Leveraging Browser Caching - Expires/Cache control for CSS/Images

Question

After running a google Speed Test, one of the items is to "Leverage Browser Caching".

How do you set these values for static images or css files? This site uses CodeIgniter (php) and apache.

Thank you!

Answer 1

In your Apache config:

# Make stuff cacheable
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 day"

# Typically dynamic PHP content
ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 0 seconds"

# PDF files don't need to be cached either
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access plus 0 seconds"

The rules should be fairly self-explanatory.

You can set this globally, as above, and per virtual host:

<Directory "/var/www/example.com">
        # Cache longer
        ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 year"
</Directory>

Recommended reading: Caching Tutorial, Apache Caching Guide