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AppFabric Caching provides an in-memory,distributed cache platform forWindows Server.^[1]Microsoft developed AppFabric Caching and released it as part of AppFabric.

AppFabric Caching storesserializedmanagedobjects in a cache cluster. The cache cluster consists of one or more machines that pool their available physical memory.^[2] This pooled memory is presented to cache clients as a single source of caching memory. Objects are stored and accessed using an associated key value.

AppFabric Caching features must be installed on each server in the cache cluster.^[3] Following installation, the AppFabric Configuration Wizard must be used to join each server to the cache cluster.^[4] An external file share or database is required to maintain the cache cluster configuration settings.^[5] A set ofWindows PowerShell commands for Caching provides administration capabilities on the cache cluster.^[6]

Note that the code samples in this section are shown inC#.

A common task is to create code that puts, retrieves, and removes objects from the cache. These operations target either the default cache or a named cache.^[7]

First, create a staticDataCache^[8] member:

publicstaticDataCache_cache;

Next, create a method that accesses this cache. The properties of the cache can be stored in the app.config or web.config files.^[9] The cache settings can also be programmatically configured.^[10] The following example shows how to programmatically configure the cache.

publicstaticDataCacheGetCache(){if(_cache!=null)return_cache;// Define array for 1 cache hostvarservers=newList<DataCacheServerEndpoint>(1);// Specify cache host details//   Parameter 1 = host name//   Parameter 2 = cache port numberservers.Add(newDataCacheServerEndpoint("mymachine",22233));// Create cache configurationvarconfiguration=newDataCacheFactoryConfiguration();// Set the cache host(s)configuration.Servers=servers;// Set default properties for local cache (local cache disabled)configuration.LocalCacheProperties=newDataCacheLocalCacheProperties();// Disable tracing to avoid informational/verbose messages on the web pageDataCacheClientLogManager.ChangeLogLevel(System.Diagnostics.TraceLevel.Off);// Pass configuration settings to cacheFactory constructor_factory=newDataCacheFactory(configuration);// Get reference to named cache called "default"_cache=_factory.GetCache("default");return_cache;}

The following method shows how to use the_cache object to retrieve data from the cache. In this example, a user identifier (userId) is the key for the associated user information object. The code first attempts to get this user information from the cache using theuserId key. If that does not succeed, the code retrieves the information with a database query and then stores the returned user data in the cache. The next time the same code is run, the user information will be returned from the cache rather than the database. This assumes that the cached data has not been expired or evicted.

dataTypeGetUserData(stringuserId){dataTypedata=null;// Attempt to retrieve the user data from the cache:objectdataObject=_cache.Get(userId);if(dataObject!=null)data=(dataType)dataObject;else{// If it doesn't exist in the cache, retrieve it from the database:data=GetUserDataFromDatabase("SELECT * FROM users WHERE userid = @userId",userId);// Put the returned data in the cache for future requests:_cache.Add(userId,data);}returndata;}

The following method shows how to update data that is already in the cache.

voidUpdateUserData(stringuserId,dataTypedata){// Update the user information in the database:result=UpdateUserDataInDatabase(userId,data);if(result){// If successfully updated, update the cache:_cache.Put(userId,data);}}

The following call removes the item from the cache.

_cache.Remove(userId);

Originally, AppFabric Caching had several beta releases under thecode nameVelocity.^[11] In June 2010,Microsoft officially released AppFabric Caching as part of AppFabric.^[12] For more detailed information, see the history section of the AppFabric page.

AppFabric Caching is related to other Microsoft caching technologies. These technologies share similar features, such as the assembly name, namespace, and types.^[13] However, there are some differences. The table below describes these technologies.

• AppFabric 1.1 Caching Features
• AppFabric Class Library Reference
• Download: Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server
• Download: Cumulative update package 3 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server

• Cache (computing)
• Microsoft software
• Windows Server

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