How to Resolve CSS Caching Issues on Apache Servers

Addressing CSS Caching Issues in Apache

Developers often encounter the issue where changes made to CSS files are not reflected in their web pages during testing due to browser caching. This article aims to address this issue and provide a solution specifically for Apache servers.

Is Apache Caching Resources?

Yes, Apache does cache resources by default. This is configured in the .htaccess file located in the website's root directory. The following lines may be present:

ExpiresByType text/css                      "access plus 1 day"
ExpiresByType application/javascript       "access plus 1 day"

These lines instruct Apache to cache CSS and JavaScript files for one day, which can lead to caching problems during development.

How to Prevent Apache from Caching Resources

To prevent Apache from caching CSS files, add the following line to your .htaccess file:

Header set Cache-Control "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"

This line tells Apache to not cache any files and to request them from the server each time a page is loaded.

Using Versioning to Force Refreshes

Alternatively, you can use versioning to force browsers to refresh cached CSS files. Append a query string parameter to the CSS file URL, such as:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css?v=1">

When you update your CSS file, simply increment the version number (e.g., ?v=2) to force browsers to download the updated version.

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