Caching is basically the storage of web files for later re-use at a point more quickly accessed by the end user (via). It’s one of those great web development terms we’ve all heard of but rarely get around to taking full advantage of. If you’re like me, though, you probably have a lot of questions about caching: What are the best ways to manage and implement caching? Under what circumstances should we do so? When is caching bad?
If you are unfamiliar with caching in general, I highly recommend reading the wikipedia article and checking out Guy Provost’s article on How Caching Works. If you follow that up with the Caching 101 primer, you should have a good grasp on the concept.
If you’re interested in taking your caching knowledge to the next level, read Mark Nottingham’s Caching Tutorial for Web Authors and Webmasters, which looks at caching on Apache, IIS, and Enterprise Server using CGI, PHP, Coldfusion and ASP. It’s a comprehensive article that goes above and beyond most resources. Very excellent.
I’m also going to recommend Caching and Cache Control. It’s a pleasant read that’s packed full of diagrams to make the learning process easier.
After you’ve gone through all the tutorials above, bookmark Web Caching, a valuable caching resource to keep your knowledge on the subject up to date.
Also, if you have any experiences dealing with caching problems, save a developer from a headache and share with us your tips and solutions. Sharing is caring, you know.
