Cloudflare Cache Clearing Rules for Gravity Forms & Cache Buster

Get Help
, , ,
1

EDITED FOR CLARITY:

I’m running Gravity Forms + GP Cache Buster + Cloudflare.

After updating Gravity Forms or a GF add-on, do I still need to purge Cloudflare’s cache?

I know Gravity Forms’ standard advice is to clear browser + all caching plugins/services (including Cloudflare) after updates. But since GP Cache Buster already loads the form via AJAX to bypass WordPress-level page caching, does that change anything for Cloudflare’s edge cache?

In other words: with Cache Buster active, is a Cloudflare purge still recommended/required after core or add-on updates, or can it usually be skipped?

Yes, I can test this myself, but an official response or insights from Team Gravity would be nice.

Thanks!

2

Hi Jonathan,

In my experience, updating Gravity Forms or one of its add-ons does not usually require clearing Cloudflare’s cache. I personally don’t clear Cloudflare’s cache after these updates and haven’t encountered any major issues.

I occasionally clear the cache through WP Rocket or Breeze on client sites.

Are you currently experiencing any issues when Cloudflare’s cache is not cleared after updating Gravity Forms or its add-ons?

3

Hi Faisal,

Thank you for your input. Are you using Cache Buster?

Cheers.

4

Cache Buster does reload the form markup in a way that bypasses the page cache, but it doesn’t cache-bust all of the peripheral assets that Gravity Forms and its add-ons may load.

So yes, after updating Gravity Forms or a GF add-on, we’d still recommend clearing Cloudflare’s cache. Cache Buster reduces the likelihood of stale form markup / data being an issue, but it doesn’t eliminate the possibility of Cloudflare serving stale CSS, JavaScript, or other assets.

5

Hi David,

Thank you for sharing your insights. Yes, to be on the safe side, it’s always best to clear Cloudflare’s cache—which is what I’m doing for now.

However, I plan to conduct a few tests over the next month to determine whether it’s necessary. I’ll keep everyone posted.

In parallel, if you could run a few tests on your end as well, that would be great.

Cheerio!

6

Testing Complete:

Even with Cache Buster active, I found that Cloudflare (and other full-page caching plugins/services) can still serve a cached HTML page containing an expired Gravity Forms config nonce. This produced the infamous “Unable to verify nonce” console error after ~24 hours. Setting a Cloudflare Bypass rule on the form pages fixed it immediately.

Bottom Line: I highly recommend purging Cloudflare and any other page caches (or permanently excluding the form URLs) after GF/add-on updates.