Working with Caching

Overview

• since Seagull 0.6.3

The Seagull framework includes support for caching via the SGL_Cache class which is basically a wrapper for PEAR's Cache_Lite class. The following types of caching are supported

• file
• function
• output

Usage

To cache any data in your code you need to get an instance of the SGL_Cache object:

$cache = &SGL_Cache::singleton();

then either retrieve cached results or perform a data call, and save the results to the cache. A typical operation looks like this:

$cache = & SGL_Cache::singleton();
if ($serialized = $cache->get('all_users', 'perms')) {
    $aPerms = unserialize($serialized);
    SGL::logMessage('perms from cache', PEAR_LOG_DEBUG);
} else {
    require_once SGL_MOD_DIR . '/user/classes/UserDAO.php';
    $da = & UserDAO::singleton();
    $aPerms = $da->getPermsByModuleId();
    $serialized = serialize($aPerms);
    $cache->save($serialized, 'all_users', 'perms');
    SGL::logMessage('perms from db', PEAR_LOG_DEBUG);
}

You don't need require the SGL_Cache lib, it's done by Seagull.

How to load various cache types

Default Cache_Lite instance.

1. $cache = &SGL_Cache::singleton();

Cache_Lite_Function instance with specified params on the fly.

2. $cache = &SGL_Cache::singleton('function', array(
         'dontCacheWhenTheResultIsFalse' => true,
         'dontCacheWhenTheResultIsNull'  => true,
         'lifeTime'                      => 3,
         'debugCacheLiteFunction'        => true,
     ));

Cache_Lite_Output instance.

3. $cache = &SGL_Cache::singleton('output');

Force Cache_Lite_Function instance.

4. $cache = &SGL_Cache::singleton('function', array(), true);

BC way to force cache.

5. $cache = &SGL_Cache::singleton(true);

Clearing the cache

You can clear cached results using the following convention:

SGL_Cache::clear('group_name');

The clear method can be called statically for convenience.