How do you set cache headers in Spring MVC?

Question

In an annotation-based Spring MVC controller, what is the preferred way to set cache headers for a specific path?

Answer 1

You could use a Handler Interceptor and use the postHandle method provided by it:

http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/2.0.x/api/org/springframework/web/servlet/HandlerInterceptor.html

postHandle(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Object handler, ModelAndView modelAndView)

then just add a header as follows in the method:

response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache");

Answer 2

org.springframework.web.servlet.support.WebContentGenerator, which is the base class for all Spring controllers has quite a few methods dealing with cache headers:

/* Set whether to use the HTTP 1.1 cache-control header. Default is "true".
 * <p>Note: Cache headers will only get applied if caching is enabled
 * (or explicitly prevented) for the current request. */
public final void setUseCacheControlHeader();

/* Return whether the HTTP 1.1 cache-control header is used. */
public final boolean isUseCacheControlHeader();

/* Set whether to use the HTTP 1.1 cache-control header value "no-store"
 * when preventing caching. Default is "true". */
public final void setUseCacheControlNoStore(boolean useCacheControlNoStore);

/* Cache content for the given number of seconds. Default is -1,
 * indicating no generation of cache-related headers.
 * Only if this is set to 0 (no cache) or a positive value (cache for
 * this many seconds) will this class generate cache headers.
 * The headers can be overwritten by subclasses, before content is generated. */
public final void setCacheSeconds(int seconds);

They can either be invoked within your controller prior to content generation or specified as bean properties in Spring context.

Answer 3

You could extend AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter to look for a custom cache control annotation and set the http headers accordingly.

Answer 4

Steven Willems encountered the same problem and describes different solutions and one proposal for a new annotation in his blog:

the blog entry spring-mvc-3-0-http-cache-control-headers

Answer 5

I just encountered the same problem, and found a good solution already provided by the framework. The org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.WebContentInterceptor class allows you to define default caching behavior, plus path-specific overrides (with the same path-matcher behavior used elsewhere). The steps for me were:

1. Ensure my instance of org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter does not have the "cacheSeconds" property set.

2. Add an instance of WebContentInterceptor:

   <mvc:interceptors>
   ...
   <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.WebContentInterceptor" p:cacheSeconds="0" p:alwaysUseFullPath="true" >
       <property name="cacheMappings">
           <props>
               <!-- cache for one month -->
               <prop key="/cache/me/**">2592000</prop>
               <!-- don't set cache headers -->
               <prop key="/cache/agnostic/**">-1</prop>
           </props>
       </property>
   </bean>
   ...
   </mvc-interceptors>
   

After these changes, responses under /foo included headers to discourage caching, responses under /cache/me included headers to encourage caching, and responses under /cache/agnostic included no cache-related headers.