@momsfriendlydevco/cache

Generic caching component.

This module is a low-level caching component designed to store, retrieve, expire and cleanup a simple key-value storage.

Features:

• Fully ES6 + promise compliant
• Isomorphic back-end (Node) + front-end (Browser) support - just import and use
• Module support for most main caching systems
• Expiry based storage for all setters / getters
• Automatic cleaning
• Function wrapping and memorization support (via cache.worker())
• File contents caching (via cache.fromFile(), Node only)

import Cache from '@momsfriendlydevco/cache';

const storage = new Cache({
	modules: ['memcached', 'mongo', 'memory'], // What modules to try to load (in order of preference)
	// module: 'redis', // Or just specify one
});


// Setup the first available caching system
await storage.init();


// Set something (key, val, [expiry])
storage.set('myKey', 'myValue', '1h').then(setVal => ...)

// Get something (key, [fallback])
storage.get('myKey', 'fallbackValue').then(val => ...)

// Forget something (key)
storage.unset('myKey').then(()=> ...)

// Clean up storage, only supported by some modules
storage.clean().then(()=> ...)

// Hash something, objects also supported
storage.hash(complexObject, val => ...)

All methods return a promise.

Supported Caching Drivers

Driver	Requires	Maximum object size	Serializer	list()	has()	size()	clean()	lock*()
filesystem	Writable FS area	Infinite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
memcached	MemcacheD daemon	1mb	Yes
memory	Nothing	Infinite	Not needed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
mongodb	MongoDB daemon	16mb	Disabled	Yes	Yes		Yes
redis	Redis daemon	512mb	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes
supabase	Supabase account	Infinite	Disabled	Yes	Yes		Yes
localstorage	Browser	Infinite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

NOTES:

• By default MemcacheD caches 1mb slabs, see the documentation of the daemon to increase this
• While memory storage is theoretically infinite Node has a memory limit of 1.4gb by default. See the node CLI for details on how to increase this
• Some caching systems (notably MemcacheD) automatically clean entries
• For most modules the storage values are encoded / decoded via marshal. This means that complex JS primitives such as Dates, Sets etc. can be stored without issue. This is disabled in the case of MongoDB by default but can be enabled if needed
• When has() querying is not supported by the module a get() operation will be performed and the result mangled into a boolean instead, this ensures that all modules support has() at the expense of efficiency
• The localstorage module is only only available on the browser release
• The Supabase module by default requires a simple key=>jsonb table setup with a created + expires column. The simplest definition of this would be create table cache (id character varying not null, created_at timestamp with time zone null default now(), expires_at timestamp with time zone null, data jsonb null, constraint cache_pkey primary key (id))

API

Cache([options]) (constructor)

Create a new cache handler and populate its default options.

Note that cache.init() needs to be called and needs to complete before this module is usable.

cache.options(Object) or cache.options(key, val)

Set lots of options in the cache handler all at once or set a single key (dotted or array notation are supported).

Valid options are:

