Package Exports

apicache-plus

This package does not declare an exports field, so the exports above have been automatically detected and optimized by JSPM instead. If any package subpath is missing, it is recommended to post an issue to the original package (apicache-plus) to support the "exports" field. If that is not possible, create a JSPM override to customize the exports field for this package.

Readme

A simple API response caching middleware for Express/Node using plain-english durations.

Supports Redis or built-in memory engine with auto-clearing.

Why?

Because route-caching of simple data/responses should ALSO be simple.

Usage

To use, simply inject the middleware (example: apicache.middleware('5 minutes', [optionalMiddlewareToggle])) into your routes. Everything else is automagic.

Cache a route

import express from 'express'
import apicache from 'apicache-plus'

let app = express()
let cache = apicache.middleware

app.get('/api/collection/:id?', cache('5 minutes'), (req, res) => {
  // do some work... this will only occur once per 5 minutes
  res.json({ foo: 'bar' })
})

Cache all routes

let cache = apicache.middleware

app.use(cache('5 minutes'))

app.get('/will-be-cached', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ success: true })
})

Use with Redis

import express from 'express'
import apicache from 'apicache-plus'
import redis from 'redis'

let app = express()

// if redisClient option is defined, apicache will use redis client
// instead of built-in memory store
let cacheWithRedis = apicache.options({
  redisClient: redis.createClient({ detect_buffers: true }),
}).middleware

app.get('/will-be-cached', cacheWithRedis('5 minutes'), (req, res) => {
  res.json({ success: true })
})

Note: If using node-redis client, it is important to set detect_buffers: true option. ioredis client is also supported.

Cache grouping and manual controls

import apicache from 'apicache-plus'
let cache = apicache.middleware

app.use(cache('5 minutes'))

// routes are automatically added to index, but may be further added
// to groups for quick deleting of collections
app.get('/api/:collection/:item?', (req, res) => {
  req.apicacheGroup = req.params.collection
  res.json({ success: true })
})

// add route to display cache performance (courtesy of @killdash9)
app.get('/api/cache/performance', (req, res) => {
  res.json(apicache.getPerformance())
})

// add route to display cache index
app.get('/api/cache/index', (req, res) => {
  res.json(apicache.getIndex())
})

// add route to manually clear target/group
app.get('/api/cache/clear/:target?', (req, res) => {
  res.json(apicache.clear(req.params.target))
})

/*

GET /api/foo/bar --> caches entry at /api/foo/bar and adds a group called 'foo' to index
GET /api/cache/index --> displays index
GET /api/cache/clear/foo --> clears all cached entries for 'foo' group/collection

*/

Use with middleware toggle for fine control

// higher-order function returns false for responses of other status codes (e.g. 403, 404, 500, etc)
const onlyStatus200 = (req, res) => res.statusCode === 200

const cacheSuccesses = cache('5 minutes', onlyStatus200)

app.get('/api/missing', cacheSuccesses, (req, res) => {
  res.status(404).json({ results: 'will not be cached' })
})

app.get('/api/found', cacheSuccesses, (req, res) => {
  res.json({ results: 'will be cached' })
})

Prevent cache-control header "max-age" from automatically being set to expiration age

let cache = apicache.options({
  headers: {
    'cache-control': 'no-cache',
  },
}).middleware

let cache5min = cache('5 min') // continue to use normally

API

apicache.options([globalOptions]) - getter/setter for global options. If used as a setter, this function is chainable, allowing you to do things such as... say... return the middleware.
apicache.middleware([duration], [toggleMiddleware], [localOptions]) - the actual middleware that will be used in your routes. duration is in the following format "[length][unit]", as in "10 minutes" or "1 day". A second param is a middleware toggle function, accepting request and response params, and must return truthy to enable cache for the request. Third param is the options that will override global ones and affect this middleware only.
middleware.options([localOptions]) - getter/setter for middleware-specific options that will override global ones.
apicache.getPerformance() - returns current cache performance (cache hit rate)
apicache.getIndex() - returns current cache index [of keys]
apicache.clear([target]) - clears cache target (key or group), or entire cache if no value passed, returns new index.
apicache.newInstance([options]) - used to create a new ApiCache instance (by default, simply requiring this library shares a common instance)
apicache.clone() - used to create a new ApiCache instance with the same options as the current one

