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smarty/docs/en/programmers/caching.xml
2004-03-28 15:15:38 +00:00

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!-- $Revision$ -->
<chapter id="caching">
<title>Caching</title>
<para>
Caching is used to speed up a call to <link
linkend="api.display">display()</link> or <link
linkend="api.fetch">fetch()</link> by saving its output to a file. If a
cached version of the call is available, that is displayed instead of
regenerating the output. Caching can speed things up tremendously,
especially templates with longer computation times. Since the output of
display() or fetch() is cached, one cache file could conceivably be made up
of several template files, config files, etc.
</para>
<para>
Since templates are dynamic, it is important to be careful what you are
caching and for how long. For instance, if you are displaying the front page
of your website that does not change its content very often, it might work
well to cache this page for an hour or more. On the other hand, if you are
displaying a page with a weather map containing new information by the
minute, it would not make sense to cache this page.
</para>
<sect1 id="caching.setting.up">
<title>Setting Up Caching</title>
<para>
The first thing to do is enable caching. This is done by setting <link
linkend="variable.caching">$caching</link> = true (or 1.)
</para>
<example>
<title>enabling caching</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = true;
$smarty->display('index.tpl');
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
<para>
With caching enabled, the function call to display('index.tpl') will render
the template as usual, but also saves a copy of its output to a file (a
cached copy) in the <link linkend="variable.cache.dir">$cache_dir</link>.
Upon the next call to display('index.tpl'), the cached copy will be used
instead of rendering the template again.
</para>
<note>
<title>Technical Note</title>
<para>
The files in the $cache_dir are named similar to the template name.
Although they end in the ".php" extention, they are not really executable
php scripts. Do not edit these files!
</para>
</note>
<para>
Each cached page has a limited lifetime determined by <link
linkend="variable.cache.lifetime">$cache_lifetime</link>. The default value
is 3600 seconds, or 1 hour. After that time expires, the cache is
regenerated. It is possible to give individual caches their own expiration
time by setting $caching = 2. See the documentation on <link
linkend="variable.cache.lifetime">$cache_lifetime</link> for details.
</para>
<example>
<title>setting cache_lifetime per cache</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = 2; // lifetime is per cache
// set the cache_lifetime for index.tpl to 5 minutes
$smarty->cache_lifetime = 300;
$smarty->display('index.tpl');
// set the cache_lifetime for home.tpl to 1 hour
$smarty->cache_lifetime = 3600;
$smarty->display('home.tpl');
// NOTE: the following $cache_lifetime setting will not work when $caching = 2.
// The cache lifetime for home.tpl has already been set
// to 1 hour, and will no longer respect the value of $cache_lifetime.
// The home.tpl cache will still expire after 1 hour.
$smarty->cache_lifetime = 30; // 30 seconds
$smarty->display('home.tpl');
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
<para>
If <link linkend="variable.compile.check">$compile_check</link> is enabled,
every template file and config file that is involved with the cache file is
checked for modification. If any of the files have been modified since the
cache was generated, the cache is immediately regenerated. This is a slight
overhead so for optimum performance, leave $compile_check set to false.
</para>
<example>
<title>enabling $compile_check</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = true;
$smarty->compile_check = true;
$smarty->display('index.tpl');
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
<para>
If <link linkend="variable.force.compile">$force_compile</link> is enabled,
the cache files will always be regenerated. This effectively turns off
caching. $force_compile is usually for debugging purposes only, a more
efficient way of disabling caching is to set <link
linkend="variable.caching">$caching</link> = false (or 0.)
</para>
<para>
The <link linkend="api.is.cached">is_cached()</link> function
can be used to test if a template has a valid cache or not. If you have a
cached template that requires something like a database fetch, you can use
this to skip that process.
</para>
<example>
<title>using is_cached()</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = true;
if(!$smarty->is_cached('index.tpl')) {
// No cache available, do variable assignments here.
$contents = get_database_contents();
$smarty->assign($contents);
}
$smarty->display('index.tpl');
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
<para>
You can keep parts of a page dynamic with the <link
linkend="language.function.insert">insert</link> template function. Let's
say the whole page can be cached except for a banner that is displayed down
the right side of the page. By using an insert function for the banner, you
can keep this element dynamic within the cached content. See the
documentation on <link linkend="language.function.insert">insert</link> for
details and examples.
</para>
<para>
You can clear all the cache files with the <link
linkend="api.clear.all.cache">clear_all_cache()</link> function, or
individual cache files (or groups) with the <link
linkend="api.clear.cache">clear_cache()</link> function.
</para>
<example>
<title>clearing the cache</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = true;
// clear out all cache files
$smarty->clear_all_cache();
// clear only cache for index.tpl
$smarty->clear_cache('index.tpl');
$smarty->display('index.tpl');
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="caching.multiple.caches">
<title>Multiple Caches Per Page</title>
<para>
You can have multiple cache files for a single call to display() or
fetch(). Let's say that a call to display('index.tpl') may have several
different output contents depending on some condition, and you want
separate caches for each one. You can do this by passing a cache_id as the
second parameter to the function call.
</para>
<example>
<title>passing a cache_id to display()</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = true;
$my_cache_id = $_GET['article_id'];
$smarty->display('index.tpl',$my_cache_id);
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
<para>
Above, we are passing the variable $my_cache_id to display() as the
cache_id. For each unique value of $my_cache_id, a separate cache will be
generated for index.tpl. In this example, "article_id" was passed in the
URL and is used as the cache_id.
