Rails Caching

Rails Caching Techniques

Types of Caching in Rails

Caching is a technique used to store frequently accessed data in memory so that it can be retrieved quickly without having to access the database. Rails provides three types of caching techniques by default: fragment caching, page caching, and action caching.

Fragment Caching

Fragment caching stores individual pieces of data in memory, such as a particular view partial or a database query result. This is useful for caching data that is frequently accessed but does not change often, such as the header or sidebar of a website.

Page Caching

Page caching stores entire pages in memory, including the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This is useful for caching pages that are frequently accessed and do not change often, such as the home page of a website.

Action Caching

Action caching stores the results of controller actions in memory. This is useful for caching actions that are frequently accessed and do not require any user input, such as the action that displays a list of products.

How to Implement Caching in Rails

To implement caching in Rails, you can use the cache method. The cache method takes a key as the first argument and the value to be cached as the second argument. The key is used to identify the cached data, and the value is the data that will be cached.

For example, to cache the header of a website, you can use the following code:

 <%= cache("header") do %>   
My Website
 <% end %> 

This code will cache the header with the key "header". The header will be cached for the default cache duration, which is 1 hour. You can specify a different cache duration by passing a expires_in option to the cache method.

Benefits of Caching

Caching can provide a number of benefits for Rails applications, including: * Improved performance: Caching can reduce the load on the database and speed up page load times. * Reduced bandwidth usage: Caching can reduce the amount of data that is transferred between the server and the client. * Improved scalability: Caching can help Rails applications scale to handle more traffic.

Conclusion

Caching is a powerful technique that can improve the performance, scalability, and bandwidth usage of Rails applications. By understanding the different types of caching techniques and how to implement them, you can build better Rails applications.