Cache control by Cacholong

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“Cache control by Cacholong” is a cache control plugin for one or more Nginx servers.

Author:Cacholong (profile at wordpress.org)
WordPress version required:4.3.1
WordPress version tested:5.7.2
Plugin version:5.4.1
Added to WordPress repository:06-03-2018
Last updated:20-07-2021
Warning! This plugin has not been updated in over 2 years. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.
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Rated by:0
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Total downloads:3 639
Active installs:500+
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“Cache control by Cacholong” plugin automates purging of Nginx Pagespeed cache and Nginx FastCGI cache on your Nginx server(s). It is a backend plugin that is able to:

  • Purge Nginx Pagespeed cache and/or Nginx FastCGI cache.
  • Purge cache automatically, manually, with WordPress cronjobs and WP-CLI.
  • Purge caches on one or more servers (See hosts.json section for more details).
  • Use commandline (WP-CLI) to purge caches or reset to factory settings.
  • Remove id tag from stylesheet link tags, in order to allow Nginx Pagespeed to combine stylesheets.
  • Allow purging of other cached items (see Settings > Cache control).
  • Inform user of purge status.
  • Support for single site and network sites
  • Support for WP-CLI
  • Support for WPML (including language negotiation type domain)

When will it purge?

This plugin will work with default and custom post types. It will purge on a save, regular update, quick edit update, slug change, delete and undelete. The user is informed with one or more messages.
There are a few caveats:

  • When a user is using the Gutenberg editor, purge messages will not be displayed.
  • When the user uses “Quick edit” and “Updates” the post, no messages will be displayed, because there’s no page refresh. Those messages will be shown on the next request.

It is possible to purge with WordPress cronjobs. Adjust the ‘Cronjob settings’ to perform a daily purge of caches.

You can also purge items manually. Go to the WordPress dashboard and navigate to:

  • Settings > Cache control > purge single item
  • Settings > Cache control > purge all caches
  • Admin Toolbar > purge all caches

Settings

  • File with hosts (JSON): File with information about one or more hosts for this WordPress installation. See hosts.json section for more details.
  • Pagespeed optimized CSS: Remove ID tag from all WordPress stylesheet link tags to improve Nginx Pagespeed caching. Will only work on frontend.
  • Purge settings default post types: Select one or more options when purging a default post type. Possible to purge post url (default), home page, all connected WordPress categories or all caches.
  • Purge settings default custom type(s): Select one or more options when purging a custom post type. Possible to purge post url (default), home page, all connected WordPress categories or all caches.

Cronjob Settings

  • Cronjob purging: Enable or disable cronjob purging.
  • Cronjob time of each day: Enter HH:MM in 24 hour notation for cronjob time of day. Will fallback to 00:00 when wrong format is given.
  • Purge caches Select caches to purge on given cronjob time.

hosts.json

Hosts.json is a JSON file with information about one or more servers for this WordPress installation. Remember that this file must contain information about all servers, including the
one with this plugin. Default path is: wp-content/uploads/cacholong-cache-control/hosts.json.

Here is an example of a hosts.json file:

{"servers":
    [
        {"name": "server1", "ip": "127.0.0.1", "pagespeed": true, "fastcgi": false},
        {"name": "server2", "ip": "127.0.0.2", "pagespeed": false, "fastcgi": true},
    ]
}

Each line contains information about one server. Parameters:

  • name (string)
    Name of host, something to identify this server.

  • ip (string)
    IP address of server or full url. Format: scheme://host:port/path

  • pagespeed (bool)
    Server uses Nginx Pagespeed (true) or not (false)

  • fastcgi (bool)
    Server user Nginx FastCGI (true) or not (false)

When there is no hosts.json or the path is invalid, this plugin assumes the following:

{"servers":
    [
        {"name": "localhost", "ip": "127.0.0.1", "pagespeed": true, "fastcgi": true}
    ]
}

How does it work

“Cache control by Cacholong” empties partial or full cache for Nginx Pagespeed and FastCGI cache. WordPress HTTP API is used to make (post) request to
specific urls to trigger purges. Based on the http header responses this plugin determines if a purge is successful or not. The user is informed with messages, which are loaded after a purge and page refresh.

There are several settings to tweak purging, see Settings > Cache control.

WP-CLI

There are several commands available for the commandline with wp-cli. Commands generate text output which can be suppressed with –quiet. When an error occurs, text will always be displayed.

WP-CLI exit codes

Exit codes are 0 (no errors) or 1 (generic error).

WP-CLI examples

Purge command with all arguments:

wp cacholong_cc purge [--cache=<cache>] [--ips=<ips>]

Purge Nginx FastCGI:

wp cacholong_cc purge --cache=fastcgi

Purge Nginx Pagespeed:

wp cacholong_cc purge --cache=pagespeed

Purge all caches:

wp cacholong_cc purge --cache=all
wp cacholong_cc purge

Purge Nginx Pagespeed cache for ip address 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2:

wp cacholong_cc purge --cache=pagespeed --ips=127.0.0.1,127.0.0.2

Purge all caches for ip address 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2:

wp cacholong_cc purge --ips=127.0.0.1,127.0.0.2

Factory reset options for given site_id or current blog if no site_id is given:

wp cacholong_cc factory_reset [--site_id=site_id]

Debug

Plugin will log basic purge information when WP_DEBUG is true (can be set in wp-config.php). Logs information in file wp-content/cacholong-cache-control.log.
Plugin will log wp_remote_request details when CACHOLONG_CACHE_DEBUG_HTTP_API_REQUEST is true (can be set in wp-config.php). Logs information in file wp-content/cacholong-cache-control.log.

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