#Static Cache A caching library that uses the filesystem for storing cached output in static files which can be served by Apache.

Many PHP applications use Apache's mod_rewrite to create clean URLs. Typically this involves rewriting requests for missings files to index.php. When this happens, PHP translates the route, generates the content and responds.

Smart people cache the result to improve speed. This takes the idea one step further by writing the output to the filesystem, so subsequent requests do not need to be interpreted by PHP.

For example:

GET /people/124

For this request, the cache key is /people/124, StaticCache will write the output to /var/www/html/people/124 and subsequent requests will not be sent to PHP for interpretation, allowing Apache to do what it does well — serve static content.

Emptying the cache is as simple as removing the /var/www/html/people directory, and a utility such as tmpwatch can be used to automate emptying the cache:

tmpwatch 2 /var/www/html/people

That command will remove everything in the people directory that is more than two hours old.

##Advice on URL Structures

A couple warnings for collection URLs and sub-paths.

The following sequence requires the people file to be converted to a directory:

GET /people
GET /people/123

The first request will create a people file, the subsequent request requires that the people file be converted to people/index.html.

Susequent requests to /people will (usually) be redirected to /people/ and will serve up people/index.html.

As a tip, reference collections using a trailing slash.

GET /people/
GET /people/123

For more information on this, read the Apache documentation on mod_dir's DirectorySlash option.

Also, querystring requests will go to the original file:

GET /people/123?format=json

actually loads:

/var/www/html/people/123

This is why it is important to use file extensions in the urls:

GET /people/123.json

If you do not use file extensions, be sure to set your default content type correctly, e.g. in .htaccess:

DefaultType "text/html; charset=utf-8"

##Comparisons to Jekyll

StaticCache can be used to generate a static site, similar to Jekyll. Combining this library with a simple web crawler (like Spider) and you'll have a dynamic site=>static site conversion utility like Jekyll.

##Installation Clone the git repository and for a quick start, make sure your web root is writable by the web user. Include the following in the beginning of your PHP script:

<?php
require_once __DIR__.'/path/to/StaticCache/src/StaticCache.php';
StaticCache::autoCache();

echo 'This page was cached at '.date('Y-m-d H:i:s');

See the examples directory for how to use StaticCache.