ASP.NET Core Redis Cache Manager

A project for supporting caching with redis in ASP.NET Core web applications.

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Contents

1. Motivation

2. Introducing ASP.NET Core Redis Cache Manager

3. Getting Started

4. Options

5. Roadmap

6. Related Articles

7. Dependencies

1. Motivation

I was working on a project using the microservices pattern, which included many services. We decided to utilize Redis as our cache database. To implement Redis, I attempted to use StackExchange.Redis, which offers a straightforward configuration process.

However, I found myself repeatedly executing the same methods for each microservice, encountering minor differences such as serialization and deserialization. Eventually, With a look at DRY I developed a project capable of handling these tasks with a generic pattern, requiring minimal preparation code for public use.

I've shared it here so anyone can benefit; it could save you at least a week!

2. Introducing ASP.NET Core Redis Cache Manager

ASP.NET Core Redis Cache Manager is essentially a genric cache manager using StackExchange.Redis and System.Text.Json. this package provide an interface and base implementation to do the convertion from bytes to the desired type.

3. Getting Started

1. Add the CacheManager.Redis to your ASP.NET Core web project.

  dotnet add package CacheManager.Redis

Either command or Package Manager will download and install CacheManager.Redis and all required dependencies.

2. Register CacheManager to you ASP.NET Core web project.

for .NET 6 or higher add this code to you Program.cs before Build()

  builder.Services.AddRedisCacheManager("redis connection string");

fon .NET 5 or before add this code to your Startup.cs in ConfigureServices method

  services.AddRedisCacheManager("redis connection string");

This registers:

• IRedisDistributedCache as singleton
• IRedisCacheManager as scope

This behaviour can change by options

3. Basic Usage

Let's assume you have an object named Book.cs and you want to store it in cache and retrieve it.

public class Book
{
  public int Id { get; set; }
  public string Name { get; set; }
}

First you need to inject the IRedisCacheManager interface with the book class

public class MainController : Controller
{
  public readonly IRedisCacheManager<Book> _cacheManager;

  public MainController(IRedisCacheManager<Book> cacheManager) => _cacheManager = cacheManger;
}

4. Methods

• TryGet

  var exist = _cacheManager.TryGet("key", out var cachedBook);

• TryGetAsync

  var cachedBook = await _cacheManager.TryGetAsync("key");

• Set

  var book = new Book { Id = 1, Name = "Redis Cache" };

  _cacheManager.Set("key", newBook);

  var customOptions = new DistributedCacheEntryOptions {
    SlidingExpiration = TimeSpan.FromDays(1)
  }
  _cacheManager.Set("key", newBook, customOptions);

• TrySet

  var book = new Book { Id = 1, Name = "Redis Cache" };

  var result = _cacheManager.TrySet("key", newBook);

• SetAsync

  var book = new Book { Id = 1, Name = "Redis Cache" };

  await _cacheManager.SetAsync("key", newBook);

  var customOptions = new DistributedCacheEntryOptions {
    SlidingExpiration = TimeSpan.FromDays(1)
  }

  await _cacheManager.SetAsync("key", newBook, customOptions);

• You can use other expiration types in the set method options. notice that this options only will affect the current call. if you want to have a default expiration rule see 4. Options.*

• Refresh

  _cacheManager.Refresh("key");

• TryRefresh

  var result = _cacheManager.TryRefresh("key");

• RefreshAsync

  await _cacheManager.RefreshAsync("key");

• Remove

  _cacheManager.Remove("key");

• TryRemove

  var result = _cacheManager.TryRefresh("key");

• RemoveAsync

  await _cacheManager.RemoveAsync("key");

All the async endpoints accept cancellation token as an optional parameter

4. Options

While registering ASP.NET Core Redis Cahce Manger you can use these options to more customize it

  AddRedisCacheManager("redis connection string", options =>
  {
      options.InstanceName = "Library:";  // add this at start of every key in the database
      options.SerializerOptions = new JsonSerializerOptions  // use this to customize the serializer used in object convert
      {
        PropertyNamingPolicy = JsonNamingPolicy.CamelCase,
        Converters =  
        {
            new JsonStringEnumConverter()    // custom json converters
        }
      },
      options.DefaultCacheOptions = new DistributedCacheEntryOptions  // configure default cache expiration model. it can be rewrite by the set method at the runtime
      {
          SlidingExpiration = TimeSpan.FromDays(1)
      };
      options.CustomImplemntation = typeof(CustomRedisCacheManagerImplementation)  // any custom cache manager implementation, notice that it should implement IRedisCacheManager interface
  });

all options are optional

5. Roadmap

i have some interesting features in my mind. i'd like to addd them to the project/package.

Auto Update Cache By Subscribing to queue or an event source

Make it more generic: using other data store services like memcache and etc.

Develop a middleware or filter attribute to shortcircuit the process if the cache exist

Develop functionality for encrypting and decrypting stored caches.

Feel free to suggest anything

6. Related Articles

7. Dependencies

• StackExchange.Redis

• System.Text.Json

• Ardalis.GuardClauses