setWafCDNSettings — Configuring the CDN settings

The setWafCDNSettings method configures the Firewall & CDN settings.

The API endpoint is:

https://api.sitelock.com/v1/partner

Request format

SiteLockOnlineRequest: This element is used to delineate the full API request.
- authentication: The partner’s username, password, and branding
  - username: The partner’s API username
  - password: The partner’s API password
  - partner: (Optional) The brand name to use in messaging
- setWafCDNSettings: The method name
  - site_id: The ID of the site for which the CDN settings will be set
  - cache_mode: The cache mode
    
    disable: No caching
    
    static_only: Cache only content marked as static
    
    static_and_dynamic: Cache content marked as static or dynamic content using our proprietary algorithm to safely manage dynamic content caching
  - comply_no_cache: Specifies whether the no-cache and max-age HTTP headers should be honored. The default value is 0.
  - cache300x: Specifies whether the cache 300X response should be honored. The default value is 0.
  - async_validation: Specifies whether the async from cache should be honored. The default value is 1.
  - comply_vary: Specifies whether the vary HTTP header should be honored. The default value is 0.
  - prefer_last_modified: Specifies whether the Last Modified HTTP header should be preferred over eTag. The default value is 0. The use of Last Modified is recommended for multi-server setups.
  - use_shortest_caching: Specifies whether to use the shortest caching duration. Usually when there’s a conflict between caching rules or modes, the longest caching duration is selected. Setting this to 1 uses the shortest caching duration. The default value is 0.
  - disable_client_side_caching: Set this to 1 if you want caching to be done only on SiteLock proxies and not on client browsers. The default value is 0.
  - on_the_fly_compression: See Detailed notes. The default value is 1.
  - tcp_pre_pooling: See Detailed notes. The default value is 1.
  - minify_javascript: See Detailed notes. The default value is 1.
  - minify_css: See Detailed notes. The default value is 1.
  - minify_static_html: See Detailed notes. The default value is 1.
  - compress_png: See Detailed notes. The default value is 1.
  - compress_jpeg: See Detailed notes. The default value is 1.
  - progressive_image_rendering: See Detailed notes. The default value is 0.
  - aggressive_compression: See Detailed notes. The default value is 0.
  - advanced_caching_rules: The advanced caching rules
    
    always_cache_resources: The resources that are always cached
    
    url: (Repeatable) The URL of the resource to cache
    
    path: A relative path to the resource
    
    pattern: A pattern to filter with. The value can be one of contains, not_contains, equals, not_equals, prefix, not_prefix, suffix, and not_suffix.
    
    ttl: A positive integer. The resources at the specified URL are cached for this period before the cache is refreshed. This could be used for various reasons, for example, if you want to specify that the TTL for a particular URL is only 1 second to ensure freshness, or that resources at a particular URL are cached for an hour.
    
    ttlUnits: The TTL can me measured in one of the following: sec, min, hr, days, and weeks.
    
    never_cache_resources: The resources that are never cached
    
    url: (Repeatable) The URL of the resource that is never cached
    
    path: A relative path to the resource
    
    pattern: A pattern to filter with. The value can be one of contains, not_contains, equals, not_equals, prefix, not_prefix, suffix, and not_suffix.

Notes

All fields except cache_mode, advanced_cachine_rules and never_cache_resources take values of 1 (true/set) or 0 (false/unset).
All child elements of setWafCDNSettings other than site_id are optional. You may change as many or as few of the settings as you like.
A user must be at a level of the Firewall & CDN plan that has access to these settings. This is determined by the contract with SiteLock. If the user’s plan doesn’t support CDN settings, then this call has no effect.
If caching is set to 0, these settings have no effect.

