HTTP Cache-Control for Laravel

This package provides solution to work with HTTP Cache-Control headers. Resources are cached and then invalidates on Eloquent events. Server may respond without making database requests, just using cache values.

Prepare models

CacheControl uses cache to keep headers values. Then model is changed the associated cache must be invalidated.

The models must implement \Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\Contracts\Cacheable.

Here is example of implementation. Classes share cache tag, so changing any Model invalidates shared cache.

use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\Contracts\Cacheable;
use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\Observers\InvalidatesCache;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Attributes\ObservedBy;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;
use Psr\SimpleCache\CacheInterface;

#[ObservedBy(InvalidatesCache::class)]
class User extends Model implements Cacheable
{
    public function cache(): CacheInterface
    {
        return Cache::tags(['user', 'order']);
    }
}

#[ObservedBy(InvalidatesCache::class)]
class Order extends Model implements Cacheable
{
    public function cache(): CacheInterface
    {
        return Cache::tags(['order', 'user']);
    }
}

Usage

CacheControl class analyzes request headers and creates response with proper headers.

First argument must be a \Psr\SimpleCache\CacheInterface, or \Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\Contracts\Cacheable, or classname of a Model, that implements that interface.

Second argument is a callback, that should return response content. This callback would be called only if necessary.

Cache-Control header

You may set any Cache-Control directives you like:

use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControl;
use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControlHeader;

public function index(Request $request)
{
    return CacheControl::make(Order::class, function() {
        return OrderResource::collection(Order::all())
    })
        ->cacheControl(fn(Request $request) => new CacheControlHeader(
            public: true,
            max_age: 1800,
            must_revalidate: true,
        ));
}

If no public or private directives was not set, it would be private by default.

Nothing would be cached on server in this case.

Expires header

Or you may set only Expires header:

use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControl;
use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControlHeader;

public function index(Request $request)
{
    return CacheControl::make(Order::class, function() {
        return OrderResource::collection(Order::all())
    })
        ->expires(now()->addHour());
}

Nothing would be cached on server in this case.

Caching entire response

You may want to cache entire response:

use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControl;
use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControlHeader;

public function index(Request $request)
{
    return CacheControl::make(Order::class, function() {
        return OrderResource::collection(Order::all())
    })
        ->remember()
        ->cacheControl(new CacheControlHeader(
            public: true,
            max_age: now()->addHour(),
            must_revalidate: true,
        ));
}

Use with care. Note, that cache may become huge.

Private Cache

If controller response must not be shared across users, you should set Cache-Control: private directive.

use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControl;
use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControlHeader;

public function index(Request $request)
{
    return CacheControl::make(Order::class, function(Request $request) {
        return OrderResource::collection(Order::all())
            ->whereBelongsTo($request->user()
    })
        ->cacheControl(new CacheControlHeader(
            private: true,
            max_age: new DateInterval('PT1H'),
            must_revalidate: true,
        ));
}

Vary header

Vary headers describes a list of request headers, that matters for caching.

For example, your application supports different languages, so cache depends on Accept-Language request header:

use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControl;
use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControlHeader;

public function index(Request $request)
{
    return CacheControl::make(Order::class, function() {
        return OrderResource::collection(Order::all())
    })
        ->vary('Accept-Language')
        ->cacheControl(new CacheControlHeader(
            public: true,
            max_age: 1800,
            must_revalidate: true,
        ));
}

Note, that web-server may append more Vary headers values. It is Accept-Encoding as usual.

Conditional headers

Controller may respond with ETag and/or Last-Modified header, so the next request may bring If-None-Match or If-Modified-Since headers, that makes it conditional.

use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControl;
use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControlHeader;

public function index(Request $request)
{
    return CacheControl::make(Order::class, function() {
        return OrderResource::collection(Order::all())
    })
        ->cacheControl(['public' => true])
        // Implicit
        ->etag()
        // Or explicit
        ->etag(fn() => custom_etag_calculation(Order::all()));
}

In this example local cache stores only ETag value. That would be enough to check future requests with If-None-Match.

This way is the most cache careful.

use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControl;
use Codewiser\HttpCacheControl\CacheControlHeader;

public function index(Request $request)
{
    return CacheControl::make(Order::class, function() {
        return OrderResource::collection(Order::all())
    })
        ->cacheControl(['public' => true])
        // Return timestamp or DateTimeInterface
        ->lastModified(fn() => Order::all()->max('updated_at'));
}