# Regenerating cached pages automatically **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 16, 2007, 2:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regenerating-cached-pages-automatically/85756 "2007-02-16T02:34:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ba9def/32.png) [@dang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dang)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 2:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regenerating-cached-pages-automatically/85756/1 "2007-02-16T02:34:19Z")
Hi all, I’m trying to generate a bunch of cached pages with a publish function. The idea is that a publish action gets called, there is a sweeper that is activated and called a number of times (once for each page to be re-cached). So far I can happily get the pages expired, but I then want to immediately generate a new page so that the first user to request the new version of the page doesn’t have to wait for it to generate. (I’m working with some fairly big xml files that may take up to a minute or more to generate). My idea was to use cache\_page() but I can’t find a way to get rails to “pretend” to visit the url to generate the page. for example: class PublishSweeper \< ActionController::Caching::Sweeper observe Page def after\_save(record) case record when Page expire\_page :controller =\> “xml”, :action =\> “page”, :id =\> record.id cache\_page :controller =\> “xml”, :action =\> “page”, :id =\> record.id … ================================================================ What I’m aiming for is that the cache\_page call “visits” the url and saves the content to the cache file. Instead the response to the current request is saved to file (which is exactly what the api says it should do…). Alternatively if it’s possible to call a controller method and save the returned value to a variable I could try this: content = PageController.page(1) cache\_page content, :controller =\> “xml”, :action =\> “page”, :id =\> record.id After all that rambling… I have 2 questions: 1 - is there a ‘proper’ way to regenerate cached pages without waiting for the next user to visit that url so that cached pages are always ready. 2 - can I call a controller method (outside the normal request/response - in this case from a sweeper) and save the rendered output to a variable/file or whatever. thanks, Dan ---
**Author:** ![dang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ba9def/32.png) [@dang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dang)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regenerating-cached-pages-automatically/85756/2 "2007-02-17T16:40:41Z")
To answer your questions… 1. The “proper” way of using the cache is _not_ to generate a new cached page. If you edit the page _again_ before any user visited it, then you’d have to needlessly empty the cached version again and repropagate it. 2. I dunno. Have you tried? 🙂 RSL ---
**Author:** ![dang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ba9def/32.png) [@dang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dang)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 11:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regenerating-cached-pages-automatically/85756/3 "2007-02-18T23:19:42Z")
Russell N. wrote: > To answer your questions… > > 1. The “proper” way of using the cache is _not_ to generate a new cached > page. If you edit the page _again_ before any user visited it, then > you’d > have to needlessly empty the cached version again and repropagate it. > 2. I dunno. Have you tried? 🙂 > > RSL Thanks Russell, 1. makes sense in a weblog kind of way, but I’m happy to (and in fact need to) force republishing on any changes (basically _all_ changes must be approved by admin before they can be released), and; 2. render\_to\_string is my new best friend 🙂 (however there are limitations, such as, I can only get it working after converting all of my templates to partials as I can’t seem to get variables into the templates) ---
**Author:** ![dang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ba9def/32.png) [@dang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dang)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2007, 10:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regenerating-cached-pages-automatically/85756/4 "2007-02-26T10:13:14Z")
> 1. render\_to\_string is my new best friend 🙂 (however there are > limitations, such as, I can only get it working after converting all of my templates to partials as I can’t seem to get variables into the > templates) I’m gonna introduce you a new best friend then 😉 render\_component\_as\_string (beats me why the difference in the naming using “as” and not “to” breaking the POLS, but that’s not the point here) will not just render the view but it will call the real action and then render the result as a string. This way you don’t have to worry about partials or about coding your actions in a different way. Just code them as usual, and use them as components. Using components is not recommended sometimes because it will introduce some overhead in your system. Calling a component from another action means Rails has to instantiate a bunch of new objects, but for administrative/batch tasks like cleaning/reloading cache it seems a good option to me. Regards, javier ramirez * * * Estamos de estreno… si necesitas llevar el control de tus gastos visita [http://www.gastosgem.com](http://www.gastosgem.com) !!Es gratis!!