A light, simple but powerful PHP5 Cache Class which uses the filesystem for caching.
Your feedback is always welcome.

This is a first Alpha version!

• PHP 5.2.x or higher

Basically the caching class stores its data in files in the JSON format. These files will be created if you store data under a Cache name.

If you set a new Cache name with setCache(), a new cache file will be generated. The Cache will store all further data in the new file. The Setter method allows you to switch between the differnet Cache files.

It's not much trouble to setup the Cache.
First create a writable folder cache/ and include the Cache class:

<?php
    require_once 'cache.class.php';
    
    // Setup 'default' Cache
    $c = new Cache();
?>

Now we've setup the Cache instance and can start caching!

<?php
    // Store a string
    $c->store('hello', 'Hello World!');
    
    // Generate a new Cache file with the name 'newcache'
    $c->setCache('newcache');
    
    // Store an array
    $c->store('movies', array(
      'description' => 'Movies I like',
      'Action' => array(
        'Tropic Thunder',
        'Bad Boys',
        'Crank'
      )
    ));
    
    // Get cached data by its key
    $result = $c->retrieve('movies');
    
      // Display the cached array
      echo '<pre>';
      print_r($result);
      echo '<pre>';
    
    // Switch back to the first Cache
    $c->setCache('mycache');
    
    // Update entry simply by overwriting an existing key
    $c->store('hello', 'Hello everybody out there!');
    
    // Erase entry by its key
    $c->erase('hello');
?>

You can also make use of the Method Chaining feature, introduced in PHP5.
So you can do something like that:

<?php
    $c->setCache('mycache')      // Generate new file
      ->store('hello', 'world')  // Store data sting
      ->retrieve('hello');       // Retrieve cached data
?>

new Cache(<array>/<string>)

string gives you the basic setup.
It's the name of your Cache (standard Cache name is 'default'):

new Cache('YOUR-CACHE-NAME');

array allows you to define multiple optional parameters:

new Cache(array(
  'name'      => 'YOUR-CACHE-NAME',
  'path'      => 'cache/',
  'extension' => 'cache'
));

If you don't define a Cache name with the constructor or the setCache() method, it'll be 'default'.

store($key, $data)

• The key value defines a tag with which the cached data will be associated.
• The data value can either be a string or an array.

To change data you can override it by using the same key identifier.
Beside the data, the Cache will also store a timestamp.

A sample Cache entry looks like this:

{
  "christmas": {
    "time": 1324664631,
    "data": "A great time to bake cookies."
  }
}

retrieve($key, <true>/<false>)

Get cached data or time by its key.
To retrieve the timestamp of a key, set the second parameter to true.

erase($key)

Delete cached data entry by its key.

isCached($key)

Check whether any data is accociated with the given key.
Returns true or false.

setCache($name)

If you want to switch to another Cache or create a new one, then use this method to set a new Cache name.

setCachePath($path)

The path to the Cache folder must end with a backslash: my_path_to_the_cache_folder/

getCacheDir()

The method returns the path to your current Cache file (the Cache name is be always sh1 encoded):

cache/7505d64a54e061b7acd54ccd58b49dc43500b635.cache

Coming soon...

If you've done one, please let me know.

Simple Cache 1.0 - 29/12/2011

• release First public version
• feature Added timestamp option to the retrieve() method

Simple Cache 0.9 - 25/12/2011

• update Added Quick Start guide to the documentation
• feature Added Method Chaining possibility
• bug Fixed constructor configuration string/array handling

Simple Cache 0.8 - 24/12/2011

• release First internal beta version (tested)
• feature Added Setter and Getter methods
• update Detailed documentation

Simple Cache 0.5 - 22/12/2011

• release First internal alpha version
• update Small documentation

Copyright (c) 2011 - Programmed by Christian Metz / @cosenary
Released under the BSD License.