Static Caching

Important Preface

Certain features — such as forms with server-side validation, page protection, or content randomization — may not work with static page caching. (You may want to check out the nocache tag though.) As long as you understand that, you can leverage static caching for maximum performance.

Whatever is on the page the first time it's visited is what will be cached for all users. For example, if you're using page protection and a user who has access visits the page, it'll be accessible to everyone.

Caching Strategies

Each caching strategy can be configured independently. Inside config/statamic/static_caching.php you will find two pre-configured strategies - one for each supported driver.

return [
    'strategy' => 'half',
 
    'strategies' => [
        'half' => [
            'driver' => 'application',
        ],
        'full' => [
            'driver' => 'file',
        ]
    ]
];

Set strategy to the name of the strategy you wish to use, or null to disable static caching completely.

Application Driver

The application driver will store your cached page content within Laravel's cache. We refer to this as half measure.

This will still run every request through a full instance of Statamic but will serve all request data from a pre-rendered cache, speeding up load times often by half or more. This is an easy, one-and-done setting.

return [
    'strategy' => 'half',
 
    'strategies' => [
        'half' => [
            'driver' => 'application',
        ]
    ]
];

File Driver

The file driver will generate completely static .html pages ready for your web server to serve directly. This means that the HTML files will be loaded before it even reaches PHP.

We refer to this as full measure. This is probably the lightning you seek. ⚡️

return [
    'strategy' => 'full',
 
    'strategies' => [
        'full' => [
            'driver' => 'file',
            'path' => public_path('static'),
        ]
    ]
];

Permissions

Using the file driver, you can configure the permissions for the directories and files that are getting created using the static_caching.strategies.full config option.

'strategies' => [
    'full' => [
        'driver' => 'file',
        'path' => public_path('static'),
        'permissions' => [ 
            'directory' => 0755, 
            'file' => 0644, 
        ], 
    ],
]

Server Rewrite Rules

You will need to configure its rewrite rules when using full measure caching. Here are the rules for each type of server.

Apache

On Apache servers, you can define rewrite rules inside an .htaccess file:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !live-preview
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} live-preview
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
 
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/static/%{REQUEST_URI}_%{QUERY_STRING}\.html -s
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} GET
RewriteRule .* static/%{REQUEST_URI}_%{QUERY_STRING}\.html [L,T=text/html]
</IfModule>

RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/static%{REQUEST_URI}\.html -f
RewriteRule ^ static%{REQUEST_URI}\.html [L]
 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]

Nginx

On Nginx servers, you will need to edit your .conf files. They are not located within your project, and may be in a slighly different place depending on your server setup.

Some applications like Laravel Forge may let you edit your nginx.conf from within the UI.

set $try_location @static;
 
if ($request_method != GET) {
    set $try_location @not_static;
}
 
if ($args ~* "live-preview=(.*)") {
    set $try_location @not_static;
}
 
location / {
    try_files $uri $try_location;
}
 
location @static {
    try_files /static${uri}_$args.html $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
 
location @not_static {
    try_files $uri /index.php?$args;
}

location @static {
    try_files /static${uri}_$args.html $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args; # 
    try_files /static${uri}_.html $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args; # 
}

location / {
    try_files $uri $try_location; # 
    try_files $uri $uri/ $try_location; # 
}
 
location @static {
    try_files /static${uri}_$args.html $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args; # 
    rewrite ^/(.*)/$ /$1 last; # 
    try_files /static${uri}_$args.html /static${uri}/_$args.html $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args; # 
}
 
location @not_static {
    try_files $uri /index.php?$args; # 
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args; # 
}

IIS

On Windows IIS servers, your rewrite rules can be placed in a web.config file.

<rule name="Static Caching" stopProcessing="true">
  <match url="^(.*)"  />
  <action type="Rewrite" url="/static/{R:1}_{QUERY_STRING}.html"  />
</rule>

Warming the Static Cache

You can get your app to automatically generate the public views for your entries and add them to the Static Cache, making first times loads much faster. To do this run:

php please static:warm

This command can take some time to process so if you have a lot of entries you might want to use the --queue flag.

Passing --insecure to the command allows you to skip SSL verification. This can come in handy when running the site behind a reverse proxy or when using self-signed certificates, for example.

