Prevent caching index.html file using spring-boot

Using spring boot 2.1.1 and additionally spring security 5.1.1.

1. For resources using resourcehandler in code (UNTESTED):

You can add customized extensions of resources this way.

registry.addResourceHandler

Is for adding the uri path where to get the resource/s

.addResourceLocations

Is for setting the location in the filesystem where the resources are located( given is a relative with classpath

.setCacheControl
.setCachePeriod

Is for setting the cache headers (self explanatory.)

Resourcechain and resolver are optional (in this case exactly as the default values.)

@Configuration
public class CustomWebMVCConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {

private static final int SEVEN_DAYS_IN_SECONDS = 604800;

@Override
public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) 
    registry.setOrder(1).addResourceHandler("/index.html")
            .addResourceLocations("classpath:frontend/dist/")
            .setCacheControl(CacheControl.maxAge(0, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
                    .mustRevalidate())
            .setCacheControl(CacheControl.noCache())
            .setCacheControl(CacheControl.noStore())
            .resourceChain(true)
            .addResolver(new PathResourceResolver());

    registry.setOrder(0).addResourceHandler("/**")
            .addResourceLocations("classpath:frontend/dist/")
            .setCachePeriod(SEVEN_DAYS_IN_SECONDS)
            .resourceChain(true)
            .addResolver(new PathResourceResolver());
}

2. At controller level

(yourwebsite.com/index.html)

@GetMapping("/index.html")
public void getIndex(HttpServletResponse response) {
    response.setHeader(HttpHeaders.CACHE_CONTROL,
             "no-cache, no-store, max-age=0, must-revalidate");
}

You can use MappedInterceptor and WebContentInterceptor as more flexible solution of configuring Cache-Control headers to different static resources.

    @Bean
    public MappedInterceptor cacheControlInterceptor() {
        WebContentInterceptor webContentInterceptor = new WebContentInterceptor();
        webContentInterceptor.setCacheControl(CacheControl.maxAge(0, TimeUnit.SECONDS).cachePublic());
        webContentInterceptor.addCacheMapping(CacheControl.noStore().mustRevalidate(), "/index.html");
        // if using Spring Security CacheControlHeadersWriter:
        // webContentInterceptor.addCacheMapping(CacheControl.empty(), "/", "/index.html");
        return new MappedInterceptor(null, webContentInterceptor);
    }

Why is bean needed? Please see Note

See also: SPR-10655 and SPR-13780 (it can be strange because even Spring Security CacheControlHeadersWriter use chain of 4 directives such as "no-cache, no-store, max-age=0, must-revalidate")

Solution by jax is fine but be aware not to extend WebMvcConfigurationSupport otherwise it does not work and with spring boot you can extend the config and so you don't need the second part. This piece of code works:

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.ResourceHandlerRegistry;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer;
 
@Configuration
public class SinglePageApplicationResourceHandler implements WebMvcConfigurer {

    @Override
    public void addResourceHandlers(final ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) {

        registry.addResourceHandler("/index.html")
                .addResourceLocations("classpath:/public/index.html")
                .setCachePeriod(0);
    }
}

And you usually need to extend it with a catch all mapping like this:

@Controller
public class SinglePageApplicationController {

  @RequestMapping("/**/{path:[^.]*}")
  public String redirect() {
    return "forward:/index.html";
  }
}