NAME

       HTML::Mason::Cache::BaseCache - Base cache object

DESCRIPTION

       This is the base module for all cache implementations used in Mason.  It provides a few additional
       methods on top of "Cache::BaseCache" in Dewitt Clinton's "Cache::Cache" package.

       An object of this class is returned from $m->cache.

METHODS

       clear ()
           Remove all values in the cache.

       get (key, [%params])
           Returns the value associated with key or undef if it is non-existent or expired. This is extended
           with the following optional name/value parameters:

           busy_lock => duration
               If the value has expired, set its expiration time to the current time plus duration (instead of
               removing it from the cache) before returning undef.  This is used to prevent multiple processes
               from recomputing the same expensive value simultaneously. The duration may be of any form
               acceptable to set.

           expire_if => sub
               If the value exists and has not expired, call sub with the cache object as a single parameter. If
               sub returns a true value, expire the value.

       get_object (key)
           Returns the underlying "Cache::Object" object associated with key.  The most useful methods on this
           object are

               $co->get_created_at();    # when was object stored in cache
               $co->get_accessed_at();   # when was object last accessed
               $co->get_expires_at();    # when does object expire

       expire (key)
           Expires the value associated with key, if it exists. Differs from remove only in that the cache
           object is left around, e.g. for retrieval by get_object.

       remove (key)
           Removes the cache object associated with key, if it exists.

       set (key, data, [duration])
           Associates data with key in the cache. duration indicates the time until the value should be erased.
           If duration is unspecified, the value will never expire by time.

           $expires_in may be a simple number of seconds, or a string of the form "[number] [unit]", e.g., "10
           minutes".  The valid units are s, second, seconds, sec, m, minute, minutes, min, h, hour, hours, d,
           day, days, w, week, weeks, M, month, months, y, year, and years.