OutputCacheAttribute Class

Output caching lets you store the output of an action method in memory on the Web server. For example, if the action method renders a view, the view page will be cached. This cached page is then available to the application for subsequent requests. Output caching saves your application the time and resources it would take to re-create the result of the action method.

In ASP.NET MVC, you can use the OutputCacheAttribute attribute to mark action methods whose output you want to cache. If you mark a controller with the OutputCacheAttribute attribute, the output of all action methods in the controller will be cached.

The properties contained in OutputCacheAttribute are almost the same as the properties of the @ OutputCache directive. The only @ OutputCache property that is not supported by OutputCacheAttribute is VaryByControl.

Using a Cache Profile

<system.web>
  <caching>
    <outputCacheSettings>
      <outputCacheProfiles>
        <add name="MyProfile" duration="60" varyByParam="*" />
      </outputCacheProfiles>
    </outputCacheSettings>
  </caching>
</system.web>

The following example shows how to use OutputCacheAttribute to control output caching for the About action method. The attribute sets the cache duration to one minute. Minor changes to the About action method and the About view enable you to see when the view was most recently cached.

If you repeatedly click the tab for the About view, you can see that the page stays cached for 10 seconds, because the OutputCache attribute changed the duration that was set in the Web.config file.

The following example shows the About action method.

[OutputCache(CacheProfile = "MyProfile", Duration = 10)]
public ActionResult About()
{
    ViewData["Message"] = "This page was cached at " + DateTime.Now;

    return View();
}

The following example shows the About view.

<asp:Content ID="aboutTitle" ContentPlaceHolderID="TitleContent" runat="server">
    About Us
</asp:Content>

<asp:Content ID="aboutContent" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">
    <h2>About</h2>
    <p>
        <%= Html.Encode(ViewData["Message"]) %>
    </p>
</asp:Content>

Reference

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