August, 2010 | timneill

Quick Zend Cache Setup

Here’s a quick solution to get a cache running on your Zend Framework install. It’s very simple and should provide a good solution for most small-scale sites.

You can put this code inside of your bootstrap file. I like to use the method style for invoking the bootstrapper.

// Disable auto buffer and instead leave it to the cache

Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->setParam('disableOutputBuffering', true);
$frontendOptionsCore = array(
    'automatic_serialization' => true,
    'lifetime' => 600
);

$frontendOptionsPage = array(
    'automatic_serialization' => true,
    'lifetime' => 600,
    'default_options' => array(
        'cache_with_get_variables' => true,
        'cache_with_session_variables' => true,
        'cache_with_cookie_variables' => true,
        'make_id_with_get_variables' => true,
        'make_id_with_session_variables' => true,
        'make_id_with_cookie_variables' => false
        )
    );

$backendOptions  = array('cache_dir' => APPLICATION_PATH . '/data/cache');
$coreCache = Zend_Cache::factory('Core', 'File', $frontendOptionsCore, $backendOptions);
$pageCache = Zend_Cache::factory('Page', 'File', $frontendOptionsPage, $backendOptions);

// Start running the page cache immediately
$pageCache->start();

// Set global cache objects
Zend_Registry::set('coreCache', $coreCache);
Zend_Registry::set('pageCache', $pageCache);

// Start running the DB/Core cache
Zend_Db_Table_Abstract::setDefaultMetadataCache(Zend_Registry::get('coreCache'));

// Disable auto buffer and instead leave it to the cache

Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance()->setParam('disableOutputBuffering', true);

$frontendOptionsCore = array(

'automatic_serialization' => true,

'lifetime' => 600

);

$frontendOptionsPage = array(

'automatic_serialization' => true,

'lifetime' => 600,

'default_options' => array(

'cache_with_get_variables' => true,

'cache_with_session_variables' => true,

'cache_with_cookie_variables' => true,

'make_id_with_get_variables' => true,

'make_id_with_session_variables' => true,

'make_id_with_cookie_variables' => false

)

);

$backendOptions = array('cache_dir' => APPLICATION_PATH . '/data/cache');

$coreCache = Zend_Cache::factory('Core', 'File', $frontendOptionsCore, $backendOptions);

$pageCache = Zend_Cache::factory('Page', 'File', $frontendOptionsPage, $backendOptions);

// Start running the page cache immediately

$pageCache->start();

// Set global cache objects

Zend_Registry::set('coreCache', $coreCache);

Zend_Registry::set('pageCache', $pageCache);

// Start running the DB/Core cache

Zend_Db_Table_Abstract::setDefaultMetadataCache(Zend_Registry::get('coreCache'));

What this snippet does is initialise two related caches – a core cache, and a page cache. The core cache (in this instance) is attached to our database table abstract class, which allows results to be stored as serialized strings. The page cache is invoked whenever template output is due to occur, and saves pre-rendered HTML for immediate output.

You can find all the documentation for tweaking your cache settings in the Zend_Cache documention.

Simple Age-Check in iPhone SDK

For a recent project, I needed to get the user’s age within my iPhone application. It was a simple “how old are you?” question. Here’s the quick snippet for how I went about getting that info.

What you’ll already need is either:

a UIPickerView object created, initialized, and set in your view controller; or
a UIPickerView created and attached using Interface Builder.

In this example, I’m using the variable name pickerView for my UIPickerView object.

    NSCalendar *gregorian = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];

    NSDateComponents *components = [gregorian components:NSYearCalendarUnit fromDate:[[self pickerView] date] toDate:[NSDate date] options:0];
    NSInteger years = [components year];

    NSLog(@"User is %d years old", years);

NSCalendar *gregorian = [[NSCalendar alloc] initWithCalendarIdentifier:NSGregorianCalendar];

NSDateComponents *components = [gregorian components:NSYearCalendarUnit fromDate:[[self pickerView] date] toDate:[NSDate date] options:0];

NSInteger years = [components year];

NSLog(@"User is %d years old", years);

That’s it! How accurate it is depends entirely on Apple’s implementation. You can also do the same for any of the calendar values listed in the NSLocale documentation.

Zend, SSL, and mod_rewrite

I had a Zend project in which we had to use the Apache module mod_rewrite to “toggle” our secure connection depending on what pages the user landed on. The requirements were something like:

User visits any administration or account pages, and SSL is off, switch it on
User visits a page that is not an administration or account page, and SSL is on switch it off

As it was a Zend MVC project, we also had a rewrite rule that routed everything to /index.php in the document root.

This is Zend’s recommended .htaccess rule for routing:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d

RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]

RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]

For the uninitiated, the block says: If the request is a valid file that exists, or it is a directory, don’t rewrite the URL, otherwise, rewrite the whole string to read “index.php.” The framework will generally just read the query string server variable and go from there.

So on to my additions for toggling SSL.

#SSL Redirection
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/(account|admin) [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^secure\.domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1 [R,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /(account|admin) [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://secure.domain.com/$1 [R,L]

# Zend routing
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]

#SSL Redirection

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/(account|admin) [NC]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^secure\.domain\.com$ [NC]

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1 [R,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /(account|admin) [NC]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com$ [NC]

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://secure.domain.com/$1 [R,L]

# Zend routing

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d

RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]

RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]

The above code checks the secure protocol, and then checks the requested path (in this case, /admin or /account). In finding that, it toggles the SSL accordingly.

Here’s the problem: because the two toggling rules only work if triggered as a redirect, the server’s request URL is rewritten twice, meaning that any “toggling” will result in a flat redirect to /index.php, breaking the application.

After hours of testing, rewriting, and Google-fu, I came up with this fix:

RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]

1	RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]

becomes:

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [NC,L]

1	RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [NC,L]

This means that the request is reattached to the end of the query all the time. This is hidden from the user (i.e. no ugly index.php/admin/login/ or what-have-you), and is successfully passed onto Zend to trigger the appropriate dispatcher. This works for any number of redirects.

Hope this saves someone else hours of trial-and-error.