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How To Use a MODx Plugin to Cache Snippets

I don't want to take credit for this, but I definitely wanted to blog about it because I think it is a big deal. In a forum post I made on modxcms.com, ganeshXL came up with an awesome way to cache snippet output with a MODx plugin. Here is what ganeshXL wrote:

  1. create a chunk. Leave it empty. Name it whatever you want, e.g. testMenu

  2. create a plugin. Enter this:

    $myChunk = 'testMenu'; // your chunk name
    $params['startId'] = '0';
    $params['level'] = '4';
    $html = addslashes($modx->runSnippet('Wayfinder', $params));
    $sql= "UPDATE " . $modx->getFullTableName("site_htmlsnippets") . " SET snippet='$html' WHERE name='$myChunk'";
    $result= $modx->dbQuery($sql);

  3. Check the system event OnDocFormSave + save the plugin.
  4. Change your template: Replace your Wayfinder call with your chunk: {{testMenu}}

Now, every time you edit a doc, the Menu code is being regenerated and stored in your chunk. This should speed up things quite a bit..

This is really cool since it means that you can cache snippet output and give php and mysql a break on processing your code. Like I said, all the credit goes to ganeshXL :) If you're interested in the context that this was created in, you can read the full post here.