elgg_get_simplecache_url & elgg_register_simplecache_view

[jtilson]

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I wanted to open up an official ticket in regards to the 'registering for simplecache' process.

Right now it's a two step process: (ie: blogs)

$blog_js = elgg_get_simplecache_url('js', 'blog/save_draft');
elgg_register_simplecache_view('js/blog/save_draft');

Can't these two steps be combined?

I realize there's a warning in the comments for 'elgg_get_simplecache_url' that states that you have to call 'elgg_register_simplecache_view' in order for it to work. The problem is if a dev forgets to call the register function (ie: ​https://github.com/Elgg/Elgg/commit/e57ad78561dd4e80eb3621475aaade030c0fbdd0) the simplecache will be regenerated on every page load.

You can test this out on a clean install by commenting out:

elgg_register_simplecache_view('js/blog/save_draft');

in the blog plugin, and then hit the 'add blog' page. If you watch the net activity in firebug/web inspector, you can see the 'lastcache' timestamp updating on each load.

Since we're clearly warned in the code documentation to call elgg_register_simplecache_view I wouldn't call this a bug, but it'd be nice if this could be handled automatically.

• Jeff

[jtilson]

Here's another example of an overlooked elgg_register_simplecache_view:

​https://github.com/Elgg/Elgg/pull/194

[ewinslow]

Sounds reasonable to me. Want to submit a pull request?

[Evan Winslow]

Merge pull request #225 from jrtilson/fix-admin-simplecache

Refs #4451. Calls elgg_register_simplecache_view('css/admin') to register admin css with simplecache.

Changeset: 8265966f172994ce27a3f1c13f930ae9d5e5f4d0

[srokap]

Bumping this one. I know there's some work on it being done for 1.9 to put these three functions into one, but wouldn't it be applicable for 1.8.x as well to just put elgg_register_simplecache_view inside elgg_get_simplecache_url call? It won't _break_ api and yet will help a lot of people that probably not even notice problem with simplecache.

[ewinslow]

I tried this and unfortunately it doesn't work like you'd expect. Instead we're probably going to move to a model that is even more fully automated:

1) Caching on demand instead of full regenerate on every miss.
2) Accept static files as views and automatically cache/minify them.

[srokap]

I'm curious what could possibly go wrong in this, instead of possibly registering unnecessary views? Only problem would be that we register more views that probably get registered via elgg_register[js|css] in simplecache. If someone does conditional registration we wouldn't make it worse than it already is.

Clarification: I'm just talking about simple fix for 1.8 branch, I like idea of making it better for 1.9.

[ewinslow]

Like I said, I already tried. If you can get it to work how you expect, then by all means submit a pull request.

[srokap]

It seems to work for me. I'll test it some more.