Caching

Overview

Caching improves application performance by storing frequently accessed data in memory or fast storage systems. The framework supports multiple caching strategies and storage backends.

In-Memory Caching

Simple Cache Implementation

type MemoryCache struct {
    data   map[string]CacheItem
    mutex  sync.RWMutex
}

type CacheItem struct {
    Value     interface{}
    ExpiresAt time.Time
}

func NewMemoryCache() *MemoryCache {
    cache := &MemoryCache{
        data: make(map[string]CacheItem),
    }

    // Start cleanup goroutine
    go cache.cleanup()
    return cache
}

func (c *MemoryCache) Set(key string, value interface{}, ttl time.Duration) {
    c.mutex.Lock()
    defer c.mutex.Unlock()

    c.data[key] = CacheItem{
        Value:     value,
        ExpiresAt: time.Now().Add(ttl),
    }
}

func (c *MemoryCache) Get(key string) (interface{}, bool) {
    c.mutex.RLock()
    defer c.mutex.RUnlock()

    item, exists := c.data[key]
    if !exists || time.Now().After(item.ExpiresAt) {
        return nil, false
    }

    return item.Value, true
}

func (c *MemoryCache) cleanup() {
    ticker := time.NewTicker(5 * time.Minute)
    defer ticker.Stop()

    for {
        select {
        case <-ticker.C:
            c.mutex.Lock()
            now := time.Now()
            for key, item := range c.data {
                if now.After(item.ExpiresAt) {
                    delete(c.data, key)
                }
            }
            c.mutex.Unlock()
        }
    }
}

Using Cache in Services

type CachedGardenFetcher struct {
    fetcher *srv.GardenFetcher
    cache   *MemoryCache
}

func NewCachedGardenFetcher(fetcher *srv.GardenFetcher) *CachedGardenFetcher {
    return &CachedGardenFetcher{
        fetcher: fetcher,
        cache:   NewMemoryCache(),
    }
}

func (c *CachedGardenFetcher) FindOneById(ctx context.Context, id string, mod *fetcher.FetcherMod) (*mdl.Garden, bool, error) {
    cacheKey := fmt.Sprintf("garden:%s", id)

    // Check cache first
    if cached, exists := c.cache.Get(cacheKey); exists {
        return cached.(*mdl.Garden), true, nil
    }

    // Fetch from database
    garden, exists, err := c.fetcher.FindOneById(ctx, id, mod)
    if err != nil || !exists {
        return garden, exists, err
    }

    // Cache the result
    c.cache.Set(cacheKey, garden, 15*time.Minute)

    return garden, exists, nil
}

Query Result Caching

Caching Database Queries

type QueryCache struct {
    cache *MemoryCache
}

func (qc *QueryCache) CacheQuery(query string, args []interface{}, ttl time.Duration, fetcher func() (interface{}, error)) (interface{}, error) {
    // Create cache key from query and args
    key := qc.generateCacheKey(query, args)

    // Check cache
    if result, exists := qc.cache.Get(key); exists {
        return result, nil
    }

    // Execute query
    result, err := fetcher()
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }

    // Cache result
    qc.cache.Set(key, result, ttl)
    return result, nil
}

func (qc *QueryCache) generateCacheKey(query string, args []interface{}) string {
    h := sha256.New()
    h.Write([]byte(query))

    for _, arg := range args {
        h.Write([]byte(fmt.Sprintf("%v", arg)))
    }

    return fmt.Sprintf("query:%x", h.Sum(nil))
}

// Usage in Fetcher
func (f *GardenFetcher) FindAllCached(ctx context.Context, mod *fetcher.FetcherMod) ([]*mdl.Garden, error) {
    result, err := f.queryCache.CacheQuery(
        "SELECT * FROM gardens",
        []interface{}{},
        10*time.Minute,
        func() (interface{}, error) {
            return f.FindAll(ctx, mod)
        },
    )

    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }

    return result.([]*mdl.Garden), nil
}

Cache Invalidation

Tag-Based Invalidation

type TaggedCache struct {
    cache *MemoryCache
    tags  map[string][]string // tag -> list of keys
    mutex sync.RWMutex
}

func (tc *TaggedCache) SetWithTags(key string, value interface{}, ttl time.Duration, tags []string) {
    tc.cache.Set(key, value, ttl)

    tc.mutex.Lock()
    defer tc.mutex.Unlock()

    for _, tag := range tags {
        if tc.tags[tag] == nil {
            tc.tags[tag] = make([]string, 0)
        }
        tc.tags[tag] = append(tc.tags[tag], key)
    }
}

func (tc *TaggedCache) InvalidateTag(tag string) {
    tc.mutex.Lock()
    defer tc.mutex.Unlock()

