[intro]We have made some updates recently which will result in any changes you make potentially taking up to 10-15 minutes to display on the front end of your EKM online shop. We've implemented this change to ensure that your EKM online shop pages load as quickly as possible (in fact we'd argue that they're the fastest out there!), providing your customers with a fantastic shopping experience.[/intro]

What is a cache?

A cache is, in essence, a temporary storage area. For example, the files you automatically request by looking at a Web page are stored on your device's hard disk in a cache subdirectory under the directory for your browser. When you return to a page you've recently looked at, the browser can get those files from the cache rather than the original server, saving you time and saving the network the burden of additional traffic.

When is the cache cleared?

If changes are made to a shop, the cache files have to be cleared to ensure the shop content doesn't become out of date. Originally, we tried to do this in a very targeted way; so if for example, a single Product was updated just the cache file for that specific product was cleared, but this encountered a few problems. As an example, say you update a Product to show it as out of stock. The cache implications for this could be:
1. The cache for the Product Page needs to be cleared to show the product is out of stock.
2. The cache for the Category the Product is in also needs to be cleared to reflect this.
3. The Product is Category Managed, so all the other Category Pages also need to be cleared.
4. The Category itself is Category Managed so all those pages need to be cleared.
5. You have an extra show data tag in an element on your About Us page that needs to be cleared.
Because of the simple nature of the caching system and it being so difficult to determine what cache files need to be cleared, we pretty much always have to wipe the entire cache for every change.
Some of the actions that result in the cache being fully cleared include:
1. Any EKM online shop content being added, updated or deleted, including Products, Categories, elements and Webpages. This could be through Shop view, the Import/Export System, Advanced Inventory Manager or the API.
2. A Feature being installed or uninstalled.
3. A shop setting being changed.
4. An order being placed on an EKM online shop.

What changes have been made?

The recent changes to the caching system introduced a basic queue system for clearing cache files. When the cache needs to be cleared, instead of the entire shop cache being completely cleared there and then, it places the request in a queue to be processed every few minutes. If lots of requests to clear the cache are taking place over a very short period of time, we can determine that something is going on (such as a shop being really busy) which means the cache is in high demand and should be left intact for a little longer. As soon as things quieten down, or a certain threshold of time has passed the cache is then cleared.
This means that a really busy shop now tries to protect the cache files for a little longer when they're really needed and this results in the shop and server performance being faster and much more reliable. The caveat, however, is that this does introduce a short delay to shop changes being reflected on live shops. The cache isn't used in the 'Shop' view, so when editing your EKM online shop within this section you wouldn't be affected by this.

Now, when you have amended something on your EKM online shop, you'll see this notification in the top left-hand corner:

This indicates that changes have been made and these will be visible on the front end of your EKM online shop very soon. 

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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in EKM Community. If you need some inspiration for your EKM online shop, listen to our podcast on iTunes and Spotify.[/contact]