CodeBehind 2.8 Released, Cache the Pages and the Controller

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by elanatframework

What is CodeBehind?

CodeBehind is a back-end framework on .NET Core, the first version of which is released in 2023. CodeBehind is a competitor to the default back-end frameworks in ASP.NET Core (ASP.NET Core MVC and Razor Pages). CodeBehind inherits all the benefits of .NET Core, giving it more flexibility and power than Microsoft's default frameworks.

CodeBehind Framework 2.8

Version 2.8 of the CodeBehind framework was released with the addition of the cache feature. It took a long time to add cache support to the CodeBehind framework; The reason for the prolongation of this process was our attention to design and implement the most efficient structure. The new cache structure in CodeBehind is a dynamic and high-level mechanism that has been created with the highest precision and attention to efficiency. CodeBehind automatically detects the pages and controllers for which the cache is enabled, and in the final View class, the cache is enabled only for these controllers and pages.

What is the definition of cache?

In software development, a cache is a hardware or software component that stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. Caching is used to reduce load times and improve performance by storing frequently accessed or recently used data in a more easily accessible location. This can help reduce the need to repeatedly access slower storage mediums, like databases, and can improve overall system efficiency. Cache prevents heavy reprocessing, so a system that uses a cache only performs complex requests once and saves the processing performed for subsequent requests.

Enable cache service in ASP.NET Core

To enable the cache in CodeBehind, you need to enable the cache service in ASP.NET Core in the Program.cs class.

Enable memory cache in ASP.NET Core

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

+builder.Services.AddMemoryCache();

var app = builder.Build();

SetCodeBehind.CodeBehindCompiler.Initialization();

app.UseCodeBehind();

app.Run();

Note: The cache memory service is related to ASP.NET Core and the cache mechanism in the CodeBehind framework is based on the cache memory service.

cache.xml file

If you are using CodeBehind version 2.8 and later, if you start a new project or restart an existing project, a cache.xml file will be created for you in the code_behind directory.

The contents of the default cache.xml file are as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<cache_list>
    <cache duration="60" active="false">
        <controller>main</controller>
        <view>/file_and_directory/EditFile.aspx</view>
        <path match_type="start">/page/book</path>
        <query match_type="exist">value=true</query>
        <form match_type="exist">hdn_HiddenValue=0</form>
    </cache>
</cache_list>

The cache.xml file is the cache configuration of CodeBehind pages and controllers. In this file, you can cache the pages and controllers you want for as long as you want. This file is read only once in the first run of the program; therefore, the changes in this file during the execution of the program have no effect and the program needs to be restarted.

For better understanding, let's change this file a little and make it more concise.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<cache_list>
    <cache duration="60">
        <controller>SeriesController</controller>
    </cache>
    <cache duration="3">
        <view>/main.aspx</view>
        <query match_type="full_match">?value=true</query>
    </cache>
</cache_list>

According to the code above, the caches are added inside the cache_list tag. To add a new cache, we add a tag named cache and put the duration of the cache (in seconds) in the duration attribute. In the above code, there is a tag named controller inside the first cache tag, and the text inside it is the name of SeriesController; the cache tag caches the first Controller named SeriesController for 60 seconds. The second cache tag works for 3 seconds and there are two tags inside it. A view name tag whose text inside is the value of /main.aspx. A tag with the name query is also inside the cache tag, which has the match_type attribute, the value of which is full_match, and the text inside it is ?value=true; the second cache tag only works if the View is requested with the /main.aspx path and the query string only has the value ?value=true.

Internal tags in each tag cache are actually filters; that is, the cache is activated only when the request is equal to all these filters.

Please note that the cache on the controller is done only when you have configured the controller in the route; otherwise, in the default MVC architecture of the CodeBehind framework, the View section is preferred over the Controller, and the cache will be effective on the View path.

Configuration of the controller in the route is done by calling the UseCodeBehindRoute middleware.
app.UseCodeBehindRoute();

Configuring the default MVC architecture of the CodeBehind framework is also done by calling the UseCodeBehind middleware.
app.UseCodeBehind();

Path, Query, Form

You can define 3 tags inside the cache tag:

path tag
query tag
form tag

Each of the above tags must have an attribute named match_type that has one of the following values:

start: Matches when the requested path starts with the specified string
end: Matches when the requested path ends with the specified string
exist: Matches when the specified path exists, regardless of its position in the requested path
regex: The regex match type is used to match the requested path using a regular expression pattern
full_match: The regex match type is used to match the requested path using a regular expression pattern

Example:

Requested route: example.com/page/book

start: /page Matches because the requested path starts with "/page"
end: /book Matches because the requested path ends with "/book"
exist: /page Matches because "/page" exists in the requested path
regex: /page/[a-z]+ Matches because the requested path matches the regular expression pattern "/page/[a-z]+"
full_match: /page/book Matches because the requested path exactly matches "/page/book"

The path tag is for the requested path.

Example:

example.com/page

The query tag is for querystring.

Example:

example.com/?value=active

The form tag is also for form data.

Example:

Form data is sent when the post method is used in the form tag in HTML.

<form action="/" method="post">
  <label for="fname">First name:</label>
  <input type="text" id="fname" name="fname"><br><br>
  <label for="lname">Last name:</label>
  <input type="text" id="lname" name="lname"><br><br>
  <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

The above form submit sends values similar to the below in the form data:
fname=Cristiano&lname=Ronaldo

Simultaneous use of path, query and form tags

The simultaneous use of each of these tags along with one or two other tags means that the request must meet all the conditions at the same time.

Example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<cache_list>
    <cache duration="60">
        <view>/series_page/main.aspx</view>
        <query match_type="exist">value=true</query>
        <form match_type="exist">hdn_HiddenValue=0</form>
    </cache>
</cache_list>

In the above example, the cache is applied only if the View is requested with the path /series_page/main.aspx; and the query value=true exists in the query string; and also the data value of the form hdn_HiddenValue=0 should also exist in the user's request.

Example of cache in CodeBehind Framework

First, we replace the following contents in the cache.xml file (located in the code_behind directory). According to the previous explanation, we cache a file named random.aspx in the wwwroot directory for 10 seconds; caching is done only in the condition that the query string matches the value ?value=true.

cache.xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<cache_list>
    <cache duration="10">
        <view>/random.aspx</view>
        <query match_type="full_match">?value=true</query>
    </cache>
</cache_list>

We add the random.aspx file in the wwwroot directory and place the following codes in it.

View (random.aspx)

@page
@{ int RandomValue = new Random().Next(1000000); }
<b>@RandomValue</b>

After running the project, if you request the following path, the random response will remain constant for 10 seconds.
example.com/random.aspx?value=true

Consequently, if you request the following paths, the cache will not be activated:

example.com/random.aspx
example.com/random.aspx?value=true2
example.com/random.aspx?value=true&query2=value2

What is CodeBehind?

CodeBehind Framework 2.8

What is the definition of cache?

Enable cache service in ASP.NET Core

cache.xml file

Path, Query, Form

Simultaneous use of path, query and form tags

Example of cache in CodeBehind Framework

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