Implementing WCM caching using Pre-Rendering technique

One of the simplest ways of caching WCM content is using Pre-Rendering. Snap shot of the site will be taken while pre-rendering. The site can be pre-rendered in WCM or any other web server depending upon the requirement. The contents can be viewed from WCM or web server. As the whole site is pre-rendered, the response will be extremely fast. The cacher module is used to pre-render the site.

Automatically running cacher module

The cacher module can be configured to run automatically by defining a property in WCMConfigService.properties file.

connect.businesslogic.module.cacher.autoload=true

Manually running the cacher module

Cacher module can be run manually using the URL interface. Below is an example of the URL to cache a site.

http://<host_name>:<port_number>/wps/wcm/connect?MOD=Cacher&Site=siteName&SRV=siteToBeCached&library=library_name

Following are the possible values of SRV parameter.

Service	Required Parameters	Optional Parameters
SRV=siteToBeCached The specified site will be pre-rendered with a delay mentioned in DELAY parameter	SITE = siteName Site name	DELAY  Delay in seconds LIBRARY Library name of the site. If the library parameter is not mentioned, the default library specified in the WCMConfigService.properties will be used.
SRV=flushSiteCache The pre-rendered data for site is deleted	SITE Site name	LIBRARY Library name of the site. If the library parameter is not mentioned, the default library specified in the WCMConfigService.properties will be used.

A page in the site also can be pre-rendered using the URL interface. Below is an example of the URL to cache a specific page.

http://localhost:port/wps/wcm/connect/library_name/site_name/site_area_name/content?MOD=Cacher

When SRV parameter is not specified in the URL, the page specified in the URL will be cached by the cacher module. Below is an example URL to delete a specific page from the pre-rendered site.

http://localhost:port/wps/wcm/connect/library_name/site_name/site_area_name/content?MOD=Cacher&SRV=flushPageCache

Limitations

There are some limitations of using pre-rendering technique like.

• Pre-rendering can be implemented only when the content is rendered using Remote Rendering Portlet.
• Characters that are considered as invalid in file name (depending on the operating system of the pre-rendered site) can not be used in the name field of Site, Site Areas and Content items.
• The path of the content item (e.g. site/sitearea/content) can not exceed operating system’s maximum path length (255 characters for Windows and 1024 characters for Linux)
• JSP components can not be pre-rendered.
• Can not grant access for different users in a pre-rendered site. The access is granted for the entire site based on the following property defined in WCMConfigService.properties file.

connect.moduleconfig.cacher.rendereruser = username