Nginx Cache Setup for Django Site. Uses Django Dummy Cache Backend by default to set required Cache-Control Headers for downstream Nginx Cache

settings.py

REDIS_URL = os.getenv('REDIS_URL', 'redis://localhost:6379')
CACHES = {
    "redis": {
        "BACKEND": "django_redis.cache.RedisCache",
        "LOCATION": REDIS_URL,
        "OPTIONS": {
            "CLIENT_CLASS": "django_redis.client.DefaultClient",
        }
    },
    "default": {
        "BACKEND": "django.core.cache.backends.dummy.DummyCache",
    }
}

sites_enabled_site.conf

proxy_cache_path /path/to/cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=examplesite:10m max_size=1g inactive=60m use_temp_path=off;
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name  example.com;
    # ssl and other stuff excluded
    location / {
        proxy_cache examplesite;
        proxy_cache_revalidate on;
        proxy_cache_min_uses 1;
        proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504;
        proxy_cache_background_update on;
        proxy_cache_lock on;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_pragma;
        add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:18003;
        proxy_read_timeout 600;
        proxy_send_timeout 600;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
   }

views.py

from django.shortcuts import render
from django.views.decorators.cache import cache_page


@cache_page(60 * 15)
def articles(request, *args, **kwargs):
  """Not cached by the app, response will have Cache-Control headers, Cached by downstream NGINX"""
  context = {
  "object_list": Article.objects.filter(is_active=True)
  }
  return render(request, template_name="articles/articles_index.html", context=context)

@cache_page(60 * 15, cache="redis")
def other_page(request, *args, **kwargs):
  """Cached by the app in redis cache backend and by downstream NGINX since Cache-Control headers are also set"""
  context = {
    "result": of_extensive_compute()
  }
  render(request, template_name="articles/whatever.html", context=context)