How can I prevent a particular page being cached?

Question

I have activated the cache on my Drupal 8 site, and of course all pages are cached as expected.

However, I'd like to have a specific page bypass that cache.

In my controller I built the page as follows:

public function myPage() {
  return [
    '#markup' => time(),
  ];
}

How can I tell Drupal not to cache my page?

Answer 1

For Drupal 7

Drupal has the function drupal_page_is_cacheable() which can be used to set a page to uncacheable.

Here is the documentation: https://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/includes!bootstrap.inc/function/drupal_page_is_cacheable/7

For Drupal 8

// Deny any page caching on the current request.    
\Drupal::service('page_cache_kill_switch')->trigger();

Then the code is:

public function myPage() {
  \Drupal::service('page_cache_kill_switch')->trigger();
  return [
    '#markup' => time(),
  ];
}

As usual, clean your cache once done.

Best practice (Drupal 8 | 9 | 10)

For performance and good practice reasons it is recommended to use dependency injection inside your Controller class.

modules/custom/my_module/MyController.php

<?php

namespace Drupal\my_module\Controller;

use Drupal\Core\Controller\ControllerBase;
use Drupal\Core\PageCache\ResponsePolicy\KillSwitch;
use Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\ContainerInterface;

/**
 * A controller class that respects Drupal coding standards.
 *
 * @see https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/standards
 */
class MyController extends ControllerBase {

  /**
   * Page cache kill switch.
   *
   * @var \Drupal\Core\PageCache\ResponsePolicy\KillSwitch
   */
  protected $killSwitch;

  /**
   * {@inheritdoc}
   */
  public function __construct(KillSwitch $kill_switch) {
    $this->killSwitch = $kill_switch;
  }

  /**
   * {@inheritdoc}
   */
  public static function create(ContainerInterface $container) {
    return new static(
      $container->get('page_cache_kill_switch')
    );
  }

  /**
   * Render my page with a renderable array.
   *
   * @return array
   */
  public function myPage() : array {
    $this->killSwitch->trigger();
    return [
      '#markup' => time(),
    ];
  }

}

Answer 2

Disable cache for a specific page

Disable cache for a custom page from route declaration. If you want to disable cache for a custom controller (Custom module), You have no_cache option (YOUR_MODULE.routing.yml). Example : File : mymodule.routing.yml

mymodule.myroute:
  path: '/mymodule/mypage'
  defaults:
    _controller: '\Drupal\mymodule\Controller\Pages::mypage'
    _title: 'No cache page'
  requirements:
    _access: 'TRUE'
  options:
    no_cache: 'TRUE'

Added 'no_cache' route option to mark a route's responses as uncacheable

Answer 3

In Drupal 8, you can mention cache as max-age till you want your page ouput to be cached. For removing cache of a particular page(Controller page), write 'max-age' => 0,.

public function myPage() {
  return [
   '#markup' => time(),
   '#cache' => ['max-age' => 0,],    //Set cache for 0 seconds.
  ];
} 

Answer 4

If you need to do something with a contrib module you can use a RouteSubscriber to fix the cache issue. you need a service ... or just run drupal gr if have drupal console.

 namespace Drupal\mymodule\Routing;

 use Drupal\Core\Routing\RouteSubscriberBase;
 use Symfony\Component\Routing\RouteCollection;

 class RouteSubscriber extends RouteSubscriberBase {

/**
 * {@inheritdoc}
 */
protected function alterRoutes(RouteCollection $collection) {
  // Find the route you need ...
  if ($route = $collection->get('some.contrib.route')) {
    $options = $route->getOptions();
    $options['no_cache'] = TRUE;
    $route->setOptions($options);
  }
 }
}

more info see https://www.drupal.org/docs/8/api/routing-system/altering-existing-routes-and-adding-new-routes-based-on-dynamic-ones

Answer 5

You can use this module to avoid drupal cache and also server side cache like varnish https://www.drupal.org/project/ape

Its works for me in Varnish cache on acquia server.