The State Changers meeting focused on the technical challenge of adequately storing and caching API results for relatively short time periods to feed a sports scoring app without overwriting a database. The participant had initially thought about utilising response caching in Xano, but was advised that it wasn't best suited for this task as response caching is more effective when the same question is asked repeatedly and the same result is delivered.
To address the problem, the participant was recommended to use Xano's data caching function instead of response caching. This suggestion was based on the more temporary nature of the data use, as data caching supports storing arbitrary data in a memory store for quick accessibility. Unlike response caching, where data is cache per function or endpoint, data caching works as a key-value store, which allows the storing of data that doesn't fit the tabular setup of databases, by linking individual pieces of data to unique keys. By using the data caching function, the participant was instructed to set a cache value using a unique game identifier key and then, by using the same key, retrieving the stored API call results when required. One issue noted was the reduced reliability of this method over longer periods, but given the short-lived relevance of the data for the sports scoring app, data caching was identified as the better solution. The participant was assured that if any difficulty arose in accessing the data from the cache, they could encode it before being cached and decode it when being retrieved. Despite this, it was agreed that additional troubleshooting might be necessary in the future. Conclusively, the meeting provided valuable insights on the effective utilization and differences of response caching and data caching in Xano, particularly in scenarios where data must be quickly retrieved and the use of a traditional database is not most efficient. Additionally, the significance of assigning unique identifiers was discussed extensively.
(Source: Office Hours 12/5 )
