.net-4.0asp.netccaching
I am adding caching to an ASP.NET web application. This is .NET 4, so I can use the classes in the System.Runtime.Caching namespace (which, as I understand it, was added to provide similar functionality to that found in System.Web.Caching, but for non-Web-apps.)
But since this is a web app, am I better off using System.Web.Caching? Or is the newer System.Runtime.Caching superior in some way?
The correct minimum set of headers that works across all mentioned clients (and proxies):
Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate
Pragma: no-cache
Expires: 0
The Cache-Control is per the HTTP 1.1 spec for clients and proxies (and implicitly required by some clients next to Expires). The Pragma is per the HTTP 1.0 spec for prehistoric clients. The Expires is per the HTTP 1.0 and 1.1 specs for clients and proxies. In HTTP 1.1, the Cache-Control takes precedence over Expires, so it's after all for HTTP 1.0 proxies only.
If you don't care about IE6 and its broken caching when serving pages over HTTPS with only no-store, then you could omit Cache-Control: no-cache.
Cache-Control: no-store, must-revalidate
Pragma: no-cache
Expires: 0
If you don't care about IE6 nor HTTP 1.0 clients (HTTP 1.1 was introduced in 1997), then you could omit Pragma.
Cache-Control: no-store, must-revalidate
Expires: 0
If you don't care about HTTP 1.0 proxies either, then you could omit Expires.
Cache-Control: no-store, must-revalidate
On the other hand, if the server auto-includes a valid Date header, then you could theoretically omit Cache-Control too and rely on Expires only.
Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2016 18:32:02 GMT
Expires: 0
But that may fail if e.g. the end-user manipulates the operating system date and the client software is relying on it.
Other Cache-Control parameters such as max-age are irrelevant if the abovementioned Cache-Control parameters are specified. The Last-Modified header as included in most other answers here is only interesting if you actually want to cache the request, so you don't need to specify it at all.
Using PHP:
header("Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"); // HTTP 1.1.
header("Pragma: no-cache"); // HTTP 1.0.
header("Expires: 0"); // Proxies.
Using Java Servlet, or Node.js:
response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"); // HTTP 1.1.
response.setHeader("Pragma", "no-cache"); // HTTP 1.0.
response.setHeader("Expires", "0"); // Proxies.
Using ASP.NET-MVC
Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache); // HTTP 1.1.
Response.Cache.AppendCacheExtension("no-store, must-revalidate");
Response.AppendHeader("Pragma", "no-cache"); // HTTP 1.0.
Response.AppendHeader("Expires", "0"); // Proxies.
Using ASP.NET Web API:
// `response` is an instance of System.Net.Http.HttpResponseMessage
response.Headers.CacheControl = new CacheControlHeaderValue
{
NoCache = true,
NoStore = true,
MustRevalidate = true
};
response.Headers.Pragma.ParseAdd("no-cache");
// We can't use `response.Content.Headers.Expires` directly
// since it allows only `DateTimeOffset?` values.
response.Content?.Headers.TryAddWithoutValidation("Expires", 0.ToString());
Using ASP.NET:
Response.AppendHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"); // HTTP 1.1.
Response.AppendHeader("Pragma", "no-cache"); // HTTP 1.0.
Response.AppendHeader("Expires", "0"); // Proxies.
Using ASP.NET Core v3
// using Microsoft.Net.Http.Headers
Response.Headers[HeaderNames.CacheControl] = "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate";
Response.Headers[HeaderNames.Expires] = "0";
Response.Headers[HeaderNames.Pragma] = "no-cache";
Using ASP:
Response.addHeader "Cache-Control", "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate" ' HTTP 1.1.
Response.addHeader "Pragma", "no-cache" ' HTTP 1.0.
Response.addHeader "Expires", "0" ' Proxies.
Using Ruby on Rails:
headers["Cache-Control"] = "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate" # HTTP 1.1.
headers["Pragma"] = "no-cache" # HTTP 1.0.
headers["Expires"] = "0" # Proxies.
Using Python/Flask:
response = make_response(render_template(...))
response.headers["Cache-Control"] = "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate" # HTTP 1.1.
response.headers["Pragma"] = "no-cache" # HTTP 1.0.
response.headers["Expires"] = "0" # Proxies.
Using Python/Django:
response["Cache-Control"] = "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate" # HTTP 1.1.
response["Pragma"] = "no-cache" # HTTP 1.0.
response["Expires"] = "0" # Proxies.
