Rendering Cache

When developing applications, sometimes we cache computation results using hooks like React's useMemo and useCallback. By leveraging caching, we can reduce the number of computations, thus saving CPU resources and improving user experience.

Modern.js supports caching server-side rendering (SSR) results, reducing the computational and rendering time during subsequent requests. This accelerates page load time and improves user experience. Additionally, caching lowers server load, conserves computational resources, and speeds up user access.

TIP

Requires version x.43.0+

Configuration

Create a server/cache.[t|j]s file in your application and export the cacheOption configuration to enable SSR rendering cache:

server/cache.ts
import type { CacheOption } from '@modern-js/runtime/server;

export const cacheOption: CacheOption = {
  maxAge: 500, // ms
  staleWhileRevalidate: 1000, // ms
};

Configuration Details

Cache Configuration

The caching strategy implements stale-while-revalidate.

Within the maxAge period, the cache content is directly returned. Exceeding maxAge but within staleWhileRevalidate, the cache content is still returned directly, but it re-renders asynchronously.

Object Type

export interface CacheControl {
  maxAge: number;
  staleWhileRevalidate: number;
  customKey?: string | ((pathname: string) => string);
}

Here, customKey is the custom cache key. By default, Modern.js uses the request pathname as the cache key, but developers can define it when necessary.

Function Type

export type CacheOptionProvider = (
  req: IncomingMessage,
) => Promise<CacheControl | false> | CacheControl | false;

Sometimes, developers need to use req to customize the cache key, or prevent caching for specific URLs. You can configure this as a function, as shown:

server/cache.ts
import type { CacheOption, CacheOptionProvider } from '@modern-js/runtime/server;

const provider: CacheOptionProvider = (req) => {
  const { url, headers, ... } = req;
  if(url.includes('no-cache=1')) {
    return false;
  }

  const key = computedKey(url, headers, ...);
  return {
    maxAge: 500, // ms
    staleWhileRevalidate: 1000, // ms
    customKey: key,
  }
}

export const cacheOption: CacheOption = provider;

Mapping Type

export type CacheOptions = Record<string, CacheControl | CacheOptionProvider>;

Sometimes, different routes require different caching strategies. We also offer a mapping configuration method, as shown below:

server/cache.ts
import type { CacheOption } from '@modern-js/runtime/server;

export const cacheOption: CacheOption = {
  '/home': {
    maxAge: 50,
    staleWhileRevalidate: 100,
  },
  '/about': {
    maxAge: 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24, // one day
    staleWhileRevalidate: 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 2 // two days
  },
  '*': (req) => { // If no above route matches, this applies
    const { url, headers, ... } = req;
    const key = computedKey(url, headers, ...);

    return {
      maxAge: 500,
      staleWhileRevalidate: 1000,
      customKey: key,
    }
  }
}
  • The route http://xxx/home will apply the first rule.
  • The route http://xxx/about will apply the second rule.
  • The route http://xxx/abc will apply the last rule.

The above /home and /about are patterns, meaning /home/abc will also match. You can use regex in these patterns, such as /home/.+.

Cache Container

By default, the server uses memory for caching. Typically, services are deployed in a Serverless container, creating a new process for each access, making it impossible to use the previous cache.

Thus, Modern.js allows developers to define custom cache containers. Containers must implement the Container interface:

export interface Container<K = string, V = string> {
  /**
   * Returns a specified element from the container. If the value that is associated to the provided key is an object, then you will get a reference to that object and any change made to that object will effectively modify it inside the Container.
   * @returns Returns the element associated with the specified key. If no element is associated with the specified key, undefined is returned.
   */
  get: (key: K) => Promise<V | undefined>;

  /**
   * Adds a new element with a specified key and value to the container. If an element with the same key already exists, the element will be updated.
   *
   * The ttl indicates cache expiration time.
   */
  set: (key: K, value: V, options?: { ttl?: number }) => Promise<this>;

  /**
   * @returns boolean indicating whether an element with the specified key exists or not.
   */
  has: (key: K) => Promise<boolean>;

  /**
   * @returns true if an element in the container existed and has been removed, or false if the element does not exist.
   */
  delete: (key: K) => Promise<boolean>;
}

Developers can implement a Redis cache container as shown below:

import Redis from 'ioredis';
import type { Container, CacheOption } from '@modern-js/runtime/server;

class RedisContainer implements Container {
  redis = new Redis();

  async get(key: string) {
    return this.redis.get(key);
  }

  async set(key: string, value: string): Promise<this> {
    this.redis.set(key, value);
    return this;
  }

  async has(key: string): Promise<boolean> {
    return this.redis.exists(key) > 0;
  }

  async delete(key: string): Promise<boolean> {
    return this.redis.del(key) > 0;
  }
}

const container = new RedisContainer();

export const customContainer: Container = container;

export const cacheOption: CacheOption = {
  maxAge: 500, // ms
  staleWhileRevalidate: 1000, // ms
};

Cache Identification

When rendering cache is enabled, Modern.js identifies the cache status of the current request through the x-render-cache response header. Here's an example response:

< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
< content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
< x-render-cache: hit
< Date: Thu, 29 Feb 2024 02:46:49 GMT
< Connection: keep-alive
< Keep-Alive: timeout=5
< Content-Length: 2937

The x-render-cache header can have the following values:

Name Description
hit Cache hit, returned cache content
stale Cache hit, but data is stale, returned cache content and re-rendered asynchronously
expired Cache expired, re-rendered and returned new content
miss Cache missed