Exclude a page from server caching

Step 2: Create Your Excludes

Creating cache exclusions is a relatively simple process. Below we’ll look that the different types of exclusions you can create.

NOTE: The following needs adding to your server inside either a website-specific config or a server-level config as detailed in steps 2.1 and 2.2 below this section.

Exclude a Single page

Below shows the basic structure for making page exclusion, and you simply need to switch out “/examplepage/” with your desired page:

if ($request_uri ~* "(/examplepage/)") {
 set $skip_cache 1;
 set $skip_reason "${skip_reason}-request_uri";
}

If the page is served with both trailing slash (site.url/examplepage/) and non-trailing slash (site.url/examplepage), you should modify the condition with an asterik to cater both cases like this:

if ($request_uri ~* "(/examplepage.*)") {

You can also give a specific reason, by switching out “${skip_reason}” with the reason you’re excluding this page. For example:

set $skip_reason "login-request_uri"; 

Exclude Multiple Pages

You can exclude multiple pages from the cache like this:

if ($request_uri ~* "(/examplepage/|/another-page/|/third-page/)") {
 set $skip_cache 1;
 set $skip_reason "${skip_reason}-request_uri";
}

Wildcard Exclusions

If you want to exclude a parent page plus all child pages, or an entire CPT (or whatever your use case), you can create a wildcard exclude like this:

if ($request_uri ~* "(/parent-page.*)") {
 set $skip_cache 1;
 set $skip_reason "${skip_reason}-request_uri";
}

Exclude with Cookies

This is more advanced, but useful for developers who have specific use cases where adding each page individually / having to update this regularly could be better handled by setting cookies on specific pages instead. 

Follow the same steps as above, but instead of adding a page specific exclusion, use the following code block to add a cookie exclusion:

if ($http_cookie ~* "your_cookie_name") {
set $skip_cache 1;
set $skip_reason "${skip_reason}-your_cookie";
}