Cool! I'm using this on my site now.

i've added the following thought...

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^GET$

So I get

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^GET$
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/cache/$1/index.html -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /cache/$1/index.html [L]

this way form posts (etc) won't be cached.

I'm also doing

data)) {
$this->helpers[] = 'HtmlCache';
}
}
}
?>

This is excellent!

If only I could figure out how to expire/delete the cache files automatically with a beforeSave() function in my Model...

I'm sure there's a way to do it, it shouldn't be too hard. But I'll have to think about it.

Cheers though!!

App::import('core', 'Folder');

$Folder = new Folder();

$Folder->delete(WWW_ROOT . 'cache');

Hey Matt

Thanks for your suggestion about how to remove the cache upon updating the database.

I've been trying really hard to implement this cache helper, but unfortunately I'm stumbling on the last hurdle.

The helper is successfully creating the cache files and everything.

But I am getting 500 Internal Server Errors from my .htaccess configuration.

Because of the Apache2 setup I have on my development server, I have to add a line to Cake's .htaccess files. Following "RewriteEngine On" I have to use "RewriteBase /", because otherwise I get 500 Internal Server errors.

I'm not exactly sure why I have to add the RewriteBase line, but I know it works.

I don't understand why I'm getting 500 Internal Server Errors :-( I've tried fiddling & tweaking it to no avail.

Do you have any suggestions?

For the record, I'm using a vanilla setup of Ubuntu's Apache2, with dynamic folder-based virtual hosting enabled.

I'd really appreciate any help... Cheers

Thanks for the pointers Matt. I'm so chuffed... I've got it working in the end!! :-D

I was putting the mod_rewrite lines in the /app/webroot/.htaccess file. But my final solution came from putting them in the /.htaccess file... i.e. in the parent folder of app/

Here's the contents of my root .htaccess file now:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^GET$
RewriteCond /var/www/hosts/cms.dev/public_html/app/webroot/cache/$1/index.html -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ app/webroot/cache/$1/index.html [L]
RewriteRule ^$ app/webroot/ [L]
RewriteRule (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

Unfortunately I'm having to use an absolute path, which is a tad annoying. I'm not really sure how to make this relative - I never have been too competent with mod_rewrite rules. So it does mean that I will have to change it per website/server setup, however I can live with that since your helper will REALLY help speed things up.

Again, it's such an ingenious idea to keep a plain HTML cache and not even touch PHP, let alone CakePHP, for the majority of requests!

Thanks Matt!

Hello,

I tweaked the html_cache helper from the github (cant make the current one with HtmlCacheBaseHelper works):
[code]
<?php
/*
* HtmlCache Plugin
* Copyright (c) 2009 Matt Curry
* http://pseudocoder.com
* http://github.com/mcurry/html_cache
*
* @author mattc <matt@pseudocoder.com>
* @license MIT
*
*/

class HtmlCacheHelper extends Helper {
var $options = array('test_mode' => false, 'www_root' => WWW_ROOT);
var $helpers = array('Session', 'Auth');
var $isFlash = false;

function beforeRender() {
if($this->Session->read('Message')) {
$this->isFlash = true;
}
}

function afterLayout() {
if(!$this->__isCachable()) {
return;
}

$view =& ClassRegistry::getObject('view');

//handle 404s
if ($view->name == 'CakeError') {
$path = $this->params['url']['url'];
} else {
$path = $this->here;
}

$path = implode(DS, array_filter(explode('/', $path)));
if($path !== '') {
$path = DS . ltrim($path, DS);
}

$path = $this->options['www_root'] . 'cache' . $path . DS . 'index.html';
$file = new File($path, true);
$file->write($view->output);
}

function __isCachable() {
if (/*!$this->options['test_mode'] && */ Configure::read('debug') > 0) {
return false;
}

if($this->Auth->sessionValid()){
return false;
}

if($this->isFlash) {
return false;
}

if(!empty($this->data)) {
return false;
}

return true;
}
}
?>
[/code]
I added check with Auth Helper to check if user is logged in.
http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/authhelper

This was working fine like that, not generating cache for logged in user.

But if the cache is created before, apache/htaccess will fetch the cached version even if user is logged in.

So I make a little workaround:

I created app/webroot/html_cache.php:
[code]
<?php
session_name('CAKEPHP');
session_start();

$cacheFile = './cache/'.$_GET['url'].'index.html';

if(isset($_SESSION['Auth']['User']['id']) && !empty($_SESSION['Auth']['User']['id'])){
//user logged in
include('index.php');
}
elseif(is_readable($cacheFile)){
//not logged, cache exists
include($cacheFile);
}
else{
//not logged, not cache
include('index.php');
}
?>
[/code]

in the app/webroot/.htaccess, replaced 1 line:
[code]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^GET$
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/cache/$1/index.html -f
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /cache/$1/index.html [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /html_cache.php?url=$1 [L]
[/code]

And this works fine!
This is passing through some PHP code to include cached version or CakePHP, but performances are still good.

Have you comments about this workaround ?