Can't tell if Stash cache is working

Question

I have two chunks of data in the same 'viewModel' template:

{!-- Getting data for kitchen list --}
{exp:stash:set_list
    name="kitchen_list"
    parse_tags="yes"
    save="yes"
    scope="site"
    refresh="1440"
    replace="no"
}
  {exp:channel:entries
    channel="kitchen_list"
    disable="member_data|pagination|categories"
  }
    {stash:title}{title}{/stash:title}
    {stash:url_title}{url_title}{/stash:url_title}
    {stash:url_title_path}{url_title_path='sky-island-natural-foods/whats-cooking'}{/stash:url_title_path}
    {stash:description_brief}{kitchen_description_brief}{/stash:description_brief}
    {stash:description_full}{kitchen_description_full}{/stash:description_full}
    {stash:photo_product}{kitchen_photo_product}{/stash:photo_product}
  {/exp:channel:entries}
{/exp:stash:set_list}

{!-- Getting data for kitchen list page --}
{exp:stash:set_list
    name="kitchen_page"
    parse_tags="yes"
    save="yes"
    scope="site"
    refresh="1440"
    replace="no"
}
  {exp:channel:entries
    channel="kitchen_page"
    disable="member_data|pagination|categories"
    limit="1"
  }
    {stash:title}{title}{/stash:title}
    {stash:sidebar_heading}{kitchen_page_sidebar_heading}{/stash:sidebar_heading}
    {stash:sidebar}{kitchen_page_sidebar}{/stash:sidebar}
  {/exp:channel:entries}
{/exp:stash:set_list}

It all works fine, but when I look at the stash table with Sequel Pro as I navigate the pages, it seems that the kitchen_list does not get rewritten to the database (I thought replace="no" took care of this) on each subsequent page visit, but kitchen_page does get rewritten every time I revisit a page which uses that data. So there are multiple row in the table for kitchen_page with identical data, just different IDs, but there is only one row for kitchen_list.

I expected that by caching the fragments of data and using replace="no", I would only see a single row in the stash table for that fragment, no matter how many times the stash list was called.

I can't tell if there is something off with my code, or just my assumptions/understanding of the caching. Thank you.

Answer 1

If your code above is in a Stash file (i.e., not a regular EE template), double-check to make sure that you have this Stash config set:

$config['stash_file_sync'] = TRUE;

I've had this happen to me a few times: I make a change in a Stash file, forget that I have that setting set to FALSE, and wonder why my code isn't working as expected.

Answer 2

I'm afraid I cannot reproduce this problem. Logged in/out, cookies enabled or disabled, I find that the cached items are generated only once until they expire. Tested with both EE 2.6.1 and EE 2.7.2 and Stash 2.4.6.

To rule out a server vs php timezone configuration issue (where the expiry date may fall in the the past of the server) please try with refresh="0" (never expires).

You mentioned you are using a third party cache-breaking extension. Please remove this extension entirely from your system folder and make sure it is not listed in the exp_extensions table (if it is, delete the record). Make sure that the Stash extension IS installed.

Please truncate your exp_stash table, and delete your cookies for the testing domain.

Create a new template with only your code above in it, and view it.

Do you still have the problem? If so, as you are using scope="site" the session_id in the stash table for each variable should be _global. Is that the case or do you see a long string of characters?

Answer 3

I figured it out eventually. I am using a config bootstrap which I set up when I was first learning ExpressionEngine and haven't looked at it much since, apart from updating db settings etc.

I had: $config['enable_db_caching'] = "y";

and EE was caching the stash chunks before stash could which was causing all the trouble when I was logged in. I've turned this setting off in the config now and it is behaving as expected.

I now realize this setting was causing problems with some of the other modules I'm using. A few issues I've had now make sense!