session_cache_limiter()](http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.session-cache-limiter.php)
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for explanations about these values.
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## SEO Implications <span id="seo-implications"></span>
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Search engine bots tend to respect cache headers. Since some crawlers have a limit on how many pages
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per domain they process within a certain time span, introducing caching headers may help indexing your
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site as they reduce the number of pages that need to be processed.
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