Also, FusionCache has some other nice additional features:

• Portable: targets .NET Standard 2.0
• Null caching: explicitly supports caching of null values differently than "no value". This creates a less ambiguous usage, and typically leads to better performance because it avoids the classic problem of not being able to differentiate between "the value was not in the cache, go check the database" and "the value was in the cache, and it was null"
• Distributed cache circuit-breaker: it is possible to enable a simple circuit-breaker for when a distributed cache becomes temporarily unavailable. This will prevent the distributed cache to be hit with an additional load of requests (that would probably fail anyway) in a problematic moment, so it can gracefully get back on its feet. More advanced scenarios can be covered using a dedicated solution, like Polly
• Dynamic Jittering: setting JitterMaxDuration will add a small randomized extra duration to a cache entry's normal duration. This is useful to prevent variations of the Thundering Herd problem in a multi-node scenario
• Hot Swap: supports thread-safe changes of the entire distributed cache implementation (add/swap/removal)
• Code comments: every property and method is fully documented in code, with useful informations provided via IntelliSense or similar technologies
• Fully annotated for nullability: every usage of nullable references has been annotated for a better flow analysis by the compiler

⭐ Quick Start

FusionCache can be installed via the nuget UI (search for the ZiggyCreatures.FusionCache package) or via the nuget package manager console:

PM> Install-Package ZiggyCreatures.FusionCache

As an example, imagine having a method that retrieves a product from your database:

Product GetProductFromDb(int id) {
	// YOUR DATABASE CALL HERE
}

💡 This is using the sync programming model, but it would be equally valid with the newer async one for even better performance.

To start using FusionCache the first thing is create a cache instance:

var cache = new FusionCache(new FusionCacheOptions());

If instead you are using DI (Dependency Injection) use this:

services.AddFusionCache();

We can also specify some global options, like a default FusionCacheEntryOptions object to serve as a default for each call we'll make, with a duration of 2 minutes and a Low priority:

var cache = new FusionCache(new FusionCacheOptions() {
	DefaultEntryOptions = new FusionCacheEntryOptions {
		Duration = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(2),
		Priority = CacheItemPriority.Low
	}
});

Or, using DI, like this:

services.AddFusionCache(options => {
	options.DefaultEntryOptions = new FusionCacheEntryOptions {
		Duration = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(2),
		Priority = CacheItemPriority.Low
	}
});

Now, to get the product from the cache and, if not there, get it from the database in an optimized way and cache it for 30 sec simply do this:

var id = 42;

cache.GetOrSet<Product>(
	$"product:{id}",
	_ => GetProductFromDb(id),
	TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30)
);

That's it 🎉

🧰 Supported Platforms

FusionCache targets .NET Standard 2.0, so any compatible .NET implementation is fine.

NOTE: if you are running on .NET Framework 4.6.1 and want to use .NET Standard packages Microsoft suggests to upgrade to .NET Framework 4.7.2 or higher (see the .NET Standard Documentation) to avoid some known dependency issues.