Adding the --user and --password flags, you can run the command behind HTTP Basic Authentication. Useful when your site is secured with a simple username and password, like on a staging or development server. Otherwise, you might end up with a 401 Unauthorized error running the command.

Depending on your site's setup, it's a good idea to add this command to your deployment script on Forge or whatever deployment tool or pipeline you use.

Concurrency

You may configure the amount of concurrent requests when warming the static cache in your strategy.

By default the pool will use 25, but feel free to adjust it up or down based on your server's resources.

'strategies' => [
    'full' => [
        'driver' => 'file',
        'path' => public_path('static'),
        'lock_hold_length' => 0,
        'warm_concurrency' => 10, 
    ],
],

Queuing

When you're using a queue driver other than sync, Statamic will push the warming out to the queue.

If needed, you can explicitly tell Statamic which queue and queue connection should be used when warming the static cache:

// config/statamic/static_caching.php
 
'warm_queue' => env('STATAMIC_STATIC_WARM_QUEUE'),
 
'warm_queue_connection' => env('STATAMIC_STATIC_WARM_QUEUE_CONNECTION'),

STATAMIC_STATIC_WARM_QUEUE=warming
STATAMIC_STATIC_WARM_QUEUE_CONNECTION=database

Warming additional URLs

Statamic will automatically warm pages for entries, taxonomy terms and any basic Route::statamic() routes. If you wish to warm additional URLs as part of the static:warm command, you may add a hook into your AppServiceProvider's boot method:

use Statamic\Console\Commands\StaticWarm;
 
class AppServiceProvider
{
    public function boot()
    {
        StaticWarm::hook('additional', function ($urls, $next) {
            return $next($urls->merge([
                '/custom-1',
                '/custom-2',
                'https://different-domain.com/custom-3',
            ]));
        });
    }
}

When you're adding a lot of additional URLs, you may want to use a dedicated class instead:

use App\StaticWarmExtras;
use Statamic\Console\Commands\StaticWarm;
 
class AppServiceProvider
{
    public function boot()
    {
        StaticWarm::hook('additional', function ($urls, $next) {
            return $next($urls->merge(StaticWarmExtras::handle()));
        });
    }
}

Excluding Pages

You may wish to exclude certain URLs from being cached.

return [
    'exclude' => [
        'class' => null,
        'urls' => [
            '/contact', 
            '/blog/*',  // Excludes /blog/post-name, but not /blog 
            '/news*',   // Exclude /news, /news/article, and /newspaper 
        ],
    ],
];

Query strings will be omitted from exclusion rules automatically, regardless of whether wildcards are used. For example, choosing to ignore /blog will also ignore /blog?page=2, etc.

If you'd like to dynamically exclude URLs from being cached (for example: if you want to add a "Exclude from Cache" toggle to entries), you can create your own excluder class:

// config/statamic/static_caching.php
 
return [
    'exclude' => [
        'class' => App\StaticCaching\CustomExcluder::class, 
        'urls' => [],
    ],
];

// app/StaticCaching/CustomExcluder.php
 
<?php
 
namespace App\StaticCaching;
 
use Statamic\Support\Str;
use Statamic\StaticCaching\UrlExcluder;
 
class CustomExcluder implements UrlExcluder
{
    public function __construct(protected string $baseUrl, protected array $exclusions)
    {
    }
 
    public function getBaseUrl(): string
    {
        return $this->baseUrl;
    }
 
    public function getExclusions(): array
    {
        return $this->exclusions;
    }
 
    public function isExcluded(string $url): bool
    {
        // Your custom logic here.
        // Return `true` for any URLs you wish to be excluded.
        return false;
    }
}

Invalidation

A statically cached page will be served until it is invalidated. You have a several options for how to invalidate your cache.

Time Limit

When using the application driver, you may specify the expiry time in minutes in the static_caching.php config file. After this length of time, the next request will be served fresh. By leaving the expiry setting null, it will never expire, except when you manually run php artisan cache:clear.

The expiry option is not available when using the file driver. The generated HTML files will be served before PHP ever gets hit, and there's just nothing we can do about that.

When Saving

When saving content, the corresponding item’s URL will be flushed from the static cache automatically.

