Class ExpiresFilter

java.lang.Object
org.apache.catalina.filters.FilterBase
org.apache.catalina.filters.ExpiresFilter
All Implemented Interfaces:
Filter
public class ExpiresFilter extends FilterBase

ExpiresFilter is a Java Servlet API port of Apache mod_expires to add 'Expires' and 'Cache-Control: max-age=' headers to HTTP response according to its 'Content-Type'.

Following documentation is inspired by mod_expires

Summary

This filter controls the setting of the Expires HTTP header and the max-age directive of the Cache-Control HTTP header in server responses. The expiration date can set to be relative to either the time the source file was last modified, or to the time of the client access.

These HTTP headers are an instruction to the client about the document's validity and persistence. If cached, the document may be fetched from the cache rather than from the source until this time has passed. After that, the cache copy is considered "expired" and invalid, and a new copy must be obtained from the source.

To modify Cache-Control directives other than max-age (see RFC 2616 section 14.9), you can use other servlet filters or Apache Httpd mod_headers module.

Filter Configuration

Basic configuration to add 'Expires' and 'Cache-Control: max-age=' headers to images, CSS and JavaScript

 
 <web-app ...>
    ...
    <filter>
       <filter-name>ExpiresFilter</filter-name>
       <filter-class>org.apache.catalina.filters.ExpiresFilter</filter-class>
       <init-param>
          <param-name>ExpiresByType image</param-name>
          <param-value>access plus 10 minutes</param-value>
       </init-param>
       <init-param>
          <param-name>ExpiresByType text/css</param-name>
          <param-value>access plus 10 minutes</param-value>
       </init-param>
       <init-param>
          <param-name>ExpiresByType text/javascript</param-name>
          <param-value>access plus 10 minutes</param-value>
       </init-param>
    </filter>
    ...
    <filter-mapping>
       <filter-name>ExpiresFilter</filter-name>
       <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
       <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
    </filter-mapping>
    ...
 </web-app>

Configuration Parameters

ExpiresByType <content-type>

This directive defines the value of the Expires header and the max-age directive of the Cache-Control header generated for documents of the specified type (e.g., text/html). The second argument sets the number of seconds that will be added to a base time to construct the expiration date. The Cache-Control: max-age is calculated by subtracting the request time from the expiration date and expressing the result in seconds.

The base time is either the last modification time of the file, or the time of the client's access to the document. Which should be used is specified by the <code> field; M means that the file's last modification time should be used as the base time, and A means the client's access time should be used. The duration is expressed in seconds. A2592000 stands for access plus 30 days in alternate syntax.

The difference in effect is subtle. If M (modification in alternate syntax) is used, all current copies of the document in all caches will expire at the same time, which can be good for something like a weekly notice that's always found at the same URL. If A ( access or now in alternate syntax) is used, the date of expiration is different for each client; this can be good for image files that don't change very often, particularly for a set of related documents that all refer to the same images (i.e., the images will be accessed repeatedly within a relatively short timespan).

Example: 

 
 <init-param>
    <param-name>ExpiresByType text/html</param-name>
    <param-value>access plus 1 month 15 days 2 hours</param-value>
 </init-param>

 <init-param>
    <!-- 2592000 seconds = 30 days -->
    <param-name>ExpiresByType image/gif</param-name>
    <param-value>A2592000</param-value>
 </init-param>

Note that this directive only has effect if ExpiresActive On has been specified. It overrides, for the specified MIME type only, any expiration date set by the ExpiresDefault directive.

You can also specify the expiration time calculation using an alternate syntax, described earlier in this document.

ExpiresExcludedResponseStatusCodes

This directive defines the HTTP response status codes for which the ExpiresFilter will not generate expiration headers. By default, the 304 status code ("Not modified") is skipped. The value is a comma separated list of HTTP status codes.

This directive is useful to ease usage of ExpiresDefault directive. Indeed, the behavior of 304 Not modified (which does specify a Content-Type header) combined with Expires and Cache-Control:max-age= headers can be unnecessarily tricky to understand.

