Oracle Application Server 10g Essentials

Chapter 7. Caching

For users, performance is the most visible aspect of any IT solution. Developers must make sure that the applications they build provide users with the functionality they need. Unfortunately, if those applications can’t achieve adequate performance, the developers’ efforts aren’t judged as successful. Consequently, the search for ways to improve performance never ends.

Oracle Application Server includes three different types of caches that play a role in improving the overall performance of the product:

OracleAS Web Cache

An in-memory cache for web content of all kinds, including static pages, dynamic pages, and pages assembled from both static and dynamic content.

Java Object Cache

A cache for frequently used or expensive-to-create objects used by a particular Java application.

Web Object Cache

A Java Object Cache implementation used for HTTP-centric Java objects.

All three caches improve performance in the same way—by making commonly used data available more rapidly. This chapter describes the architecture and use of each cache.

OracleAS Web Cache

OracleAS Web Cache is the primary caching mechanism provided with Oracle Application Server. An OracleAS Web Cache instance sits in front of one or more Oracle HTTP Servers, as described in Chapter 2. The responses to all requests directed to the Oracle HTTP Server through OracleAS Web Cache can be cached in OracleAS Web Cache, which means that this cache can handle any web content transmitted with the standard HTTP protocol. ...