Website "cache" is temporary storage (caching) of web-based content: Web pages, documents, images, etc. Website caching is used in order to improve website speed and performance, as temporarily storing web-based content helps reduce server lag.
Caching on Live Open Berkeley Websites
All live Open Berkeley websites have caching set to 15 minutes in order to help with overall site speed and performance. This means that when you make an update and save, an anonymous visitor (who is not signed in) might not see your changes for up to 15 minutes.
Flush Website Caches (if necessary)
If you ever notice any display issues on your website, it may be a cache issue. You can flush cache via the administration menu:
However, try not to flush cache unless you need to because caching makes your website pages load faster!
Notes
- Since website cache can be a fairly complex process, flushing cache via the admin menu may not result in your latest changes showing up immediately. Instead of relying on the act of flushing caches via the admin menu, consider planning ahead and keeping the 15-minute cache window in mind when making your updates.
- If you ever encounter display issues or other similar issues on your site, and flushing caches via the admin menu doesn't help, you can also try clearing your browser cache, and/or viewing your website in a different browser. Here are instructions on how to clear browser cache:
If flushing the site cache doesn't resolve the issue, you may want to try flushing your browser cache as well before re-testing. If flushing both website and browser caches still doesn't resolve the issue, please email web-platform@berkeley.edu.
Views Caches
Some of the available widgets on the Open Berkeley platform are powered by "views" in Drupal. Examples of such widgets are the News widgets. The views have a separate cache than the rest of the website cache, and the views cache is generally longer (1 hour) than the standard website cache (15 minutes). This means that a page that contains a listings widget may show its updates after 15 minutes, but the listings widget will not show updates until after 1 hour.
If you have added a News item to your site that you want to show up in your "Recent Stories" widget more quickly, you can flush the Views cache separately (without having to flush all site caches) from the Admin --> Flush Caches menu:
