Boost Laravel Performance with Cache Memoisation

In the dynamic world of web development, optimising performance is crucial for a seamless user experience. One such technique that can significantly improve the efficiency of your Laravel applications is cache memoisation. In this article, we'll delve into the concept of cache memoisation and demonstrate how to leverage it to reduce duplicated cache queries in your Laravel projects.

Understanding Cache Memoisation

Cache memoisation is a software technique that involves temporarily storing the results of an expensive function call in memory. This approach allows subsequent calls to return the stored result instead of recalculating it, thereby reducing the need to recompute the same value multiple times or hit external services repeatedly.

Memoisation in Laravel

Laravel, being a powerful PHP framework, offers a built-in solution for cache memoisation through the Cache::memo() method. In this section, we'll explore how to use this method to improve the performance of your Laravel applications.

Reducing Duplicated Cache Queries

To illustrate the problem of duplicated cache queries and how cache memoisation can solve it, let's consider the following example:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache; $value = Cache::get('key'); // Hits the Redis cache $value = Cache::get('key'); // Hits the cache again $value = Cache::get('key'); // Hits the cache yet again

In the example above, we're retrieving the same cache key multiple times. Each call to Cache::get('key') results in a separate request to the Redis cache store, which can impact performance, especially in high-traffic applications.

Using Cache Memoisation to Solve the Problem

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache; $value = Cache::memo()->get('key'); // Hits the Redis cache $value = Cache::memo()->get('key'); // Returns the memoised value, no cache hit $value = Cache::memo()->get('key'); // Returns the memoised value, no cache hit

By using Cache::memo() and calling get('key'), Laravel will memoise the result of the cache query for the duration of the current request. On the first call to retrieve the cache value, Laravel will hit the Redis cache store as normal. It will then store the retrieved value in memory for the duration of the request and return the value. This means that the subsequent calls will read the value from memory rather than hitting the Redis cache again.

Using Different Cache Stores

By default, the Cache::memo() method uses the cache store defined in your Laravel application's configuration. However, you can also specify a different cache store by passing the store name as an argument to the memo() method:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache; Cache::memo('redis')->get('key'); // Hits the Redis cache Cache::memo('redis')->get('key'); // Returns the memoised value, no cache hit

Modifying Cache Values

It's essential to note that modifying a cache value using Cache::memo() will forget the memoised value. This means the next call to retrieve the value will hit the cache store again.

Implications for North East India and Broader India

The principles of cache memoisation and performance optimisation are universally applicable to Laravel applications, regardless of their location. However, in the context of North East India, it's essential to ensure that applications catering to this region are optimised for performance to provide a smooth user experience even in areas with limited network connectivity.

Moving Forward

By leveraging cache memoisation, you can improve the performance of your Laravel applications, making them more responsive and efficient. As you delve deeper into Laravel, you'll discover a wealth of techniques to optimise your applications and provide an exceptional user experience.