Skip to content

staleTtl
PRO

Type:
<string> | <number> | <boolean>

Default: false
It enables serve a stale response while a background refresh cache copy is being generated over the target url.

The following examples show how to use the Microlink API with CLI, cURL, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP & Golang, targeting 'https://microlink.io' URL with 'ttl' & 'staleTtl' API parameters:

CLI Microlink API example

microlink https://microlink.io&ttl=1d&staleTtl=0

cURL Microlink API example

curl -G "https://api.microlink.io" \
  -d "url=https://microlink.io" \
  -d "ttl=1d" \
  -d "staleTtl=0"

JavaScript Microlink API example

import mql from '@microlink/mql'

const { data } = await mql('https://microlink.io', {
  ttl: "1d",
  staleTtl: 0
})

Python Microlink API example

import requests

url = "https://api.microlink.io/"

querystring = {
    "url": "https://microlink.io",
    "ttl": "1d",
    "staleTtl": "0"
}

response = requests.get(url, params=querystring)

print(response.json())

Ruby Microlink API example

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

base_url = "https://api.microlink.io/"

params = {
  url: "https://microlink.io",
  ttl: "1d",
  staleTtl: "0"
}

uri = URI(base_url)
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(params)

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
response = http.request(request)

puts response.body

PHP Microlink API example

<?php

$baseUrl = "https://api.microlink.io/";

$params = [
    "url" => "https://microlink.io",
    "ttl" => "1d",
    "staleTtl" => "0"
];

$query = http_build_query($params);
$url = $baseUrl . '?' . $query;

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
    CURLOPT_URL => $url,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET"
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
    echo "cURL Error #: " . $err;
} else {
    echo $response;
}

Golang Microlink API example

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "net/url"
    "io"
)

func main() {
    baseURL := "https://api.microlink.io"

    u, err := url.Parse(baseURL)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    q := u.Query()
    q.Set("url", "https://microlink.io")
    q.Set("ttl", "1d")
    q.Set("staleTtl", "0")
    u.RawQuery = q.Encode()

    req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", u.String(), nil)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    client := &http.Client{}
    resp, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    fmt.Println(string(body))
}
The value provided can't be higher than ttl, being supported the following formats:
  • as number in milliseconds (e.g., 86400000).
  • as humanized representation of the number (e.g., '24h').
The following humanized number variations are supported:
https://microlink.io&staleTtl=1d        # 86400000
https://microlink.io&staleTtl=1day      # 86400000
https://microlink.io&staleTtl=1days     # 86400000

https://microlink.io&staleTtl=1h        # 3600000
https://microlink.io&staleTtl=1hour     # 3600000
https://microlink.io&staleTtl=1hours    # 3600000

https://microlink.io&staleTtl=90s       # 90000
https://microlink.io&staleTtl=90secs    # 90000
https://microlink.io&staleTtl=90second  # 90000
https://microlink.io&staleTtl=90seconds # 90000
A good pattern is to set staleTtl=0 to always revalidate in the background under expiration, maximizing the cache usage serving the last cache copy generated while the revalidation will refresh it.