Bypass Page Rule Failing with APO

Website, Application, Performance Automatic Platform Optimization
1

I am using APO, which works great, except for one thing: I have pages that need to bypass the default APO caching (everything with the url construction /show/*/). I’m attempting to do this through a combination of setting a cache-header and defining a Cloudflare Page Rule.

Here is a page…

You will see this cache header:

max-age=3600, public

And here is my Page Rule in Cloudflare:

cloudflare-page-rule
cloudflare-page-rule1504×150 18.4 KB

Based upon my understanding, Cloudflare should be purging that page after an hour. I have run several tests, and it’s not purging. I have a Cloudflare Pro account.

Here are the headers coming back in a curl:

content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
cf-ray: 85877c033f937cff-EWR
cf-cache-status: HIT
age: 43972
cache-control: public, max-age=3600
last-modified: Tue, 20 Feb 2024 02:23:55 GMT
link: <https://www.tvinsider.com/wp-json/>; rel="https://api.w.org/"
vary: Accept-Encoding, Accept-Encoding,Cookie
cf-apo-via: tcache
cf-edge-cache: cache,platform=wordpress
x-cache: HIT: 2
x-cache-group: normal
x-cacheable: SHORT
x-powered-by: WP Engine
report-to: {"endpoints":[{"url":"https:\/\/a.nel.cloudflare.com\/report\/v3?s=sa%2B5hQrkiRjXXuXHq3l%2B0HXhkuOgoK%2FLq3GHAmGcOQMQTG%2FpqUzOoPQYMQaZTdspAsElJQiDzMHqQqjEPafnWrUE6KfSbtjEqA0SMa9VMeae9jVLB3TcIH%2F4XnGaZ%2Ft%2BfriQ"}],"group":"cf-nel","max_age":604800}
nel: {"success_fraction":0,"report_to":"cf-nel","max_age":604800}
server: cloudflare
alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=86400

Some things I notice in those headers:

  • cf-cache-status: HIT. It’s hitting Cloudflare.

  • cf-apo-via: tcache. It’s running through APO.

  • cache-control: public, max-age=3600. Cache is being set to 1 hour.

  • age: 43972. Cache is wildly surpassing the 1-hour limit. (You’ll see a higher number.)

I’m stymied. Cache will stay there for days unless I resort to the nuclear option — the “Purge Everything” button.

What am I doing wrong? Help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

3

Hey there!

Cloudflare respects whichever value is higher: the Browser Cache TTL in Cloudflare or the max-age header.

Can you try adding a Browser TTL in that rule?

4

@Wanda Thanks for responding! I made that change and it does not seem to help.

First, per your instructions, I changed the Cloudflare page rule to also be an hour:

cloudflare-new-page-rule
cloudflare-new-page-rule1584×984 92.1 KB

Then I then purged all caches in the system, and waited an hour…

Now let’s pick one of these pages… how about this one:

Here’s what my curl says:

date: Thu, 22 Feb 2024 23:08:31 GMT
content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
cf-ray: 859ae4385df88c2d-EWR
cf-cache-status: HIT
age: 4482
cache-control: public, max-age=3600
last-modified: Thu, 22 Feb 2024 21:09:09 GMT
link: <https://www.tvinsider.com/wp-json/>; rel="https://api.w.org/"
vary: Accept-Encoding
cf-apo-via: tcache
cf-edge-cache: cache,platform=wordpress
x-cache: MISS
x-cache-group: bot
x-cacheable: bot
x-powered-by: WP Engine
report-to: {"endpoints":[{"url":"https:\/\/a.nel.cloudflare.com\/report\/v3?s=jD7hvsiaB7K8qfctK%2FjeX1NIJX%2BrOUif9mCQ%2Bmq9BEbdRM9%2BWASXwNXl9dvq2dc6R1FDnQauUHm3Yuyy9wyxBHLs7F49aZI9fH%2FnXTwgwB4Ro2DbnZY3GvxmYwFyR7rf%2BHL0"}],"group":"cf-nel","max_age":604800}
nel: {"success_fraction":0,"report_to":"cf-nel","max_age":604800}
server: cloudflare
alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=86400

As you can see, the age (age: 4482) is still exceeding the caching (cache-control: public, max-age=3600). If I just let that page sit there, cache will not puge for days, unless I manually purge it.

I feel like there’s something simple and obvious that I’m missing, but can’t figure out what. Thanks for your help!

5

Hi, this was solved by Cloudflare support by setting Edge Cache TTL Page Rule.

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6

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