Disable caching of MVC widgets

This article describes how to disable caching of MVC widgets without disabling the output cache for the whole page.

Because the MVC widget Razor view (the .cshml file) cannot be excluded from the page cache, you need to update the content through an AJAX call.

The following sample demonstrates a simple MVC widget which displays random numbers, even if the page is cached.

Controller

The controller defines a JSON route at ~/rest-api/ajax-widget-data which is used to return the data.

using System;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using Telerik.Sitefinity.Mvc;

namespace SitefinityWebApp.Mvc.Controllers
{
   public class AjaxModel
   {
       public int data { get; set; }
       public AjaxModel(int value)
       {
           this.data = value;
       }
       public AjaxModel()
       {
           Random random = new Random();
           this.data = random.Next(0, 100);
       }
   }

   [ControllerToolboxItem(Name = "Ajax", Title = "Ajax Updates", SectionName = "Custom")]
   public class AjaxController : Controller
   {
       public ActionResult Index()
       {
           return View("Default");
       }

       [Route("rest-api/ajax-widget-data")]
       public JsonResult Status()
       {
           var response = new AjaxModel();

           return this.Json(response, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
       }
   }
}

View

The view performs an AJAX call to that route using $.ajax. It sets the cache: false parameter to avoid that response to be cached.

HTML+Razor

@using Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Mvc.Helpers
@using Telerik.Sitefinity.Modules.Pages;

@Html.Script(ScriptRef.JQuery, "top", false)

<div id="data">n/a</div>

<script language="JavaScript">
(function ($) {
   $(function () {
           $.ajax({
               url: '/rest-api/ajax-widget-data',
               cache: false,
               success: function (response) {
               	if (response && response.data) {
               		var data = response.data;
               		$('#data')[0].innerHTML = data;
                   }
                   else {
               		$('#data')[0].innerHTML = "Unknown response (" + response + ")";
                   }
               }
           });
   });
}(jQuery));
</script>

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