Back in may, I wrote an article about using the WordPress Transients API. I summarize the article like this:
To simulate cookies and their feature of expiration, using WordPress transients may be a viable solution.
https://tommcfarlin.com/using-wordpress-transients/
Though the purpose of the article was to lay out a foundation for how we can design a class to work with the Transients API to simulate the behavior of cookies, one of the side effects of the article is that it didn’t do a good job of explaining how the Transients API (and, by proxy, how MySQL) works.
This was brought to my attention via email by David at UpDraft Plus.
So I thought it useful to talk about the concept of caching from a practical level, how it’s implemented in WordPress, then maybe look at we how to utilize plugins or newer technology to better power our sites and applications as well as have a better understanding.
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