README.md

laravel-elixir-cachebust

A simple laravel-elixir extension that works much like elixir's built in .version() method, except instead of renaming asset file names (and creating duplicates in /public/build/ and polluting your git repo), this module will append the cache-busting string onto the end of a file in the form of query string (i.e. /assets/css/styles?4c6649eb) inside of the the HTML document via use of a custom function.

Installation

While in your laravel root directory, execute the following code:

npm install laravel-elixir-cachebust --save

Usage

Your gulpfile.js needs two modifications in order to work properly.

• You need to require('laravel-elixir-cachebust'); at the top of the file.
• Instead of using .version() you can use .cachebust() in a similar way

Example of gulpfile.js

var elixir = require('laravel-elixir');
require('laravel-elixir-cachebust');

elixir(function(mix) {
    mix.sass("styles.scss");
    mix.scripts("app.js");

    mix.cachebust(["styles.css", "app.js"]);
});

Options

The second parameter of .cachebust() allows you to set these options:

• method: The method used to generate a cache-buster string. Valid options are:
  • "hash" - using a MD4 or MD5 hash cipher. (this is the default option)
  • "uuid" - a randomly generated string.
  • "mtime" - The time that the file was last modified, according to the filesystem.
• length: The maximum length that a cache-busting string should be. (default is 8)
• baseDir: The path (relative to laravel's root dir) where the generated json file should be. (default is "public")
• file: The filename of the json file. (default is "cachebuster.json")

Example of gulpfile.js - With options

var elixir = require('laravel-elixir');
require('laravel-elixir-cachebust');

elixir(function(mix) {
    mix.sass("styles.scss");
    mix.scripts("app.js");

    mix.cachebust(
        ["styles.css", "app.js"],
        {
            method: "uuid",
            length: 10,
            baseDir: "public"   // This is where our assets should be located,
                                // and is where we will generate our json file.
        }
    );
});

Using the versioned assets

You may define a modified version of the elixir() helper function to make use of the versioned assets in your views:

if ( ! function_exists('elixir_cachebust'))
{
	/**
	* Get the path to a versioned Elixir Cachebust file.
	*
	* @param  string  $file
	* @return string
	*/
	function elixir_cachebust($file)
	{
		static $manifest = null;

		if (is_null($manifest))
		{
			$manifest = json_decode(file_get_contents(public_path().'/cachebuster.json'), true);
		}

		if (isset($manifest[$file]))
		{
			return asset($file) . '?' . $manifest[$file];
		}

		throw new InvalidArgumentException("File {$file} not defined in asset manifest.");
	}
}

	<link href="{{ elixir_cachebust('css/app.css') }}" rel="stylesheet">