asp.net mvc - How to cache data in a MVC application

Question

I have read lots of information about page caching and partial page caching in a MVC application. However, I would like to know how you would cache data.

In my scenario I will be using LINQ to Entities (entity framework). On the first call to GetNames (or whatever the method is) I want to grab the data from the database. I want to save the results in cache and on the second call to use the cached version if it exists.

Can anyone show an example of how this would work, where this should be implemented (model?) and if it would work.

I have seen this done in traditional ASP.NET apps , typically for very static data.

Answer 1

Here's a nice and simple cache helper class/service I use:

using System.Runtime.Caching;  

public class InMemoryCache: ICacheService
{
    public T GetOrSet<T>(string cacheKey, Func<T> getItemCallback) where T : class
    {
        T item = MemoryCache.Default.Get(cacheKey) as T;
        if (item == null)
        {
            item = getItemCallback();
            MemoryCache.Default.Add(cacheKey, item, DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(10));
        }
        return item;
    }
}

interface ICacheService
{
    T GetOrSet<T>(string cacheKey, Func<T> getItemCallback) where T : class;
}

Usage:

cacheProvider.GetOrSet("cache key", (delegate method if cache is empty));

Cache provider will check if there's anything by the name of "cache id" in the cache, and if there's not, it will call a delegate method to fetch data and store it in cache.

Example:

var products=cacheService.GetOrSet("catalog.products", ()=>productRepository.GetAll())