Cache Management

Unfold CMS ships with two independent caching layers that work together to serve pages fast.

Two Layers

1. Page Cache (HTML cache)

Writes the rendered HTML of each public page to public/cache/*.html. On a cache hit, a tiny PHP script (public/cache-server.php) serves the file before Laravel boots — no database query, no PHP framework overhead. Typical hit time: 5–10ms.

Cached HTML is automatically invalidated when you save a post, change a menu, or update site settings.

Page caching is enabled by default. Toggle it at Settings > Cache > Enable Page Cache.

Requirements:

  • public/cache/ directory must exist and be writable by the web server user (e.g. www-data)
  • Works on Apache, Nginx, Caddy, LiteSpeed — no webserver config needed

Bypassed for:

  • Authenticated users (cookie unfold_auth present)
  • POST/PUT/DELETE requests
  • Requests with a query string
  • Admin panel and API routes

2. Settings / Application Cache

Caches database settings and other frequently read data in memory (L1) and in a persistent backend (L2). Prevents redundant queries on every request.

L1 — Request memory: Active for the current request only. Always on, no config needed.

L2 — Persistent: Survives across requests. Configured via Settings > Cache > Cache Driver.

Driver Good for
file (default) Any hosting environment
redis High-traffic VPS — fastest
database When the file system is restricted

Admin Panel

Navigate to Tools > Cache to:

  • See the current driver and page-cache status
  • Clear individual caches or all caches at once

Clearing Caches

Cache What it clears
Application Cache Cached settings and data
Page Cache All cached HTML files in public/cache/
View Cache Compiled Blade templates
Route Cache Cached route list
Config Cache Cached .env + config values
All Everything above

Clear caches after:

  • Changing .env values (requires Config cache clear)
  • Modifying template or config files
  • Updating the CMS
  • Troubleshooting stale content

Production Optimization

php artisan config:cache    # cache configuration
php artisan route:cache     # cache routes
php artisan view:cache      # cache Blade views

After caching config, .env changes require re-running config:cache.

Troubleshooting

Pages not caching (always slow):

  1. Check public/cache/ exists: ls -la public/cache/
  2. Check it's writable by the web server: ls -la public/ | grep cache
  3. If missing: mkdir public/cache && chown www-data:www-data public/cache && chmod 775 public/cache
  4. Confirm toggle is on: Settings > Cache > Enable Page Cache

Stale content showing:

  • Clear all caches from Tools > Cache
  • Or run php artisan cache:page:flush

CSRF / 419 errors on cached pages:

  • This is handled automatically. Each cached page runs a tiny JS snippet that refreshes the CSRF token before any form is submitted.

Artisan Commands

php artisan cache:page:flush             # delete all cached HTML files
php artisan cache:page:flush --url=/blog # delete one URL
php artisan cache:page:stats             # show files, size, oldest, newest
php artisan cache:page:prune --older-than=604800  # remove files older than N seconds
Backups Maintenance Mode