Caching is a feature built into ETO software that was designed to speed up the performance of larger enterprises by providing non-disk-based storage for frequently used data points that create database look-ups. A cached entry from ETO is essentially a copy of data that is stored in the database that becomes easier and quicker to access without the look-up process.
There are several different types of cache entries:
Subjects: Vary by subject type.
Participants: Contain information like standard and custom demographic values and program enrollment information for each participant.
Entities: Contains standard entity information, custom entity attributes, and program enrollments.
Families and family members
Staff records
Sites
Programs
TouchPoint forms: Contain their elements and settings
TouchPoint responses: Contain the answers to questions and information about individual TouchPoint responses.
ETO software uses these cache entries to populate pages like View/Edit Participant, View/Record TouchPoint, Manage Programs, and most Dashboards. When looking at these kinds of pages, you will be looking at the copy of the data that is stored in the cache. Whenever you make a change to the data on these pages, the data will be invalidated and the changes will be repopulated into the cached data. This ensures that the copies of the data in the cache match the data that is stored in the database.
After a cache entry has not been accessed for a period of about thirty days, that cache entry will be invalidated and will not be repopulated. For example, if a participant was dismissed from a program a month ago and no user has visited that participant's View/Edit Participant page or Participant Dashboard, the cache entry for that participant will be removed from the cache. The next time that a user visits a page, a database look-up will be performed and that cache entry will, once again, be valid for the next thirty days, which restarts the next time that a user utilizes the cache entry. This process helps to ensure that the cache for an enterprise does not get clogged up with inactive data that users are not accessing consistently.
Caching is currently a feature turned on for a select number of customers with a large amount of data. If you would like to learn more about caching or have questions about its effect on your enterprise, please contact your Account Manager.