SimplePhpCache

A very simple PHP caching system which can cache HTML output or variables.

Requirements

• PHP 8.2 or higher

Preparation

Install the package with Composer:

composer require tschueller/simplephpcache

Load Composer's autoloader and import the class:

<?php
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use Tschueller\SimplePhpCache\SimplePhpCache;

Set the cacheBaseDir (Optional, default is the system temp directory)

SimplePhpCache::$cacheBaseDir = "./";

Set the max cache time in seconds (Optional, default is 86400 (1 day)):

SimplePhpCache::$maxCacheTime = 3600; // 1h

Cache HTML

<?php
$cacheName = "html_cache_1";
if (SimplePhpCache::initHTMLCaching($cacheName)) {
?>
	// Output your html stuff here
	<h1>Test</h1>
	<?=generateOutput();?>
<?php
}
echo SimplePhpCache::finishHTMLCaching($cacheName);
?>

Cache a variable

<?php
$cacheName = "var_cache_1";
if (SimplePhpCache::initVarCaching($cacheName)) {
	// Variable to cache:
	$dataToCache = array(1, 2, 3);
	SimplePhpCache::setVarCaching($cacheName, $dataToCache);
}
print_r(SimplePhpCache::finishVarCaching($cacheName));
?>

Clear the cache

Clear all cache files

SimplePhpCache::clearCache();

To refresh a special cache file, set in the init method as the second parameter true

// HTML
SimplePhpCache::initHTMLCaching($cacheName, true)

// Variable
SimplePhpCache::initVarCaching($cacheName, true)

---

Migration

From pre-1.0 (global class)

Namespace and autoloading changed (breaking): SimplePhpCache is now the Tschueller\SimplePhpCache\SimplePhpCache class and is loaded via Composer PSR-4 autoloading. Replace manual includes such as include "SimplePhpCache.php"; with Composer's vendor/autoload.php, then import the class:

use Tschueller\SimplePhpCache\SimplePhpCache;

From pre-0.2 (PHP 5.x / 7.x)

PHP version: Minimum requirement is now PHP 8.2.

Variable cache format changed (breaking): variable cache now uses a JSON-based payload format (SPCJSON1: marker + JSON) instead of PHP serialize(). Caching PHP objects is no longer supported.

Legacy cache files: old serialized variable cache files are treated as invalid cache entries. They are deleted and treated as cache miss, then regenerated in the new JSON format on the next write.

Cache ID prefix sanitization: Non-alphanumeric characters in the $idPrefix parameter of clearCache() and getCacheCount() are now stripped. If you relied on special characters in prefixes, update your prefix strings accordingly.

Release Process

When creating a version tag, add a matching section to CHANGELOG.md first:

• ## [x.y.z] - YYYY-MM-DD

This repository includes a GitHub Actions guard that runs on tag pushes and fails if the corresponding changelog release section is missing.