redis-tag-cache

Cache and invalidate records in Redis with tags.

Installation

yarn add redis-tag-cache
# or
npm install redis-tag-cache

Demo Usage

import TagCache from 'redis-tag-cache';

const cache = new TagCache({
  defaultTimeout: 86400 // Expire records after a day (even if they weren't invalidated)
});

/*
 * Cache some records tagged with IDs
 */ 

// Store two posts by the same author
await cache.set(
  'post:id-123',
  { id: 'id-123', title: 'Hello world', author: 'user-123' },
  ['id-123', 'user-123']
);
await cache.set(
  'post:id-234',
  { id: 'id-234', title: 'Hello world again', author: 'user-123' },
  ['id-234', 'user-123']
);
// And a third post by a different author
// and set a custom timeout for it
await cache.set(
  'post:id-345',
  { id: 'id-345', title: 'Hello world again', author: 'user-234' },
  ['id-345', 'user-234'],
  { timeout: 604800 /* Cache for a week */ }
);

/*
 * Retrieve records by their ID
 */

console.log(await cache.get('post:id-234')) // => { id: 'id-234', title: 'Hello world again', author: 'user-123' }

/*
 * Invalidate records by their tags
 */

// Invalidate all records tagged with `user-123`
await cache.invalidate('user-123');
console.log(await cache.get('post:id-123')) // => null
console.log(await cache.get('post:id-234')) // => null
// The third post not tagged with `user-123` is still around!
console.log(await cache.get('post:id-345')) // => { id: 'id-345', title: 'Hello world again', author: 'user-234' }

API

Base class

const cache = new TagCache(options);

options

Options can be an object containing any of the following keys:

• defaultTimeout: number of seconds until records expire even if not invalidated
• redis: any ioredis option, this object is directly passed through to new Redis(ioredisOptions)

Example:

const cache = new TagCache({
  defaultTimeout: 86400,
  redis: {
    keyPrefix: 'my-cache', // Recommended: set a keyprefix for all keys stored via the cache
    port: 6379,
    host: 'redis-service.com',
    password: 'password',
  }
});

cache.set(key, value, tags)

Store a record in Redis. Usage:

cache.set(key: string, value: any, tags: Array<string>, options?: Object): Promise<void>

options

Can have one of the following keys:

• timeout: number of seconds until the record times out, overrides defaultTimeout option

Example

cache.set('some-key', 'some-value', ['some-tag'], { timeout: 123, })cache
  .then(() => console.log('Stored successfully!'))

cache.get(...keys)

Get records from the cache. Usage:

cache.get(...keys: Array<string>): Promise<Array<?value> | ?value>

Example

cache.get('existing-key')
  .then(data => console.log('Got record!', data));

cache.get('not-existing-key')
  .then(data => console.log('data is null', data === null));

cache.get('key-1', 'key-2')
  .then(data => console.log('got multiple keys', data[0], data[1]));

cache.invalidate(...tags)

Invalidate a set of tags and any records associated with them. Usage:

cache.invalidate(tag1: string, tag2: string, ...): Promise<void>

Example

cache.invalidate('some-tag', 'some-other-tag')
  .then(() => console.log('Tags invalidated successfully!'))

Under the hood

Under the hood we store one set for each tag with all its associated keys and your data as a separate record. For example:

cache.set('some-key', 'some-value', ['some-tag']);
cache.set('some-other-key', 'some-other-value', ['some-tag', 'some-other-tag'];

With these two .set calls you'd end up with these records stored in Redis:

• data:some-key = "some-value"
• data:some-other-key = "some-other-value"
• tags:some-tag = ["some-key", "some-other-key"]
• tags:some-other-tag = ["some-other-key"]

The tradeoff chosen is to keep .get as fast as possible (it's a single redis.get(key), so it couldn't be faster), while making .set a bit slower (since we have to do multiple redis.sets, one for each tags) and .invalidate slow. (since we have to do a redis.get per tag and then a redis.del per record in the tags lists)

PRs implementing this differently under the hood to make .set and/or .invalidate quicker while keeping .get as fast as it is would be appreciated!

License

Licensed under the MIT License, Copyright ©️ 2018 Maximilian Stoiber. See LICENSE.md for more information.