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 When it's outdated - entire site becomes ugly.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
Jul 13, 2022Technology
Prosemirror: Render node as react component

In this article I’m going to show how to declare custom prosemirror node, how to render it with toDom method and how improve that with custom NodeView using React component.

May 9, 2018Technology
How to Generate PDF Files in Python with Xhtml2pdf, WeasyPrint or Unoconv

Programmatic generation of PDF files is a frequent task when developing applications that can export reports, bills, or questionnaires. In this article, we will consider three common tools for creating PDFs, including their installation and converting principles.

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.

Jan 12, 2017Technology
Making Custom Report Tables Using AngularJS and Django

In this article I will tell you how to create an interactive interface with a widely customized visual look and different filtering to view reports.

Sep 22, 2016Technology
Angular Form Validation

In this article, we will describe some useful scripts and directives we use with angular form validation in our projects.

Jun 25, 2011Technology
Ajax blocks in Django

Quite often we have to write paginated or filtered blocks of information on page. I created a decorator that would automate this process.