Clear Cache for Me vs Proxy Cache Purge

W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache are great caching plugins, but they do not know when a widget is updated. WPEngine is the best place to host your WordPress installation, but their caching system is no smarter when it comes to updating widgets and menus. I created this plugin because my website did not see any changes when saving widgets or menus using these caching systems. Clear Cache For Me will purge ALL your cache each time you do a save without having to press an additional button. It may be overkill, which may be why it’s not built in, but some people need simplicity. In addition to clearing those pesky caching engines, Clear Cache for Me can force your browser to reload your current theme’s CSS and JS files. I modify my theme’s CSS and JS files every so often and always have trouble with the browser not getting the latest version. So now after clicking on the “Clear Cache Now!” button on the dashboard the browser will be forced to reload the current theme’s CSS and JS files. If you do not click the “Clear Cache Now!” button, the browser will cache the CSS and JS files like it normally does. The popular Qode themes has a options to set your own custom CSS and JS. Sometimes you may not see your changes for a long while because your browser is trying to get the cached file. Whenever you save your Qode’s options, the CSS and JS files will be forced to reload in the browser on the public side. Works with the following caching plugins: Autoptimize Breeze Cache Cache Enabler Cloudflare GoDaddy Cache Kinsta Cache LiteSpeed Cache Elementor (CSS cache) Premium Addons for Elementor SiteGround SuperCacher Super Page Cache WP Fastest Cache WP Optimize Cache WP Rocket WP Super Cache W3 Total Cache WPEngine Cache Clears all cache for following actions (requires a caching system above to be active): When Widgets are saved. When Customizer is saved. When Menus are saved. When a fields in Advanced Custom Fields are saved. When a Contact Form 7 form is saved. When a Formidable Form form is saved. When WooThemes settings are saved. When NextGen Gallery albums and galleries are updated (beta – may not clear cache on all actions). When Qode options are saved this plugin forces browsers to reload the custom css and custom js. When a WP Forms forms or settings are saved. When WooCommerce settings are saved. (Cache should already be clearing when products are saved.) When settings from the Insert Headers and Footers plugin by WPBeginner are saved. When Settings from a settings page is saved. This includes settings from WordPress core, Yoast SEO, and most other plugins using the Settings API. When WordPress is updated. When plugins are updated, activated, and deactivated. When WordPress, plugins, and themes are automaticallly updated. See the plugin’s homepage for more details. Note: Since some caching systems run in the shutdown hook, this plugin also runs in that hook. This means if PHP does not have enough time, some code including any hooks within the ccfm_clear_cache_for_all() function are not guaranteed to run. If you need code to run, consider using the ccfm_clear_cache_for_me_setup hook. Some plugins may have “auto purge” (like Cloudflare), but it doesn’t cover all the items this plugin covers. Developer Options ccfm_supported_caching_exists Use this filter to determine if this plugin should do anything including showing the button on the dashboard. Return true if a caching system is supported. Default: True if any of the supported caching systems is active. See Example 1 below. ccfm_admin_init or ccfm_init_actions Use this action to add hooks when cache is to be cleared. Or do any other setup activity. ccfm_clear_cache_for_me_before Use this action to clear cache from an unsupported caching system before the default caching systems clear their cache. ccfm_clear_cache_for_me Use this action to clear cache from an unsupported caching system after the default caching systems clear their cache. Example If you were using an unsupported caching system you’ll need to identify the caching plugin’s class or function which clears the cache. As an example, if the unsupported caching system called the MyOtherCache::clear_all() function, you would use the following code to get this plugin to clear the cache. <?php function my_other_cache_enable( $return = false ) { if ( class_exists( 'MyOtherCache' ) ) return true; return $return; } add_filter('ccfm_supported_caching_exists', 'my_other_cache_enable'); function my_other_cache_clear() { if ( my_other_cache_enable() ) MyOtherCache::clear_all(); } add_action('ccfm_clear_cache_for_me', 'my_other_cache_clear');

