Best way to cache php scripts

on server side, or on coding? not sure how this works

[javahava]

if you have a site that has semi-permanent content (i.e. changes about 2-3 times per year), but would like to minimize mysql usage, i've gathered that php caching is the way to go - is this correct?

and if this is correct, it seems there are several solutions to do this? which is the best? i've come across ioncube - does anyone have recomendations or words of warning? is this something i just ask our host to install and presto, our pages are cached?

[Blackie]

I would actually run a crond jobs to make static .html files.

Just my .02$

[mincklerstraat]

I tried jpcache for one site and was quite happy with it - you just 'drop it in' - two lines at the top of each of your php pages, or you could auto-prepend it with an .htaccess file. Real easy to use, and it also does E-Tag and Last-Modified / If-Modified-Since headers, so proxies and peoples' ISP's can cache the pages. If you add expires headers for three months in the future, a very good chance that many people see your pages without a single hit coming to your server. I believe I had to modify jpcache for my needs (including adding , but you might not need to.

One of the best cache tutorials is at sitepoint, google sitepoint php cache. It covers some of PEAR's packages, which would also be a great answer, albeit would require a little bit more work than jpcache.

[lobo235]

You could also use Smarty to do the caching although it is a template engine for PHP so it might do too much for your needs.

[smarty.php.net...]

[SeanW]

With PHP there are two types of caching... Opcode caching, where the php is compiled once and repeatedly executed, and page caching, where the output is cached. If you're using a template engine like Smarty, there is also template caching (and as another poster mentioned, it also does page caching).

Opcode caching can be done with a plugin, like Zend or turck-mmcache. I've used the latter with amazing results.

Ultimately it's decided by what your application needs.

Sean