django-cachalot/docs/quickstart.rst

Quick start
-----------

Requirements
............

- Django 1.7 or 1.8
- Python 2.7, 3.2, 3.3, or 3.4
- a cache configured as ``'default'`` with one of these backends:

  - `django-redis <https://github.com/niwibe/django-redis>`_
  - `memcached <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/cache/#memcached>`_
    (using either python-memcached or pylibmc)
  - `filebased <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/cache/#filesystem-caching>`_
  - `locmem <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/cache/#local-memory-caching>`_
    (but it’s not shared between processes, see :ref:`locmem limits <Locmem>`)

- one of these databases:

  - PostgreSQL
  - SQLite
  - MySQL (but you probably don’t need django-cachalot in this case,
    see :ref:`MySQL limits <MySQL>`)

Usage
.....

#. ``pip install django-cachalot``
#. Add ``'cachalot',`` to your ``INSTALLED_APPS``
#. If you use multiple servers with a common cache server,
   :ref:`double check their clock synchronisation <multiple servers>`
#. If you modify data outside Django
   – typically after restoring a SQL database –, run
   ``./manage.py invalidate_cachalot``
#. Be aware of :ref:`the few other limits <limits>`
#. If you use
   `django-debug-toolbar <https://github.com/django-debug-toolbar/django-debug-toolbar>`_,
   you can add ``'cachalot.panels.CachalotPanel',``
   to your ``DEBUG_TOOLBAR_PANELS``
#. Enjoy!


.. _Settings:

Settings
........

``CACHALOT_ENABLED``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:Default: ``True``
:Description: If set to ``False``, disables SQL caching but keeps invalidating
              to avoid stale cache

``CACHALOT_CACHE``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:Default: ``'default'``
:Description: Alias of the cache from |CACHES|_ used by django-cachalot

.. |CACHES| replace:: ``CACHES``
.. _CACHES: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/ref/settings/#std:setting-CACHES

``CACHALOT_CACHE_RANDOM``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:Default: ``False``
:Description: If set to ``True``, caches random queries
              (those with ``order_by('?')``)

.. _CACHALOT_INVALIDATE_RAW:

``CACHALOT_INVALIDATE_RAW``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:Default: ``True``
:Description: If set to ``False``, disables automatic invalidation on raw
              SQL queries – read :ref:`raw queries limits <Raw SQL queries>` for more info


``CACHALOT_ONLY_CACHABLE_TABLES``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:Default: ``frozenset()``
:Description:
  Sequence of SQL table names that will be the only ones django-cachalot
  will cache. Only queries with a subset of these tables will be cached.
  The sequence being empty (as it is by default) doesn’t mean that no table
  can be cached: it disables this setting, so any table can be cache.
  :ref:`CACHALOT_UNCACHABLE_TABLES` has more weight than this:
  if you add a table to both settings, it will never be cached.
  Use a frozenset over other sequence types for a tiny performance boost.


.. _CACHALOT_UNCACHABLE_TABLES:

``CACHALOT_UNCACHABLE_TABLES``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:Default: ``frozenset(('django_migrations',))``
:Description:
  Sequence of SQL table names that will be ignored by django-cachalot.
  Queries using a table mentioned in this setting will not be cached.
  Always keep ``'django_migrations'`` in it, otherwise you may face
  some issues, especially during tests.
  Use a frozenset over other sequence types for a tiny performance boost.

``CACHALOT_QUERY_KEYGEN``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:Default: ``'cachalot.utils.get_query_cache_key'``
:Description: Python module path to the function that will be used to generate
              the cache key of a SQL query

``CACHALOT_TABLE_KEYGEN``
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:Default: ``'cachalot.utils.get_table_cache_key'``
:Description: Python module path to the function that will be used to generate
              the cache key of a SQL table

.. _Dynamic overriding:

Dynamic overriding
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Django-cachalot is built so that its settings can be dynamically changed.
For example:

.. code:: python

    from django.conf import settings
    from django.test.utils import override_settings

    with override_settings(CACHALOT_ENABLED=False):
        # SQL queries are not cached in this block

    @override_settings(CACHALOT_CACHE='another_alias')
    def your_function():
        # What’s in this function uses another cache

    # Globally disables SQL caching until you set it back to True
    settings.CACHALOT_ENABLED = False


.. _Template tag:

Template tag
............

`Caching template fragments <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/topics/cache/#template-fragment-caching>`_
can be extremely powerful to speedup a Django application.  However, it often
means you have to adapt your models to get a relevant cache key, typically
by adding a timestamp that refers to the last modification of the object.

But modifying your models and caching template fragments leads
to stale contents most of the time. There’s a simple reason to that: we rarely
only display the data from one model, we often want to display related data,
such as the number of books written by someone, display a quote from a book
of this author, display similar authors, etc. In such situations,
**it’s impossible to cache template fragments and avoid stale rendered data**.

Fortunately, django-cachalot provides an easy way to fix this issue,
by simply checking when was the last time data changed in the given models
or tables.  The API function
:meth:`get_last_invalidation <cachalot.api.get_last_invalidation>` does that,
and we provided a ``get_last_invalidation`` template tag to directly
use it in templates.  It works exactly the same as the API function.

Example of a quite heavy nested loop with a lot of SQL queries
(considering no prefetch has been done)::

    {% load cachalot cache %}

    {% get_last_invalidation 'auth.User' 'library.Book' 'library.Author' as last_invalidation %}
    {% cache 3600 short_user_profile last_invalidation %}
      {{ user }} has borrowed these books:
      {% for book in user.borrowed_books.all %}
        <div class="book">
          {{ book }} ({{ book.pages.count }} pages)
          <span class="authors">
            {% for author in book.authors.all %}
              {{ author }}{% if not forloop.last %},{% endif %}
            {% endfor %}
          </span>
        </div>
      {% endfor %}
    {% endcache %}

``cache_alias`` and ``db_alias`` keywords arguments of this template tag
are also available (see
:meth:`cachalot.api.get_last_invalidation`).


.. _Signal:

Signal
......

``cachalot.signals.post_invalidation`` is available if you need to do something
just after a cache invalidation (when you modify something in a SQL table).
``sender`` is the name of the SQL table invalidated, and a keyword argument
``db_alias`` explains which database is affected by the invalidation.
Be careful when you specify ``sender``, as it is sensible to string type.
To be sure, use ``Model._meta.db_table``.

Example:

.. code:: python

    from cachalot.signals import post_invalidation
    from django.dispatch import receiver
    from django.core.mail import mail_admins
    from django.contrib.auth import *

    # This prints a message to the console after each table invalidation
    def invalidation_debug(sender, **kwargs):
        db_alias = kwargs['db_alias']
        print('%s was invalidated in the DB configured as %s'
              % (sender, db_alias))

    post_invalidation.connect(invalidation_debug)

    # Using the `receiver` decorator is just a nicer way
    # to write the same thing as `signal.connect`.
    # Here we specify `sender` so that the function is executed only if
    # the table invalidated is the one specified.
    # We also connect it several times to be executed for several senders.
    @receiver(post_invalidation, sender=User.groups.through._meta.db_table)
    @receiver(post_invalidation, sender=User.user_permissions.through._meta.db_table)
    @receiver(post_invalidation, sender=Group.permissions.through._meta.db_table)
    def warn_admin(sender, **kwargs):
        mail_admins('User permissions changed',
                    'Someone probably gained or lost Django permissions.')