Apache::CacheContent - PerlFixupHandler class that caches dynamic content

* Make your method handler a subclass of Apache::CacheContent

* allow your web server process to write into portions of your document root.

* Add a ttl() subroutine (optional)

* Add directives to your httpd.conf that are similar to these:

  PerlModule MyHandler

  # dynamic url
  <Location /dynamic>
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlHandler MyHandler->handler
  </Location>

  # cached URL
  <Location /cached>
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlFixupHandler MyHandler->disk_cache
    PerlSetVar CacheTTL 120   # in minutes...
  </Location>

Note:

This code is derived from the Cookbook::CacheContent module, available as part of "The mod_perl Developer's Cookbook"

The Apache::CacheContent module implements a PerlFixupHandler that helps you to write handlers that can automatically cache generated web pages to disk. This is a definite performance win for sites that end up generating the exact same content for many users.

The module is written to use Apache's built-in file handling routines to efficiently serve data to clients. This means that your code will not need to worry about HTTP/1.X, byte ranges, if-modified-since, HEAD requests, etc. It works by writing files into your DocumentRoot, so be sure that your web server process can write there.

To use this you MUST use mod_perl method handlers. This means that your version of mod_perl must support method handlers (the argument EVERYTHING=1 to the mod_perl build will do this). Next you'll need to have a content-generating mod_perl handler. If isn't a method handler modify the handler subroutine to read:

  sub handler ($$) {
    my ($class, $r) = @_;
    ....

Next, make your handler a subclass of Apache::CacheContent by adding an ISA entry:

  @MyHandler::ISA = qw(Apache::CacheContent);

You may need to modify your handler code to only look at the uri of the request. Remember, the cached content is independent of any query string or form elements.

After this is done, you can activate your handler. To use your handler in a fully dyamic way configure it as a PerlHandler in your httpd.conf, like this:

  PerlModule MyHandler
  <Location /dynamic>
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlHandler MyHandler->handler
  </Location>

So requests to http://localhost/dynamic/foo.html will call your handler method directly. This is great for debugging and testing the module. To activate the caching mechanism configure httpd.conf as follows:

  PerlModule MyHandler
  <Location /cached>
    SetHandler perl-script
    PerlFixupHandler MyHandler->disk_cache
    PerlSetVar CacheTTL 120  # in minutes..
  </Location>

Now when you access URLs like http://localhost/cached/foo.html the content will be generated and stored in the file DocumentRoot/cached/foo.html. Subsequent request for the same URL will return the cached content, depending on the CacheTTL setting.

For further customization you can write your own ttl function that can dynamically change the caching time based on the current request.

Paul Lindner <paul@modperlcookbook.org>

Geoffrey Young <geoff@modperlcookbook.org>

Randy Kobes <randy@modperlcookbook.org>

Copyright (c) 2001, Paul Lindner, Geoffrey Young, Randy Kobes.

All rights reserved.

This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed and/or modified under the same terms as Perl itself.

The example mod_perl method handler CacheWeather.

The mod_perl Developer's Cookbook

This code is derived from the Cookbook::CacheContent module, available as part of "The mod_perl Developer's Cookbook".

For more information, visit

  http://www.modperlcookbook.org/