    keys, exists := tc.tags[tag]
    if !exists {
        return
    }

    for _, key := range keys {
        tc.cache.Delete(key)
    }

    delete(tc.tags, tag)
}

// Usage
func (f *CachedGardenFetcher) FindOneById(ctx context.Context, id string, mod *fetcher.FetcherMod) (*mdl.Garden, bool, error) {
    cacheKey := fmt.Sprintf("garden:%s", id)
    tags := []string{"gardens", fmt.Sprintf("garden:%s", id)}

    if cached, exists := f.cache.GetTagged(cacheKey); exists {
        return cached.(*mdl.Garden), true, nil
    }

    garden, exists, err := f.fetcher.FindOneById(ctx, id, mod)
    if err != nil || !exists {
        return garden, exists, err
    }

    f.cache.SetWithTags(cacheKey, garden, 15*time.Minute, tags)
    return garden, exists, nil
}

// Invalidate when garden is updated
func (h *GardenHandler) Update(ctx context.Context, garden *mdl.Garden, mod *handler.HandlerMod) (*mdl.Garden, error) {
    updatedGarden, err := h.baseHandler.Update(ctx, garden, mod)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }

    // Invalidate cache
    h.cache.InvalidateTag(fmt.Sprintf("garden:%s", garden.Id))
    h.cache.InvalidateTag("gardens")

    return updatedGarden, nil
}

HTTP Response Caching

ETag Support

func ETagMiddleware() gin.HandlerFunc {
    return func(c *gin.Context) {
        // Only cache GET requests
        if c.Request.Method != "GET" {
            c.Next()
            return
        }

        // Create response writer that captures output
        w := &responseWriter{
            ResponseWriter: c.Writer,
            body:          &bytes.Buffer{},
        }
        c.Writer = w

        c.Next()

        // Generate ETag from response body
        etag := generateETag(w.body.Bytes())
        c.Header("ETag", etag)

        // Check If-None-Match header
        if c.GetHeader("If-None-Match") == etag {
            c.Status(304)
            return
        }

        // Write the actual response
        c.Writer.Write(w.body.Bytes())
    }
}

type responseWriter struct {
    gin.ResponseWriter
    body *bytes.Buffer
}

func (w *responseWriter) Write(data []byte) (int, error) {
    w.body.Write(data)
    return len(data), nil
}

func generateETag(data []byte) string {
    h := sha256.Sum256(data)
    return fmt.Sprintf(`"%x"`, h[:8])
}

Cache-Control Headers

func CacheControlMiddleware() gin.HandlerFunc {
    return func(c *gin.Context) {
        path := c.Request.URL.Path

        switch {
        case strings.HasPrefix(path, "/assets/"):
            // Static assets - cache for 1 year
            c.Header("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=31536000, immutable")

        case strings.HasPrefix(path, "/api/"):
            // API responses - no cache by default
            c.Header("Cache-Control", "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate")
            c.Header("Pragma", "no-cache")
            c.Header("Expires", "0")

        case strings.HasSuffix(path, ".html"):
            // HTML pages - cache for 5 minutes
            c.Header("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=300")

        default:
            // Default - cache for 1 minute
            c.Header("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=60")
        }

        c.Next()
    }
}

Redis Caching

Redis Cache Implementation

type RedisCache struct {
    client redis.Cmdable
}

func NewRedisCache(client redis.Cmdable) *RedisCache {
    return &RedisCache{client: client}
}

func (rc *RedisCache) Set(ctx context.Context, key string, value interface{}, ttl time.Duration) error {
    data, err := json.Marshal(value)
    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    return rc.client.Set(ctx, key, data, ttl).Err()
}

func (rc *RedisCache) Get(ctx context.Context, key string, dest interface{}) error {
    data, err := rc.client.Get(ctx, key).Result()
    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    return json.Unmarshal([]byte(data), dest)
}

func (rc *RedisCache) Delete(ctx context.Context, keys ...string) error {
    return rc.client.Del(ctx, keys...).Err()
}

func (rc *RedisCache) InvalidatePattern(ctx context.Context, pattern string) error {
    keys, err := rc.client.Keys(ctx, pattern).Result()
    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    if len(keys) > 0 {
        return rc.client.Del(ctx, keys...).Err()
    }

    return nil
}

Distributed Cache with Redis

type DistributedGardenFetcher struct {
    fetcher *srv.GardenFetcher
    cache   *RedisCache
}

func (f *DistributedGardenFetcher) FindOneById(ctx context.Context, id string, mod *fetcher.FetcherMod) (*mdl.Garden, bool, error) {
    cacheKey := fmt.Sprintf("garden:%s", id)

