Thomas Krantz
Apr 6, 2012
  5942
(0 votes)

Using a bit of System.Runtime.Caching with EPiServer

I have been poking around in System.Runtime.Caching that was introduced with .NET 4, and more specifically the MemoryCache.

The MemoryCache is virtually the same as the good old ASP.NET Cache, except it’s not dependent on System.Web which means you can use it without an HttpContext.

ChangeMonitors monitors changes in the state of data which a cache item depends on, and I’ve written a simple custom ChangeMonitor called PageChangeMonitor to monitor published EPiServer pages.

public class PageChangeMonitor : ChangeMonitor
    {
        private PageReference _pageLink;
 
        public PageChangeMonitor(PageReference pageLink)
        {
            if(PageReference.IsNullOrEmpty(pageLink))
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("pageLink");
            }   
 
            bool init = false;
            try
            {
                _pageLink = pageLink;
                DataFactory.Instance.PublishedPage += PublishedPage;
 
                init = true;
            }
            finally
            {
                base.InitializationComplete();
                if(!init)
                {
                    base.Dispose();
                }
            }
        }
 
        void PublishedPage(object sender, PageEventArgs e)
        {
            if(e.PageLink.ID  == _pageLink.ID)
            {
                OnChanged(e.PageLink);
            }
        }
 
        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            DataFactory.Instance.PublishedPage -= PublishedPage;
        }
 
        public override string UniqueId
        {
            get { return Guid.NewGuid().ToString(); }
        }

The PageChangeMonitor can be used to expire the cache item when a certain page is published. An example:

public string GetSomeDataForPage(PageData page)
       {
           var cacheKey = string.Format("some-data-{0}", page.PageLink.ID);
 
           var cache = MemoryCache.Default;
           var someData = (string) cache.Get(cacheKey);
           if(someData != null)
           {
               // data was cached
               return someData;
           }
 
           // data was not in cache. Either it has never been cached,
           // or the PageChangeMonitor expired the cache when the page 
           // was published.
           someData = DoSomeHeavyLiftingAndReturnData(page);
 
           var policy = new CacheItemPolicy();
 
           // create the PageChangeMonitor that should monitor the page
           var monitor = new PageChangeMonitor(page.PageLink);
           policy.ChangeMonitors.Add(monitor);
 
           cache.Add(cacheKey, someData, policy);
 
           return someData;
       }

Enjoy! And remember – cache is king.

Apr 06, 2012

Comments

valdis
valdis Apr 11, 2012 04:47 PM

Cool! Is first code snippet complete?

Thomas Krantz
Thomas Krantz Apr 12, 2012 11:44 PM

Not entirely.. missing some using-statements and a finishing } bracket it seems like. But it should work.

Please login to comment.
Latest blogs
Graph access with only JS and Fetch

Postman is a popular tool for testing APIs. However, when testing an API like Optimizely Graph that I will be consuming in the front-end I prefer t...

Daniel Halse | Feb 4, 2026

Best Practices for Implementing Optimizely SaaS CMS: A Collective Wisdom Guide

This guide compiles collective insights and recommendations from Optimizely experts for implementing Optimizely SaaS CMS, focusing on achieving...

David Knipe | Feb 4, 2026 |

A day in the life of an Optimizely OMVP: Learning Optimizely Just Got Easier: Introducing the Optimizely Learning Centre

On the back of my last post about the Opti Graph Learning Centre, I am now happy to announce a revamped interactive learning platform that makes...

Graham Carr | Jan 31, 2026

Scheduled job for deleting content types and all related content

In my previous blog post which was about getting an overview of your sites content https://world.optimizely.com/blogs/Per-Nergard/Dates/2026/1/sche...

Per Nergård (MVP) | Jan 30, 2026