View Caching Analyzer

Analyzer ID	Category	Severity	Time To Fix
view-caching	⚡ Performance	Medium	5 minutes

What This Checks

Validates that Blade templates are properly precompiled and cached in production/staging environments using timestamp-based freshness detection:

• Compiled views exist: Checks that the compiled views directory contains cached views
• Cache freshness: Compares the newest Blade file timestamp against the newest compiled view timestamp
• Stale detection: If any Blade file is newer than the most recent compiled view, the cache is stale

By default, only application views (resources/views) are checked. Published vendor views within resources/views/vendor/ are included since they override package views and are compiled by Laravel.

Why It Matters

• Performance Impact: Precompiled views improve render time by 2-5x
• Bootstrap Speed: Eliminates template compilation on first request
• Production Critical: Without caching, Blade templates are compiled on-demand, adding latency
• Stale Cache Risk: Modified views after caching means users see outdated templates until cache is regenerated

Blade templates must be compiled to PHP before execution. Without caching, Laravel compiles templates on the first request, adding overhead. Precompiling ensures all views are ready before the first user request.

How to Fix

Quick Fix (1 minute)

# Precompile all Blade views
php artisan view:cache

Proper Fix (5 minutes)

Add view caching to your deployment workflow:

Deployment Script:

#!/bin/bash
php artisan route:cache
php artisan config:cache
php artisan view:cache      # Precompile all Blade templates
php artisan event:cache

Docker:

RUN php artisan view:cache && \
    php artisan config:cache && \
    php artisan route:cache

Laravel Vapor:

# vapor.yml
environments:
  production:
    build:
      - 'php artisan view:cache'

ShieldCI Configuration

This analyzer is automatically skipped in CI environments and only runs in production and staging environments.

Why skip in CI and development?

• View caching checks are not applicable in CI
• Local/Development/Testing environments may have views uncached for easier debugging, which is acceptable
• Production and staging should have views precompiled for optimal performance

Environment Detection: The analyzer checks your Laravel APP_ENV setting and only runs when it maps to production or staging. Custom environment names can be mapped in config/shieldci.php:

// config/shieldci.php
'environment_mapping' => [
    'production-us' => 'production',
    'production-blue' => 'production',
    'staging-preview' => 'staging',
],

Examples:

• APP_ENV=production → Runs (no mapping needed)
• APP_ENV=production-us → Maps to production → Runs
• APP_ENV=local → Skipped (not production/staging)

Include Package Views

By default, package views (registered via loadViewsFrom() in service providers) are excluded from the freshness check. This prevents false positives when composer install or composer update changes vendor file timestamps.

To include package views in the freshness check, publish the config and enable the option:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=shieldci-config

Then in config/shieldci.php:

'analyzers' => [
    'performance' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        
        'view-caching' => [
            'include_package_views' => true,
        ],
    ],
],

When to enable:

• You want strict cache validation including all package views
• Your deployment process always runs view:cache after composer install

When to keep disabled (default):

• You run composer install separately from view:cache
• You want to avoid warnings after dependency updates

References

• Laravel View Caching
• Laravel Deployment

Related Analyzers

• Route Caching Analyzer - Ensures route caching is properly configured
• Configuration Caching Analyzer - Ensures config is cached in production