Using Python/Pyramid:
request.response.headerlist.extend(
(
('Cache-Control', 'no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate'),
('Pragma', 'no-cache'),
('Expires', '0')
)
)
Using Go:
responseWriter.Header().Set("Cache-Control", "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate") // HTTP 1.1.
responseWriter.Header().Set("Pragma", "no-cache") // HTTP 1.0.
responseWriter.Header().Set("Expires", "0") // Proxies.
Using Clojure (require Ring utils):
(require '[ring.util.response :as r])
(-> response
(r/header "Cache-Control" "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate")
(r/header "Pragma" "no-cache")
(r/header "Expires" 0))
Using Apache .htaccess file:
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header set Cache-Control "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"
Header set Pragma "no-cache"
Header set Expires 0
</IfModule>
Using HTML:
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate">
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="0">
Important to know is that when an HTML page is served over an HTTP connection, and a header is present in both the HTTP response headers and the HTML <meta http-equiv> tags, then the one specified in the HTTP response header will get precedence over the HTML meta tag. The HTML meta tag will only be used when the page is viewed from a local disk file system via a file:// URL. See also W3 HTML spec chapter 5.2.2. Take care with this when you don't specify them programmatically because the webserver can namely include some default values.
Generally, you'd better just not specify the HTML meta tags to avoid confusion by starters and rely on hard HTTP response headers. Moreover, specifically those <meta http-equiv> tags are invalid in HTML5. Only the http-equiv values listed in HTML5 specification are allowed.
To verify the one and the other, you can see/debug them in the HTTP traffic monitor of the web browser's developer toolset. You can get there by pressing F12 in Chrome/Firefox23+/IE9+, and then opening the "Network" or "Net" tab panel, and then clicking the HTTP request of interest to uncover all detail about the HTTP request and response. The below screenshot is from Chrome:
First of all, this question and answer are targeted on "web pages" (HTML pages), not "file downloads" (PDF, zip, Excel, etc). You'd better have them cached and make use of some file version identifier somewhere in the URI path or query string to force a redownload on a changed file. When applying those no-cache headers on file downloads anyway, then beware of the IE7/8 bug when serving a file download over HTTPS instead of HTTP. For detail, see IE cannot download foo.jsf. IE was not able to open this internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found.
These are the versions of C# known about at the time of this writing:
Dispose on IEnumerators which implemented IDisposable. A few other small features.var), and query expressionsdynamic), delegate and interface generic variance, more COM support, named arguments, tuple data type and optional parametersawait in catch and finally, extension Add methods in collection initializers.out parameter declarations, local functions, binary literals, digit separators, and arbitrary async returns.unmanaged generic type constraints. ref reassignment. Unsafe improvements: stackalloc initialization, unpinned indexed fixed buffers, custom fixed statements. Improved overloading resolution. Expression variables in initializers and queries. == and != defined for tuples. Auto-properties' backing fields can now be targeted by attributes.new expressions, target typed ?? and ?), and covariant returns. Minor features: relax ordering of ref and partial modifiers, parameter null checking, lambda discard parameters, native ints, attributes on local functions, function pointers, static lambdas, extension GetEnumerator, module initializers, and extending partial.What are the correct version numbers for C#? What came out when? Why can't I find any answers about C# 3.5?
There is no such thing as C# 3.5 - the cause of confusion here is that the C# 3.0 is present in .NET 3.5. The language and framework are versioned independently, however - as is the CLR, which is at version 2.0 for .NET 2.0 through 3.5, .NET 4 introducing CLR 4.0, service packs notwithstanding. The CLR in .NET 4.5 has various improvements, but the versioning is unclear: in some places it may be referred to as CLR 4.5 (this MSDN page used to refer to it that way, for example), but the Environment.Version property still reports 4.0.xxx.
As of May 3, 2017, the C# Language Team created a history of C# versions and features on their GitHub repository: Features Added in C# Language Versions. There is also a page that tracks upcoming and recently implemented language features.
Best Answer
Microsoft recommends using System.Runtime.Caching for all caching purposes. See this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd997357.aspx
Although, I have come across a couple threads where people are having issues with the MemoryCache.Default instance. After a while, it stops working properly. Any item you add using the Add or Set method does not actually get added to the cache. I tried the same and was able to reproduce this issue with explicitly calling MemoryCache.Default.Dispose() method.
Here are the links: MemoryCache Empty : Returns null after being set
http://forums.asp.net/t/1736572.aspx/1
My recommendation is to use the System.Web.Caching (HttpContext.Current.Cache)
UPDATE:
This issue has been fixed by MS. Check the accepted answer in the post below: Runtime Cache Issue Resolved