A
Alan Silver
Hello,
I tried out using the cache the other day and was impressed with the
concept. I built myself a custom control to generate the site links,
using an XML file for the info. I kept the XML file in the cache and
added a dependency so it will notice when the file changes. All fine so
far.
I was reading last night about using the OutputCache page directive to
store the page in the cache. It seems you can do this for a user control
as well, allowing you to cache part of a page.
So, my question is, which is more appropriate, using the cache manually
or using the OutputCache page directive? Obviously each will have its
uses, but consider the following ...
I have an e-commerce site written in Classic ASP. I am looking to
rewrite it in ASP.NET at some point. One weakness of the existing
version is that product pages are generated dynamically from a database.
I had been looking at a method whereby when the database is updated, the
HTML is created for the product and written to disk, avoiding the
necessity to hit the database each time the page is displayed.
I am now wondering if it would be better to generate the HTML and store
it in the cache. I could either write the part of the page that displays
that product details as a custom control and use OutputCache to cache
that control, or generate the HTML myself and add it manually to the
cache. Either way I would need some mechanism for checking when the
database is updated, but that's a separate issue.
So, any suggestions? Anything to sway me one way or the other?
One factor I would like to consider is the life of an object in the
cache. The OutputCache directive takes a Duration parameter, which means
that come what May, the HTML will be dropped from the cache when it
expires 9if not sooner). If I put it in the cache manually, AFAIK it
will stay there until it gets kicked out for lack of space. Presumably
an object that is called often is less likely to get kicked out, so the
HTML for the most popular products will stay in the cache the longest,
ensuring maximum efficiency. Is this right?
TIA for any comments on this long waffly post ;-)
I tried out using the cache the other day and was impressed with the
concept. I built myself a custom control to generate the site links,
using an XML file for the info. I kept the XML file in the cache and
added a dependency so it will notice when the file changes. All fine so
far.
I was reading last night about using the OutputCache page directive to
store the page in the cache. It seems you can do this for a user control
as well, allowing you to cache part of a page.
So, my question is, which is more appropriate, using the cache manually
or using the OutputCache page directive? Obviously each will have its
uses, but consider the following ...
I have an e-commerce site written in Classic ASP. I am looking to
rewrite it in ASP.NET at some point. One weakness of the existing
version is that product pages are generated dynamically from a database.
I had been looking at a method whereby when the database is updated, the
HTML is created for the product and written to disk, avoiding the
necessity to hit the database each time the page is displayed.
I am now wondering if it would be better to generate the HTML and store
it in the cache. I could either write the part of the page that displays
that product details as a custom control and use OutputCache to cache
that control, or generate the HTML myself and add it manually to the
cache. Either way I would need some mechanism for checking when the
database is updated, but that's a separate issue.
So, any suggestions? Anything to sway me one way or the other?
One factor I would like to consider is the life of an object in the
cache. The OutputCache directive takes a Duration parameter, which means
that come what May, the HTML will be dropped from the cache when it
expires 9if not sooner). If I put it in the cache manually, AFAIK it
will stay there until it gets kicked out for lack of space. Presumably
an object that is called often is less likely to get kicked out, so the
HTML for the most popular products will stay in the cache the longest,
ensuring maximum efficiency. Is this right?
TIA for any comments on this long waffly post ;-)