How to cache data in a MVC application

Here's a nice and simple cache helper class/service I use:

using System.Runtime.Caching;  

public class InMemoryCache: ICacheService
{
    public T GetOrSet<T>(string cacheKey, Func<T> getItemCallback) where T : class
    {
        T item = MemoryCache.Default.Get(cacheKey) as T;
        if (item == null)
        {
            item = getItemCallback();
            MemoryCache.Default.Add(cacheKey, item, DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(10));
        }
        return item;
    }
}

interface ICacheService
{
    T GetOrSet<T>(string cacheKey, Func<T> getItemCallback) where T : class;
}

Usage:

cacheProvider.GetOrSet("cache key", (delegate method if cache is empty));

Cache provider will check if there's anything by the name of "cache id" in the cache, and if there's not, it will call a delegate method to fetch data and store it in cache.

Example:

var products=cacheService.GetOrSet("catalog.products", ()=>productRepository.GetAll())

Reference the System.Web dll in your model and use System.Web.Caching.Cache

    public string[] GetNames()
    {
      string[] names = Cache["names"] as string[];
      if(names == null) //not in cache
      {
        names = DB.GetNames();
        Cache["names"] = names;
      }
      return names;
    }

A bit simplified but I guess that would work. This is not MVC specific and I have always used this method for caching data.

I'm referring to TT's post and suggest the following approach:

Reference the System.Web dll in your model and use System.Web.Caching.Cache

public string[] GetNames()
{ 
    var noms = Cache["names"];
    if(noms == null) 
    {    
        noms = DB.GetNames();
        Cache["names"] = noms; 
    }

    return ((string[])noms);
}

You should not return a value re-read from the cache, since you'll never know if at that specific moment it is still in the cache. Even if you inserted it in the statement before, it might already be gone or has never been added to the cache - you just don't know.

So you add the data read from the database and return it directly, not re-reading from the cache.