Best way to cache RESTful API results of GET calls

Question

I\'m thinking about the best way to create a cache layer in front or as first layer for GET requests to my RESTful API (written in Ruby).

Not every request can be ca

Answer 1

Since REST is an HTTP thing, it could be that the best way of caching requests is to use HTTP caching.

Look into using ETags on your responses, checking the ETag in requests to reply with '304 Not Modified' and having Rack::Cache to serve cached data if the ETags are the same. This works great for cache-control 'public' content.

Rack::Cache is best configured to use memcache for its storage needs.

I wrote a blog post last week about the interesting way that Rack::Cache uses ETags to detect and return cached content to new clients: http://blog.craz8.com/articles/2012/12/19/rack-cache-and-etags-for-even-faster-rails

Even if you're not using Rails, the Rack middleware tools are quite good for this stuff.