Definitive Guide to Yurbi FastCache (In-Memory Dashboards)
Yurbi FastCache is an incredibly helpful feature that makes Yurbi even more intuitive. But how does it work, exactly?
In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about Yurbi FastCache!
The Ultimate Guide to Yurbi FastCache
Let this article guide you to everything you need to know about Yurbi FastCache and how you can maximize it to your advantage.
What is FastCache?
FastCache allows Yurbi users to schedule in advance the execution of a dashboard, resulting in a near-instant display of cached data rather than a live query to a database while viewing that dashboard.
When the caching criteria are satisfied, and the user loads that specific dashboard, instead of conducting a live query to the database, FastCache provides an in-memory version of the dashboard.
Instead of doing a live query on the database, which takes time and places additional pressure on the database, FastCache displays an in-memory cached version of the dashboard.
FastCache has many features and advantages. You may choose how often you want a dashboard to cache on a per-dashboard basis. As a result, some can update every thirty minutes, while others only update once a day, and so on.
FastCache isn’t simply a standard caching solution. The cache considers the user’s security, data access, and even the filters that have been set as default on their dashboard. As a result, each viewing a dashboard will only see their data. This information is cached and tailored to their choices.
You may also decide which users have access to the function. Thus, the caching option does not have to be enabled for all users.
Data returns to the real-time mode when the user changes a filter on the dashboard or drills down into a report from the dashboard. Yurbi will display the user’s most recent data.
The Use Cases of FastCache
There are many use cases for FastCache, namely, involving different dashboard visualizations.
Software Vendors Embedding Dashboards
FastCache can give a quick response time for your users when they login to look at dashboards. This is very useful if you want to decrease database load.
Businesses Providing Dashboards to Their Internal Users
There’s no need to query live if your data updates once a day. This minimizes database load, allowing users to see dashboards more quickly. If you have complicated dashboards that include data from numerous sources and need to speed up the presentation for consumers, this is useful.
Businesses That Share Data on Their Public-Facing Website
Millions of people may visit your website, and they want to get the information as soon as possible. A million queries hitting the database is never a good thing. Businesses who wish to present a COVID dashboard, for example, will find this useful. FastCache may also be utilized internally, as it removes all query time and database load by allowing all users to access a cached dashboard anonymously.
How to Turn on FastCache
Turning FastCache on is not too difficult. Simply follow these steps:
Enable a cache refresh period in minutes in the Dashboard. 0 denotes “off,” and the minimum time we allow is 30 minutes by default. However, you may adjust this in the server configuration files if you want to refresh the cache more often than 30 minutes. Please set it to 60 seconds for an hour, 1440 seconds for a day, or any number in between.
A Yurbi admin can then enable FastCache for each user that requires it. Via Admin → Permissions, an admin user can enable FastCache on a per-user basis. FastCache is turned off by default for all users. There is no additional license required to enable FastCache. However, see the best practices below before enabling it for all your users.
Simply enabling a refresh period on the dashboard and enabling the feature for a user doesn’t turn on in-memory caching. In the last step, users should “favorite” the dashboards they want. This is an important step, as not every dashboard with FastCache enabled will cache for every user who has the option enabled by default. This ensures that only the dashboards of interest are cached and not all dashboards the user has access to (which can be quite a lot!).
If you do wish to allow the FastCache option on Guest View or Public anonymous dashboards, there is a server configuration setting to enable it. Because Guest Views are anonymous, they don’t have a user account to alter, requiring a specific setting.
When you enable the functionality on the server, it becomes available for any dashboard with Guest View enabled.
Technical Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices for Using FastCache
FastCache is a great tool on its own, but you can make the most out of it with some cool tips from us. Consider a few tips, tricks, and best practices for using FastCache:
- Users may simply go to the Library and add a dashboard to their favorites list for internal enterprises. You may use the API to programmatically add and delete dashboards from an end user’s favorite list, as well as regulate the cache for software suppliers who embed dashboards.
- All cached dashboards are saved in the Yurbi root or FastCache folder on the Yurbi server hard disk as a non-viewable file. Cashed dashboards are loaded into memory on the server after being saved in the FastCache folder.
- Every three minutes, loading cached files into memory takes place. As a result, if you enable FastCache, it may take up to 3-5 minutes before you see it in action.
- If you have to reboot your Yurbi server, you don’t lose your cache or have to put a burden on your database to rebuild the cache. It simply reloads the files that you previously cached into memory.
- If you return the FastCache period to 0 on the dashboard, it will delete the cache files from the server.
- When a user’s FastCache is off, the server’s files for that user are deleted.
- It will re-execute all the dashboards and create new cache files if you remove all the files in the FastCache folder.
Exciting New Developments for Yurbi FastCache
Some really exciting things are coming to FastCache!
We plan to add the ability to set rules to add and remove users from cashing based on login activity and the ability to enhance admin abilities and control. We also plan on extending caching to reports rather than just dashboards. You can vote for these suggestions and add your own to our roadmap.
We are excited about having a powerful feature like FastCache as a core part of Yurbi. And like the rest of the features in Yurbi, we don’t license it as an option, and it’s available for our smallest to largest users.
The team at Yurbi is always looking for new ideas from our customers. We want to build a product that provides our customers with the right functionalities and solutions! Hop on over to our Roadmap page to leave your suggestions.