✈️ Proposal for issues of 404 response for CSS files when using page caching

[robwent]

Description

There have been ongoing issues with missing CSS files when using page caching for some time.

EG:
#25075
#33057
#27300

Elementor clears out CSS files on an update, and they don't get regenerated until the page gets an uncached hit, leaving many pages broken if you don't totally purge all caches, slowing down your site.

I was intending to write a plugin to detect the 404 errors on css files and clear the W3 total cache of the related page, but this still has issues. The first hit to the page gets the broken styling, and the next hit gets an uncached page.
In issue 27300 I saw the call to regenerate the css.

So I created a proof-of-concept plugin here: https://github.com/robwent/elementor-css-regenerator

It detects 404 errors for Elementor CSS files before the 404 is returned, regenerates the requested file, sends it back to the browser with a 200 header, and the file gets saved again.

This way:

• Full page cache doesn't need to be cleared
• No one sees a broken page due to a missing css file
• Elementor doesn't need to regenerate css files for all pages
• Files are only regenerated when they are about to throw a 404 error
• Regenerating the css file can use fewer resources than it takes to generate the 404 page

I understand that this issue may get buried with all the others, but I wanted to offer a solution to the open and closed issues that it's not possible to comment on.

Steps to reproduce

• Install a page caching plugin
• Go to an Elementor page when not logged in/incognito with styles working
• Delete any css files related with that post
• Reload the page and see the broken styles
• Install the plugin and enable
• Check the page again incognito -> See the css files are regenerated and the styles work on the first load whilst the page is still cached

Expected behavior

Delete the css files -> css files get regenerated when requested.

Elementor System Info

[Removed by Moderator]

Agreement

• I confirm I have read and followed all the guidelines and instructions outlined in the Elementor Bug Report form.
• I agree that my issue may be closed without further action if it doesn't meet all the requirements outlined in the Elementor Bug Report form.

[WebblaJordan]

This is the single most needed elementor feature and every day i’m in disbelief they ship their product with such a gaping fault like this.

Your plugin fix is perfect, thank you so much for it. Saved me so much stress…

Tested and working with WP Rocket + Cloudflare. Will be including it on all my sites going forward, thanks again!

[simonst]

This is still needed one year later, hopefully this will be included as a fix soon into elementor!