Hi,
We are using Cloudflare APO for WordPress.
I need assistance with a couple of points,
Is there a way to block full purge requests from the Cloudflare WordPress plugin? I don’t see the API calls from the Cloudflare WordPress plugin in web analytics.
Is it mandatory to install the Cloudflare WordPress plugin to use APO?
The purge requests happen when content is changed, otherwise it would take (up to) the Edge TTL time value for the new content to be reflected externally.
It’s not mandatory to have the plugin at all to have your WordPress website going through Cloudflare.
If you don’t have the plugin, your WordPress website will be treated just like any other website, meaning it will still be cached following the headers from your origin and settings+rules from Cloudflare.
Hi @mcorreia
Thanks for the response.
We are facing the issue of unexpected full cache purges. An expected event on our site causes a full change purge and the origin server overloads. Page-level cache purge is fine but, is there any way to control the full cache purge (purge everything)? I think we can’t block it at the API level also as Cloudflare doesn’t offer granular permissions for page level and full cache purge.
I find it hard to believe that a cache purge is causing your origin to go down.
Note that Cloudflare will not fetch your entire website on its own after a purge. The cache will be done gradually on each request from a real visitor.
The 1st visitor after a purge will get a cache miss, but the edge will use the asset served to that client for caching, so, the next visitor requesting the same asset from the same colo will be served from cache. All the remaining assets not yet requested will not be cached until requested by a visitor.
If the server is being overloaded there might be something else happening. I would advise you to check your traffic analytics for potential issues.