This plugin does not install nor configure a cache proxy. It acts as an interface with such services. One common method of caching content for websites is via the use of reverse proxy caching. Common examples of this are Varnish and NGINX. These systems allow a website to update content and have the visitor’s experience cached without the need for complex plugins storing the files locally and using up a user’s disk space. A reverse proxy cache is installed in front of a server and reviews requests. If the page being requested is already cached, it delivers the cached content. Otherwise it generates the page and the cache on demand. The Proxy Cache Purge plugin sends a request to delete (aka flush) the cached data of a page or post every time it’s modified. How It Works When content on a site is updated by WordPress, the plugin reaches out to the proxy cache service with the URL of the page, requesting the cache be deleted. Not all pages are deleted from the cache on every change. For example, when a post, page, or custom post type is edited, or a new comment is added, only the following pages will purge: The front page The post/page edited Any categories, tags, and/or custom taxonomies associated with the page Related feeds Associated JSON API pages In addition, your entire cache will be deleted on the following actions: Changing themes Pressing the Empty Cache button on the toolbar Plugins can hook into the purge actions as well, to filter their own events to trigger a purge. On a multisite network using subfolders, only network admins can purge the main site. Keep Your Cache Warm Purging is only half the story. Once Proxy Cache Purge empties a page, the cache for that URL is gone, so the next visitor triggers a full uncached render and waits for it. On busy sites this “cache stampede” shows up as slow pages right after every update. Cacheability Pro is a companion plugin that closes that gap: it automatically re-warms purged URLs in the background so visitors keep hitting fast, cached responses, and it tunes your cache headers so more of your pages stay cacheable in the first place. Proxy Cache Purge handles invalidation; Cacheability Pro handles everything around it. Monitor Your Cache Proxy Cache Purge keeps your cache fresh, but how often is it actually being hit? If you run your own Varnish or NGINX server, GetPageSpeed Amplify shows your cache hit rate, request volume, and backend health over time, with a free tier. Proxy Cache Purge handles invalidation; Amplify shows you whether the cache is doing its job. Development Mode If you’re working on a site and need to turn off caching in one of two ways: Add define( 'VHP_DEVMODE', true ); to your wp-config.php file Go to Proxy Cache -> Settings and enable Debug Mode for 24 hours at a time That will break cache on page loads. It is not recommended for production! Cache Tags (BETA) As of version 5.4.0, Proxy Cache Purge includes an optional Cache Tags / Surrogate Keys purge mode. This feature is marked as BETA and is disabled by default. When enabled, the plugin: Adds cache-tag headers to WordPress responses (for example, tagging pages by post ID, post type, taxonomy terms, author, and archives). Uses tag-based purges instead of individual URL purges when content is updated, which can reduce purge traffic and improve consistency on complex sites. Requirements: A proxy cache that supports Cache Tags / Surrogate Keys and advertises this via standard Surrogate-Capability headers (for example, Surrogate-Capability: vhp="Surrogate/1.0 tags/1"). How to enable: Go to Proxy Cache → Settings → Purge Method and check “Use Cache Tags (Surrogate Keys)”. The checkbox is only enabled when your cache tells WordPress it supports tags (or when you explicitly enable it via a define). Alternatively, you can force-enable or force-disable detection via wp-config.php: define( ‘VHP_VARNISH_TAGS’, true ); // Force treat cache as tag-capable define( ‘VHP_VARNISH_TAGS’, false ); // Force treat cache as not tag-capable Because this feature depends on your cache configuration, it is recommended that you test it carefully in staging before enabling it on production. Background Purging with WP-Cron On busy sites, sending many PURGE requests directly from admin requests can slow things down. When you define DISABLE_WP_CRON as true in wp-config.php (because you are running a real system cron that calls wp-cron.php), Proxy Cache Purge automatically switches to an asynchronous mode: Purge requests (both URL-based and tag-based, when Cache Tags are enabled) are collected into a small per-site queue. The queue is processed by WP-Cron in the background, keeping your admin and content-editing actions responsive even when many URLs or tags must be invalidated. Object-cache purges (the “Purge Database Cache” option) remain synchronous and are not affected by this behaviour. The Proxy Cache settings page and Site Health integration expose basic queue status so you can verify that background purging is healthy; if the queue appears large or very old, check that your system cron is correctly invoking WordPress cron. Important: Cron Frequency and Cache Freshness When using