A simple and short presentation explaining what caching is, why you should start caching your static resources (CSS, Javascript and image files for example) and shows the code which enables caching in your users browsers. Note: This tutorial is only for XAMPP server installations

1. How to cache static resources

2. What is caching?

3. ”Caching (pronounced “cashing”) is the process
of storing data in a cache”

4. What is a cache then?

5. ”A cache is a temporary storage area.”

6. Why should I cache static resources?

7. •
The website loads faster for the users
•
The server doesn't have to be bothered by any
unnecessary traffic.

8. How to start caching
This tutorial is only for XAMPP server installations

9. •
Make sure the mod_expires module is installed and
turned on in your apache server configuration.
•
Make sure the mod_headers module is installed and
turned on in your apache server configuration.
•
Make sure your hosting company allows you to use
a .htaccess file.

10. The .htaccess code
The lines starting with an # are comments meant to
explain the code written directly below it.

11. # Turn on Expires and set default to 0
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault A0
!
# Set up caching on media files for 1 year (forever?)
!
ExpiresDefault A29030400
Header append Cache-Control "public"
!
# Set up caching on media files for 1 week
!
ExpiresDefault A604800
Header append Cache-Control "public"
!
# Set up 2 Hour caching on commonly updated files
!
ExpiresDefault A7200
Header append Cache-Control "proxy-revalidate"
!
# Force no caching for dynamic files
!
ExpiresActive Off
Header set Cache-Control "private, no-cache, no-store, proxy-revalidate, no-transform"
Header set Pragma "no-cache"

12. Recommendations
•
Use expires instead of Cache-control: max-age
(expires is more widely supported)
•
Set expires to a minimum of one month for static
resources.
•
Don't set expires more than one year into the
future.(It violates the RFC guidelines).
•
Set last-modified to the last date the resource was
changed.

13. Resources
•
What is caching?
•
Google: Optimize caching
•
Speed up your site with caching and cache-control
•
Convert Apache .htaccess to NGINX
•
Apache caching guide