Hi all, I've been tinkering with caching a lot recently, so I have started a series of proposals to assist developers in integrating caching into their Zend Framework applications. To get the process going I have proposed two new Zend_Cache backends:
Zend_Cache_Backend_Static http://framework.zend.com/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=8947732 A simple means of caching pages into static HTML files, and includes a tagging system to offset the major disadvantage of static caching which is of course expiring/invalidating the files without needing to manually track them all by hand. The power of a static file cache is that it is far faster than the current Page cache even with a memory backend. It also removes the need for a caching proxy like Squid. It's widely recognised as one of the fastest caching strategies possible for web applications since it completely avoids PHP and lets the HTTP server reach it maximum potential throughput by avoiding any unnecessary processing. Zend_Cache_Backend_Database http://framework.zend.com/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=9437191 Offers a nice database backed cache for data which requires longer term caching. This creates a persistent cache which does not rely on the filesystem, scales well, and which is not exposed to the volatility of memory caching (because then stuff vanishes mysteriously when you switch off machines :)). Database caching is obviously slow but there are a lot of precedents. Just for starters, have a look at where Zend_Openid can store time limited association data! Often a database cache is used as a more dependable secure cache which can be re-cached into memory (without fear of losing any of the data) for faster access as part of a layered cache system. Future proposals will move towards an approach of expanding caching strategies available from the framework, and integrating those caches and easy to use APIs deeper into the framework through a mix of helpers and plugins. The goal is to minimise setup source code and development time, and offer a complete cache management subsystem available from all levels of the application. I hope these first proposals meet with the community's approval and I invite any comments. Thanks! Paddy Pádraic Brady http://blog.astrumfutura.com http://www.survivethedeepend.com OpenID Europe Foundation Irish Representative
