flutter_cache_store 0.8.1

More configurable cache manager for Flutter. Cache http get requests to mobile devices file system.

flutter_cache_store

A flexible cache manager for Flutter.

This package is highly inspired by flutter_cache_manager. Can be easily switched to each other.

Quick Start

import 'package:flutter_cache_store/flutter_cache_store.dart';

void demo(String url) async {
  final store = await CacheStore.getInstance();
  final file = await store.getFile(url);
  // do something with file...
}

---

APIs

CacheStore

void api() async {
  // get store instance
  CacheStore store = await CacheStore.getInstance(
    namespace: 'unique_name', // default: null - valid filename used as unique id
    policy: LeastFrequentlyUsedPolicy(), // default: null - will use `LessRecentlyUsedPolicy()`
    clearNow: true, // default: false - whether to clean up immediately
    fetch: myFetch, // default: null - a shortcut of `CacheStore.fetch`
  );

  // You can change custom fetch method at anytime.
  // Set it to `null` will simply use `http.get`
  store.fetch = myFetch;

  // fetch a file from an URL and cache it
  File file = await store.getFile(
    'url', // GET method
    key: null, // use custom string instead of URL
    headers: {}, // same as http.get
    fetch: myFetch, // Optional: CustomFunction for making custom request
    // Optional: Map<String, dynamic> any custom you want to pass to your custom fetch function.
    custom: {'method': 'POST', 'body': 'test'},
    flushCache: false, // whether to re-download the file
  );

  // flush specific files by keys
  await store.flush([
    'key', // key (default is the URL) passed to `getFile`
  ]);

  // remove all cached files
  await store.clearAll();
}

// Custom fetch function.
// A demo of how you can achieve a fetch supporting POST with body
Future<Response> myFetch(url,
    {Map<String, String> headers, Map<String, dynamic> custom}) {
  final data = custom ?? {};
  switch (data['method'] ?? '') {
    case 'POST':
      {
        return post(url, headers: headers, body: data['body']);
      }
    default:
      return get(url, headers: headers);
  }
}

Cache File Structure

By default, the cached files will be saved under $TEMP/cache_store. $TEMP is generated by path_provider. The default temp filenames are timestamp-based 11 chars.

You can customize your own file structure under $TEMP/cache_store by overriding Policy. There is an example:

Let's suppose your are developing a reader for novels, and your app will cache chapters of books. Your API returns some IDs of books and chapters, and an ID only contains letters and digits.

// Extends a Policy class and override `generateFilename`
class LRUCachePolicy extends LessRecentlyUsedPolicy {
  LRUCachePolicy({int maxCount}) : super(maxCount: maxCount);

  @override
  String generateFilename({final String key, final String url}) =>
      key; // use key as the filename
}

void customizedCacheFileStructure() async {
  // get store instance
  CacheStore store = await CacheStore.getInstance(
    policy: LRUCachePolicy(maxCount: 4096),
    namespace: 'my_store',
  );

  // fetch a file from an URL and cache it
  String bookId = 'book123';
  String chapterId = 'ch42';
  String chapterUrl = 'https://example.com/book123/ch42';
  File file = await store.getFile(
    chapterUrl,
    key: '$bookId/$chapterId', // use IDs as path and filename
  );

  // Your file will be cached as `$TEMP/cache_store__my_store/book123/ch42`
}

---

Cache Policy

• LessRecentlyUsedPolicy

  LRU policy. Less Recently Used files will be removed when reached maxCount. Each time you access a file will update its used timestamp.

  new LessRecentlyUsedPolicy(
    maxCount: 999,
  );
  

• LeastFrequentlyUsedPolicy

  LFU policy. Least Frequently Used files will be removed when reached maxCount. Each time you access a file will increase its hit count. After hitAge time the hit will expire. It will fallback to LRU policy if files have same hit count.

  new LeastFrequentlyUsedPolicy(
    maxCount: 999,
    hitAge: Duration(days: 30),
  );
  

• CacheControlPolicy

  Cache-Control header policy. This policy generally follows max-age=<seconds> or s-maxage=<seconds> rules of http response header Cache-Control. If the max-age-seconds not been set, it will use minAge unless you set it to null. The age will not be longer than maxAge.

  new CacheControlPolicy(
    maxCount: 999,
    minAge: Duration(seconds: 30), // nullable
    maxAge: Duration(days: 30), // nullable
  );
  

• FifoPolicy

  First-In, First-Out policy, super simple and maybe for example only.

  new FifoPolicy(
    maxCount: 999,
  );
  

Performance Warning

• The implementation maintains all key-item in memory to improve the speed. So maxCount must between 1 and 100000 (100k) due to the cost of RAM and file system.

• Currently, all the policies simply sort all items to expire files. It may hit performance due to O(N*logN) complexity.

  Will switch to priority queue which has O(N*logK) while K usually is a very small number.

How to implement your own policy

The interface is a simple abstract class. You only have to implement a few methods.

abstract class CacheStorePolicy {
  // IT'S THE ONLY METHOD YOU HAVE TO IMPLEMENT.
  // `store` will invoke this method from time to time.
  // Make sure return all expired items at once.
  // then `store` will manage to remove the cached files.
  // you also have to save your data if need to persist some data.
  Future<Iterable<CacheItem>> cleanup(Iterable<CacheItem> allItems);

  // will be invoked when store.clearAll called.
  Future<void> clearAll(Iterable<CacheItem> allItems) async {}

  // will invoke only once when the `store` is created and load saved data.
  // you need to load persistent data and restore items' payload.
  // only returned items will be cached. others will be recycled later.
  Future<Iterable<CacheItem>> restore(List<CacheItem> allItems) async => allItems;

  // event when a new `CacheItem` has been added to the cache.
  // you may need to attach a `CacheItemPayload` instance to it.
  Future<void> onAdded(final CacheItem addedItem) async {}

  // event when an item just been accessed.
  // you may need to attach or update item's payload.
  Future<void> onAccessed(final CacheItem accessedItem, bool flushed) async {}

  // event when a request just finished.
  // the response headers will be passed as well.
  Future<void> onDownloaded(final CacheItem item, final Map<String, String> headers) async {}

  // event when `store.flush` has called
  Future<void> onFlushed(final Iterable<CacheItem> flushedItems) async {}

  // filename (including path) relative to `CacheItem.rootPath`.
  // usually ignore this unless need a better files structure.
  // you must provide valid filenames.
  String generateFilename({final String key, final String url}) =>
      Utils.genName(); // timestamp based random filename
}

• Tips

  You don't have to implement all of the onAdded, onAccessed and onDownloaded.