Configuration sample : 

 
 <init-param>
    <param-name>ExpiresExcludedResponseStatusCodes</param-name>
    <param-value>302, 500, 503</param-value>
 </init-param>

ExpiresDefault

This directive sets the default algorithm for calculating the expiration time for all documents in the affected realm. It can be overridden on a type-by-type basis by the ExpiresByType directive. See the description of that directive for details about the syntax of the argument, and the "alternate syntax" description as well.

Alternate Syntax

The ExpiresDefault and ExpiresByType directives can also be defined in a more readable syntax of the form: 

 
 <init-param>
    <param-name>ExpiresDefault</param-name>
    <param-value><base> [plus] (<num> <type>)*</param-value>
 </init-param>

 <init-param>
    <param-name>ExpiresByType type/encoding</param-name>
    <param-value><base> [plus] (<num> <type>)*</param-value>
 </init-param>

where <base> is one of:

  • access
  • now (equivalent to 'access')
  • modification

The plus keyword is optional. <num> should be an integer value (acceptable to Integer.parseInt()), and <type> is one of:

  • years
  • months
  • weeks
  • days
  • hours
  • minutes
  • seconds

For example, any of the following directives can be used to make documents expire 1 month after being accessed, by default: 

 
 <init-param>
    <param-name>ExpiresDefault</param-name>
    <param-value>access plus 1 month</param-value>
 </init-param>

 <init-param>
    <param-name>ExpiresDefault</param-name>
    <param-value>access plus 4 weeks</param-value>
 </init-param>

 <init-param>
    <param-name>ExpiresDefault</param-name>
    <param-value>access plus 30 days</param-value>
 </init-param>

The expiry time can be fine-tuned by adding several ' <num> <type>' clauses: 

 
 <init-param>
    <param-name>ExpiresByType text/html</param-name>
    <param-value>access plus 1 month 15 days 2 hours</param-value>
 </init-param>

 <init-param>
    <param-name>ExpiresByType image/gif</param-name>
    <param-value>modification plus 5 hours 3 minutes</param-value>
 </init-param>

Note that if you use a modification date based setting, the Expires header will not be added to content that does not come from a file on disk. This is due to the fact that there is no modification time for such content.

Expiration headers generation eligibility

A response is eligible to be enriched by ExpiresFilter if :

  1. no expiration header is defined (Expires header or the max-age directive of the Cache-Control header),
  2. the response status code is not excluded by the directive ExpiresExcludedResponseStatusCodes,
  3. the Content-Type of the response matches one of the types defined the in ExpiresByType directives or the ExpiresDefault directive is defined.

Note :

  • If Cache-Control header contains other directives than max-age, they are concatenated with the max-age directive that is added by the ExpiresFilter.

Expiration configuration selection

The expiration configuration if elected according to the following algorithm:

  1. ExpiresByType matching the exact content-type returned by HttpServletResponse.getContentType() possibly including the charset (e.g. 'text/xml;charset=UTF-8'),
  2. ExpiresByType matching the content-type without the charset if HttpServletResponse.getContentType() contains a charset (e.g. ' text/xml;charset=UTF-8' -> 'text/xml'),
  3. ExpiresByType matching the major type (e.g. substring before '/') of HttpServletResponse.getContentType() (e.g. 'text/xml;charset=UTF-8' -> 'text '),
  4. ExpiresDefault

Implementation Details

When to write the expiration headers ?

The ExpiresFilter traps the 'on before write response body' event to decide whether it should generate expiration headers or not.

To trap the 'before write response body' event, the ExpiresFilter wraps the HTTP servlet response's writer and outputStream to intercept calls to the methods write(), print(), close() and flush(). For empty response body (e.g. empty files), the write(), print(), close() and flush() methods are not called; to handle this case, the ExpiresFilter, at the end of its doFilter() method, manually triggers the onBeforeWriteResponseBody() method.

Configuration syntax

The ExpiresFilter supports the same configuration syntax as Apache Httpd mod_expires.

A challenge has been to choose the name of the <param-name> associated with ExpiresByType in the <filter> declaration. Indeed, Several ExpiresByType directives can be declared when web.xml syntax does not allow to declare several <init-param> with the same name.

