Caching

The CPR backend supports Redis for caching, session management, and queue processing.

Cache Configuration

Environment Variables

# Development (default)
CACHE_STORE=database

# Production (recommended)
CACHE_STORE=redis
CACHE_PREFIX=cpr_api

REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_PORT=6379
REDIS_PASSWORD=null

Docker Setup

Redis 7 is included in the Docker Compose stack:

redis:
    image: 'redis:7'
    ports:
        - '${FORWARD_REDIS_PORT:-6379}:6379'
    networks:
        - sail

Cache Drivers

Driver	Use Case	Environment
database	Simple caching, no Redis needed	Development
redis	Fast caching, production-ready	Production
array	In-memory, per-request only	Testing

Using the Cache

Basic Usage

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

// Store a value (with TTL in seconds)
Cache::put('key', $value, 3600);

// Retrieve (with default)
$value = Cache::get('key', 'default');

// Remember pattern (cache or compute)
$patients = Cache::remember('patients.list', 3600, function () {
    return Patient::all();
});

// Forget
Cache::forget('key');

Cache Tags (Redis only)

// Tag-based caching for easy invalidation
Cache::tags(['patients'])->put("patient.{$id}", $patient, 3600);

// Flush all patient-related cache
Cache::tags(['patients'])->flush();

What to Cache

Data	TTL	Why
Reference/lookup data (payment methods, PO statuses, suppliers)	1 hour+	Rarely changes, queried frequently
Branch settings	30 minutes	Changes infrequently
Enum values	1 hour	Static within a deployment
Dashboard statistics	5 minutes	Expensive aggregate queries

What NOT to Cache

• Patient records (frequently updated, privacy-sensitive)
• Queue tickets (real-time state)
• Transaction data (must be current)
• Any data that changes per-request

Session and Queue

In production, sessions and queues also use Redis:

SESSION_DRIVER=redis
SESSION_LIFETIME=120

QUEUE_CONNECTION=redis

This keeps the database free from session/queue overhead and improves performance.