PHP How to not cache generated HTML but cache static data like images/js/css

Question

Many PHP developers add the no-cache header on top of their PHP pages, so do I, for obvious reasons. Since PHP generated content is usually dynamic, having the browser cache them results in outdated data being presented to the user. To avoid this caching is usually disabled.

<?php
    //no  cache headers 
    header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1990 05:00:00 GMT");
    header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT");
    header("Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
    header("Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false);
    header("Pragma: no-cache");
?>

The problem is that due to this header, also my images, javascript files and css files, which are static and thus could (and should) be cached, are also not being cached. This slows down the site a lot.

Is there a way to have no cache on the PHP content, but still have cached js/images/css?

How can this be achieved, assuming I have full access to modify the (linux) server config, HTACCESS and of course, the PHP files themselves?

Or is the whole "no-cache thing" unnecessary for dynamic PHP files? Even when they are url-rewritten to appear extension-less.

Already you have header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1990 05:00:00 GMT"); right? — Praveen Kumar Purushothaman
– Praveen Kumar Purushothaman, Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 10:00
maybe this thread? stackoverflow.com/questions/9968847/php-partial-caching — Goikiu
– Goikiu, Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 10:20
@GillesLesire Check this out maybe? askapache.com/hacking/speed-site-caching-cache-control.html — Praveen Kumar Purushothaman
– Praveen Kumar Purushothaman, Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 10:22

user4563161 · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-16 10:23:40Z

2

I Might be wrong but I beleive you can bring all your js and CSS files into a single php and then cache that using something like

ob_start ("ob_gzhandler");
ob_start("compress");

So you would have a .php the defines its header then a few requires on your js and css file's and also the above.

You will probobly need a couple of if statements to pickup changes etc.

I will make a more comprehensive answer in a few I am on my phone at the moment.

UPDATE

Found a resource on git that I think will help set you in the right path.

https://github.com/SubZane/CSS-Compressor/blob/master/csscompressor.php

answered Jun 16, 2015 at 10:23

user4563161

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4 Comments

Gilles Lesire Over a year ago

Thanks, combining those static files will speed up a lot and was also something I was looking into. This might fix all those issues at once. I'll definitely look into this.

user4563161 Over a year ago

Good Glad your sorted mate.

Gilles Lesire Over a year ago

Your solution works for js and css files but for images I guess I'll still have to use mohamed amin's solution.

user4563161 Over a year ago

Let me have a think about images and get back to you

Mohamed Amin · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-16 10:26:12Z

1

you can use a htaccess to define files that you want to be cached all you want is to make a .htaccess file in the main directory of your website and add this code

example:

# cache images/pdf docs for 1 week
<FilesMatch "\.(ico|pdf|jpg|jpeg|png|gif)$">
  Header set Cache-Control "max-age=604800, public, must-revalidate"
  Header unset Last-Modified
</FilesMatch>

# cache html/htm/xml/txt diles for 2 days
<FilesMatch "\.(css|js)$">
  Header set Cache-Control "max-age=172800, must-revalidate"
</FilesMatch>

answered Jun 16, 2015 at 10:26

Mohamed Amin

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2 Comments

user4563161 Over a year ago

I think he is aware of that he just want's to do it using php.

Gilles Lesire Over a year ago

Yes I already do it like this but it feels hacky. I was just wondering if a cleaner way exists.

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