</para>
<note>
<title>Technical Note</title>
<para>
Be very cautious when passing values from a client (web browser) into
Smarty (or any PHP application.) Although the above example of using the
article_id from the URL looks handy, it could have bad consequences. The
cache_id is used to create a directory on the file system, so if the user
decided to pass an extremely large value for article_id, or write a script
that sends random article_ids at a rapid pace, this could possibly cause
problems at the server level. Be sure to sanitize any data passed in before
using it. In this instance, maybe you know the article_id has a length of
10 characters and is made up of alpha-numerics only, and must be a valid
article_id in the database. Check for this!
</para>
</note>
<para>
Be sure to pass the same cache_id as the
second parameter to <link linkend="api.is.cached">is_cached()</link> and
<link linkend="api.clear.cache">clear_cache()</link>.
</para>
<example>
<title>passing a cache_id to is_cached()</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = true;
$my_cache_id = $_GET['article_id'];
if(!$smarty->is_cached('index.tpl',$my_cache_id)) {
// No cache available, do variable assignments here.
$contents = get_database_contents();
$smarty->assign($contents);
}
$smarty->display('index.tpl',$my_cache_id);
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
<para>
You can clear all caches for a particular cache_id by passing null as the
first parameter to clear_cache().
</para>
<example>
<title>clearing all caches for a particular cache_id</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = true;
// clear all caches with "sports" as the cache_id
$smarty->clear_cache(null,"sports");
$smarty->display('index.tpl',"sports");
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
<para>
In this manner, you can "group" your caches together by giving them the
same cache_id.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="caching.groups">
<title>Cache Groups</title>
<para>
You can do more elaborate grouping by setting up cache_id groups. This is
accomplished by separating each sub-group with a vertical bar "|" in the
cache_id value. You can have as many sub-groups as you like.
</para>
<example>
<title>cache_id groups</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = true;
// clear all caches with "sports|basketball" as the first two cache_id groups
$smarty->clear_cache(null,"sports|basketball");
// clear all caches with "sports" as the first cache_id group. This would
// include "sports|basketball", or "sports|(anything)|(anything)|(anything)|..."
$smarty->clear_cache(null,"sports");
$smarty->display('index.tpl',"sports|basketball");
?>
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
<note>
<title>Technical Note</title>
<para>
The cache grouping does NOT use the path to the template as any part of the
cache_id. For example, if you have display('themes/blue/index.tpl'), you
cannot clear the cache for everything under the "themes/blue" directory. If
you want to do that, you must group them in the cache_id, such as
display('themes/blue/index.tpl','themes|blue'); Then you can clear the
caches for the blue theme with clear_cache(null,'themes|blue');
</para>
</note>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="caching.cacheable">
<title>Controlling Cacheability of Plugins' Output</title>
<para>
Since Smarty-2.6.0 plugins the cacheability of plugins can be declared
when registering them. The third parameter to register_block,
register_compiler_function and register_function is called
<parameter>$cacheable</parameter> and defaults to true which is also
the behaviour of plugins in Smarty versions before 2.6.0
</para>
<para>
When registering a plugin with $cacheable=false the plugin is called everytime the page is displayed, even if the page comes from the cache. The plugin function behaves a little like an <link linkend="plugins.inserts">insert</link> function.
</para>
<para>
In contrast to <link linkend="language.function.insert">{insert}</link> the attributes to the plugins are not cached by default. They can be declared to be cached with the fourth parameter <parameter>$cache_attrs</parameter>. <parameter>$cache_attrs</parameter> is an array of attribute-names that should be cached, so the plugin-function get value as it was the time the page was written to cache everytime it is fetched from the cache.
</para>
<example>
<title>Preventing a plugin's output from being cached</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
index.php:
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = true;
function remaining_seconds($params, &amp;$smarty) {
$remain = $params['endtime'] - time();
if ($remain >=0)
return $remain . " second(s)";
else
return "done";
}
$smarty->register_function('remaining', 'remaining_seconds', false, array('endtime'));
if (!$smarty->is_cached('index.tpl')) {
// fetch $obj from db and assign...
$smarty->assign_by_ref('obj', $obj);
}
$smarty->display('index.tpl');
?>
index.tpl:
Time Remaining: {remain endtime=$obj->endtime}
]]>
</programlisting>
<para>
The number of seconds till the endtime of $obj is reached changes on each display of the page, even if the page is cached. Since the endtime attribute is cached the object only has to be pulled from the database when page is written to the cache but not on subsequent requests of the page.
</para>
</example>
<example>
<title>Preventing a whole passage of a template from being cached</title>
<programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
index.php:
<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;
$smarty->caching = true;
function smarty_block_dynamic($param, $content, &amp;$smarty) {
return $content;
}
$smarty->register_block('dynamic', 'smarty_block_dynamic', false);
$smarty->display('index.tpl');
?>
index.tpl:
Page created: {"0"|date_format:"%D %H:%M:%S"}
{dynamic}
Now is: {"0"|date_format:"%D %H:%M:%S"}
... do other stuff ...
{/dynamic}
]]>
</programlisting>
</example>
<para>
When reloading the page you will notice that both dates differ. One is "dynamic" one is "static". You can do everything between {dynamic}...{/dynamic} and be sure it will not be cached like the rest of the page.
</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>
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