Django Nginx Memcache

Provides a view decorator. Use it to cache content in Memcache for nginx to retrieve.

The cache keys are hashed using an md5 of the request path without GET parameters,

Installation

1. The usual pip or easy_install from github:

   pip install -e git://github.com/pcraciunoiu/django-nginx-memcache#egg=django-nginx-memcache
   

2. Add nginx_memcache to your installed apps:

   INSTALLED_APPS = (
       # ...
       'nginx_memcache',
       # ...
   )
   

3. Then enable it and set the default cache timeout:

   CACHE_NGINX = True
   CACHE_NGINX_TIME = 3600 * 24  # 1 day, in seconds
   # Default backend to use from settings.CACHES
   # May need to update the nginx conf if this is changed
   CACHE_NGINX_ALIAS = 'default'
   

4. Setup Memcached appropriately as described in Django's cache framework docs.

5. Install Nginx with the set_misc or set_hash module. This is required to compute md5 cache keys from within Nginx. (See installing nginx below).

6. Configure Nginx for direct Memcached page retrieval, i.e:

   location / {
       # Extract cache key args and cache key.
       if ($http_cookie ~* "pv=([^;]+)(?:;|$)") {
         set $page_version $1;
       }
       set_md5 $hash_key $uri&pv=$page_version;
       set $memcached_key :1:$hash_key;
   
       default_type       text/html;
       memcached_pass     127.0.0.1:11211;
       error_page         404 @cache_miss;
   }
   
   location @cache_miss {
       # Your previous django config goes here...
   }
   

Installing Nginx

These instructions apply for Ubuntu 11.04 and above:

# install all dependencies
sudo aptitude install libc6 libpcre3 libpcre3-dev libpcrecpp0 libssl0.9.8 libssl-dev zlib1g zlib1g-dev lsb-base

# download nginx
wget http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.0.11.tar.gz
tar -zxf nginx-1.0.11.tar.gz
rm nginx-1.0.11.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.0.11/

# download modules
wget https://github.com/simpl/ngx_devel_kit/zipball/v0.2.17 -O ngx_devel_kit.zip
unzip ngx_devel_kit.zip
wget https://github.com/agentzh/set-misc-nginx-module/zipball/v0.22rc4 -O set-misc-nginx-module.zip
unzip set-misc-nginx-module.zip
wget https://github.com/agentzh/echo-nginx-module/zipball/v0.37rc7 -O echo-nginx-module.zip
unzip echo-nginx-module.zip

# configure and install
./configure \
    --add-module=simpl-ngx_devel_kit-bc97eea \
    --add-module=agentzh-set-misc-nginx-module-290d6cb \
    --add-module=agentzh-echo-nginx-module-b7ea185 \
    --prefix=/usr \
    --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid \
    --lock-path=/var/lock/nginx.lock \
    --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log \
    --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log \
    --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/body \
    --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf \
    --with-http_flv_module \
    --with-http_ssl_module \
    --with-http_gzip_static_module \
    --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/proxy \
    --with-http_stub_status_module \
    --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/fastcgi \
    --http-uwsgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/uwsgi \
    --http-scgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/scgi
make
sudo make install

# Done, now configure your nginx.

Usage

nginx_memcache.decorators.cache_page_nginx

The cache_page_nginx decorator caches the view's response content in Memcache. Any arguments are optional and outlined below.

Example:

from nginx_memcache.decorators import cache_page_nginx

@cache_page_nginx
def my_view(request):
    ...

This will cache the view's response string in Memcache, and hereafter Nginx will serve from Memcache directly, without hitting your Django server, until the cache key expires.

Optional parameters

cache_timeout

Defaults to settings.CACHE_NGINX_TIME if not specified.

page_version_fn

Use this to return a stringifiable version of the page, depending on the request. Example:

def get_page_version(request):
    if request.user.is_authenticated():
        return 'authed'
    return 'anonymous'

anonymous_only

Don't cache the page unless the user is anonymous, i.e. not authenticated.

Usage with forms and CSRF

If you want to embed forms on a cached page, you can leave out the context {{ csrf() }} or {% csrf_token %} and, instead, append it to all forms using JavaScript post page-load, or when a button is clicked.

Here's example JS and Django code for it:

// JS code
$.ajax({
    url: // your csrf url,
    type: 'GET',
    data: {type: 'login'},  // only if you need a session id for cookie login
    dataType: 'json',
    success: function(data) {
        $('form').each(function() {
            $(this).append(
                '<input type=hidden name=csrfmiddlewaretoken ' +
                    ' value="' + data.token + '">');
        });
    }
});

// Django code
# views.py, don't forget to add to urls.py
def get_csrf(request):
    if request.GET.get('type') == 'login':
        request.session.set_test_cookie()
    return JSONResponse({
        'status': 1,
        'token': getattr(request, 'csrf_token', 'NOTPROVIDED')
    })

Full List of Settings

CACHE_NGINX

Set this to False to disable any caching. E.g. for testing, staging...

CACHE_NGINX_TIME

Default cache timeout.

CACHE_NGINX_ALIAS

Which cache backend to use from settings.CACHES

Contributing

If you'd like to fix a bug, add a feature, etc

1. Start by opening an issue.

   Be explicit so that project collaborators can understand and reproduce the issue, or decide whether the feature falls within the project's goals. Code examples can be useful, too.

2. File a pull request.

   You may write a prototype or suggested fix.

3. Check your code for errors, complaints.

   Use check.py

4. Write and run tests.

   Write your own test showing the issue has been resolved, or the feature works as intended.

Running Tests

To run the tests:

python manage.py test nginx_memcache