    // Try cache first
    var garden mdl.Garden
    err := f.cache.Get(ctx, cacheKey, &garden)
    if err == nil {
        return &garden, true, nil
    }

    // Cache miss - fetch from database
    fetchedGarden, exists, err := f.fetcher.FindOneById(ctx, id, mod)
    if err != nil || !exists {
        return fetchedGarden, exists, err
    }

    // Cache the result
    go func() {
        f.cache.Set(context.Background(), cacheKey, fetchedGarden, 15*time.Minute)
    }()

    return fetchedGarden, exists, nil
}

Cache Warming

Background Cache Warming

type CacheWarmer struct {
    gardenFetcher *CachedGardenFetcher
    plantFetcher  *CachedPlantFetcher
    logger        *log.Logger
}

func (cw *CacheWarmer) WarmCache(ctx context.Context) error {
    cw.logger.Println("Starting cache warming...")

    // Warm most accessed gardens
    err := cw.warmPopularGardens(ctx)
    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    // Warm recent plants
    err = cw.warmRecentPlants(ctx)
    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    cw.logger.Println("Cache warming completed")
    return nil
}

func (cw *CacheWarmer) warmPopularGardens(ctx context.Context) error {
    // Get list of popular garden IDs (from analytics, etc.)
    popularIds := []string{"garden1", "garden2", "garden3"}

    for _, id := range popularIds {
        _, _, err := cw.gardenFetcher.FindOneById(ctx, id, nil)
        if err != nil {
            cw.logger.Printf("Failed to warm garden %s: %v", id, err)
        }
    }

    return nil
}

// Schedule cache warming
func (app *App) StartCacheWarmer() {
    warmer := &CacheWarmer{
        gardenFetcher: app.container.CachedGardenFetcher,
        plantFetcher:  app.container.CachedPlantFetcher,
        logger:        app.container.Logger,
    }

    ticker := time.NewTicker(1 * time.Hour)
    go func() {
        for range ticker.C {
            ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 5*time.Minute)
            warmer.WarmCache(ctx)
            cancel()
        }
    }()
}

Cache Patterns

Write-Through Cache

func (h *CachedGardenHandler) Create(ctx context.Context, garden *mdl.Garden, mod *handler.HandlerMod) (*mdl.Garden, error) {
    // Write to database first
    createdGarden, err := h.handler.Create(ctx, garden, mod)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }

    // Then write to cache
    cacheKey := fmt.Sprintf("garden:%s", createdGarden.Id)
    h.cache.Set(cacheKey, createdGarden, 15*time.Minute)

    return createdGarden, nil
}

Write-Behind Cache

type WriteBehindCache struct {
    cache      *MemoryCache
    writeQueue chan CacheWrite
    handler    *srv.GardenHandler
}

type CacheWrite struct {
    Key    string
    Garden *mdl.Garden
}

func (wbc *WriteBehindCache) Set(key string, garden *mdl.Garden, ttl time.Duration) {
    // Write to cache immediately
    wbc.cache.Set(key, garden, ttl)

    // Queue for background database write
    select {
    case wbc.writeQueue <- CacheWrite{Key: key, Garden: garden}:
    default:
        // Queue is full, handle overflow
    }
}

func (wbc *WriteBehindCache) processWrites() {
    for write := range wbc.writeQueue {
        ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 30*time.Second)
        _, err := wbc.handler.Update(ctx, write.Garden, nil)
        if err != nil {
            log.Printf("Failed to write garden %s to database: %v", write.Garden.Id, err)
        }
        cancel()
    }
}

Monitoring and Metrics

Cache Metrics

type CacheMetrics struct {
    hits     int64
    misses   int64
    sets     int64
    deletes  int64
    errors   int64
    mutex    sync.RWMutex
}

func (cm *CacheMetrics) RecordHit() {
    atomic.AddInt64(&cm.hits, 1)
}

func (cm *CacheMetrics) RecordMiss() {
    atomic.AddInt64(&cm.misses, 1)
}

func (cm *CacheMetrics) HitRate() float64 {
    hits := atomic.LoadInt64(&cm.hits)
    misses := atomic.LoadInt64(&cm.misses)

    total := hits + misses
    if total == 0 {
        return 0
    }

    return float64(hits) / float64(total)
}

// Usage in cache implementation
func (c *MetricsCache) Get(key string) (interface{}, bool) {
    value, exists := c.cache.Get(key)

    if exists {
        c.metrics.RecordHit()
    } else {
        c.metrics.RecordMiss()
    }

    return value, exists
}

Caching is essential for building performant web applications. Choose the right caching strategy based on your data access patterns and consistency requirements.