The workaround has been to declare the content type in the <param-name> rather than in the <param-value>.

Designed for extension : the open/close principle

The ExpiresFilter has been designed for extension following the open/close principle.

Key methods to override for extension are :

Troubleshooting

To troubleshoot, enable logging on the org.apache.catalina.filters.ExpiresFilter.

Extract of logging.properties

org.apache.catalina.filters.ExpiresFilter.level = FINE

Sample of initialization log message :

Mar 26, 2010 2:01:41 PM org.apache.catalina.filters.ExpiresFilter init FINE: Filter initialized with configuration ExpiresFilter[ excludedResponseStatusCode=[304], default=null, byType={ image=ExpiresConfiguration[startingPoint=ACCESS_TIME, duration=[10 MINUTE]], text/css=ExpiresConfiguration[startingPoint=ACCESS_TIME, duration=[10 MINUTE]], text/javascript=ExpiresConfiguration[startingPoint=ACCESS_TIME, duration=[10 MINUTE]]}]

Sample of per-request log message where ExpiresFilter adds an expiration date

Mar 26, 2010 2:09:47 PM org.apache.catalina.filters.ExpiresFilter onBeforeWriteResponseBody FINE: Request "/tomcat.gif" with response status "200" content-type "image/gif", set expiration date 3/26/10 2:19 PM

Sample of per-request log message where ExpiresFilter does not add an expiration date

Mar 26, 2010 2:10:27 PM org.apache.catalina.filters.ExpiresFilter onBeforeWriteResponseBody FINE: Request "/docs/config/manager.html" with response status "200" content-type "text/html", no expiration configured

  • Constructor Details

    • ExpiresFilter

      public ExpiresFilter()

  • Method Details

    • commaDelimitedListToIntArray

      protected static int[] commaDelimitedListToIntArray(String commaDelimitedInts)
      Convert a comma delimited list of numbers into an int[].
      Parameters:
      commaDelimitedInts - can be null
      Returns:
      never null array

    • contains

      protected static boolean contains(String str, String searchStr)
      Parameters:
      str - String that will be searched
      searchStr - The substring to search
      Returns:
      true if the given str contains the given searchStr.

    • intsToCommaDelimitedString

      protected static String intsToCommaDelimitedString(int[] ints)
      Convert an array of ints into a comma delimited string
      Parameters:
      ints - The int array
      Returns:
      a comma separated string

    • isEmpty

      protected static boolean isEmpty(String str)
      Parameters:
      str - The String to check
      Returns:
      true if the given str is null or has a zero characters length.

    • isNotEmpty

      protected static boolean isNotEmpty(String str)
      Parameters:
      str - The String to check
      Returns:
      true if the given str has at least one character (can be a whitespace).

    • startsWithIgnoreCase

      protected static boolean startsWithIgnoreCase(String string, String prefix)
      Parameters:
      string - can be null
      prefix - can be null
      Returns:
      true if the given string starts with the given prefix ignoring case.

    • substringBefore

      protected static String substringBefore(String str, String separator)
      Parameters:
      str - can be null
      separator - can be null
      Returns:
      the subset of the given str that is before the first occurrence of the given separator. Return null if the given str or the given separator is null. Return and empty string if the separator is empty.

    • doFilter

      public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException
      Description copied from interface: jakarta.servlet.Filter
      The doFilter method of the Filter is called by the container each time a request/response pair is passed through the chain due to a client request for a resource at the end of the chain. The FilterChain passed in to this method allows the Filter to pass on the request and response to the next entity in the chain.

      A typical implementation of this method would follow the following pattern:-
      1. Examine the request
      2. Optionally wrap the request object with a custom implementation to filter content or headers for input filtering
      3. Optionally wrap the response object with a custom implementation to filter content or headers for output filtering
      4. a) Either invoke the next entity in the chain using the FilterChain object (chain.doFilter()),
      4. b) or not pass on the request/response pair to the next entity in the filter chain to block the request processing
      5. Directly set headers on the response after invocation of the next entity in the filter chain.

