# Do apps like basecamp, highrise, blinksale, etc. use caching?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/do-apps-like-basecamp-highrise-blinksale-etc-use-caching/120203>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [November 14, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/do-apps-like-basecamp-highrise-blinksale-etc-use-caching/120203 "2007-11-14T19:16:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jko170](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@jko170](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jko170)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/do-apps-like-basecamp-highrise-blinksale-etc-use-caching/120203/1 "2007-11-14T19:16:51Z")

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I want to start using memcache for my app and I was wondering if you  
use memcache, do you even need to use action or fragment caching? Do  
the popular webapps only use memcache? Thanks.

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**Author:** ![jko170](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@jko170](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jko170)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 7:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/do-apps-like-basecamp-highrise-blinksale-etc-use-caching/120203/2 "2007-11-14T19:48:29Z")

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> I want to start using memcache for my app and I was wondering if you  
> use memcache, do you even need to use action or fragment caching? Do  
> the popular webapps only use memcache? Thanks.

Why not use action/fragment caching that is backed by memcache?

That’s what we do. In addition to caching other random things like SQL  
results…

-philip

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**Author:** ![jko170](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@jko170](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jko170)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/do-apps-like-basecamp-highrise-blinksale-etc-use-caching/120203/3 "2007-11-15T18:43:45Z")

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Phil,

Does that offer significant speed over using just memcache? Because if  
not, it is not worth it because expiring fragments is a pain in the  
ass.

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![jko170](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@jko170](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jko170)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 7:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/do-apps-like-basecamp-highrise-blinksale-etc-use-caching/120203/4 "2007-11-15T19:17:09Z")

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> Does that offer significant speed over using just memcache? Because if  
> not, it is not worth it because expiring fragments is a pain in the  
> ass.

Make it so that when you cache the fragment you can specify an expire  
time  
that gets passed to memcache so the fragment goes away on it’s own after  
a  
certain period of time.

Depending on how much rendering still has to happen, yeah, it can help.

Then again, you may not need it so spending time on it now might be  
overkill.

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**Author:** ![jko170](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@jko170](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jko170)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 3:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/do-apps-like-basecamp-highrise-blinksale-etc-use-caching/120203/5 "2008-01-10T03:39:39Z")

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Can I use memcache for page caching?

I am using page caching for my RSS feed.

I think once I run mongrels in a clustered of machines, I’d have  
problems with page caching because the page caching can’t be expired on  
all machines automatically.