We are attempting to add Varnish to our Woocommerce setup and are running into some troubles.
On a product page (lets say /product/television), if you press the “add to cart” button, you are now redirected to the cart page, as expected, but the item has not been added to the cart.
However, if you do the same thing while logged into an account, it will work fine. I have posted my varnish.vcl below and if anyone has any insight as to what is wrong please let me know.
# This is an example VCL file for WordPress/WooCommerce/Varnish.
#
# Updated to work with Varnish 4
# Marker to tell the VCL compiler that this VCL has been adapted to the
# new 4.0 format.
vcl 4.0;
# Default backend definition. Set this to point to your content server.
backend default {
.host = "web";
.port = "80";
.connect_timeout = 600s;
.first_byte_timeout = 600s;
.between_bytes_timeout = 600s;
.max_connections = 800;
}
# Only allow purging from specific IPs
acl purge {
"localhost";
}
# This function is used when a request is send by a HTTP client (Browser)
sub vcl_recv {
# Normalize the header, remove the port (in case you're testing this on various TCP ports)
set req.http.Host = regsub(req.http.Host, ":[0-9]+", "");
# The code below makes sure the AJAX "add to cart" function works
set req.url = regsub(req.url, "add-to-cart=d+_d+&", "");
# Allow purging from ACL
if (req.method == "PURGE") {
# If not allowed then a error 405 is returned
if (!client.ip ~ purge) {
return(synth(405, "This IP is not allowed to send PURGE requests."));
}
# If allowed, do a cache_lookup -> vlc_hit() or vlc_miss()
return (purge);
}
# Post requests will not be cached
if (req.http.Authorization || req.method == "POST") {
return (pass);
}
# --- WordPress specific configuration
# Did not cache the RSS feed
if (req.url ~ "/feed") {
return (pass);
}
# Blitz hack
if (req.url ~ "/mu-.*") {
return (pass);
}
# Do not cache the admin and login pages
if (req.url ~ "/wp-(login|admin)") {
return (pass);
}
# Do not cache the WooCommerce pages
if (req.url ~ "/(cart|my-account|checkout|addons)") {
return (pass);
}
if (req.url ~ "/?add-to-cart=") {
return (pass);
}
# Remove the "has_js" cookie
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, "has_js=[^;]+(; )?", "");
# Remove any Google Analytics based cookies
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, "__utm.=[^;]+(; )?", "");
# Remove the Quant Capital cookies (added by some plugin, all __qca)
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, "__qc.=[^;]+(; )?", "");
# Remove the wp-settings-1 cookie
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, "wp-settings-1=[^;]+(; )?", "");
# Remove the wp-settings-time-1 cookie
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, "wp-settings-time-1=[^;]+(; )?", "");
# Remove the wp test cookie
set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, "wordpress_test_cookie=[^;]+(; )?", "");
# Are there cookies left with only spaces or that are empty?
if (req.http.cookie ~ "^ *$") {
unset req.http.cookie;
}
# Cache the following files extensions
if (req.url ~ ".(css|js|png|gif|jp(e)?g|swf|ico)") {
unset req.http.cookie;
}
# Normalize Accept-Encoding header and compression
# https://www.varnish-cache.org/docs/3.0/tutorial/vary.html
if (req.http.Accept-Encoding) {
# Do no compress compressed files...
if (req.url ~ ".(jpg|png|gif|gz|tgz|bz2|tbz|mp3|ogg)$") {
unset req.http.Accept-Encoding;
} elsif (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "gzip") {
set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "gzip";
} elsif (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "deflate") {
set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "deflate";
} else {
unset req.http.Accept-Encoding;
}
}
# Check the cookies for wordpress-specific items
if (req.http.Cookie ~ "wordpress_" || req.http.Cookie ~ "comment_") {
return (pass);
}
if (!req.http.cookie) {
unset req.http.cookie;
}
# --- End of WordPress specific configuration
# Did not cache HTTP authentication and HTTP Cookie
if (req.http.Authorization || req.http.Cookie) {
# Not cacheable by default
return (pass);
}
# Cache all others requests
return (hash);
}
sub vcl_pipe {
return (pipe);
}
sub vcl_pass {
return (fetch);
}
# The data on which the hashing will take place
sub vcl_hash {
hash_data(req.url);
if (req.http.host) {
hash_data(req.http.host);
} else {
hash_data(server.ip);
}
# If the client supports compression, keep that in a different cache
if (req.http.Accept-Encoding) {
hash_data(req.http.Accept-Encoding);
}
return (lookup);
}
# This function is used when a request is sent by our backend (Nginx server)
sub vcl_backend_response {
# Remove some headers we never want to see
unset beresp.http.Server;
unset beresp.http.X-Powered-By;
# For static content strip all backend cookies
if (bereq.url ~ ".(css|js|png|gif|jp(e?)g)|swf|ico") {
unset beresp.http.cookie;
}
# Only allow cookies to be set if we're in admin area
if (beresp.http.Set-Cookie && bereq.url !~ "^/wp-(login|admin)") {
unset beresp.http.Set-Cookie;
}
# don't cache response to posted requests or those with basic auth
if ( bereq.method == "POST" || bereq.http.Authorization ) {
set beresp.uncacheable = true;
set beresp.ttl = 120s;
return (deliver);
}
# don't cache search results
if ( bereq.url ~ "?s=" ){
set beresp.uncacheable = true;
set beresp.ttl = 120s;
return (deliver);
}
# only cache status ok
if ( beresp.status != 200 ) {
set beresp.uncacheable = true;
set beresp.ttl = 120s;
return (deliver);
}
# A TTL of 24h
set beresp.ttl = 24h;
# Define the default grace period to serve cached content
set beresp.grace = 30s;
return (deliver);
}
# The routine when we deliver the HTTP request to the user
# Last chance to modify headers that are sent to the client
sub vcl_deliver {
if (obj.hits > 0) {
set resp.http.X-Cache = "cached";
} else {
set resp.http.x-Cache = "uncached";
}
# Remove some headers: PHP version
unset resp.http.X-Powered-By;
# Remove some headers: Apache version & OS
unset resp.http.Server;
# Remove some heanders: Varnish
unset resp.http.Via;
unset resp.http.X-Varnish;
return (deliver);
}
sub vcl_init {
return (ok);
}
sub vcl_fini {
return (ok);
}
I found the solution to this problem here:
https://guides.wp-bullet.com/fix-empty-cart-with-woocommerce-redirect-to-checkout-varnish-4/
Basically when you add an item to the cart, Woocommerce issues a 302 redirect and sends you to the cart (you can disable this behaviour from the settings). In Varnish you have to be sure not to remove any cookies from the backend response when this event occurs.