Option	Type	Default	Description
init	Boolean	true	Whether to automatically run cache.init() when constructing
cleanInit	Boolean	false	Run clean() in the background on each init
cleanAuto	Boolean	false	Run autoClean() automatically in the background on init
cleanAutoInterval	String	"1h"	Timestring to use when rescheduling autoClean()
keyMangle	Function	key => key	How to rewrite the requested key before get / set / unset operations
modules	String / Array	['memory'] / 'memory'	What module(s) to attempt to load
module	String / Array	['memory'] / 'memory'	Alternate spelling of modules
serialize	Function	marshal.serialize	The serializing function to use when storing objects
deserialize	Function	marshal.deserialize	The deserializing function to use when restoring objects
filesystem	Object	See below	Filesystem module specific settings
filesystem.fallbackDate	Date	2500-01-01	Fallback date to use as the filesystem expiry time
filesystem.memoryFuzz	Number	200	How many Milliseconds bias to use when comparing the file ctime to the memory creation date
filesystem.moveFailTries	Number	30	Maximum number of tries before giving up moving swap files over live files
filesystem.moveFailInterval	Number	100	Delay between retries
filesystem.utimeFailTries	Number	30	Maximum number of tries before giving up setting the utime on the swap file
filesystem.utimeFailInterval	Number	100	Delay between retries
filesystem.path	Function	os.tempdir + key + '.cache.json'	How to calculate the file path to save. Defaults to the OS temp dir
filesystem.pathSwap	Function	" + " + '.cache.swap.json'	How to calculate the swap path to save. Defaults to the OS temp dir
memcached	Object	See below	MemcacheD module specific settings
memcached.server	String	'127.0.0.1:11211'	The MemcacheD server address to use
memcached.lifetime	Number	1000*60 (1h)	The default expiry time, unless otherwise specified
memcached.options	Object	{retries:1,timeout:250}	Additional options passed to the MemcacheD client
mongodb	Object	See below	MongoDB module specific options
mongodb.uri	String	'mongodb://localhost/mfdc-cache'	The MongoDB URI to connect to
mongodb.collection	String	mfdcCaches	The collection to store cache information within
mongodb.options	Object	See code	Additional Mongo options to use when connecting
redis	Object	See Redis module settings	Settings passed to Redis
supabase	Object		See below
supabase.uri	String	null	The Supabase URL to communicate with
supabase.apikey	String	null	The Supabase API key to use
supabase.options	Object	{}	Additional options to pass during the connection
supabase.table	String	'cache'	The caching table to use
supabase.colId	String	'id'	The column ID to use (should be an indexed key)
supabase.colData	String	'data' The JSONB column used to stash data

NOTES:

• All modules expose their own serialize / deserialize properties which defaults to the main properties by default. These are omitted from the above table for brevity
• The default setup for the serialize property assumes no circular references, override this if you really do need to store them - but at a major performance hit
• The MongoDB module does not serialize or deserialize by default in order to use its own storage format, set the serialize / deserialize properties to the main cache object to enable this behaviour
• filesystem.moveFailTries is necessary because on some systems writing the temporary swap file, setting its expiry then trying to move it over the live file sometimes fails. TO work around this we wait for the filesystem to flush the maximum number of times with a delay in between.

cache.option()

Alias of cache.options().

cache.init()

Initialize the cache handler and attempt to load the modules in preference order. This function is automatically executed in the constructor if cache.settings.init is truthy. This function returns a promise.

cache.autoClean(newInterval)

Setup a time to clean out all expired cache items. If no interval is provided the option autoCleanInterval is used. If the interval is falsy the timer is disabled.

cache.set(Object, [expiry]) or cache.set(key, value, [expiry])

Set a collection of keys or a single key with the optional expiry. The expiry value can be a date, millisecond offset, moment object or any valid timestring string. This function returns a promise.

cache.get(key|keys)

Fetch a single / multiple values. If the value does not exist the fallback value will be provided. If called with an array of keys the result is an object with a key/value combination. This function returns a promise.

cache.unset(key|keys)

Release a single or array of keys. This function returns a promise.

cache.has(key)

Return whether we have the given key but not actually fetch it. NOTE: If the individual module does not implement this a simple get() will be performed and the return mangled into a boolean. See the compatibility tables at the top of this article to see if 'has' is supported. This function returns a promise.

cache.size(key)

Return whether the approximate size in bytes of a cache object. This function returns a promise.

cache.list()

Attempt to return a list of known cache contents. This function returns a promise.

Each item will have at minimum a id and created value. All other values (e.g. expiry) depend on the cache driver being used.

cache.clean()

Attempt to clean up any left over or expired cache entries. This is only supported by some modules. This function returns a promise.

cache.destroy()

Politely close all driver resource handles before shutting down. This function waits for all set operations to complete before resolving. This function returns a promise.

cache.lockAquire(key, expiry)

Request the creation of a unique lock specified by the hashed version of the key (with an optional expiry). This function returns a promise with a boolean indicating if the lock aquire was successful.

cache.lockRelease(key)

Release an aquired lock. This function returns a promise.

cache.lockExists(key)

Query the status of a lock. This function returns a promise with a boolean indicating if the lock exists.

cache.lockSpin(key, options)

Returns a Promise which repeatedly checks if a key exists a given number of times (with configurable retires / backoff). If the key is eventually available, it is created otherwise this function throws.

