mcurry / html_cache

/*
 * HtmlCache Plugin
 * Copyright (c) 2009 Matt Curry
 * http://pseudocoder.com
 * http://github.com/mcurry/html_cache
 *
 * @author      mattc <matt@pseudocoder.com>
 * @license     MIT
 *
 */
 
/* About */
Cake's core cache helper is great, but the files it outputs are PHP files, so it will never be as fast as
straight HTML files. This HTML Cache Helper writes out pure HTML, meaning the web server doesn't have to
touch PHP when a request is made.  Included is also a Croogo CMS (http://croogo.org) using the hooks system.

This plugin is for sites with high traffic pages that have nothing unique about the user on the page. I
use this helper on http://www.rsstalker.com. It handles the custom RSS feeds (currently around 13k), which
is perfect since there is nothing user specific in the XML. Each feed gets hit multiple times a day, by
multiple aggregators. This really adds up to a ton of requests.
 
/* Notes */
  * Nothing specific to a user on the page. No "Welcome, Matt" or shopping carts.
  * Cache will never expire (for non-Croogo version). See below for workaround.

/* Instructions */
  * Include the helper in your controller:
    $helpers = array('HtmlCache.HtmlCache');
  * Or in a single action
    $this->helpers[] = 'HtmlCache.HtmlCache';
  * Update your webroot .htaccess file to include the following lines before CakePHP's Rewrite Cond
    (see extras/webroot.htaccess for an example):
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^GET$
    RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/cache/$1/index.html -f
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /cache/$1/index.html [L]

/* Croogo Instructions */
  * Update your webroot .htaccess file to include the following lines before CakePHP's Rewrite Cond
    (see extras/webroot.htaccess for an example):
    RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/cache/$1/index.html -f
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /cache/$1/index.html [L]
  * In the Croogo admin go to Extensions -> Hooks and active both the component and helper.
  * The Croogo version will automatically delete the cached file if there is a change to the content or a comment is 
  added.
    
/* Tips */
  * To expire the cache I use a cron job which deletes old files from the directory.
  find /full/path/to/app/webroot/cache -mmin +360 | xargs rm -f
  * A sample htaccess file, cache.htaccess is included that will additionally gzip the cached files
  for even better performance.