PHP Conference Nagoya 2025

Read-through cache callbacks

Read-through cache callbacks are invoked when an item cannot be retrieved from the server. The callback is passed the Memcached object, the requested key, and the by-reference value variable. The callback is responsible for setting the value and returning true or false. If the callback returns true, Memcached will store the populated value on the server and return it to the original calling function. Only Memcached::get() and Memcached::getByKey() support these callbacks, because the memcache protocol does not provide information on which keys were not found in the multi-key request.

Example #1 Read-through callback example

<?php
$m
= new Memcached();
$m->addServer('localhost', 11211);

$profile_info = $m->get('user:'.$user_id, 'user_info_cb');

function
user_info_cb($memc, $key, &$value)
{
$user_id = substr($key, 5);
/* lookup profile info in the DB */
/* ... */
$value = $profile_info;
return
true;
}
?>
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User Contributed Notes 2 notes

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2
chadkouse
12 years ago
Or just set the value within the callback with your own custom expiration time and return false. I think it's cleaner.
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1
oorza2k5 at gmail dot com
15 years ago
This isn't specified anywhere, so I had a gander at the source...

The expiry on read-through cache set values is set to 0, or forever. This means if you want your key to implicitly expire, don't use the callback methods, instead check for boolean false as a return and manually set the value, at least for now.
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