How Does Comet Cache Pro Cache WordPress Pages?

How requests use cached documents

Comet Cache Pro saves snapshots of supported WordPress pages, posts, categories, links, archives, and feeds. When caching is enabled, a request qualifies, and a usable cache file exists, the add-on can serve that file instead of repeating database connections and PHP processing. The options panel controls cache behavior and expiration.

By default, cached pages are not served to logged-in users or recent commenters. Administrative and login pages, selected request types, and CLI processes are also excluded. Pro can enable caching for logged-in users, which may fit membership websites. Query-string settings determine whether URLs with query strings are cached.

Set cache rules and clearing permissions

Configure automatic and intelligent clearing for posts, pages, custom post types, categories, tags, links, themes, users, archives, feeds, and other supported content. Pro can clear a specified list of custom URLs and execute custom PHP code when the cache is cleared. You can grant cache-clearing permission by role or capability, control the admin-bar Clear Cache button, and import or export configuration files. A dynamic version salt lets you personalize the caching engine.

Monitor cache activity and server settings

Cache Statistics display the status of the website cache, with charts for the page cache, HTML Compressor cache, PHP OPCache, and server health. Server Load Monitoring can pause cache regeneration when the load average exceeds a configured limit. Pro also includes an HTML Compressor to combine and compress CSS, JavaScript, and HTML, and an Auto-Cache Engine that pre-caches the website at 15-minute intervals.

Other options include automatic cache expiration, client-side caching, caching for 404 requests, RSS, RDF, and Atom feed caching, and controls for query-string URLs. URI, user-agent, and HTTP referrer exclusion patterns support wildcards. Static CDN filters can serve selected or all static files from a chosen CDN, with support for multiple CDN host names and domain sharding.

Apache optimizations include web-server GZIP compression, browser caching, canonical URL enforcement, and other server adjustments. For multisite installations, Pro offers mobile cache versions and host exclusion patterns for selected child blogs. It also works with WP-CLI, ManageWP, InfiniteWP, and an automatic updater for dashboard updates.

Install and enable Comet Cache Pro

Comet Cache Pro is self-contained and does not require Comet Cache Lite. If Lite is installed, deactivate and delete it first. In WordPress, go to Dashboard > Plugins > Add New, select Upload Plugin, select the Pro ZIP file, and install it. Activate the extension, then open Dashboard > Comet Cache > Plugin Options > Enable/Disable and enable caching. Listed requirements include PHP 5.4+ and Apache 2.1+.