angular-promise-cache

AngularJS service that provides a generic way to cache promises and ensure all cached promises are resolved correctly.

Huh?

Our goal is to allow this kind of code...

angular.module('myAwesomeApp')
  .controller('myAwesomeCtrl', function($scope, myAwesomeModel, uhOhAnotherService) {
    myAwesomeModel.getData(); // xhr request!
    myAwesomeModel.getData(); // no xhr request!!

    // assume data loads finally

    myAwesomeModel.getData(); // no xhr request!

    // expires based on TTL...

    myAwesomeModel.getData(); // xhr request!
    myAwesomeModel.getData(); // no xhr request!

    uhOhAnotherService.getData(); // no xhr request!
  })
  .factory('uhOhAnotherService', function(myAwesomeModel) {
    return {
      getData: function() {
        // Hmm I actually want the data from myAwesomeModel
        return myAwesomeModel.getData();
      }
    }
  });

But not have our models look like...

angular.module('myAwesomeApp')
  .factory('myNotSoAwesomeModel', function($q, $http) {
    var cache = null,
      promises = [],
      ttl_in_ms = 2000,
      purge_date = null;

    return {
      clearData: function() {
        cache = null;
      },
      getData: function() {
        var deferred = $q.defer();

        if (purge_date !== null && purge_date < new Date().getTime()) {
          this.clearData();
        }

        if (promises.length > 0) {
          promises.push(deferred);
        }
        else if (cache === null) {
          promises.push(deferred);
          $http.get('my/data/').then(
            function(response) {
              cache = response;
              while (promises.length) {
                promises.shift().resolve(cache);
              }
              purge_date = new Date().getTime() + ttl_in_ms;
            }
          );
        }
        else {
          deferred.resolve(cache);
        }

        return deferred.promise;
      }
    };
  });

Never fear! angular-promise-cache provides the above implementation in a simple, reusable service that integrates with any promise.

Installation

Bower:

bower install angular-promise-cache --save

npm:

npm install angular-promise-cache --save

Manual:

• Development Build
• Minified/Production Build

Usage

app.js:

angular.module('myAwesomeApp', ['angular-promise-cache'])

model.js

angular.module('myAwesomeApp')
  .factory('myAwesomeModel', function($http, promiseCache) {
    return {
      getData: function() {
        return promiseCache({
          promise: function() {
            return $http.get('/my/data');
          }
        });
      }
    };
  });

Voila!

API

promiseCache(opts)

opts: {
  // The method we only want to "cache". Required
  promise: function,

  // The amount of milliseconds we will cache the promise response. Default is 5000
  // [v0.0.7] Providing a value of -1 will ensure the promise is never expired
  ttl: int,

  // A manual lever to expire the cache. Default is false
  bustCache: boolean,

  // Identifier for the cached promise. Default is promise.toString()
  // This is useful if you are creating different promises that need to share the same cache
  key: string,

  // List of arguments to pass into the promise function
  args: array

  // [v0.0.3]
  // This function is called on promise failure and returning true will forcefully expire
  // the cache for this promise
  expireOnFailure: function,

  // [v0.0.5]
  // If true, the response from the promise will be cached in local storage based on the ttl
  localStorageEnabled: boolean,
  // Determines the key that will be used to store within local storage
  // If omitted, will default to the 'key' identifier used above
  localStorageKey: string
}

Manual Remove

Added in v0.0.7, the remove method will manually expire a promise cached and delete it from local storage (if local storage is enabled). Please see the tests for more information on usage.

// @strPromise is the unique key of the cached promise
// @keepInLS boolean indicating if the cached promise should remain in local storage (if enabled)
promiseCache.remove(strPromise, keepInLS);

Added in v0.0.13, the remove method supports both an array of keys or a regular expression

Added in v0.0.10, removeAll iterates over all cached promises and calls .remove()

// @keepInLS boolean indicating if the cached promise should remain in local storage (if enabled)
promiseCache.removeAll(keepInLS);

Events

Added in v0.0.5, the following events are now supported:

$scope.$on('angular-promise-cache.new', function(evt, key, strPromise) {
    // @key ${PROMISE_CACHE_CREATION_TIMESTAMP}$
    // @strPromise unique identifier for the promise
    // Fired when calling when an uncached promise
});
$scope.$on('angular-promise-cache.expired', function(evt, key, strPromise) {
    // @key ${PROMISE_CACHE_CREATION_TIMESTAMP}$
    // @strPromise unique identifier for the promise
    // Fired when a promise expired
});
$scope.$on('angular-promise-cache.active', function(evt, key, expireTimestamp, strPromise) {
    // @key ${PROMISE_CACHE_CREATION_TIMESTAMP}$
    // @expireTimestamp {PROMISE_EXPIRATION_TIMESTAMP}
    // @strPromise unique identifier for the promise
    // Fired when a cached promise is returned
});

[v0.0.7]
$scope.$on('angular-promise-cache.removed', function(evt, strPromise) {
    // @strPromise unique identifier for the promise
    // Fired when a cached promise is manually removed
});

For actual examples, please view the source of the example application.

Example

Please view the detailed demo

Testing

npm install
bower install
gulp test

Release Notes

• v0.1.2 - Merged https://github.com/chrisronline/angular-promise-cache/pull/16
• v0.1.1 - Remove unnecessary window reference in loader code
• v0.1.0 - Adding modularity support (for AMD, CommonJS) and fixing issue with local storage access issues, #14
• v0.0.13 - Fixing issue #11
• v0.0.12 - Fixing issue #9
• v0.0.11 - Fixing issue #8
• v0.0.10 - Fixing issue #6
• v0.0.9 - Fixing issue #5
• v0.0.8 - Fixing issue #4
• v0.0.7 - Adding support for a remove method and ttl=-1
• v0.0.6 - Fixing issue #2
• v0.0.5 - Added local storage support
• v0.0.4 - (skipped)
• v0.0.3 - Added expireOnFailure functionality