np_cacheable

np_cacheable - cacheable extbase controller actions

By using \NetworkPublishingGmbH\NpCacheable\Controller\CacheableController as your base controller, your actions' output can be cached - regardless of the TYPO3 cache settings - and help you achieve faster load times by avoiding slow and redundant database and fluid operations.

np_cacheable uses the TYPO3 caching framework so you can expect a considerable speedup of slow "uncached" extbase controller actions even if you only have MySQL available as CF backend.

It works by overriding \TYPO3\CMS\Extbase\Mvc\Controller\ActionController::callActionMethod and check whether the action that is about to be called has the @cacheable annotation.

###Usage To enable the caching you have to install the extension, then make \NetworkPublishingGmbH\NpCacheable\Controller\CacheableController your controllers base class:

class MyController extends \NetworkPublishingGmbH\NpCacheable\Controller\CacheableController

Then you can add the annotiation @cacheable to your action docblocks:

class MyController extends \NetworkPublishingGmbH\NpCacheable\Controller\CacheableController{
	/**
	 * action list
	 *
	 * @cacheable
	 * 
	 * @return void
	 */
	public function listAction() {
		...
	}
}

For even more control you can specify the time to live (lifetime in TYPO3 CF terms) and cache tags for each action by adding the respective annotations @cacheTTL and @cacheTags to the action's docblock:

	/**
	 * action list
	 *
	 * @cacheable
	 * @cacheTTL 100
	 * @cacheTags space separated tags
	 * 
	 * @return void
	 */
	public function listAction() {
		...
	}

@cacheTTL takes an int value of seconds that the item should stay in cache. Expiration handling and purge behaviour is up to the TYPO3 CF and its respective backend!
@cacheTags takes a list of tags separated by a single space. Be sensible about the tags you use and only use lowercase alphabetical chars and numbers.

###Prerequisites The Caching Framework should be enabled and a recent extbase version available. By default np_cacheable uses TYPO3\CMS\Core\Cache\Backend\Typo3DatabaseBackend as its cache backend. This means that during installation two tables are created: cf_npcacheable and cf_npcacheable_tags even though there is no ext_tables.sql present! If the tables are missing after installing the plugin, check your install tool and compare the database!

If you are using another cache backend or plan on using another, you can either modify ext_localconf.php and swap the backend there or define another configuration for $TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['caching']['cacheConfigurations']['npcacheable'] in some configuration that is loaded before np_cacheable's own ext_localconf.php is included.

If you are curious about what gets cached and for how long, Typo3DatabaseBackend is a good start as it lets you easily confirm the caching behaviour in your (installations) local MySQL database.

###Problems If your controller can't find the cache key and you keep getting error pages, try to call

$this->initializeCaching();

in your controller's initializeAction once to force an instance of the caching framework into existence.
If you are using Typo3DatabaseBackend: check database compare in the install tool to see if the tables were created properly.
If you are using another backend make sure that your backend's server/service is running and responding to requests.