Which cache to use for SQL user backend?

💻 Development app dev
1

I would like to get some recommendations on which cache to use for a user backend using SQL. I haven’t had any experience in this subject, yet.

I saw that \OC\User\Database uses \OC\Cache\CappedMemoryCache.

  1. Is this “still” a good (best) cache to use? Or would you recommend to use a 3d party library?
  2. Should I even use it from an app, although it is not in the public namespace (\OCP)?
  3. What are properties that are called very often and I should definitely cache? I think userExists() gets called a lot.
  4. What methods should not use the cache? checkPassword()maybe?

Any tips would be very welcome.

2

Some insights I gained during profiling

  • My user backend app gets constructed and destroyed 6 times during a simple user login and no further interaction.
    • There is nothing I can do about this, since this is out of control of the app.
  • During one single life span of the app queries are made only once for the same user.
    • A cache would not be used anyway
    • I don’t see any way to predict what would be called next
  • Possible optimization would be to retrieve the complete user record and then cache that single current user with a simple array.

–> My conclusion therefore is that the benefit of using a cache for user backends is negligible. Caveat: I only tested a few use cases.

Feedback is welcome, of course.