Back
Apr 3, 2011

Sprite cache invalidation

When we use css-sprites it's important to make browser cache them for longest period possible. On other hand, we need to refresh them when they are updated. This is especially visible when all icons are stored in single sprite. When it's outdated - entire site becomes ugly.

To solve this task I've implemented this small script that adds file's hash to url:

background-image: url(images/icons.png);
background-image: url(images/icons.png?a3844c660);
#!/usr/bin/python

import os.path
import re
import hashlib


def file_hash(filename, block_size=2**20):
    md5 = hashlib.md5()
    with open(filename, 'rb') as f:
        for data in iter(lambda: f.read(block_size), ''):
            md5.update(data)
    return md5.hexdigest()


def find_replace(match, basedir):
    match = match.replace("'", '')
    if '?' in match or '#' in match or match.startswith('http://'):
        print 'skipping: ', match
        return None

    filename = os.path.join(basedir, match)
    return '%s?%s' % (match, file_hash(filename)[:10])


def insert_hash(filename, debug=False):
    basedir = os.path.dirname(filename)
    css = open(filename).read()
    matches = re.findall(r"url\((.*?)\)", css)
    replacements = dict([
        (match, find_replace(match, basedir))
        for match in matches
    ])

    if debug:
        for key, value in replacements.iteritems():
            print key, '    =>    ', value
    else:
        for match, repl in replacements.iteritems():
            if repl:
                css = css.replace(match, repl)

        out = open(filename, 'w')
        out.write(css)
        out.close()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    from optparse import OptionParser
    usage = 'usage: %prog filename.css'

    parser = OptionParser(usage=usage)
    parser.add_option("", "--debug", action="store_true", dest="debug", default=False,
                      help="When set, just output list of substitutions.")

    (options, args) = parser.parse_args()

    if len(args) < 1:
        print 'You must provide file name.'

    insert_hash(os.path.realpath(args[0]), options.debug)

Update

This is pretty old article. Now it's better to use something integrated to your build process - grunt, webassets, etc.

Subscribe for the news and updates

More thoughts
Nov 27, 2024Technology
Stoicism At Work

This article explores how Stoic principles can be applied in the workplace to navigate stress, improve self-control, and focus on what truly matters, with practical examples from the author’s experience in software development.

Apr 19, 2022Technology
Improve efficiency of your SELECT queries

SQL is a fairly complicated language with a steep learning curve. For a large number of people who make use of SQL, learning to apply it efficiently takes lots of trials and errors. Here are some tips on how you can make your SELECT queries better. The majority of tips should be applicable to any relational database management system, but the terminology and exact namings will be taken from PostgreSQL.

Mar 12, 2017Technology
Creating a chat with Django Channels

Nowadays, when every second large company has developed its own instant messenger, in the era of iMessages, Slack, Hipchat, Messager, Google Allo, Zulip and others, I will tell you how to keep up with the trend and write your own chat, using django-channels 0.17.3, django 1.10.x, python 3.5.x.

Mar 2, 2017Technology
API versioning with django rest framework?

We often handling API server updates including backwards-incompatible changes when upgrading web applications. At the same time we update the client part, therefore, we did not experience any particular difficulties.

Jul 1, 2010Technology
Overriding QuerySet in Django

As you know, model managers can be overriden in Django. It's convenient to add custom filtration method.

Mar 6, 2010Technology
Ajax form validation

There was a task to submit form with ajax, with server side validation of course. Obvious solution is to do validation and return json with erros. I didn't like idea of writing separate view for validation and then inserting errors in form html on client side. Especially since I already had a generic template for django form with errors display. In this article I'll describe how I solved the task.