Split::Cacheable

An extension to Split to allow for automatic cache bucket creation accross Split tests.

Requirements

The split gem and its dependencies.

Setup

In your Gemfile:

gem 'split_cacheable'

Then run:

bundle install

Rails 4

Because this gem uses action caching, a feature removed from Rails 4, you will also need to include the actionpack-action_caching gem in your Gemfile:

gem 'actionpack-action_caching'

Then run:

bundle install

Why?

We use action caching in Rails 3 to cache both our standard and mobile site. We wanted to be able to quickly run Split tests without worrying about setting a custom cache_path each time as well as remembering to make the needed changes to our ActiveRecord models.

How?

Under the hood, action caching uses fragment_cache_key in ActionController::Base. This gem patches this method to incldue our generated current tests and variations.

If you already override fragment_cache_key in your project you can get the split partial cache key we generate by calling current_tests_and_variations

Controller DSL

We've created an easy to remember DSL for adding active tests to specific methods:

class ProductController < ApplicationController
    cacheable_ab_test :login_flow,
        :only => [:index, :some_other_method],
        :except => [:index, :some_other_method],
        :if => Proc.new { |controller| controller.mobile_device? }

    def index

    end
end

• :login_flow: The name of the test as it appears in your Split configuration
• :only: A symbol or an array of symbols corresponding to the action names you'd like this test to run for
• :except: A symbol or an array of symbols corresponding to the action names you'd like to exclude from the test (it will run on all actions not listed here)
• :if: A boolean value or Proc to be evaluated at runtime. The current controller instance is passed into the Proc for you to use

Only include either :only or :except -- if you include both, :only will take precedence.

Outside Controller Access

If you'd like to manually expire your action caches in models/sweeper/wherever we give you access to create an instance of the adapter use internally.

Instantiate an adapter

Split::Cacheable::Adapter.new(<controller_instance>, <action_name>)

• controller_instance: A new instance of an ActionController::Base subclass
• action_name: A symbol that corresponds to the action you want to uncache

ex: Split::Cacheable::Adapter.new(ProductController.new, :index)

Then get all possible variations to uncache

Split::Cacheable::Adapter.new(ProductController.new, :index).get_all_possible_variations

This will return an array of all the possible cache keys ever generated so you can manually uncache your views:

Split::Cacheable::Adapter.new(ProductController.new, :index).get_all_possible_variations.each { |split_cache_key|
    Rails.cache.delete("views/#{split_cache_key}/#{current_host}/products")
}

Note that we don't evaluate the :if option when you instantiate the controller manually. This is because we assume Procs will usually be used to decide whether to show the test based on the current request. By not evaluating the :ifs in this scenario we are able to return all possible cache keys regardless of request type.

Development

Source hosted at GitHub.
Report Issues/Feature requests on GitHub Issues.