Options are:

Option	Type	Default	Description
expiry	TimeString		Optional expiry for the lock
retries	Number	5	Maximum number of retries to attempt
delay	Number	250	Time in milliseconds to wait for a lock using the default backoff system
create	Boolean	true	If a lock can be allocated, auto allocate it before resuming
backoff	Function		Function to calculate timing backoff, should return the delay to use. Called as (attempt, max, settings). Defaults to simple linear backoff using delay + some millisecond fuzz
onLocked	Function		Async function to call each time a lock is detected. Called as (attempt, max, settings)
onCreate	Function		Async function to call if allocating a lock is successful. Called as (attempt, max, settings)
onExhausted	Function		Async function to call if allocating a lock failed after multiple retries. Called as (attempt, max, settings). Should throw

cache.fromFile(key, path, expiry)

Helper function to read a local file into the cache Only available within NodeJS. Since disk files are (kind of) immutable this function works as both a getter (fetch file contents) and a setter (populate into cache) The file's stats are taken into account when reading so that changed files (filesize + date) get hydrated if needed This function returns a promise with the cached files contents.

cache.middleware(expiry, options)

ExpressJS / Connect compatible middleware layer to provide caching middleware. Returns an ExpressJS / Connect middleware function. Only available within NodeJS.

Expiry is optional but if provided as a string is assumed to populate options.expiry.

Options are:

Option	Type	Default	Description
expiry	String	'5m'	The expiry of the cache item
key	String, Object, `Function<String	*>`
keyMangle	Function<String>		How to mangle the now computed key string into the key that is actually stored within the cache. Defaults to prefixing with 'middleware/'
hash	`Function<String	*>`
eTag	Boolean	true	Whether to generate + obey the eTag http spec. Clients providing a valid eTag will get a 304 response if that tag is still valid
hashETag	Function<String>	SHA1 w/Bas64	Async function to generate the client visible eTag from the computed key (post keyMangle)
context	Object	Cache	Function context used for key, hash & cacheFilter functions if called. Defaults to this cache instance
cacheFilter	Function	()=>true	Async function used to determine whether the output value should be cached when generated. Called as (req, res, content) and expected to eventually return a boolean

cache.worker(options, worker)

Simple wrapper middleware function which either returns the cached ID or runs a worker to calculate + cache a new one. NOTE: Since Promise execute immediately the worker must be a promise factory

Options can either be a string (assumed as options.id) or an object made up of:

Option	Type	Default	Description
id	String		The ID of the cache to use
enabled	Boolean	true	Whether to use the cache at all, set to false to debug the function worker each time
expiry	String	"1h"	Any timesting valid entry to determine the maximum cache time
rejectAs	Boolean	undefined	Cache throwing promises as this value rather than repeating them each hit
retry	Number	0	If a promise rejects retry it this many times before giving up
retryDelay	Number / Function	100	Delay between promise retries, if a function is called as (attempt, settings) and expected to return the delay amount
onCached	Function		Sync function to called as (settings, value) when using a valid cached value instead of hydrating the worker, if any value except undef is returned it is used as the returned value
onRetry	Function		Sync function to call as (error, attempt) when a retryable operation fails, if any non-undefined is returned the retry cycle is aborted and the value used as the promise resolve value, if the function throws the entire promise retry cycle is exited with the thrown error as the rejection
invalidStore	*		Value use to detect the absence of a value in the cache (so we can detect null/undefined values even though they are falsy)

Debugging

This module uses the debug NPM module for debugging. To enable set the environment variable to DEBUG=cache.

For example:

DEBUG=cache node myFile.js