: Cloudflare: Cache static HTML when URL has Query String Quick CloudFlare 'new user' question for you: BACKGROUND: The HTML pages served up by my origin server never change. All dynamic content

@BetL925

Posted in: #Cache #Cloudflare #Html

Quick CloudFlare 'new user' question for you:

BACKGROUND: The HTML pages served up by my origin server never change. All dynamic content is download via JavaScript after the page is loaded in the user's browser. The dynamic content derived by the JavaScript depends in part upon the URL's query string but the query string itself has no affect on the HTML content that's originally downloaded. The following URLs therefore all generate exactly the same HTML from the origin prior to being acted upon by JavaScript in the browser:
www.example.com/private/my-investments?portfolioID=296 www.example.com/private/my-investments?portfolioID=325 www.example.com/private/my-investments?portfolioID=319
QUESTION: Given that CloudFlare does not cache HTML by default, how shall I construct my Page Rules so that a single cached copy of www.example.com/private/my-investments?[anyValue] is returned to all users? Here's what I've tried:

"CACHE EVERYTHING:" Using the 'Cache Everything' directive causes my HTML to be cached (good) but it uses the entire query string as part of the cache key (bad). So if a user hits the following URL...
www.example.com/private/my-investments?portfolioID=296
...and then ten seconds later hits the same URL with a different query string, like:
www.example.com/private/my-investments?portfolioID=325
...CloudFlare treats that latter request as a cache MISS (cf-cache-status:MISS) and hits my origin server again. This in spite of the fact that the HTML returned from the origin is identical for both URLs.

"IGNORE QUERY STRING CACHING:" I thought for sure I'd fix this problem by selecting the "IGNORE QUERY STRING CACHING" option. But when using this option in a Page Rule, no HTML is cached at all; Only .js, .css, and .png files are cached. And once again my origin gets hit for every single call for HTML data. :(

I feel like I must be missing something obvious. Any thoughts?

UPDATE: Had an idea I want to run by you. Could I solve this problem by changing my internal URL scheme to use '#' instead of '?' So instead of a URL like...
www.example.com/private/my-investments?portfolioID=296
..I'd use something like:
www.example.com/private/my-investments#portfolioID=296
This would prevent the query string parameters from being transmitted to CloudFlare at all... What do you think?

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