Database Caching Library

The Database Caching Library permits you to cache your queries as text files for reduced database load.

Important:  This library is initialized automatically by the database driver when caching is enabled. Do NOT load this library manually.

Also note:  Not all query result handlers are available when you use caching. Please read this page carefully.

Enabling Caching

Caching is enabled in three steps:

Once enabled, caching will happen automatically whenever a page is loaded that contains database queries.

How Does Caching Work?

revIgniter's query caching system happens dynamically when your pages are viewed. When caching is enabled, the first time a web page is loaded, the query result will be serialized and stored in a text file on your server. The next time the page is loaded the cache file will be used instead of accessing your database. Your database usage can effectively be reduced to zero for any pages that have been cached.

Only read-type (SELECT) queries can be cached, since these are the only type of queries that produce a result. Write-type (INSERT, UPDATE, etc.) queries, since they don't generate a result, will not be cached by the system.

Cache files DO NOT expire. Any queries that have been cached will remain cached until you delete them. The caching system permits you clear caches associated with individual pages, or you can delete the entire collection of cache files. Typically you'll want to use the housekeeping functions described below to delete cache files after certain events take place, like when you've added new information to your database.

Will Caching Improve Your Site's Performance?

Getting a performance gain as a result of caching depends on many factors. If you have a highly optimized database under very little load, you probably won't see a performance boost. If your database is under heavy use you probably will see an improved response, assuming your file-system is not overly taxed. Remember that caching simply changes how your information is retrieved, shifting it from being a database operation to a file-system one.

In some clustered server environments, for example, caching may be detrimental since file-system operations are so intense. On single servers in shared environments, caching will probably be beneficial. Unfortunately there is no single answer to the question of whether you should cache your database. It really depends on your situation.

How are Cache Files Stored?

revIgniter places the result of EACH query into its own cache file. Sets of cache files are further organized into sub-folders corresponding to your controller functions. To be precise, the sub-folders are named identically to the first two segments of your URI (the controller name and handler name).

For example, let's say you have a controller called blog with a handler called comments that contains three queries. The caching system will create a cache folder called blog+comments, into which it will write three cache files.

If you use dynamic queries that change based on information in your URI (when using pagination, for example), each instance of the query will produce its own cache file. It's possible, therefore, to end up with many times more cache files than you have queries.

Managing your Cache Files

Since cache files do not expire, you'll need to build deletion routines into your application. For example, let's say you have a blog that allows user commenting. Whenever a new comment is submitted you'll want to delete the cache files associated with the controller handler that serves up your comments. You'll find two delete handlers described below that help you clear data.

Not All Database Handlers Work with Caching

Lastly, we need to point out that the result, that is cached, is a simplified version of the full result data. For that reason, some of the query result handlers are not available for use.

The following functions ARE NOT available when using a cached result:


Function Reference

rigDbCacheOn()  /   rigDbCacheOff()

Manually enables/disables caching. This can be useful if you want to keep certain queries from being cached. Example:

# Turn caching on
get rigDbCacheOn()
put rigDbQuery("SELECT * FROM mytable") into tQuery

# Turn caching off for this one query
get rigDbCacheOff()
put rigDbQuery("SELECT * FROM members WHERE member_id = '" & tCurrentUser & "'") into tQuery

# Turn caching back on
get rigDbCacheOn()
put rigDbQuery("SELECT * FROM anothertable") into tQuery

rigDbCacheDelete

Deletes the cache files associated with a particular page. This is useful if you need to clear caching after you update your database.

The caching system saves your cache files to folders that correspond to the URI of the page you are viewing. For example, if you are viewing a page at example.com/index.lc/blog/comments, the caching system will put all cache files associated with it in a folder called blog+comments. To delete those particular cache files you will use:

rigDbCacheDelete "blog", "comments"

If you do not use any parameters the current URI will be used when determining what should be cleared.

rigDbCacheDeleteAll

Clears all existing cache files. Example:

rigDbCacheDeleteAll "index.html"

Use the parameter to define a file name to be excluded from deletion.