d62b880e3f
Added the action_cache plugin
http://agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/action_cache
which does action-caching with ETags support. The built-in Rails ETags "solution" sucks, because it forces a page-rerender, even when the content is unchanged.
174 lines
7.3 KiB
Text
174 lines
7.3 KiB
Text
Contributors:
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Tom Fakes (tom@craz8.com) - Initial implementation, plugin implementation, x-sendfile work
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Scott Laird - Ideas for the timed expiry and programmable fragment_key features
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=== Action Cache Upgrade
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This is a drop in replacement for the Rails Action Cache. When this plugin is
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installed, the new behavior will take effect without any further configuration.
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All documentation for the Rails Action Cache is still relevant. Sweepers still work, all the
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fragment stores are supported.
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See my blog at http://blog.craz8.com to find some interesting uses of the extended behavior
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provided by this plugin
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=== Major Change!
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This version uses a different cache key generation mechanism. Instead of setting
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ActionController::Caching::Actions::ActionCacheFilter.fragment_key, the cache code calls out to
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the action_fragment_key method on the current controller. A default version of this method is
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supplied that emulates the Rails built in Action Cache. If you haven't set the fragment_key
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in your code, then nothing changes. If you have set the fragment_key, then you will need
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to move that code to the application controller for your code to continue working.
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=== Features
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1. Store cache entries as YAML streams so the Response headers from the original
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response can be returned with cache hits
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2. Add a 'last-modified' header to the response to get the client to use a
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get-if-modified request
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3. If the client has the response we have cached, don't send it again, send a
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'304 Not Modified' response to reduce data on the wire
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4. Fix a bug in the original Rails code where responses other than '200 OK' are cached
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(since the headers aren't cached in the original, all the clients would get
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is an empty '200 OK' response from subsequent requests)
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5. Allow clients to provide their own implementation of the cache key for the actions, e.g.
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- application.rb
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# Cache different pages for Admin and Users
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def action_fragment_key(options)
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url_for(options).split('://').last + "/#{admin? : 'admin' : 'user'}"
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end
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The options hash can be used to pass parameters in to override the current controller, and is
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used by the cache expiry code to expire an action from a sweeper or a different controller than
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the one the action is cached for.
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6. Allow an action to specify a Time To Live for the cached item. Set 'response.time_to_live' to
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the number of seconds before this cached item will be expired. If not set, the default setting
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of 'never' will be used and the item will only be expired by using the regular action cache
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expiry mechanism.
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def my_action
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@response.time_to_live = 10.minutes
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...
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end
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7. If the ENABLE_X_SENDFILE environment variable is set, or the HTTP_ENABLE_X_SENDFILE request
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header is set, and the fragment cache is set to the FileStore, then the Action Cache code
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will not return the response body, but will set the X-Sendfile header in the response to
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the filename of the cache entry that contains the body.
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Be sure your web server is has the X-Sendfile feature enabled, otherwise you'll just get
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empty responses!
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Check out the lighttpd documentation for how to use the X-Sendfile feature: http://lighttpd.net/
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To enable this, the ENABLE_X_SENDFILE environment variable must be set, *and* the FileStore fragment
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cache must be used.
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lighttpd.conf:
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fastcgi.server = ( ".fcgi" =>
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( "app" =>
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( "min-procs" => 1,
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"max-procs" => 1,
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"allow-x-send-file" => "enable",
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"socket" => "/tmp/app.fcgi.socket",
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"bin-path" => "/path/to/app/public/dispatch.fcgi",
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"bin-environment" => ( "RAILS_ENV" => "development", "ENABLE_X_SENDFILE" => "true" )
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)
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)
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)
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environment.rb:
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ActionController::Base.fragment_cache_store = :file_store, "/path/to/cache/directory"
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Note: The cache directory can be anywhere on your server that your web server user has read and write
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access to. This should *not* be in the Rails /public directory.
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8. Control whether caching occurs for an action at runtime instead of load time.
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To control caching, add a method *cache_action?(action_name)* to your controller. If this
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method returns true, then the action cache will work as before. If false, then caching will
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not occur for this request.
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e.g.
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class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
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...
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def cache_action?(action_name)
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!admin?
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end
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...
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end
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Note: The action must still be marked for caching by adding *caches_action :action* to the controller
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9. If the ENABLE_X_ACCEL_REDIRECT request header is set, and the fragment cache is set to
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the FileStore, then the Action Cache code will not return the response body, but will set
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the X-Accel-Redirect header in the response to the filename of the cache entry that contains the
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body.
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The nginx configuration must contain a 'location' section labeled 'cache', that points to the location
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you have configured for your Rails fragment cache, default is RAILS_ROOT/tmp/cache. e.g:
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location /cache/ {
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internal;
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root /path/to/rails/app/current/tmp;
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}
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To enable this, the ENABLE_X_SENDFILE environment variable must be set, *and* the FileStore fragment
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cache must be used.
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nginx.conf:
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location /cache/ {
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internal;
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root /path/to/rails/app/current/tmp;
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}
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location / {
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proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
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proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
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proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
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proxy_set_header "ENABLE_X_ACCEL_REDIRECT" "true";
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...
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}
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environment.rb:
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ActionController::Base.fragment_cache_store = :file_store, "/path/to/cache/directory"
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Note: The cache directory can be anywhere on your server that your web server user has read and write
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access to. This should *not* be in the Rails /public directory.
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10. A new method 'expire_all_actions' will clear out the entire action cache contents.
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11. expire_action will now work with the custom generated action cache keys, so your cache
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expiry calls and sweepers will work correctly.
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The expire_action call implemented here will actually use the Regexp fragment expiry call,
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causing all matching cache items to be cleared. For those of you using REST, and providing
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HTML, JS and XML for the same action, all three will be expired when you expire one of them
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with code like:
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# Expires all formats of the action
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expire_action :controller => 'foo', :action => 'bar'
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=== Performance
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If a client requests an action whose output hasn't changed since their last request, the returning of
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a 304 response instead of the full response greatly reduces the load on the server.
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In my informal testing, with the X-Sendfile enabled, I was able to get about 20% more requests out of my
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rails application, based on the requests-per-second displayed in the rails log. This doesn't mean the
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request is faster, but that the work of delivering the content is offloaded to the web server from the
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Rails app.
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