Take the community feedback survey now.

Thomas Krantz
Apr 6, 2012
  5702
(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
Meet the newest OMVPs – summer 2025 cohort

We’re excited to welcome the latest group of Optimizely Most Valuable Professionals (OMVPs) into the program! This summer’s cohort highlights a ble...

Satata Satez | Sep 5, 2025

The Sweet Spot: Hybrid Headless Architecture

When it comes to content management architecture, the pendulum often swings between tightly coupled “headed” CMS setups and the flexibility of full...

Minesh Shah (Netcel) | Sep 4, 2025

Preview Unpublished Pages and Blocks on the Frontend (Optimizely CMS 12)

Introduction In my previous post , I explained how to customize the ContentArea rendering pipeline in Optimizely CMS 12 so editors can see...

Adnan Zameer | Sep 4, 2025 |

How to automatically remove orphaned Opti jobs from the DB

Optimizely CMS provides a simple yet powerful built-in job system that handles most standard scheduling scenarios with ease. Developers can easily...

Stanisław Szołkowski | Sep 4, 2025 |