You may also set specific rules for invalidating other pages when content is saved. For example:

return [
    'invalidation' => [
        'class' => null,
        'rules' => [
            'collections' => [
                'blog' => [
                    'urls' => [
                        '/blog',
                        '/blog/category/*',
                        '/',
                    ]
                ],
            ],
            'taxonomies' => [
                'tags' => [
                    'urls' => [
                        '/blog',
                        '/blog/category/*',
                        '/',
                    ]
                ]
            ],
            'globals' => [
                'settings' => [
                    'urls' => [
                        '/*'
                    ]
                ]
            ],
            'navigation' => [
                'links' => [
                    'urls' => [
                        '/*'
                    ]
                ]
            ]
        ]
    ]
];

Explanation

• “when an entry in the blog collection is saved, we should invalidate the /blog page, any pages beginning with /blog/category/, and the home page.”
• “when a term in the tags taxonomy is saved, we should invalidate those same pages”
• “when the settings global set is saved, we invalidate all urls”
• “when the links navigation is saved, we invalidate all urls”

You may add as many collections and taxonomies as you need.

You may also choose to invalidate the entire static cache by specifying all.

return [
    'invalidation' => [
        'class' => null,
        'rules' => 'all', 
    ],
];

On a schedule

If you have the scheduler running, Statamic will use the same set of rules mentioned above, but when scheduled entries are due to become active.

For example, if you schedule an entry for Friday at 8am, and you have the scheduler running, appropriate pages will be invalidated just as if you had clicked saved on that entry at Friday at 8am.

Learn how to use the scheduler

Custom Invalidator Class

You can also specify a custom invalidator class to programatically determine which URLs should be invalidated. To achieve that, override or extend the default invalidator class.

return [
    'invalidation' => [
        'class' => App\StaticCaching\CustomInvalidator::class,  
        'rules' => [],
    ],
];

It's worth noting that the container binding for the Default Invalidator won't be used now, so you'll need to bind it yourself in your AppServiceProvider:

use App\StaticCaching\CustomInvalidator;
use Statamic\StaticCaching\Cacher;
 
class AppServiceProvider
{
    public function boot()
    {
        $this->app->bind(CustomInvalidator::class, function ($app) {
            return new CustomInvalidator(
                $app[Cacher::class],
                $app['config']['statamic.static_caching.invalidation.rules']
            );
        });
    }
}

In your class you can then define the logic that decides how URLs should get invalidated.

// app/StaticCaching/CustomInvalidator.php
 
<?php
 
namespace App\StaticCaching;
 
use Statamic\Entries\Entry;
use Statamic\StaticCaching\DefaultInvalidator;
 
class CustomInvalidator extends DefaultInvalidator
{
    public function invalidate($item)
    {
        // Flushes everything by setting the invalidation rules to `all`.
        if ($this->rules === 'all') {
            return $this->cacher->flush();
        }
 
        $urls = [];
 
        // Invalidates entries from the `events` collection.
        if ($item instanceof Entry && $item->collectionHandle() === 'events') {
            $urls[] = $item->uri();
        }
 
        // Flush the URLs we've added to the $urls array.
        if (count($urls) >= 1) {
            $this->cacher->invalidateUrls($urls);
 
            return;
        }
 
        // Otherwise, when the $urls array is empty, fallback to the default invalidation logic.
        parent::invalidate($item);
    }
}

By Force

To clear the static file cache you can run php please static:clear (and/or delete the appropriate static file locations).

File Locations

When using the file driver, the static HTML files are stored in the static directory of your webroot, but you can change it.

return [
    'strategies' => [
        'full' => [
            'driver' => 'file',
            'path' => public_path('static'),
        ]
    ]
];

You will need to update your appropriate server rewrite rules.

Query Parameters

By default, Statamic will cache all pages with the same URL but different query parameters separately. This can be helpful if you're using pagination or displaying pages differently based on user input.

However, if you wish, you can disable this behaviour so each URL will only be cached once, regardless of query parameters:

return [
    'ignore_query_strings' => true,
];

Multi-Site

When using static caching alongside multi-site, some additional configuration is needed.

