Cache

Loco provides a cache layer to improve application performance by storing frequently accessed data.

Supported Cache Drivers

Loco supports several cache drivers out of the box:

1. Null Cache: A no-op cache that doesn't actually store anything (default)
2. In-Memory Cache: A local in-memory cache using the moka crate
3. Redis Cache: A distributed cache using Redis

Default Behavior

By default, Loco initializes a Null cache driver. The Null driver implements the cache interface but doesn't actually store any data:

• get() operations always return None
• Other operations like insert(), remove(), etc. return errors with a message indicating the operation is not supported

If you use the cache functionality without configuring a proper cache driver, many operations will result in errors. It's recommended to configure a real cache driver for production use.

Configuring Cache Drivers

You can configure your preferred cache driver in your application's configuration files (e.g., config/development.yaml).

Configuration Examples

Null Cache (Default)

cache:
  kind: Null

In-Memory Cache

feature cache_inmem enable by default

cache:
  kind: InMem
  max_capacity: 33554432 # 32MiB (default if not specified)

Redis Cache

feature cache_redis should be enabled

cache:
  kind: Redis
  uri: "redis://localhost:6379"
  max_size: 10 # Maximum number of connections in the pool

If no cache configuration is provided, the Null cache will be used by default.

Using the Cache

All items are cached as serialized values with string keys.

use std::time::Duration;
use loco_rs::cache;
use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct User {
    name: String,
    age: u32,
}

async fn test_cache(ctx: AppContext) -> Result<()> {
    // Insert a simple string value
    ctx.cache.insert("string_key", "simple value").await?;

    // Insert a structured value
    let user = User { name: "Alice".to_string(), age: 30 };
    ctx.cache.insert("user:1", &user).await?;

    // Insert with expiration
    ctx.cache.insert_with_expiry("expiring_key", "temporary value", Duration::from_secs(300)).await?;

    // Retrieve a string value
    let string_value = ctx.cache.get::<String>("string_key").await?;

    // Retrieve a structured value
    let user = ctx.cache.get::<User>("user:1").await?;

    // Remove a value
    ctx.cache.remove("string_key").await?;

    // Check if a key exists
    let exists = ctx.cache.contains_key("user:1").await?;

    // Get or insert (retrieve if exists, otherwise compute and store)
    let lazy_value = ctx.cache.get_or_insert::<String, _>("lazy_key", async {
        Ok("computed value".to_string())
    }).await?;

    Ok(())
}

See the Cache API docs for more examples.