README

This package integrates Varnish Cache with Bagisto to boost site performance by delivering cached pages quickly, while still supporting dynamic components through ESI (Edge Side Includes) or AJAX-based dynamic views.

📌 Features

• ⚡ Full-page caching via Varnish
• 🔄 Automatic cache purging on product, category, or content updates
• 🔍 ESI support for dynamic blocks
• 🖱 AJAX-based dynamic view loading for improved Core Web Vitals
• 🛠 Artisan commands for cache management
• 🖥 Admin tools for purging cache & exporting VCL
• 🎨 Theme-ready Blade components
• 🛡 Middleware for cache headers (cacheable & non-cacheable routes)

🔄 Request Flow

Explanation:

• 443 (HTTPS) → Nginx handles SSL termination and forwards traffic.
• 80 (HTTP) → Varnish Proxy caches and serves pages, or passes the request to the backend.
• 8080 → Bagisto (Laravel app) generates fresh content when needed.

Flow Summary: Browser → Nginx → Varnish Proxy → Bagisto → Response (cached or fresh)

📦 Installation

1. Install via Composer

composer require bagisto/bagisto-varnish

2. Register the Service Provider

In bootstrap/providers.php:

Note: Autoloading via Composer’s package auto-discovery is not possible for this provider. The registry order matters—VarnishServiceProvider must be listed after the Shop package or at the end of the providers array. Auto-discovery would load it too early, which can cause issues.

'providers' => [
    Webkul\Varnish\Providers\VarnishServiceProvider::class,
],

3. Publish Assets & Config

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Webkul\Varnish\Providers\VarnishServiceProvider"

⚙️ Varnish Server Configuration

1. Install Varnish 6.x on your server.

2. Replace /etc/varnish/default.vcl with the provided file:

   Varnish/vcls/6.0.vcl
   

3. Restart Varnish:

   sudo systemctl restart varnish

🎨 Theme Integration

You can integrate dynamic content in two ways:

1 – Define Dynamic Views / Fragments

In config/varnish.php, define a key (identifier) and its corresponding Blade view path:

return [
    'esi' => [
        'views' => [
            ...

            'customer-desktop-dropdown' => 'varnish::shop.components.layouts.header.desktop.customer-dropdown',

            ...
        ]
    ],
];

• Key → Used in ESI or AJAX call (customer-desktop-dropdown)
• Path → Full Blade view path to render (varnish::...)

2 – ESI Include

<esi:include src="/esi?tag=customer-desktop-dropdown" />

• Injects content at the Varnish level (server-side).
• Appears immediately on page load.
• May affect LCP/FCP if the backend is slow.

3 – AJAX Dynamic View (Recommended for LCP)

<x-varnish::dynamic-view view="customer-desktop-dropdown" />

• Loads via AJAX after user interaction.
• Improves LCP/FCP.
• Ideal for non-critical dropdowns, modals, and menus.

🗂 Cache-Control Headers

For routes that should NOT be cached by Varnish:

Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate

For routes that should be cached:

Cache-Control: public, max-age=604800, s-maxage=604800

(Example: 7 days)

Middleware for Cache Headers in Bagisto

We’ve created a middleware Webkul\Varnish\Http\Middleware\VarnishCache to handle cache headers.

Attach it to routes like this:

Route::get('/', [HomeController::class, 'index'])
    ->name('shop.home.index')
    ->middleware('cache.response');

🛠 UI Configuration (Export VCL)

Navigate to: Admin → Configuration → Cache Management → Varnish → Configuration

Select Varnish as the cache application, then provide the following:

1. Access List – IPs allowed to purge the cache (e.g., localhost).
2. Varnish Host URL – Varnish server IP and port for purging/banning cache via UI.
3. Backend Host URL – Laravel Bagisto server IP used in the exported VCL.
4. Backend Host Port – Laravel Bagisto server port used in the exported VCL.
5. Grace Period – Duration for serving stale content if the backend is slow or unavailable.

🛠 Cache Management

Navigate to: Admin → Configuration → Cache Management → Varnish → Purge Cache

1. Purge by URLs – Enter full URLs (comma-separated) to clear specific cache entries. Paths and domains must match exactly.
2. Purge Everything – Clears all cache entries from Varnish. Use with caution, as it may temporarily affect performance.

🛡 Automatic Cache Purging

The package automatically purges cache when:

• Products, categories, pages, orders, reviews, refunds, or theme changes occur.

You can also manually trigger purging by adding your own events in EventServiceProvider and calling:

VarnishCache::forget($urls);

🖥 Admin Panel Tools

• Purge Full Cache
• Purge by URL
• Export VCL

🚀 Best Practices

• Use ESI for small, critical personalized blocks (e.g., login status, cart count).
• Use AJAX dynamic views for non-critical interactive elements to improve Core Web Vitals.
• Set Cache-Control headers with appropriate TTL values to control caching behavior.
• Always test on a staging environment before deploying to production.
• Monitor LCP, FCP, and TTFB after enabling Varnish.