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BrowserCaching » History » Version 8

dj jones, 2014-09-01 15:46

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h1. BrowserCaching
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{{toc}}
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h2. General Background: as to why caching in browser is a good thing
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It is good practise on any website to let the browser cache objects that are static - ie don't contain user content, and are the same for hours, days or weeks.
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(This in general means files like:  .css, .js and image files)
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But some content does change very fast, so must not be cached by the browser.
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*If the browser is told 'don't cache this object':*
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then it knows not to.  This is what Websites (and Redmine) do on the pages that may change: eg an issue page:  it will put into the HTTP header that message.
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*But in the absence of that - if the browser is not sure about a page component*
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that it already has recently downloaded, it will send a 304 request to the server: saying 'can you tell me, is this file still not stale'.  And with a 304 the server does not need to send the whole object again:  just a short 'yes, that is still fresh' answer.
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In Redmine's default set-up:  it generates a lot of 304 connects on every page:  you can see these in a  tool like Firebug.  One for every css and .js file etc. Many.
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These are bad for the user experience: because the browser has to wait for these responses, before it can carry on and build the page.
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*So we need to tell the browser that these objects will not be stale for a long time*
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There are easy ways to configure Apache and nginx to do this:    by telling them to set the 'Expiry' date in the HTTP Header well into the future: so that the browser knows:  OK, this objects is not stale, because we are still before the expiry date'.
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Thus when a new user visits Redmine, their browser on the first page will GET the .css and .js files etc, but on pages after that:  does not need to get them again.
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The users experience faster web page builds!
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h2. The Problem with Redmine
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Unfortunately, RedMine also uses .js file names, for things that DO contain user content:  ie things that should NOT be cached in the browser.
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So this means;  if in Apache/nginx you add a simple config, to cache anyting that is named *.js:   then your Redmine will break!
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See the Issue  #17770 - where this problem is reported, to see if the RedMine team can change RRedmine, to STOP using the .js in bad places.
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Tne places it breaks if you use a simple config are:  (a) when editing a journal in an issue (b) when uploading a file to an issue
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h2. The work round for RedMine
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Is to use a more complex configuration:  that also checks which directory the .js file is in, before setting the cache heading.
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Etienne suggested this nginx configuration  (see Issues #13564):
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<pre>
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location ~* ^(?:(?:plugin_assets/|themes/).+/)(?:javascripts|stylesheets|images)/.+\.(?:css|js|jpe?g|gif|htc|ico|png|html)$ {
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expires 365d;
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}
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</pre>
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The simple case, that will break Redmine as above, because it does not care about which directory the js files are in:eg:
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<pre>
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location ~* \.(ico|css|js|gif|jp?g|png)(\?[0-9]+)?$ {
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expires 365d;
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}
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</pre>
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Note that in nginx:  'expires' is the config that sets the 'Expiry' HTTP header in the object.
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In the above, 365d means 365 days.
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See nginx page:   http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_headers_module.html#expires