Introduction
What is Cache Control?
Cache Control was built to aid advanced Magento application caching. All application caching must be built in.
How it Works
Rather than refreshing an entire Magento cache, Cache Control enables refreshing for individual cache components through an advanced interface.
An additional interface allows developers to create custom expiration handles, rather than hardcoding cache expirations, leaving flexibility for evolving business decisions.
Pre-requisites
Code/Conflicts
- NO EDITS OR MODIFICATIONS TO MAGENTO CORE (Typically, this includes all code inside the app/code/core folder)
Magento Version
- Community Edition 1.0 or Above (Tested with 1.4.1.1 as of this writing)
Installation
Before you Install
As with all our modules (and all modules in general), installing this module directly and solely in a live environment is strongly discouraged. It is recommended that it be installed in a development environment, configured, tested, and then deployed to your live environment through your deployment method of choice (i.e. - git, subversion, etc...). If this is not possible, then the next best thing would be to make a FULL backup before installation.
For installation, we've been able to provide two ways of installing this module. If both prove to be problematic, you may have un-addressed issues with your magento installation. Typically, users have little or no issue with this particular module installation.
Graphical Installation (Magento Connect)
-
In the admin, navigate to System->Magento Connect->Magento Connect Manager. It should take you to this screen:
-
Login with your credentials. Then in the field at the top of the page enter "magento-community/Cache_Control" (without the quotes) and click "Install":
- That's it! You're done. When you go back to System->Cache Management, you should have an updated cache management interface.
Error?
If you've never used Magento Connect before, you might need to make sure you have pear installed and available. This could be as easy as making sure you have a "downloader" folder that matches the version that comes with a default copy of your version of Magento. Or, it could be more complex. Typically, this is a larger problem that needs to be addressed before installing any modules.
Pear Installation
Navigate to the root of your application. You should see folders like (app, downloader, skin, etc...). If you have not already used Magento Connect or any other Pear package management for your installation, you will need to run the following:
terminal Setting up Pear
If you receive a permission error, run the following:
terminal Pear Permissions
Then:
terminal Pear Install
That's it! You're done. When you go back to System->Cache Management, you should have an updated cache management interface.
General Usage
So you've gone through the installation. Now, let's give you a tour of how to control caching from the admin. The main control area of the admin resides in the System -> Cache Management page. It should look something like this:
That's the tour. Short and sweet. If you have any further questions/issues, please contact us. Enjoy advanced cache control functionality!