Module: ActionController::Caching::Fragments

Included in:
ActionController::Caching
Defined in:
lib/action_controller/caching/fragments.rb

Overview

Fragment caching is used for caching various blocks within views without caching the entire action as a whole. This is useful when certain elements of an action change frequently or depend on complicated state while other parts rarely change or can be shared amongst multiple parties. The caching is done using the cache helper available in the Action View. A template with fragment caching might look like:

<b>Hello <%= @name %></b>

<% cache do %>
  All the topics in the system:
  <%= render :partial => "topic", :collection => Topic.find(:all) %>
<% end %>

This cache will bind the name of the action that called it, so if this code was part of the view for the topics/list action, you would be able to invalidate it using:

expire_fragment(:controller => "topics", :action => "list")

This default behavior is limited if you need to cache multiple fragments per action or if the action itself is cached using caches_action. To remedy this, there is an option to qualify the name of the cached fragment by using the :action_suffix option:

<% cache(:action => "list", :action_suffix => "all_topics") do %>

That would result in a name such as /topics/list/all_topics, avoiding conflicts with the action cache and with any fragments that use a different suffix. Note that the URL doesn’t have to really exist or be callable

  • the url_for system is just used to generate unique cache names

that we can refer to when we need to expire the cache.

The expiration call for this example is:

expire_fragment(:controller => "topics", 
                :action => "list", 
                :action_suffix => "all_topics")

Instance Method Summary collapse

Instance Method Details

#expire_fragment(key, options = nil) ⇒ Object

Removes fragments from the cache.

key can take one of three forms:

  • String - This would normally take the form of a path, like pages/45/notes.

  • Hash - Treated as an implicit call to url_for, like {:controller => "pages", :action => "notes", :id => 45}

  • Regexp - Will remove any fragment that matches, so %r{pages/\d*/notes} might remove all notes. Make sure you don’t use anchors in the regex (^ or $) because the actual filename matched looks like ./cache/filename/path.cache. Note: Regexp expiration is only supported on caches that can iterate over all keys (unlike memcached).

options is passed through to the cache store’s delete method (or delete_matched, for Regexp keys.)



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# File 'lib/action_controller/caching/fragments.rb', line 109

def expire_fragment(key, options = nil)
  return unless cache_configured?
  key = fragment_cache_key(key) unless key.is_a?(Regexp)
  message = nil

  instrument_fragment_cache :expire_fragment, key do
    if key.is_a?(Regexp)
      cache_store.delete_matched(key, options)
    else
      cache_store.delete(key, options)
    end
  end
end

#fragment_cache_key(key) ⇒ Object

Given a key (as described in expire_fragment), returns a key suitable for use in reading, writing, or expiring a cached fragment. If the key is a hash, the generated key is the return value of url_for on that hash (without the protocol). All keys are prefixed with views/ and uses ActiveSupport::Cache.expand_cache_key for the expansion.



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# File 'lib/action_controller/caching/fragments.rb', line 51

def fragment_cache_key(key)
  ActiveSupport::Cache.expand_cache_key(key.is_a?(Hash) ? url_for(key).split("://").last : key, :views)
end

#fragment_exist?(key, options = nil) ⇒ Boolean

Check if a cached fragment from the location signified by key exists (see expire_fragment for acceptable formats)

Returns:

  • (Boolean) 


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# File 'lib/action_controller/caching/fragments.rb', line 82

def fragment_exist?(key, options = nil)
  return unless cache_configured?
  key = fragment_cache_key(key)

  instrument_fragment_cache :exist_fragment?, key do
    cache_store.exist?(key, options)
  end
end

#instrument_fragment_cache(name, key) ⇒ Object 



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# File 'lib/action_controller/caching/fragments.rb', line 123

def instrument_fragment_cache(name, key)
  ActiveSupport::Notifications.instrument("#{name}.action_controller", :key => key){ yield }
end

#read_fragment(key, options = nil) ⇒ Object

Reads a cached fragment from the location signified by key (see expire_fragment for acceptable formats).



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# File 'lib/action_controller/caching/fragments.rb', line 70

def read_fragment(key, options = nil)
  return unless cache_configured?

  key = fragment_cache_key(key)
  instrument_fragment_cache :read_fragment, key do
    result = cache_store.read(key, options)
    result.respond_to?(:html_safe) ? result.html_safe : result
  end
end

#write_fragment(key, content, options = nil) ⇒ Object

Writes content to the location signified by key (see expire_fragment for acceptable formats).



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# File 'lib/action_controller/caching/fragments.rb', line 57

def write_fragment(key, content, options = nil)
  return content unless cache_configured?

  key = fragment_cache_key(key)
  instrument_fragment_cache :write_fragment, key do
    content = content.to_str
    cache_store.write(key, content, options)
  end
  content
end