Paths

The path config option accepts an array, allowing you to define a different path for each site:

return [
    'strategies' => [
        'full' => [
            'driver' => 'file',
            'path' => [
               'english' => public_path('static') . '/domain.com/',
               'french' => public_path('static') . '/domain.fr/',
               'german' => public_path('static') . '/domain.de/',
            ],
        ],
    ],
];

For sites with subdirectory URLs rather than separate domains, you should ensure that all sites with the same domain have the same path.

For example: the english and french sites below are on the same domain, whereas german is on its own domain.

return [
    'strategies' => [
        'full' => [
            'driver' => 'file',
            'path' => [
               'english' => public_path('static') . '/domain.com/',
               'french' => public_path('static') . '/domain.com/',
 
               'german' => public_path('static') . '/domain.de/',
            ],
        ],
    ],
];

Rewrite Rules

When you have sites across multiple domains, you will need to modify the rewrite rules on your server to include the domain name.

Apache

You should update the rewrites in your .htaccess file to include %{HTTP_HOST}:

RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/static/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}_%{QUERY_STRING}\.html -s
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} GET
RewriteRule .* static/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}_%{QUERY_STRING}\.html [L,T=text/html]

Nginx

You should update the try_files line inside the @static block:

location @static {
    try_files /static${uri}_$args.html $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args; # 
    try_files /static/${host}${uri}_$args.html $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args; # 
}

The ${host} argument should correspond to the domains set up in the path. This will be dependant on the server. If you're running different environments and need to use caching for them, you should define the paths using an ENV variable that corresponds to each server domain. The path can be configured in the static_caching config:

For example:

'strategies' => [
    'full' => [
        'driver' => 'file',
        'path' => public_path('static') . '/' .env('APP_DOMAIN'), 
        'lock_hold_length' => 0,
        'warm_concurrency' => 10
    ],
],

and then on your server

# Production
APP_DOMAIN=domain1.com
 
# Dev
APP_DOMAIN=domain1.devserver.com

IIS

<rule name="Static Caching" stopProcessing="true">
  <match url="^(.*)"  />
  <action type="Rewrite" url="/static/{SERVER_NAME}/{R:1}_{QUERY_STRING}.html"  />
</rule>

Invalidation Rules

In the invalidation rules array explained above, the URLs are relative.

If you are using sites with multiple domains, you should define URLs in additional domains using absolute URLs. Relative URLs will assume the first site's domain.

return [
    'invalidation' => [
        'rules' => [
            'collections' => [
                'blog' => [
                    'urls' => [
                        '/blog', 
                        'https://domaintwo.com/articles',  
                    ]
                ],
            ],
        ],
    ],
];

<?php
$two = config('statamic.sites.sites.two.url'); 
 
return [
    // ...
    'urls' => [
        '/blog',
        $two.'articles', 
    ]

Replacers

When a page is being statically cached on the first request, or loaded on subsequent requests, they are sent through "replacers".

Statamic includes two replacers out of the box. One will replace CSRF tokens, the other will handle nocache tag usages.

A replacer is a class that implements a Statamic\StaticCaching\Replacer interface. You will be passed responses to the appropriate methods where you can adjust them as necessary.

You can then enable your class by adding it to config/statamic/static_caching.php:

'replacers' => [
    CsrfTokenReplacer::class,
    NoCacheReplacer::class,
    MyReplacer::class, 
]

CSRF Tokens

When using half measure, CSRF tokens will be replaced without any caveats.

When using full measure, tokens will automatically be replaced in <input> and <meta> tags where their value/content is the token.

<meta name="csrf-token" content="{{ csrf_token }}" />
<input type="hidden" name="_token" value="{{ csrf_token }}" />

If you need to output a CSRF token in another place while using full measure, you'll need to use nocache tags.

<span>
{{ nocache }} 
    {{ csrf_token }}
{{ /nocache }} 
</span>

Custom Cache Store

Static Caching leverages Laravel's application cache to store mappings of the URLs to the filenames. To ensure proper invalidation of changes to your content, Statamic uses a cache store outside of the default one. Otherwise, running the artisan cache:clear command can lead invalidation to fail.

The cache store can be customized in config/cache.php.

'static_cache' => [
    'driver' => 'file',
    'path' => storage_path('statamic/static-urls-cache'),
],

By default, running artisan cache:clear won't clear Statamic's cache store. To do this, run php please static:clear.