AEMaaCS + local dispatcher: how to test caching?

Hi @jayv25585659 

You would find a cache folder at root directory of dispatcher-sdk from where you are running those docker scripts.

Hi, ​@jayv25585659 

When running the Dispatcher SDK locally, cached files are not stored under /var/www/localhost/htdocs.
Inside the container they are typically written to:

/mnt/var/www/html

You can verify caching by checking the dispatcher log:

docker exec -it <container_id> tail -f /var/log/apache2/dispatcher.log

It will show hit / miss / refresh.

Also note that requests with query parameters are not cached by default unless /ignoreUrlParams is configured in the farm.

I wrote a short guide on validating Dispatcher locally (same way Cloud Manager does):
https://www.shiftsaas.com/adobe-experience-manager/validate-aem-dispatcher-locally-like-cloud-manager/

Hi ​@jayv25585659 

1) Where is the cached HTML for http://localhost:8080/...?
With the AEMaaCS Dispatcher SDK:

• Inside the container the dispatcher docroot is: **/mnt/var/www/html**
• On your host machine, that path is mounted to the SDK's cache folder, e.g.: dispatcher-sdk-2.0.235/cache/...

So:

• Hit:
  • http://localhost:8080/content/myapp/sg/en/faq.html
  • Then check on the host:  dispatcher-sdk-2.0.235/cache/content/myapp/sg/en/faq.html (plus sidecar files like .h for headers)

If you docker exec into the container, look under: ls -R /mnt/var/www/html

Not under /var/www/localhost/htdocs – that's Apache's default, not the Dispatcher docroot used by the SDK.

If cache/ stays empty, either:

• You're not really going through dispatcher (hitting publish directly), or
• The path is not allowed by /cache /rules or is filtered out; double‑check your farm's /filter and /cache sections.

2) Why Cache-Control always stays public,max-age=60,...?

That header comes from the default AEMaaCS dispatcher vhost config, which sets HTML caching centrally (to mimic Cloud behavior):

# (simplified)
<LocationMatch "^/content/.*\.html$">
  Header set Cache-Control "public,max-age=60,s-maxage=300,stale-while-revalidate=86400,stale-if-error=86400"
</LocationMatch>

When you add:  Header set Cache-Control max-age=0

in some earlier file or scope, it is overridden later by the default rule above. mod_headers is "last matching rule wins".

How to really change it

You have two solid options:

A. Turn off the default HTML caching and fully control it yourself

In dispatcher/src/conf.d/variables/global.vars: Define DISABLE_DEFAULT_CACHING 

Then in your vhost (after includes):

<LocationMatch "^/content/.*\.html$">
  Header unset Cache-Control
  Header set Cache-Control "max-age=0"
</LocationMatch>

B. Override more specifically, after the default header

Keep default caching for most pages, override a subset:

# after the default include
<LocationMatch "^/content/myapp/sg/en/faq\.html$">
  Header unset Cache-Control
  Header always set Cache-Control "max-age=0"
</LocationMatch>

Place this in the same vhost and after the archetype's cache-control snippet so your rule wins.

3) Testing query‑param caching locally

Dispatcher's behavior with query params is controlled by /ignoreUrlParams in the farm:

• Params listed there are ignored when building the cache key.
• Others produce distinct cache entries (one per full URL), as long as /cache /rules allow the path.

To test:

• Hit twice:  curl -I "http://localhost:8080/archive.html?page=1&year=2024"
• Watch publish access.log:
  • First request -> goes to publish.
  • Second request -> should not hit publish if Dispatcher cached it.

You'll also see a file under cache/... with an encoded name for that URL.