Zend Server User Guide > Concepts > Data Cache

Data Cache

The Zend Data Cache component provides a set of PHP functions to improve performance by storing data in the cache.

The Zend Data Cache is used to cache different types of data (e.g., strings, arrays and objects), as well as script output or script output elements for various durations. Items can be stored in shared memory (SHM) or to disk. Namespaces are supported, to group cached objects for easy management.

Data Caching is primarily used when it is impractical or impossible to cache the entire page output, such as when sections of the script are fully dynamic, or when the conditions for caching the script are too numerous. An example of this kind of usage is when some of the output is a form: The data may include credit card numbers, addresses and other kinds of information that should not be cached, for security reasons.

How do I work with Data Cache?

Data Cache API

The Data Cache API includes the following functionality:

Storing variables to the cache
Fetching variables to the cache
Deleting variables from the cache
Clearing the cache
Disk/memory (SHM) storage
Caching using namespaces
Cache folder depth configuration

Note:

Zend Data Cache is disabled when running PHP in CLI mode.