Localized cache store in Rails

Today I have got a question in the Ruby on Rails Core mailing list:

Tonight was the first time i faced one new bug on my website, when i saw one cached partial to be returned in another language than currently selected one. That was i guess because that cache was generated when another locale was enabled. Hence, shouldn't local be included by default into cache key?

So, shouldn't we include the current locale into Rails cache key?

As for the defaults, my guess is no. As DHH said, only a very small minority of apps need localization, and I totally agree with him.

But to solve this particular case described in a mailing list, I've started looking for a way to specify a global cache key prefix.

First of all, Rails.cache API already has a simple way to pass a lambda with a namespace, but it isn't global:

{% highlight ruby %} Rails.cache.read(:name, { namespace: ->() { I18n.locale } }) {% endhighlight %}

First option was to add the namespace option to Rails config. There were two reasons why I didn't stick with it:

  1. config.cache_store accepts only store-specific settings and we would have to introduce a new option like config.cache_key_namespace

  2. it's always better to find a solution without modifying Rails.

So, here is the better way that I found:

{% highlight ruby %} Rails.application.configure do

...

def LocalizedCacheStore(klass) Class.new(klass) do def namespaced_key(key, options) "#{I18n.locale}:#{super}" end end end

config.cache_store = LocalizedCacheStore(ActiveSupport::Cache::FileStore).new end {% endhighlight %}

I borrowed few ideas from the Functional (tm) approach: LocalizedCacheStore wraps existing cache class as a function, and you still have all control on your cache store if you need some options:

{% highlight ruby %} config.cache_store = LocalizedCacheStore(ActiveSupport::Cache::RedisStore).new( 'redis://localhost:6379/0/cache', { expires_in: 90.minutes }) {% endhighlight %}

As for me, it proves the great flexibility of Ruby and Rails: we didn't have to change any framework code, and LocalizedCacheStore logic is only 5 lines of code (two of them are ends).

Written in September 2015.
Kir Shatrov

Kir Shatrov helps businesses to grow by scaling the infrastructure. He writes about software, scalability and the ecosystem. Follow him on Twitter to get the latest updates.