Question

How can I disable or bypass FPC for a single page? I don’t want to use hole-punching as there are several blocks on the page that I need to be dynamic and I would rather modify one config/class to specify that the entire page should not be cached (similar to the behavior of checkout).

My understanding of FPC was that it was not used for “session users” (logged in, added to cart, etc…). However, I’m seeing FPC affect pages when a user is logged in. If I disable FPC, then the page works as desired.

Answer 1

Here is the solution for disabling FPC for a specific controller (could be extended to specific action as well).

First create an Observer to listen on the controller_action_predispatch event:

public function processPreDispatch(Varien_Event_Observer $observer)
{
    $action = $observer->getEvent()->getControllerAction();

    // Check to see if $action is a Product controller
    if ($action instanceof Mage_Catalog_ProductController) {
        $cache = Mage::app()->getCacheInstance();

        // Tell Magento to 'ban' the use of FPC for this request
        $cache->banUse('full_page');
    }
}

Then add the following to your config.xml file for the module. This goes in the <frontend> section:

<events>
    <controller_action_predispatch>
        <observers>
            <YOUR_UNIQUE_IDENTIFIER>
                <class>YOURMODULE/observer</class>
                <method>processPreDispatch</method>
            </YOUR_UNIQUE_IDENTIFIER>
        </observers>
    </controller_action_predispatch>
</events>

Now Magento will serve up your page every time and bypass FPC for the request.