      Parameters:
      request - The request to process
      response - The response associated with the request
      chain - Provides access to the next filter in the chain for this filter to pass the request and response to for further processing
      Throws:
      IOException - if an I/O error occurs during this filter's processing of the request
      ServletException - if the processing fails for any other reason

    • getDefaultExpiresConfiguration

      public ExpiresFilter.ExpiresConfiguration getDefaultExpiresConfiguration()

    • getExcludedResponseStatusCodes

      public String getExcludedResponseStatusCodes()

    • getExcludedResponseStatusCodesAsInts

      public int[] getExcludedResponseStatusCodesAsInts()

    • getExpirationDate

      protected Date getExpirationDate(HttpServletRequest request, ExpiresFilter.XHttpServletResponse response)
      Returns the expiration date of the given ExpiresFilter.XHttpServletResponse or null if no expiration date has been configured for the declared content type.

      protected for extension.

      Parameters:
      request - The HTTP request
      response - The wrapped HTTP response
      Returns:
      the expiration date
      See Also:

    • getExpirationDate

      protected Date getExpirationDate(ExpiresFilter.ExpiresConfiguration configuration, ExpiresFilter.XHttpServletResponse response)

      Returns the expiration date of the given ExpiresFilter.ExpiresConfiguration, HttpServletRequest and ExpiresFilter.XHttpServletResponse.

      protected for extension.

      Parameters:
      configuration - The parsed expires
      response - The Servlet response
      Returns:
      the expiration date

    • getExpiresConfigurationByContentType

      public Map<String,ExpiresFilter.ExpiresConfiguration> getExpiresConfigurationByContentType()

    • getLogger

      protected Log getLogger()
      Specified by:
      getLogger in class FilterBase

    • init

      public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) throws ServletException
      Description copied from class: FilterBase
      Iterates over the configuration parameters and either logs a warning, or throws an exception for any parameter that does not have a matching setter in this filter.
      Specified by:
      init in interface Filter
      Overrides:
      init in class FilterBase
      Parameters:
      filterConfig - The configuration information associated with the filter instance being initialised
      Throws:
      ServletException - if FilterBase.isConfigProblemFatal() returns true and a configured parameter does not have a matching setter

    • isEligibleToExpirationHeaderGeneration

      protected boolean isEligibleToExpirationHeaderGeneration(HttpServletRequest request, ExpiresFilter.XHttpServletResponse response)

      protected for extension.

      Parameters:
      request - The Servlet request
      response - The Servlet response
      Returns:
      true if an expire header may be added

    • onBeforeWriteResponseBody

      public void onBeforeWriteResponseBody(HttpServletRequest request, ExpiresFilter.XHttpServletResponse response)

      If no expiration header has been set by the servlet and an expiration has been defined in the ExpiresFilter configuration, sets the 'Expires' header and the attribute 'max-age' of the 'Cache-Control' header.

      Must be called on the "Start Write Response Body" event.

      Invocations to Logger.debug(...) are guarded by Log.isDebugEnabled() because HttpServletRequest.getRequestURI() and ServletResponse.getContentType() costs String objects instantiations (as of Tomcat 7).

      Parameters:
      request - The Servlet request
      response - The Servlet response

    • parseExpiresConfiguration

      protected ExpiresFilter.ExpiresConfiguration parseExpiresConfiguration(String inputLine)
      Parse configuration lines like 'access plus 1 month 15 days 2 hours' or 'modification 1 day 2 hours 5 seconds'
      Parameters:
      inputLine - the input
      Returns:
      the parsed expires

    • setDefaultExpiresConfiguration

      public void setDefaultExpiresConfiguration(ExpiresFilter.ExpiresConfiguration defaultExpiresConfiguration)

    • setExcludedResponseStatusCodes

      public void setExcludedResponseStatusCodes(int[] excludedResponseStatusCodes)

    • setExpiresConfigurationByContentType

      public void setExpiresConfigurationByContentType(Map<String,ExpiresFilter.ExpiresConfiguration> expiresConfigurationByContentType)

    • toString

      public String toString()
      Overrides:
      toString in class Object