GAE Java SDK: appengine-web.xml "<static-file><include..." priority

Question

I'm using the Google App Engine Java SDK 1.7.2 to serve some static files. When combining multiple <include... elements under <static-files> in appengine-web.xml, I am unsure which rules will take precedence.

For example, I have the following:

<static-files>
  <include path="/**.swf" expiration="365d"></include>
  <include path="/**.jpg" expiration="365d"></include>
  <include path="/**"></include>    
  <exclude path="/**.php"></exclude>
</static-files>

I believe this specifies that everything should be included in static storage, except .php files, and that .swf and .jpg files should have "cache-control" and "expires" http headers set 365 days in the future.

However, when using the Live HTTP Headers tool for Firefox, I could not see the expected headers for static files with the long expiration:

http://localhost:8888/swf/Logo.20120927.swf

GET /swf/Logo.20120927.swf HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:8888
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:15.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/15.0.1
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language: en-gb,en-us;q=0.7,en;q=0.3
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
DNT: 1
Connection: keep-alive
Referer: http://localhost:8888/
If-Modified-Since: Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:49:03 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0

HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified
Server: Jetty(6.1.x)
----------------------------------------------------------
http://localhost:8888/images/logo-and-buttons.20120927.jpg

GET /images/logo-and-buttons.20120927.jpg HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:8888
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:15.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/15.0.1
Accept: image/png,image/*;q=0.8,*/*;q=0.5
Accept-Language: en-gb,en-us;q=0.7,en;q=0.3
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
DNT: 1
Connection: keep-alive
Referer: http://localhost:8888/
If-Modified-Since: Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:49:03 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=0

HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified
Server: Jetty(6.1.x)

My question is, if this is not operating as expected, then how do I configure my <static-files> element to achieve the desired effect?

Cheers,

Jeff.

I have answered my own question: The reason I was getting "cache-control: max-age" values of 0, and no "expires" values in my HTTP headers, was because I was just reloading the page in Firefox. Upon starting a new Private Browsing session (resetting the cache in the process), and loading the page for the first time, I received the expected headers. — Jeff

Jeff Jeff · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-28T16:11:14

I have answered my own question: The reason I was getting "cache-control: max-age" values of 0, and no "expires" values in my HTTP headers, was because I was just reloading the page in Firefox. Upon starting a new Private Browsing session (resetting the cache in the process), and loading the page for the first time, I received the expected headers.

GAE Java SDK: appengine-web.xml "<static-file><include..." priority

1 Answers