Laravel 4.2 Cache

Configuration

Laravel provides a unified API for various caching systems. The cache configuration is located at app/config/cache.php. In this file you may specify which cache driver you would like used by default throughout your application. Laravel supports popular caching backends like Memcached and Redis out of the box.

The cache configuration file also contains various other options, which are documented within the file, so make sure to read over these options. By default, Laravel is configured to use the file cache driver, which stores the serialized, cached objects in the filesystem. For larger applications, it is recommended that you use an in-memory cache such as Memcached or APC.

Cache Usage

Storing An Item In The Cache

Cache::put('key', 'value', $minutes);

Using Carbon Objects To Set Expire Time

$expiresAt = Carbon::now()->addMinutes(10);

Cache::put('key', 'value', $expiresAt);

Storing An Item In The Cache If It Doesn't Exist

Cache::add('key', 'value', $minutes);

The add method will return true if the item is actually added to the cache. Otherwise, the method will return false.

Checking For Existence In Cache

if (Cache::has('key'))
{
	//
}

Retrieving An Item From The Cache

$value = Cache::get('key');

Retrieving An Item Or Returning A Default Value

$value = Cache::get('key', 'default');

$value = Cache::get('key', function() { return 'default'; });

Storing An Item In The Cache Permanently

Cache::forever('key', 'value');

Sometimes you may wish to retrieve an item from the cache, but also store a default value if the requested item doesn't exist. You may do this using the Cache::remember method:

$value = Cache::remember('users', $minutes, function()
{
	return DB::table('users')->get();
});

You may also combine the remember and forever methods:

$value = Cache::rememberForever('users', function()
{
	return DB::table('users')->get();
});

Note that all items stored in the cache are serialized, so you are free to store any type of data.

Pulling An Item From The Cache

If you need to retrieve an item from the cache and then delete it, you may use the pull method:

$value = Cache::pull('key');

Removing An Item From The Cache

Cache::forget('key');

Increments & Decrements

All drivers except file and database support the increment and decrement operations:

Incrementing A Value

Cache::increment('key');

Cache::increment('key', $amount);

Decrementing A Value

Cache::decrement('key');

Cache::decrement('key', $amount);

Cache Tags

Note: Cache tags are not supported when using the file or database cache drivers. Furthermore, when using multiple tags with caches that are stored "forever", performance will be best with a driver such as memcached, which automatically purges stale records.

Accessing A Tagged Cache

Cache tags allow you to tag related items in the cache, and then flush all caches tagged with a given name. To access a tagged cache, use the tags method.

You may store a tagged cache by passing in an ordered list of tag names as arguments, or as an ordered array of tag names:

Cache::tags('people', 'authors')->put('John', $john, $minutes);

Cache::tags(array('people', 'artists'))->put('Anne', $anne, $minutes);

You may use any cache storage method in combination with tags, including remember, forever, and rememberForever. You may also access cached items from the tagged cache, as well as use the other cache methods such as increment and decrement.

Accessing Items In A Tagged Cache

To access a tagged cache, pass the same ordered list of tags used to save it.

$anne = Cache::tags('people', 'artists')->get('Anne');

$john = Cache::tags(array('people', 'authors'))->get('John');

You may flush all items tagged with a name or list of names. For example, this statement would remove all caches tagged with either people, authors, or both. So, both "Anne" and "John" would be removed from the cache:

Cache::tags('people', 'authors')->flush();

In contrast, this statement would remove only caches tagged with authors, so "John" would be removed, but not "Anne".

Cache::tags('authors')->flush();

Database Cache

When using the database cache driver, you will need to setup a table to contain the cache items. You'll find an example Schema declaration for the table below:

Schema::create('cache', function($table)
{
	$table->string('key')->unique();
	$table->text('value');
	$table->integer('expiration');
});