Laravel 5 Remote Content Cache

A Laravel 5 framework for retrieving and caching content from remote servers.

This package provides a convenient way to retrieve content from remote servers and cache it for use in Laravel.

The assumption is that this process will be used to create a Laravel front-end for a headless CMS setup. However, there are certainly other use cases for which it should work equally well.

Configuration is handled entirely by a single Laravel config file.

Installation

Step 1: Composer

Via Composer command line:

$ composer require infusionweb/laravel-remote-content-cache

Or add the package to your composer.json:

{
    "require": {
        "infusionweb/laravel-remote-content-cache": "~0.1.0"
    }
}

Step 2: Register the Service Provider

Add the service provider to your config/app.php:

'providers' => [
    //
    Kozz\Laravel\Providers\Guzzle::class,
    InfusionWeb\Laravel\ContentCache\ContentCacheServiceProvider::class,
];

Step 3: Enable the Facade

Add the facade to your config/app.php:

'aliases' => [
    //
    'Guzzle' => Kozz\Laravel\Facades\Guzzle::class,
    'ContentCache' => InfusionWeb\Laravel\ContentCache\ContentCacheFacade::class,
];

Step 4: Publish the package config file

$ php artisan vendor:publish --provider="InfusionWeb\Laravel\ContentCache\ContentCacheServiceProvider"

You may now configure remote API endpoints for consumption and other preferences by editing the config/contentcache.php file.

Step 5: Enable the Artisan Console Command

Add the command to your app/Console/Kernel.php:

protected $commands = [
    //
    \InfusionWeb\Laravel\ContentCache\ContentCacheCommand::class,
];

This enables the console command which can be used to periodically cache the remote content in Laravel:

$ php artisan content:cache

The previous command will cache all configured content types, whereas the following command will cache only the "podcasts" type (assuming it is defined in contentcache.php).

$ php artisan content:cache podcasts

Usage Example

Assuming that a content type "podcasts" is defined in the config/contentcache.php file:

<?php

return [

    /*
     * Default configuration.
     */
    'default' => [
        // Default length of time (in minutes) to cache content.
        'minutes' => 60,
    ],

     /*
      * Configuration for custom content filters.
      */
    'podcasts' => [

        // Length of time (in minutes) to cache content.
        'minutes' => 60 * 3, // 3 hours

        // REST API endpoint for service from which to retrieve content.
        'endpoint' => 'https://podcasts.example.com/api/v1/content/podcasts',
        'query' => ['_format' => 'json'],

        // Perform data filter (value) on given field name (key). So in this
        // case, "id" and "episode" will be cast as integers, and "date_created"
        // and "date_changed" will be cast as Carbon date objects. All other
        // values will be cast as strings.
        'filters' => [
            'id' => 'int',
            'date_created' => 'date',
            'date_changed' => 'date',
            'episode' => 'int',
        ],

        // New fields to be created on cached content object from given field names.
        // E.g. Given an "episode" value of 13 and a "title" of "Lucky 13", the
        // new "slug" attribute (useful for use in routes) will have a value of
        // "13-lucky-13".
        'fields' => [
            'slug' => ['episode', 'title'],
        ],

        // Keys by which the cache should be indexed. I.e. each content
        // object will be cached under each of these index keys.
        'keys' => [
            'id',
            'slug',
            'uuid',
            'episode',
        ],
    ],
];

The following code can be used to cache and retrieve podcast content:

<?php

use ContentCache;

// Manually cache remote podcast episodes, if this process is not handled via the
// Artisan console command.
ContentCache::profile('podcasts')->cache();

// Then retrieve a list of all episodes.
$episodes = ContentCache::profile('podcasts')->getAll();

// This could also be shortened to:
$episodes = ContentCache::profile('podcasts')->cache()->getAll();

// Individual content objects can be retrieved via configured indexes.
// In this case, by ID.
$episode = ContentCache::profile('podcasts')->getBy('id', 13);

// Or by slug (from a Laravel Request object), using the "magic function".
$cache = ContentCache::profile('podcasts');
$episode = $cache->getBySlug('13-lucky-13');

// This makes it easy to hand off to a Blade template.
return view('pages.podcast.episode', compact('episode'));

Credits

• Russell Keppner
• All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.