How to cache session dependent data in symfony 1.4?

Question

After reading caching behaviour of symfony 1.4.. i came to know that symfony 1.4 is not considering user session for caching templates..

now, the situation is, i have several templates that have some part of code that depends on user session.. let's say if user is authenticated he has a facility to ask question in product listing... now how should i cache this template file... one thing i know that creating separate template for all that session code blocks and setting cache false to it. but i want to know other smart ways if you have...

Thank you, Hardik

cmc cmc · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-06T14:34:38

Warning: The symfony cache mechanism does not support private caching. Incorrectly applied it will result in leaked data!

Do not use cache.yml

Do not use cache.yml at all for content that depends on the session in any way, especially content that is restricted by the session. cache.yml unconditionally displays the first version a user has seen to all others, logged in or not.

Use a conditional cache filter

Instead, create a conditional cache filter. The following will cache every page, and hence display the version of the first user, for all users that have the credential myCredential.

// apps/myApp/lib/conditionalCacheFilter.php
class conditionalCacheFilter extends sfFilter() {

  public function execute($filterChain) {
    $context = $this->getContext();
    $user = $context->getUser();
    if ($user->isAuthenticated() && $user->hasCredential('myCredential')) {
      foreach ($this->getParameter('pages') as $page) {
        $context->getViewCacheManager()->addCache($page['module'], $page['action'], array('lifeTime' => 300));
      }
    }
    // Execute next filter
    $filterChain->execute();
  }
}


# filters.yml
conditionalCache:
  class: conditionalCacheFilter
  param:
    pages:
      - { module: myModule, action: myAction }

cache: ~

Use case

This is useful for a data heavy page shown to only users with a certain credential, but all users get the same page. A collection of credential specific statistics pages is a good example.

Alternative use

You may also directly specify pages to be added in the cache to the filter. It could be a useful failsafe to still explicitly activate the filter for certain pages only.

// apps/backend/lib/conditionalCacheFilter.php
$context = $this->getContext();
$user = $context->getUser();
if ($user->isAuthenticated() && $user->hasPermission()) {
  $context->getViewCacheManager()->addCache('myModule', 'myAction', array(
    'withLayout' => true,
    'lifeTime'   => 3600,
  ));
}

#filters.yml
conditionalCache:
  class: conditionalCacheFilter
    pages:
      - { module: myModule, action: myAction }

No true private caching

Symfony does not have provisions for a by-user private cache. You should use client side cache control headers with the private setting for this use case. You may also use an nginx reverse proxy or similar setup.

How to cache session dependent data in symfony 1.4?

5 Answers