WordPress transients

wp-transients-example.php

<?php

/**==================================================================================
 * WordPress transients example.
 *
 * This file shows the normal usage for WordPress transients with beefy comments.
 *
 * @author Otto J. Rask
 */

/**==================================================================================
 * INTRODUCTION
 *
 * WordPress transients are a way to cache temporary data, such as database queries,
 * API request results, post likes, and even whole HTML templates.
 *
 * Transients are saved to a cache system, such as memcache or Redis. By default
 * WordPress uses its own database, so transients work everywhere where WordPress
 * does.
 *
 * Transients are not hard to use, but there are some good and bad use cases. Also a
 * few gotchas that might make your site work strangely or break in a bad case.
 */

/**==================================================================================
 * STEP 1
 * Define the transient key to which to save and from which to load the transient
 * cacheable value.
 *
 * Transient keys should be unique per value. Example for generating transient keys:
 *
 * -   Grab a WP_Query and serialize its query variables, then pipe it through
 *     `md5()` to generate a simple alphanumeric string for the key. Then prefix it
 *     with a custom key, such as ` myquery_`, which results in
 *     `myquery_123456abcdef` or similar.
 *
 * The key (no pun intended) is to make the key unique regarding to what is being
 * saved to the transient cache.
 *
 * Remember: as of now/as far as I know, the WP options table (where transients are
 * stored by default) limits the key length. To be safe, limit the transient key
 * length (including prefixes) to 45 characters. If you have a key, you can use
 * `substr($key, 0, 45);` to trim excess characters.
 */

// Custom hand-written key (remember 45 char limit!):
$custom_key = 'mykey_myuniqueidentifierhere'

// Or perhaps a generated key? Following are WP_Query arguments for some kind of
// posts that have a `post_thumbnail` set:
$query_args = array(
    'post_type' => 'post',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'meta_key' => '_thumbnail_id',
    'meta_value' => 0,
    'meta_compare' => '>',
    'posts_per_page' => 3
);

// Serialize the arguments and generate a unique key for transients to use.
$query_key = 'myvalue_' . md5(serialize($query_args));

// Following trims it down to 45 characters.
$query_key = substr($query_key, 0, 45);

/**==================================================================================
 * STEP 2
 * Get the transient value from cache.
 *
 * The cache can be the WP database, memcache, Redis, or any other object cache that
 * is handled through `wp-content/object-cache.php`. Some object caches need plugins
 * or customizations to your web server (e.g. memcache needs the memcached service to
 * run in order to function properly).
 *
 * You could even write your own implementation that saves the transient data to a
 * CSV file (not recommended, as transients work best with fast systems, IO is not
 * fast generally).
 *
 * WordPress defaults to using a database. It uses the `wp_options` table to save
 * transients.
 */

// Get transient cached data for the key we generated above.
$transient_value = get_transient($query_key);

// Oh wow was it that easy?

/**==================================================================================
 * STEP 3
 * Validate if the value has been cached to the transient.
 *
 * If the value has been cached to the transient (using the unique key),
 * `$transient_value` now contains the exact value that has been saved to it.
 *
 * If no value has been saved, `get_transient` will return `false`. Remember to
 * validate the `false` value strictly (using `===` or `!==`), because a
 * transient could contain a "falsy" value such as `0` or `''` (empty string),
 * which evaluate to `false` when using loose checking (`==` or `!==`).
 */

// Strict check for false (empty) transient.
if ($transient_value === false) {
    // Oh no, transient value does not exist...

    // ... fetch and save the transient here ...
}

// Strict check for existing transient value.
elseif ($transient_value !== false) {
    // Transient value exists!

    // ... do what you want with the value here ...
}

/**==================================================================================
 * STEP 4
 * Save a transient in case it does not exist (`get_transient` returned `false`).
 *
 * Saving a transient looks a bit similar to loading a transient with
 * `get_transient`. The difference is we're using `set_transient` and we need to have
 * a value to save.
 *
 * Additionally `set_transient` accepts a third parameter, a timeout value. The
 * timeout value determines how many **seconds** a transient is considered to be
 * valid before destroying the value (in which case `get_transient` would return
 * `false` again).
 *
 * If no timeout is set, the transient value is assumed to be valid **forever**.
 * Don't do this, as then it would be the same to just use the Options API. Always
 * define a time out, even if it is a whole year (`60*60*24*365` seconds).
 */

// Transient returns false.
if ($transient_value === false) {
    // We defined some query arguments earlier, use them to make a WP_Query.
    $query = new WP_Query($query_args);

    // WP_Query just did an expensive database request above. Now might be good spot
    // to save the query so we do not have to access the database the next time.

    // Save the query as a transient using the same transient key we used to get the
    // `$transient_value` earlier. Set the query to invalidate in 30 minutes.
    set_transient($query_key, $query, 60*60*30);
}

/**==================================================================================
 * STEP 5
 * Use the transient value in case it returned something else than `false`.
 *
 * If `get_transient` didn't return `false`, it means that we could fetch the wanted
 * transient value from the database or memcahce or Redis or something!
 *
 * If we follow the PHP file from top to bottom, the saved transient was saved to
 * the cache in STEP 4 and now we fetched it.
 *
 * This means that `$transient_value` currently holds the same thing that was saved
 * to the cache, so essentially we can now just do `$query = $transient_value`.
 */

// We got some value from the cached transient.
elseif ($transient_value !== false) {
    // Use the cached query.
    $query = $transient_value;
}

/**==================================================================================
 * STEP 6
 * Onwards! We have what we need, cached or not.
 *
 * Now the `$query` variable contains a WP_Query object regardless whether it was
 * loaded from transient cache or not. Next up we can use it just like we're used to:
 */

// Start Wordpress loop. `$query` contains a good-ole WP_Query for you to use.

// If we have any posts.
if ($query->have_posts()) :

    // While we have any posts.
    while ($query->have_posts()) : the_post();

    ?>

    <div class="post">
        <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>

        ...
    </div>

    <?php

    endwhile;

endif;

/**==================================================================================
 * STEP 7
 * Destroy the cache if needed.
 *
 * One problem with caches is that sometimes they need to be cleared sooner than a
 * default timeout value says.
 *
 * WordPress provides `delete_transient` for deleting transients. Just pass in the
 * unique transient key and WP will take care of it.
 */

// If we want to destroy the transient each time a logged in used visits the page:
if (is_user_logged_in()) {
    delete_transient($transient_key);
}

// Done!

/**==================================================================================
 * FINAL WORDS
 *
 * Be careful of what you save to transients. You should never save private data to a
 * transient that could end up being shown publicly.
 *
 * Don't use transients to store permanent data. Transients and other caches are
 * designed to store temporary data that could disappear at any time. Make sure your
 * website works with and without transients (see the `if-else` checks above.).
 */

/**
 * By the way, this PHP file should work as is in a WordPress theme. Copy-paste it to
 * Your theme and use PHP `include` in a template file such as `index.php`.
 */