background purging, the frequency of your system cron determines how quickly cache invalidations are processed. The longer the interval between cron runs, the longer visitors may see stale content after updates. For minimal stale content, run your system cron every minute: * * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/wp-cron.php If you can tolerate slightly longer delays, every 2-5 minutes is also acceptable. However, running cron less frequently (e.g., every 15 minutes) means cache purges may be delayed by that amount after content changes. Note: Scheduled posts are handled specially. When a scheduled post is published via WP-Cron, the cache is purged synchronously within the same cron run, ensuring immediate cache invalidation without waiting for the next cron execution. For detailed instructions on setting up a proper Linux-based WordPress cron, see: WordPress Cron Optimization. Disabling Background Purging If you have DISABLE_WP_CRON defined but do not want background purging (for example, on low-traffic sites where immediate purges are preferred), you can force-disable cron-based purging by adding this to your wp-config.php: define( 'VHP_DISABLE_CRON_PURGING', true ); With this constant set, all cache purges will execute immediately during the request, regardless of the DISABLE_WP_CRON setting. WP-CLI Purge Purge commands let you empty the cache. wp varnish purge – Flush the entire site cache (equivalent to clicking “Empty Cache” in admin) wp varnish purge --all – Explicitly flush the entire site cache wp varnish purge – Flush cache for a specific URL and all content below it (wildcard) wp varnish purge --url-only – Flush cache for only the exact URL specified (no wildcard) wp varnish purge --tag= – Flush cache by tag (requires Cache Tags mode to be enabled) Examples: wp varnish purge – Purge entire site wp varnish purge --all – Same as above, more explicit wp varnish purge https://example.com/hello-world/ – Purge this URL and everything below it wp varnish purge https://example.com/hello-world/ --url-only – Purge only this exact URL wp varnish purge https://example.com/wp-content/themes/ --wildcard – Purge all theme files wp varnish purge --tag=p-123 – Purge all pages tagged with post ID 123 wp varnish purge --tag=pt-post – Purge all cached pages of post type “post” Debug Debugging can help you figure out why your cache isn’t working as well as it could. The default is for your home page, but you can pass any URL on your domain. wp varnish debug [ ] Available parameters: [--include-headers] — Include headers in debug check output [--include-grep] — Grep active theme and plugin directories for common issues DevMode Development mode allows you to disable the cache, temporarily. wp varnish devmode [ ] – Change development mode state Async purge queue (cron-mode) When you define DISABLE_WP_CRON as true and run a real system cron for WordPress, Proxy Cache Purge can move heavy purge work into a small background queue that is processed by WP‑Cron. You can inspect and manage that queue via WP‑CLI: wp varnish queue status – show whether cron-mode is active, if a full purge is queued, counts of queued URLs/tags, and the last queue run time. wp varnish queue process – process any items currently in the queue (useful to run after deploys or cache‑sensitive operations). wp varnish queue clear – clear the queue without sending any PURGE requests. These commands do not replace your normal WordPress cron (you still need a cron entry that calls wp cron event run --due-now or hits wp-cron.php), but they give you a simple operational handle when using cron‑mode. Understanding Purge Behavior There are different types of cache purges, and they behave differently: Manual Purges (Admin Bar) “Purge Cache (All Pages)” – Sends a single regex purge request to invalidate the entire cache. Always executes immediately. “Purge Cache (this page)” – Purges only the exact URL you’re viewing. Always executes immediately. Manual purges are always immediate, even when background cron-mode is enabled. This is intentional: when you click a button, you expect immediate results. Automatic Purges (Post Save/Update) When you save or update a post, the plugin automatically purges: The post’s URL The homepage Category archive pages Tag archive pages Author archive page Date-based archives RSS feeds Related REST API endpoints This can be 20-50+ URLs depending on your site structure. When cron-mode is enabled, these automatic purges are queued and processed in the background to avoid slowing down the post editor. Key Difference Action URLs Purged Uses Cron Queue? “Purge Cache (All Pages)” 1 (regex) No – always immediate “Purge Cache (this page)” 1 No – always immediate Post save/update 20-50+ Yes (if cron-mode enabled) If you need to immediately purge all URLs related to a specific post (not just the post URL), save the post – the automatic purge will handle all related URLs.