From 521026897c3278344f76d9a7f0555acb49a724fb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Brendan Abolivier Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2023 14:16:33 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Add documentation for caching in a module (#14026) * Add documentation for caching in a module * Changelog * Formatting * Wrap lines at a length that mdbook is happier with * Typo fix Co-authored-by: Erik Johnston * Link to recent version of the API In the longer term I'd like to see us generate markdown with Sphinx. * Refer to public `cached` decorator * Mark caching as being added in 1.74 Some of the underlying infrastructure was added in 1.69, but the public-facing `cached` decorator was only added in 1.74. It is the latter that I think we should be advertising. * Update docs/modules/writing_a_module.md Co-authored-by: Patrick Cloke --------- Co-authored-by: David Robertson Co-authored-by: Erik Johnston Co-authored-by: Patrick Cloke --- changelog.d/14026.doc | 1 + docs/modules/writing_a_module.md | 56 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 57 insertions(+) create mode 100644 changelog.d/14026.doc diff --git a/changelog.d/14026.doc b/changelog.d/14026.doc new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..28fc5568ea --- /dev/null +++ b/changelog.d/14026.doc @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Document how to use caches in a module. diff --git a/docs/modules/writing_a_module.md b/docs/modules/writing_a_module.md index 30de69a533..b99f64b9d8 100644 --- a/docs/modules/writing_a_module.md +++ b/docs/modules/writing_a_module.md @@ -83,3 +83,59 @@ the callback name as the argument name and the function as its value. A Callbacks for each category can be found on their respective page of the [Synapse documentation website](https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse). + +## Caching + +_Added in Synapse 1.74.0._ + +Modules can leverage Synapse's caching tools to manage their own cached functions. This +can be helpful for modules that need to repeatedly request the same data from the database +or a remote service. + +Functions that need to be wrapped with a cache need to be decorated with a `@cached()` +decorator (which can be imported from `synapse.module_api`) and registered with the +[`ModuleApi.register_cached_function`](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/release-v1.77/synapse/module_api/__init__.py#L888) +API when initialising the module. If the module needs to invalidate an entry in a cache, +it needs to use the [`ModuleApi.invalidate_cache`](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/release-v1.77/synapse/module_api/__init__.py#L904) +API, with the function to invalidate the cache of and the key(s) of the entry to +invalidate. + +Below is an example of a simple module using a cached function: + +```python +from typing import Any +from synapse.module_api import cached, ModuleApi + +class MyModule: + def __init__(self, config: Any, api: ModuleApi): + self.api = api + + # Register the cached function so Synapse knows how to correctly invalidate + # entries for it. + self.api.register_cached_function(self.get_user_from_id) + + @cached() + async def get_department_for_user(self, user_id: str) -> str: + """A function with a cache.""" + # Request a department from an external service. + return await self.http_client.get_json( + "https://int.example.com/users", {"user_id": user_id) + )["department"] + + async def do_something_with_users(self) -> None: + """Calls the cached function and then invalidates an entry in its cache.""" + + user_id = "@alice:example.com" + + # Get the user. Since get_department_for_user is wrapped with a cache, + # the return value for this user_id will be cached. + department = await self.get_department_for_user(user_id) + + # Do something with `department`... + + # Let's say something has changed with our user, and the entry we have for + # them in the cache is out of date, so we want to invalidate it. + await self.api.invalidate_cache(self.get_department_for_user, (user_id,)) +``` + +See the [`cached` docstring](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/release-v1.77/synapse/module_api/__init__.py#L190) for more details.