How to use Memcache with PHP

Memcache with PHP

Today I have new article for PHP. Last time I did post about Memcache with PHP. Today we will talking about caching in PHP again. I will show you how you can use Memcache in PHP. We will prepare useful class for working with Memcache for us and several examples. Memcache itself providing procedural and object oriented interface to memcached, highly effective caching daemon, which was especially designed to decrease database load in dynamic web applications.

I don`t have online demo for today, just because haven`t installed Memcache at our hosting. But I will include samples of using our new library in this article too (as I did for our previous APC-related post). Also, pay attention that Memcache extension not bundled with PHP by default. This extension available in PECL. 

Step 1. PHP

I made this useful class for you. We will use this class to working with memory using Memcache system.

classes/memcache.caching.php

oCache = new Memcache();
            $this->bEnabled = true;
            if (! $this->oCache->connect('localhost', 11211))  { // Instead 'localhost' here can be IP
                $this->oCache = null;
                $this->bEnabled = true;
            }
        }
    }

    // get data from cache server
    function getData($sKey) {
        $vData = $this->oCache->get($sKey);
        return false === $vData ? null : $vData;
    }

    // save data to cache server
    function setData($sKey, $vData) {
        //Use MEMCACHE_COMPRESSED to store the item compressed (uses zlib).
        return $this->oCache->set($sKey, $vData, 0, $this->iTtl);
    }

    // delete data from cache server
    function delData($sKey) {
        return $this->oCache->delete($sKey);
    }
}

?>

I prepared here several necessary functions which we will use: getData, setData and delData. Now, lets check first example file:

index.php

 'table',
    'color' => 'brown',
    'size' => array(
        'x' => 200,
        'y' => 120,
        'z' => 150,
    ),
    'strength' => 10,
);

require_once('classes/memcache.caching.php');
$oCache = new CacheMemcache();

echo 'Initial data: 
'; // lets see what we have
print_r($aData);
echo '
';

if ($oCache->bEnabled) { // if Memcache enabled

    $oCache->setData('my_object', $aData); // saving data to cache server
    $oCache->setData('our_class_object', $oCache); // saving object of our class into cache server too

    echo 'Now we saved all in cache server, click here to check what we have in cache server';

} else {
    echo 'Seems Memcache not installed, please install it to perform tests';
}

?>

In this file you can see that I saving 2 objects in memory: some predefined array and class object. Now, lets check second example file:

index2.php

bEnabled) { // if Memcache enabled

    $aMemData = $oCache->getData('my_object'); // getting data from cache server
    $aMemData2 = $oCache->getData('our_class_object'); // getting data from cache server about our class

    echo 'Data from cache server: 
'; // lets see what we have from cache server
    print_r($aMemData);
    echo '
';

    echo 'Data from cache server of object of CacheMemcache class: 
';
    print_r($aMemData2);
    echo '
';

    echo 'As you can see - all data read successfully, now lets remove data from cache server and check results, click here to continue';

} else {
    echo 'Seems Memcache not installed, please install it to perform tests';
}

?>

Here we only reading data from memory. And, as we see – all data is successfully read from the memory. Now, lets check last example file:

index3.php

bEnabled) { // if Memcache enabled

    $oCache->delData('my_object'); // removing data from cache server
    $oCache->delData('our_class_object'); // removing data from cache server

    $aMemData = $oCache->getData('my_object'); // lets try to get data again
    $aMemData2 = $oCache->getData('our_class_object');

    echo 'Data from cache server: 
'; // lets see what we have from cache server
    print_r($aMemData);
    echo '
';

    echo 'Data from cache server of object of CacheMemcache class: 
';
    print_r($aMemData2);
    echo '
';

    echo 'As you can see - all data successfully removed. Great !';

} else {
    echo 'Seems Memcache not installed, please install it to perform tests';
}

?>