What is the best way to store variables strictly for the lifetime of a
Rails' request?
I'm currently storing AR records in Rails.cache. Although this saves a
trip to the DB, I feel it's unnecessary to hit the cache more than once
per request (even when using MemoryStore there are Marshals involved).
Where is the best place to stash any stuff retrieved from the cache? It
doesn't need to (in fact, shouldn't) last past a single request.
An instance variable in ApplicationController sounds like it would do
this, but I would say such data should be kept with the model. Of course
a class variable in the model will keep its value each request (in
production) so is inappropriate for this.
It may be useful to understand a little more of what you're trying to achieve.
If you're needing to keep something around for a request, an instance
variable in the controller may the right place because that manages
the the request.
Some more information on your specific problem will help us help you.
doesn't need to (in fact, shouldn't) last past a single request.
An instance variable in ApplicationController sounds like it would do
this, but I would say such data should be kept with the model. Of course
a class variable in the model will keep its value each request (in
production) so is inappropriate for this.
Any ideas?
Shak
--
It may be useful to understand a little more of what you're trying to
achieve.
If you're needing to keep something around for a request, an instance
variable in the controller may the right place because that manages
the the request.
My application often needs a list of application-specific "types". This
is a relatively static list of AR models. I also create sub lists based
on attributes of those types - so all the ones whose names which begin
with the letter "A", for instance. Each list is formed from a traversal
of the full list. These sub lists are accessible via the Class -
ApplicationTypes.get_all_a, for example.
So to save the repeated unmarshalling, I wanted a way to keep the
results of unmarshalling things from the cache on a per-request basis.
It's interesting to note that Rails 2.3 has this built in (for remote
caches, anyway). From the release notes:
"5.8 Improved Caching Performance
Rails now keeps a per-request local cache of read from the remote cache
stores, cutting down on unnecessary reads and leading to better site
performance. While this work was originally limited to MemCacheStore, it
is available to any remote store than implements the required methods."
I just want this kind of behaviour for a memorystore backed cache.
At the moment, I've just created a local hash of cached objects (created
on retrieval), which I clear using a public function called from an
before_filter in the ApplicationController. I guess this is the MVC way
of doing it too (maybe?). I do wonder how the mechanism in Rails 2.3
works though (since my way isn't really threadsafe), so any further
ideas would be welcome.
If you're just keeping this information around for the request, I
don't know why you are storing it anywhere other than in the
controller as it is going to be re-calculated for every subsequent
request.
A simple example of this is authentication where a current user is
required throughout the request but will be a (potentially) different
user for each request processed by Rails.
This is a perfectly acceptable thing to store in the controller implement like:
class ApplicationController < ...
...
def current_user
@current_user ||= get_current_user_somehow
end
...
end
This way the user is 'figured out' once and then cached for each
subsequent call to current_user but finally discarded when the request
is complete.
