Planet CakePHP

If you use CakePHP’s caching system but don’t like having to wrap you calls to Model::find() in if statements (”if cache result found… else…”) then this little quick tip is for you. Basically, we’re just going to put a slightly modified version of Model::find() in AppModel. Our new find() method will check for the existence of a ‘cache’ argument in the options array. Then, the function will either grab the query results from the cache or run a DB query, depending on what’s passed in the ‘cache’ argument.
A couple of notes:

• Automatic caching only occurs if debug is set to 0.
• The updated Model::find() function also implements Matt Curry’s version of custom find methods.
• After writing this code a few months ago, I came across another implementation of the same idea on End Your If. The two methods are pretty similar, but we came to the results independently. Must mean it’s a pretty good system.

We’re putting two methods into AppModel: find() and __getCachedResults(), a helper function. You can download the latest version of this code at my GitHub repository, or grab it from the bottom of this post.
Usage is simple:

• Whenever you want to cache a Model::find() result, pass ‘cache’ as one of the method’s arguments.  Pass it as either a string or an array.
  • string: the name used to generate the cache key, which takes the format: model_alias_cache_key
  • array: two valid arguments: ‘name’, used as above, and ‘config’, optionally used to pass the name of the cache config to use. ‘default’ is used if not otherwise specified.
• And that’s it! Enjoy the speed benefits, but use caching carefully. Pay attention to your cache results; only cache stuff that makes sense (for example, only cache user-specific stuff if you specify the user ID in the cache name).

The code:

<?php
class AppModel extends Model {
/**
* Adds support for custom find methods (__findXX) and automatic caching.
* Automatic caching will kick in when 'cache' is passed in the $options
* array.
*
* If 'cache' is a string, then it will be used to generate the
* cache name, which takes the format model_alias_cache_name.
*
* If 'cache' is an array, then two arguments are valid: 'name', required,
* and 'config', optional. 'name' is used as above, while 'config'
* determines the cache configuration to use - 'default' if not specified.
*/
function find($type, $options = array()) {
$results = $this->_getCachedResults($options);
if (!$results) {
$method = null;
if (is_string($type)) {
$method = sprintf('__find%s', Inflector::camelize($type));
}

if ($method && method_exists($this, $method)) {
$results = $this->{$method}($options);
} else {
$args = func_get_args();
$results = call_user_func_array(array('parent', 'find'), $args);
}
if ($this->useCache) {
Cache::write($this->cacheName, $results, $this->cacheConfig);
}
}

return $results;
}

function _getCachedResults($options) {
$this->useCache = true;
if (Configure::read('debug') > 0 || !is_array($options) || !isset($options['cache']) || $options['cache'] == false) {
$this->useCache = false;
return false;
}

if (is_string($options['cache'])) {
$this->cacheName = $this->alias . '_' . $options['cache'];
} else {
if (!isset($options['cache']['name'])) {
return false;
}
$this->cacheName = $this->alias . '_' . $options['cache']['name'];
$this->cacheConfig = isset($options['cache']['config']) ? $options['cache']['config'] : 'default';
}

$results = Cache::read($this->cacheName, $this->cacheConfig);

return $results;
}
}
?>