Summary of "MAD 2 Open Session - Week 11"

Video Summary: MAD 2 Open Session - Week 11

The session focuses on demonstrating caching in a Flask-based application, particularly using Redis as the caching mechanism.

Caching Overview: Caching is used to enhance web application performance by storing frequently requested resources in a fast-access storage (like Redis) instead of fetching them repeatedly from a database. This reduces latency and improves response times.
Redis as a Caching Solution:
- Redis is chosen because it is an in-memory database, allowing for faster data retrieval compared to traditional disk-based databases.
- The session includes a discussion on various caching techniques, including client-side and server-side caching.
Implementation Steps:
- Set up a Flask application with Redis for caching.
- Use the Flask-Caching library to implement caching with Redis.
- Configure cache settings, including cache type, timeout, and key prefix.

Creating a Flask Application:
- The session demonstrates creating a simple Flask application that uses caching.
- A route is created that simulates a costly database operation using time.sleep().
Caching Mechanism:
- The application caches responses for endpoints, reducing the need to wait for expensive operations on subsequent requests.
- Different caching strategies are discussed, including caching at the endpoint level versus function level.
Cache Expiration:
- The session covers how to manage cache expiration, including setting a Time-To-Live (TTL) for cached data and how to manually delete specific caches.

Cache Configuration:
- Use a global cache key prefix to organize cached data.
- Set appropriate TTL values to avoid serving stale data.
Cache Management:
- Use the delete method to remove specific cached entries based on their dynamic parts.
- Use the clear method to delete all cached entries when significant changes occur in the application.
Memoization:
- Future sessions will cover Memoization, which is crucial when functions accept parameters to ensure that the correct cached data is served based on those parameters.