Response Caching: Powered by Redis

In today's fast-paced digital world, delivering lightning-quick responses is crucial for providing an exceptional user experience. At Xano, we understand this need, which is why we've introduced response caching powered by Redis, an incredibly powerful feature that can significantly boost the performance of your web and mobile applications. Let's dive into the details and learn how to leverage this game-changing functionality.

What is Response Caching?

Response caching is a technique that stores the data from a response of an API endpoint or function in memory for ultra-fast data retrieval. By caching the response, Xano can serve the data directly from memory instead of querying the database or executing the function again, resulting in lightning-quick response times.

Enabling Response Caching on an API Endpoint

Enabling response caching on your API endpoints is a breeze with Xano. Simply follow these steps:

1. Open your API endpoint settings by clicking on the endpoint name or by clicking the settings icon next to the endpoint.
2. Scroll down to the "Caching" section.
3. Toggle the "Enable Caching" switch to turn on response caching for this endpoint.

Once enabled, you'll notice several configurable settings to fine-tune the caching behavior according to your specific needs.

Configuring Response Caching Settings

Time to Live (TTL)

The Time to Live (TTL) setting determines how long your cached data will remain valid. Xano offers a wide range of options, allowing you to cache your data for as little as 5 seconds or as long as 7 days. Choose a TTL that aligns with the frequency of data changes in your application.

Use Inputs for Caching Signature

This setting allows you to include or exclude the inputs (query parameters or request body) as part of the caching signature. Enabling this option means that responses will be cached based on the combination of the endpoint and the inputs, resulting in different cached responses for different input values.

Use Authenticated ID for Caching Signature

If your endpoint requires authentication, you can choose to include the authenticated user's ID as part of the caching signature. This setting is particularly useful when you want to cache responses on a per-user basis, ensuring that each user sees their personalized data.

Additional Caching Options

Xano offers several additional options to further customize the caching behavior:

• Use IP Address for Caching Signature: Cache responses based on the client's IP address.
• Include HTTP Request Headers: Add specific HTTP request header names to the caching signature.
• Include Environment Variables: Include environment variables in the caching signature.

These advanced settings provide you with granular control over how responses are cached, allowing you to tailor the caching mechanism to your application's unique requirements.

Testing Response Caching

To see response caching in action, navigate to your API documentation and use the Swagger interface to execute your endpoint. The first time you execute the endpoint, you'll notice an `x-query-cache` header in the response with a value of `0`, indicating that the response is not cached yet. Subsequent executions will return an `x-query-cache` header with a value of `1`, confirming that the response is being served from the cache.

Optimizing Performance with Response Caching

Response caching is especially beneficial when dealing with large queries or computationally intensive operations where the data doesn't change frequently. By caching the responses, you can dramatically improve the perceived performance of your application, providing a smoother and more responsive user experience.

Conclusion

Xano's response caching powered by Redis is a powerful tool that can supercharge the performance of your web and mobile applications. With its easy-to-use interface and flexible configuration options, you can fine-tune the caching behavior to meet your specific needs. Embrace the power of response caching and unlock lightning-fast performance for your users today!