drupal-cache-maxage

Drupal max-age controls caching duration for both anonymous and authenticated requests by interacting with Page Cache and Dynamic Page Cache. These layers use max-age values to determine what gets cached and for how long across the render tree.

Drupal max-age values include 0 to disable caching, Cache::PERMANENT for non-expiring cached content, or numeric seconds for time-based expiration. Selecting the right value depends on your specific content freshness and performance optimization requirements.

Stale Drupal content despite max-age expiration often occurs due to incorrect max-age bubbling in the render tree or improper Cache::PERMANENT settings. Troubleshoot by verifying max-age values propagate correctly across all nested render elements.

Drupal UNCACHEABLE content occurs when max-age is set to 0, preventing Page Cache and Dynamic Page Cache from storing responses. Debug by examining render array cache metadata and ensuring max-age bubbling propagates appropriate values upward.

Drupal max-age bubbling affects both request types but through different cache layers. Anonymous requests use Page Cache for full page caching, while authenticated requests leverage Dynamic Page Cache, both respecting max-age values bubbling from the render tree.

Use Cache::PERMANENT in Drupal max-age configuration when content has no time-based expiration requirement and remains valid until explicitly invalidated. Use numeric seconds when content must automatically expire after a specific duration to ensure freshness.