Available Options (first value is default)

{
  debug:            false|true,     // if true, enables console output
  defaultDuration:  '1 hour',       // should be either a number (in ms) or a string, defaults to 1 hour
  enabled:          true|false,     // if false, turns off caching globally (useful on dev)
  isBypassable:     true|false,     // if true, bypasses cache by requesting with Cache-Control: no-store header
  redisClient:      client,         // if provided, uses the [node-redis](https://github.com/NodeRedis/node_redis) client instead of [memory-cache](https://github.com/ptarjan/node-cache)
  appendKey:        fn(req, res),   // appendKey takes the req/res objects and returns a custom value to extend the cache key
  headerBlacklist:  [],             // list of headers that should never be cached
  statusCodes: {
    exclude:        [],             // list status codes to specifically exclude (e.g. [404, 403] cache all responses unless they had a 404 or 403 status)
    include:        [],             // list status codes to require (e.g. [200] caches ONLY responses with a success/200 code)
  },
  trackPerformance: false,          // enable/disable performance tracking... WARNING: super cool feature, but may cause memory overhead issues
  headers: {
    // 'cache-control':  'no-cache' // example of header overwrite
  },
  afterHit:         fn(req, res),   // run function after cache hits
}

*Optional: Typescript Types (courtesy of @danielsogl)

$ npm install -D @types/apicache

Custom Cache Keys

Sometimes you need custom keys (e.g. save routes per-session, or per method). We've made it easy!

Note: All req/res attributes used in the generation of the key must have been set previously (upstream). The entire route logic block is skipped on future cache hits so it can't rely on those params.

apicache.options({
  appendKey: (req, res) => req.method + res.session.id,
})

Cache Key Groups

Oftentimes it benefits us to group cache entries, for example, by collection (in an API). This would enable us to clear all cached "post" requests if we updated something in the "post" collection for instance. Adding a simple req.apicacheGroup = [somevalue]; to your route enables this. See example below:

var apicache = require('apicache-plus')
var cache = apicache.middleware

// GET collection/id
app.get('/api/:collection/:id?', cache('1 hour'), function(req, res, next) {
  req.apicacheGroup = req.params.collection
  // do some work
  res.send({ foo: 'bar' })
})

// POST collection/id
app.post('/api/:collection/:id?', function(req, res, next) {
  // update model
  apicache.clear(req.params.collection)
  res.send('added a new item, so the cache has been cleared')
})

Additionally, you could add manual cache control to the previous project with routes such as these:

// GET apicache index (for the curious)
app.get('/api/cache/index', function(req, res, next) {
  res.send(apicache.getIndex())
})

// GET apicache index (for the curious)
app.get('/api/cache/clear/:key?', function(req, res, next) {
  res.send(200, apicache.clear(req.params.key || req.query.key))
})

Debugging/Console Out

Using Node environment variables (plays nicely with the hugely popular debug module)

$ export DEBUG=apicache
$ export DEBUG=apicache,othermoduleThatDebugModuleWillPickUp,etc

By setting internal option

import apicache from 'apicache-plus'

apicache.options({ debug: true })

Client-Side Bypass

When sharing GET routes between admin and public sites, you'll likely want the routes to be cached from your public client, but NOT cached when from the admin client. This is achieved by sending a Cache-Control: no-store header along with the request from the admin. The presence of this header value will bypass the cache, ensuring you aren't looking at stale data.

Changelog

v1.8.0 - add isBypassable and afterHit options and extra 304 condition checks
v1.7.0 - enforce request idempotence by cache key when not cached yet
v1.6.0 - cache is always stored compressed, can attach multiple apicache middlewares to same route for conditional use, increase third-party compression middleware compatibility and some minor bugfixes
v1.5.5 - self package import fix (thanks @robbinjanssen)
v1.5.4 - created apicache-plus from apicache v1.5.3 with backward compatibility (thanks @kwhitley and all original library contributors)