Example request

<SiteLockOnlineRequest>
    <authentication>
        <user>Username</user>
        <password>Password</password>
    </authentication>
    <setWafCDNSettings>
        <site_id>5432109</site_id>
        <cache_mode>static_only</cache_mode>
        <on_the_fly_compression>1</on_the_fly_compression>
        <tcp_pre_pooling>0</tcp_pre_pooling>
        <async_validation>1</async_validation>
        <minify_javascript>1</minify_javascript>
        <minify_css>1</minify_css>
        <minify_static_html>1</minify_static_html>
        <compress_png>0</compress_png>
        <compress_jpeg>0</compress_jpeg>
        <progressive_image_rendering>0</progressive_image_rendering>
        <aggressive_compression>0</aggressive_compression>
        <comply_no_cache>0</comply_no_cache>
        <cache300x>0</cache300x>
        <comply_vary>0</comply_vary>
        <use_shortest_caching>0</use_shortest_caching>
        <prefer_last_modified>0</prefer_last_modified>
        <disable_client_side_caching>0</disable_client_side_caching>
        <accelerate_https>0</accelerate_https>
        <advanced_caching_rules>
            <always_cache_resources>
                <url>
                    <path>about</path>
                    <pattern>contains</pattern>
                    <ttl>1</ttl>
                    <ttlUnits>days</ttlUnits>
                </url>
                <url>
                    <path>html</path>
                    <pattern>contains</pattern>
                    <ttl>1</ttl>
                    <ttlUnits>days</ttlUnits>
                </url>
            </always_cache_resources>
            <never_cache_resources>
                <url>
                    <path>/index.php</path>
                    <pattern>equals</pattern>
                </url>
                <url>
                    <path>/login.php</path>
                    <pattern>equals</pattern>
                </url>
            </never_cache_resources>
        </advanced_caching_rules>
    </setWafCDNSettings>
</SiteLockOnlineRequest>

Response format

SiteLockOnlineResponse: This element is used to delineate the full API response.
- setWafCDNSettings: The method name
  - status: Either ok or error

Example response

<SiteLockOnlineResponse>
    <setWafCDNSettings>
        <status>ok</status>
    </setWafCDNSettings>
</SiteLockOnlineResponse>

Detailed notes

Content minification

Minification reduces file size by removing unnecessary characters (such as whitespace and comments) to decrease access time without impacting functionality. Using these acceleration controls, you can choose the type of resources you wish to minify—JavaScript, CSS or static HTML files.

These content minification settings have no effect when caching is disabled.

Image compression

Image compression can be applied to JPEG and PNG images to reduce load times. When compression is enabled, image metadata is omitted and the image data itself is compressed. In certain cases this may affect image quality. When JPEG compression is enabled, there are two additional options from which to choose:

Progressive Image Rendering: The image appears faster and is rendered with progressively finer resolution, for additional compression. During the rendering stage the image may appear "pixelated", but the final version will appear with no loss of quality.
Aggressive Compression: Applies a more aggressive compression algorithm. Selecting this option further reduces the image file size and its loading time, but at the cost of decreased image quality.

Both of these options are best suited for sites that don’t use web formats for images, scale images through HTML/CSS code, or ignore other image handling best practices.

"On-the-fly" compression

When this option is enabled, text files (JavaScript, CSS and HTML) are gzipped before being transferred to reduce loading times. Gzipping is a common best practice which significantly accelerates page load speeds, reducing the compressed file sizes by 30-40% or more, depending on the size and type of the file. For this reason, "on-the-fly" compression is always advised and is most effective for larger resources.

Asynchronous validation

Async validation controls the transition between cached copies that occur once the caching period has expired. With Async Validation off, the first request of each caching cycle is served from the origin server, which ensures freshness at the cost of load speed. With Async Validation on, the first request is served from cache, which will update asymmetrically as the request is being processed. This impacts freshness but provides better time-to-first-byte (TTFB) and improves overall performance. Choosing between these options depends on the nature of the site. Rapidly updating sites should avoid asymmetric caching, while more static sites may choose to embrace it, to ensure smooth handoff between caching cycles.

TCP pre-pooling

By default, a web session may open and close many TCP connections dynamically throughout the session, causing a certain overhead and reducing performance. With TCP pre-pooling enabled, we maintain several TCP connections constantly open throughout the session, thereby improving load speeds and connectivity.

Not all web hosts support TCP pre-pooling. In such a case, enabling pre-pooling on an unsupported platform may result in a slight slowdown. We use learning heuristics to transparently identify and prevent such scenarios. However, before turning this feature on, you may want to check with your hosting provider whether this would help or hinder performance.