How to cache custom controller markup for logged-in users?

Question

How do we set up a controller so the rendered output is cached?

Blocks are cached for logged in users by default, and the build function doesn't even run once the block is cached for logged in users.

I have some custom controllers for landing pages where I would like to cache the output for logged-in users.

I guess I could put everything within those controllers in a block or in several blocks, but is there a relatively simple way to make a controller behave like a block and not even run the build function once it is rendered for a logged in user?

Answer 1

One thing that you can do is the same as the entity view builder is doing, use a #pre_render callback.

If you look at \Drupal\Core\Entity\EntityViewBuilder::viewMultiple(), you can see it doesn't really do anything except prepare the render array and add a #pre_render callback to the whole thing.

The reason for that is that the pre_render callback will only be called on a cache miss. So you return your array with the cache keys/tags/contexts/max-age, the renderer service will attempt to load from the render cache. On a cache hit, it will return the previously cached HTML, on a miss, it will call the pre_render callback and you can do the things you want to do there.

Answer 2

You can make any render array or part of it cachable by setting cache keys. See this example from the entity view builder:

// Cache the rendered output if permitted by the view mode and global entity
// type configuration.
if ($this->isViewModeCacheable($view_mode) && !$entity->isNew() && $entity->isDefaultRevision() && $this->entityType->isRenderCacheable()) {
  $build['#cache'] += array(
    'keys' => array(
      'entity_view',
      $this->entityTypeId,
      $entity->id(),
      $view_mode,
    ),
    'bin' => $this->cacheBin,
  );

The variable cacheBin is set to 'render'.

You can choose your own schema for the cache keys, dependent on the data you build the render array with. The cid to store the cache item is the result of the keys and has to be unique.