How do I put data in a MemoryCache on startup?

Question

At startup, I want to create a store of static data for my web app. So I eventually stumbled onto Microsoft.Extensions.Caching.Memory.MemoryCache. After building the feature that uses the MemoryCache, I suddenly find the data I stored is not available. So they're probably two separate instances.

How do I access the MemoryCache instance in Startup that will be used by the rest of my web app? This is how I'm currently trying it:

public class Startup
{
    public Startup(IHostingEnvironment env)
    {
        //Startup stuff
    }

    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        //configure other services

        services.AddMemoryCache();

        var cache = new MemoryCache(new MemoryCacheOptions());
        var entryOptions = new MemoryCacheEntryOptions().SetPriority(CacheItemPriority.NeverRemove);

        //Some examples of me putting data in the cache
        cache.Set("entryA", "data1", entryOptions);
        cache.Set("entryB", data2, entryOptions);
        cache.Set("entryC", data3.Keys.ToList(), entryOptions);
    }

    public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env, ILoggerFactory loggerFactory)
    {
        //pipeline configuration
    }
}

And the Controller where I use the MemoryCache

public class ExampleController : Controller
{   
    private readonly IMemoryCache _cache;

    public ExampleController(IMemoryCache cache)
    {
        _cache = cache;
    }

    [HttpGet]
    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        //At this point, I have a different MemoryCache instance.
        ViewData["CachedData"] = _cache.Get("entryA");

        return View();
    }
}

If this is not possible, is there perhaps a better/simpler alternative? Would a global Singleton work in this situation?

Answer 1

When you added the statement

services.AddMemoryCache();

you were in effect saying that you wanted a memory cache singleton that would get resolved wherever you injected IMemoryCache as you did in your controller. So instead of creating a new memory cache, you need to add values to the singleton object that was created. You can do this by changing your Configure method to something like:

    public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, 
        IHostingEnvironment env, 
        ILoggerFactory loggerFactory,
        IMemoryCache cache )
{
    var entryOptions = new MemoryCacheEntryOptions().SetPriority(CacheItemPriority.NeverRemove);

    //Some examples of me putting data in the cache
    cache.Set("entryA", "data1", entryOptions);
    cache.Set("entryB", data2, entryOptions);
    cache.Set("entryC", data3.Keys.ToList(), entryOptions);
    //pipeline configuration
}