Using Zend_Cache

08.07.2010 // Tutorials and Tips, Zend Framework // admin // 2 Comments

Recently I needed to speed up the project that makes a lot of sevices call, like rss import, twitter, recapatcha  etc. and some database calls.  To solve this caching is the answer.  Fortunately there is Zend_Cache that provides fast and easy function to do so.

First, you need a create directory which the cached files will be saved, i.e (tmp) and make rewritable (777), then the following of code lines will be place at the top of your bootstrap.php

// application/bootstrap.php

protected function _initCache()
{
    $frontendOptions = array(
        'lifetime' => 86400, // timestamp equivalent of 1 day
        'debug_header' => false, // for debugging
  	'default_options' => array(
	    'cache_with_cookie_variables' => true,
	    'make_id_with_cookie_variables' => false
            ),
        'regexps' => array(
      	    // cache all controllers
            '^/$' => array('cache' => true),
	    // cache the whole IndexController
            '^/index/' => array('cache' => true),
	    )
	);

    $backendOptions = array(
        'cache_dir' => 'tmp'
        );

    // getting a Zend_Cache_Frontend_Page object
    $cache = Zend_Cache::factory('Page',
                                 'File',
	                          $frontendOptions,
	                          $backendOptions);
     $cache->start();
     // if the cache is hit, the result is sent to the browser and the
     // script stop here
     // [...] the end of the bootstrap file
     // these lines won't be executed if the cache is hit
}

This is only the basic caching that I can provide right now, will update sooner.