A Slim application provides built-in support for HTTP caching using ETags. An ETag is a unique identifier for a
resource URI. When an ETag header is set with the Slim application’s etag() method, the HTTP client will send
an If-None-Match header with each subsequent HTTP request of the same resource URI. If the ETag value for the
resource URI matches the If-None-Match HTTP request header, the Slim application will return a
304 Not Modified HTTP response that will prompt the HTTP client to continue using its cache; this also prevents
the Slim application from serving the entire markup for the resource URI, saving bandwidth and response time.
Setting an ETag with Slim is very simple. Invoke the Slim application’s etag() method in your route callback,
passing it a unique ID as the first and only argument.
<?php
$app->get('/foo', function () use ($app) {
$app->etag('unique-id');
echo "This will be cached after the initial request!";
});
That’s it. Make sure the ETag ID is unique for the given resource. Also make sure the ETag ID changes as your resource changes; otherwise, the HTTP client will continue serving its outdated cache.