Admin Bar prevents Logged-In User caching from working

[raamdev]

When Logged-In User caching is enabled in Comet Cache Pro, all pages on the site for a logged-in user are not cached by default, because by default WordPress has the WordPress Admin (aka the Toolbar) bar enabled for user for logged-in users, and the Admin Bar that adds a wpnonce to the page source on the front-end, which then disables Comet Cache caching.

If Comet Cache disables the Admin Bar on the front-end of the site (when Logged-In User caching is enabled), this issue goes away.

So, when Logged-In User caching is enabled, Comet Cache should disable the WordPress Admin Bar for logged-in users (on the front-end of the site). There should also be an option in the Logged-In Users panel that allows site owners to override this (i.e., turn back on the Admin Bar when Logged-In User caching is enabled, in case they want to do that because maybe they're going to allow Nonce caching using COMET_CACHE_CACHE_NONCE_VALUES_WHEN_LOGGED_IN; see this article).

[jaswrks]

@renzms The way to disable the Admin Bar in WordPress is by calling show_admin_bar(false);. It looks like this most of the work needed to complete this issue has already been implemented. However, as it stands now it is not configurable, so that would be something that you could add to the UI if you'd like.

See: https://github.com/websharks/comet-cache-pro/blob/160227/src/includes/classes/Plugin.php#L536

The current behavior is controlled only by a filter and not by a configurable plugin option that is exposed by the UI for the Comet Cache plugin. That's what we need next here.

[renzms]

(edited and moved to PR here)

[raamdev]

Noting that the existing code that disables the admin bar only checks if $this->options['when_logged_in'] === '1', even though 1 is no longer an option (that option was hidden a while back when decided to stop offering the option to enable user caching but not maintain a separate cache; see these lines in the option panel).

As a result, the Admin Bar is not disabled right now when you enable Logged-In User Caching:

if ($this->options['when_logged_in'] === '1' && $this->applyWpFilters(GLOBAL_NS.'_when_logged_in_no_admin_bar', true)) {
            show_admin_bar(false); // Prevent admin bar from being cached.
        }

The available options now are 0 (disable logged-in user caching) and postload (enable logged-in user caching and separate the cache for each user). (Note: We do still need to consider option 1—enable logged-in user caching but don't maintain a separate cache—because we make it possible for users who were previously using that option to continue using and seeing that option.)

So unless I'm mistaken, we need to update the existing code to include a check for postload:

if (($this->options['when_logged_in'] === '1' || $this->options['when_logged_in'] === 'postload') && $this->applyWpFilters(GLOBAL_NS.'_when_logged_in_no_admin_bar', true)) {
            show_admin_bar(false); // Prevent admin bar from being cached.
        }

@jaswsinc If you could verify the above to confirm that I'm not missing anything, that would be great.

[jaswrks]

Yes, I can confirm that is a bug. I'd change it to look for any non-empty value like this:

if ($this->options['when_logged_in'] && $this->applyWpFilters(GLOBAL_NS.'_when_logged_in_no_admin_bar', true)) {
            show_admin_bar(false); // Prevent admin bar from being cached.
        }

[raamdev]

Next Release Changelog:

• Enhancement (Pro): It's now possible to disable the WordPress Admin Toolbar when Logged-In User Caching is enabled with a new option in Comet Cache → Plugin Options → Logged-In Users → Disable the Admin Toolbar for Logged-In Users & Comment Authors? Props @renzms and @KTS915. See Issue #690.

[raamdev]

Noting that the default behavior of this new option was changed during the RC period for this release. The default is now to leave the Admin Bar untouched, i.e., not disable the Admin Bar by default when Logged-In Users caching is enabled. See wpsharks/comet-cache-pro@e099423.

@raamdev writes in #769 (comment):

Here's what I'm going to do to get the next release out: I'm going to change the default for this new setting so that it doesn't touch the Admin Toolbar by default. If a site owner wants to disable the Admin Bar using Comet Cache, they can flip the setting in the Logged-In Users panel, but for now I'm going to make this disabled by default so that if a site owner is already using a plugin to disable the Admin Bar, Comet Cache won't introduce a conflict (as @KTS915 experienced with Clean Login).

Once we're through this release cycle, we can revisit this issue and decide if and how we're going to change the Nonce caching behavior.

Updated screenshot of the option panel (includes new copy and a bit more description):

[raamdev]

Comet Cache v160521 has been released and includes changes from this GitHub Issue. See the v160521 announcement for further details.

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This issue will now be locked to further updates. If you have something to add related to this GitHub Issue, please open a new GitHub Issue and reference this one (#690).