💡 Today I Learned

Clear Caches

It's not as simple as:

MemoryCache.Default.Dispose(); //DON'T DO THIS!

Once you've done that, subsequently adding items to the cache will silently fail.

All you've done is murder the cache.

A method that does work — but is reportedly too drastic as it is:

  1. slow and

  2. blocks access to the cache during that slow operation is:

    public static void ClearCaches() { foreach (var element in MemoryCache.Default) { MemoryCache.Default.Remove(element.Key); } }

For most of the small-scale sites I'm used to, that is perfectly adequate.

An actually correct method, from http://stackoverflow.com/a/22388943/49

// By Thomas F. Abraham (http://www.tfabraham.com)
namespace CacheTest
{
    using System;
    using System.Diagnostics;
    using System.Globalization;
    using System.Runtime.Caching;

    public class SignaledChangeEventArgs : EventArgs
    {
        public string Name { get; private set; }
        public SignaledChangeEventArgs(string name = null) { this.Name = name; }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Cache change monitor that allows an app to fire a change notification
    /// to all associated cache items.
    /// </summary>
    public class SignaledChangeMonitor : ChangeMonitor
    {
        // Shared across all SignaledChangeMonitors in the AppDomain
        private static event EventHandler<SignaledChangeEventArgs> Signaled;

        private string _name;
        private string _uniqueId = Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

        public override string UniqueId
        {
            get { return _uniqueId; }
        }

        public SignaledChangeMonitor(string name = null)
        {
            _name = name;
            // Register instance with the shared event
            SignaledChangeMonitor.Signaled += OnSignalRaised;
            base.InitializationComplete();
        }

        public static void Signal(string name = null)
        {
            if (Signaled != null)
            {
                // Raise shared event to notify all subscribers
                Signaled(null, new SignaledChangeEventArgs(name));
            }
        }

        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            SignaledChangeMonitor.Signaled -= OnSignalRaised;
        }

        private void OnSignalRaised(object sender, SignaledChangeEventArgs e)
        {
            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(e.Name) || string.Compare(e.Name, _name, true) == 0)
            {
                Debug.WriteLine(
                    _uniqueId + " notifying cache of change.", "SignaledChangeMonitor");
                // Cache objects are obligated to remove entry upon change notification.
                base.OnChanged(null);
            }
        }
    }

    public static class CacheTester
    {
        public static void TestCache()
        {
            MemoryCache cache = MemoryCache.Default;

            // Add data to cache
            for (int idx = 0; idx < 50; idx++)
            {
                cache.Add("Key" + idx.ToString(), "Value" + idx.ToString(), GetPolicy(idx));
            }

            // Flush cached items associated with "NamedData" change monitors
            SignaledChangeMonitor.Signal("NamedData");

            // Flush all cached items
            SignaledChangeMonitor.Signal();
        }

        private static CacheItemPolicy GetPolicy(int idx)
        {
            string name = (idx % 2 == 0) ? null : "NamedData";

            CacheItemPolicy cip = new CacheItemPolicy();
            cip.AbsoluteExpiration = System.DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.AddHours(1);
            cip.ChangeMonitors.Add(new SignaledChangeMonitor(name));
            return cip;
        }
    }
}

I hate this, but haven't found anything better.

Sources

See also