Caching Navigation Nodes

To improve performance, the portal caches each set of navigation nodes required by a user. If a user has access to the same navigation hierarchy as a previous user, the portal can retrieve the navigation hierarchy from the cache instead of generating it again.

The navigation cache stores nodes separately for each navigation connector. The cache stores both entry points and navigation nodes.

Recommendation

The feature is disabled by default so that navigation nodes are not cached during testing and configuration of the portal.

Once the portal is ready for production, the caching feature can be enabled.

End of the recommendation.

For more information, see Navigation Cache and Creating Navigation Connectors.

Activities

Using the navigation cache interface, you can determine if and how the entry points and navigation nodes in your portal are cached.

The main Navigation Cache screen enables you to perform actions on all of the connectors simultaneously as well as access the settings for each connector separately.

You access the interface in the portal from System Administration Navigation Navigation Cache .

Enabling/Disabling the Cache

By default the navigation cache is disabled. The Navigation Connectors table shows the current caching status for each connector.

To enable/disable caching for all navigation connectors:

In the Cache Management area, click Enable All / Disable All.

To enable/disable caching for a specific navigation connector:

In the Navigation Connectors table, in the row containing the connector for which you want to enable caching, click Configure.
In the connector's configuration screen, click Enable Cache.
When the cache is enabled, the text on this button changes to Disable Cache.

Clearing the Cache

If you change the navigation hierarchy, for example by creating a new entry point within a role, the cache is no longer valid and must be cleared. The following options are available for clearing the cache:

Option	Procedure
Clear the cluster cache for all navigation connectors	In the main Navigation Cache screen, in the Cache Management section, click Clear Cluster Cache.
Clear the cluster cache for a specific navigation connector	In the Navigation Connectors table, in the row containing the connector that you want to clear, click Clear Cluster Cache. Changing the cache configuration of a navigation connector and clicking Apply also clears the cluster cache for that connector. For more information, see Configure the Cache below.
Clear the local cache for all navigation connectors	In the main Navigation Cache screen, in the Cache Management section, click Clear Local Cache.
Clear the local cache for a specific navigation connector	In the Navigation Connectors table, in the row containing the connector that you want to clear, click Clear Local Cache.

Synchronizing the Cache

Synchronizing the cache clears and reloads the cache. If you know that changes have been made to navigation nodes or entry points in your portal, you can synchronize the cache with the new data in the PCD or other file system. In this way you can make sure that no performance issues arise when portal users log on after the changes were implemented.

The following options are available for synchronizing the cache:

Option	Procedure
Synchronize the cache for all navigation connectors	In the main Navigation Cache screen, in the Cache Management section, click Synchronize Cache.
Synchronize the cache for a specific navigation connector	In the Navigation Connectors table, in the row containing the connector that you want to clear, click Synchronize Cache.

Note Note

This action might not be available for some connectors. When creating the navigation connector, the developer can specify that the connector cannot be synchronized.

End of the note.

Configuring the Cache

You can change the default settings of the navigation cache for each navigation connector.

In the Navigation Connectors table, in the row containing the connector that you want to configure, click Configure. The Cache Configuration screen appears, where you can:

Enable or disable the cache for this specific connector by clicking Enable/Disable Cache
Configure the cache settings in the Navigation Nodes and Entry Points tabs
- Persistence: Choose between Memory or Database:
  - Memory: Cache entries are saved in the memory of each cluster node.
  - Database: Cache entries are saved both in memory and to the database. We recommend that you use this setting if your system requires synchronization between cluster nodes.
- Number of objects in cache: Refers to the maximum number of objects in the cache region
  The default number of objects in the cache is 5000. We recommend that you set this field so that the expected number of objects in your portal is 70% of the maximum cache size.
- Lifetime: Refers to the time in minutes that the cache objects are valid

Note Note

The configuration settings in the Entry Points and Navigation Nodes tabs do not have to be identical, however we recommend not to specify different Persistence settings.

End of the note.

Click Apply to save the new configuration.

Caution Caution

Applying a new configuration clears the cache and cannot be undone.

End of the caution.

Showing Cache Content

In the Cache Content screen, you can display a list of all the objects currently in the cache.

In the Navigation Connectors table, in the row containing the connector whose contents you want to see, click Show Content. The Cache Content screen opens.
Using regular expressions, specify search criteria to find the objects that you want to view. You can search by key, by value, or by part of the node URL, for example, *myPage*. The search mechanism finds all of the expressions that appear in the cache entry value, including all of the navigation attributes that may be displayed there, such as node title, launch URL, show type, and description.
You can search the entire cache or limit the search to the results already displayed in the table. You can also limit the search to a specific cluster node.
Click Search.
The results table displays the objects that match the specified search criteria.
- To display the details of an object in the results table, click the + icon next to the object.
- To clear specific objects from the cache, select the checkbox next to the object and click Clear Selected.
- To synchronize specific objects in the cache, select the checkbox next to the object and click Synchronize Selected.

Displaying Cache Statistics

You can display performance statistics for each connector's cache.

To open the Cache Statistics interface, in the Navigation Connectors table, in the row containing the connector whose statistics you want to view, click Statistics.

Preloading Roles

You can upload all the roles of a specified user into the navigation cache by configuring the cache preloader service in the navigation cache interface.

In the Cache Preloader Service section, choose Configure.
Define when to run the cache preloader service:
- Run the service every time the cache is cleared.
- Run the service at specific intervals.
You can choose both check boxes so that the service runs at specific intervals as well as running every time the cache is cleared.

Note
You can also run the service at any time by choosing Run Cache Preloader Service in the Cache Preloader Service section of the main cache management screen.

End of the note.
Specify the users roles to upload. In the User Details section, enter the following details:
1. User ID: Enter the ID of the user whose roles you want to upload and choose Validate.
  The default language of the user appears in the Languages field.
2. Additional Languages: Add additional languages for the user.
3. Navigation Levels: Specify the number of navigation levels that you want to upload with the role.
Choose Save User.
The user appears in the List of Users section.
After you have added users, you can edit their details or remove them from the list.
Choose Save Configuration.