====== Template Caching ======

We affectionately refer to our template caching system as "AutoMagiCache". It's a whole mess of very exciting regular expressions that will automatically pull in a page from your server, rewrite and cache your paths and images, and store it on our server.
===== What It Does =====

  - Pulls in target URL.
  - Strips any <base> tags.
  - "Convenience replacements", currently converting "http" to "https" links for:
    * Google Analytics
  - Imports non-secure external CSS
    * Rewrites all image paths (''*.jpg'', ''*.jpeg'', ''*.png'', ''*.gif'') to use FoxyCart image caching.
    * Sticks it inline, inside CDATA comments.
  - Imports non-secure external JS
    * Replaces ''/ /'' with ''\/\/'' when not preceded by a space or line break.
    * Replaces all ''</'' with ''<\/''.
    * Sticks it inline, inside CDATA comments.
  - Rewrites all ''<img>'' paths to use FoxyCart image caching.
  - Rewrites all ''<a>'' paths to point to the correct locations.
  - Rewrites all ''<form>'' actions to point to correct locations.

===== What Is Supported? =====
  * Most everything not listed below.
===== Important Notes =====
  * **Preventing Hotlinking?** If you're running scripts to prevent hotlinking, that may interfere with the template caching. If images aren't showing up properly, turn off your hotlinking protection while you cache your templates.
  * **Attributes must be enclosed in single or double quotes** like ''src="foo/bar"'' or ''src='foo/bar'''.
  * **Your page must have a UTF-8 content type** so you may need to add this inside your document's head tag: ''<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>''.
  * **Flash will not be cached**. Because it's near-impossible to "see inside" of a ''swf'' file, there's no good way to ensure that additional necessary files (like ''xml'', ''flv'', etc.) are cached along with the ''swf'' file itself.
  * **"Upward relative paths"** (stuff like ''../foo/bar.ext'') more than one level deep are not supported. ''../foo/bar.ext'' will work, but ''../../foo/bar.ext'' will not. If you have a legitimate need for more than one level deep, [[http://forum.foxycart.com|let us know]].
  * **''@IMPORT'' rules more than one level deep** are not supported. An import will work just fine, but an import inside an import won't be cached. If you have a legitimate need for more than one level deep, [[http://forum.foxycart.com|let us know]].
  * **jQuery must be v1.1.2+** or it will conflict with internal FoxyCart functionality.
  * **HTC files**. These //may// work if you're using a custom subdomain, but likely will not work if you're using a default ''*.foxycart.com'' subdomain.

==== Comments, Conditional Comments, and the Ampersand ("&") ====
For some reason, Firefox and Internet Explorer create problems when you have the ampersand ("&") character inside of code comments:
<code html>
<!--
Some text & more
-->
</code>
<del>If you rely on conditional comments for Internet Explorer, and inside of those conditional comments you have ampersands, you'll need to use a very specific syntax to include your comments, detailed at [[http://wellstyled.com/html-hide-older-ie.html|Wellstyled.com]]. The important piece to notice is the ''<!-->'', which needs to be included or you'll run into problems with the ''&'' being replaced by ''&amp;'' every time you save your template.
</del> We're still figuring this out.

==== Placeholders in your CSS or JS ====

The following placeholders will be replaced with "spaced" placeholders in cached CSS and JS, to prevent problems with parsing placeholders that shouldn't be parsed.
  * ''^^cart^^'' -> ''^^ cart ^^''
  * ''^^checkout^^'' -> ''^^ checkout ^^''
  * ''^^receipt^^'' -> ''^^ receipt ^^''
  * ''^^analytics_google^^'' -> ''^^ analytics_google ^^''

===== Caching Images Manually =====
If you don't want to use AutoMagiCache but still need your images securely cached you can do so. [[..:getting_started:templates|View the instructions here]].