Active Support Cache Store

An abstract cache store class. There are multiple cache store implementations, each having its own additional features. See the classes under the ActiveSupport::Cache module, e.g. ActiveSupport::Cache::MemCacheStore. MemCacheStore is currently the most popular cache store for large production websites.

Some implementations may not support all methods beyond the basic cache methods of #fetch, #write, #read, #exist?, and #delete.

+ActiveSupport::Cache::Store+ can store any Ruby object that is supported by its coder's dump and load methods.

cache = ActiveSupport::Cache::MemoryStore.new

cache.read('city')   # => nil
cache.write('city', "Duckburgh")
cache.read('city')   # => "Duckburgh"

cache.write('not serializable', Proc.new {}) # => TypeError

Keys are always translated into Strings and are case sensitive. When an object is specified as a key and has a cache_key method defined, this method will be called to define the key. Otherwise, the to_param method will be called. Hashes and Arrays can also be used as keys. The elements will be delimited by slashes, and the elements within a Hash will be sorted by key so they are consistent.

cache.read('city') == cache.read(:city)   # => true

Nil values can be cached.

If your cache is on a shared infrastructure, you can define a namespace for your cache entries. If a namespace is defined, it will be prefixed on to every key. The namespace can be either a static value or a Proc. If it is a Proc, it will be invoked when each key is evaluated so that you can use application logic to invalidate keys.

cache.namespace = -> { @last_mod_time }  # Set the namespace to a variable
@last_mod_time = Time.now  # Invalidate the entire cache by changing namespace