Caching

mFilter uses a multi-level caching system for performance.

Cache types

1. Filter cache (DB)

Stored in table mfl_cache. Cached data:

• suggestions — available filter values with counts
• filter_values — values for building the form

Key format:

suggestions_{resourceId}_{filterHash}
filter_values_{resourceId}_{depth}

2. Router cache (file)

Stored in core/cache/mfilter/filter_pages.cache.php.

Contains URI → resource ID mapping for fast detection of filter pages.

<?php
// mFilter filter pages cache
return [
    'catalog/' => 5,
    'catalog/phones/' => 12,
    'catalog/tablets/' => 15,
];

3. Slug cache (memory)

Held in memory during the request:

• slugCache — value → slug
• valueCache — slug → value

Preloaded when parsing the URL to minimize DB queries.

4. Warmup cache (DB)

Stored in table mfl_cache. Created by the warmup system ahead of time, before the user visits the page.

Three data types are cached:

• baseIds — product IDs in the category (result of ElementRunner::getIds())
• filter values — values for building the filter form
• suggestions — facet counts (number of products per value)

Key format:

baseids_{resourceId}_{cacheKeyHash}
filters_{resourceId}_{depth}
suggestions_forids_{resourceId}_{filterHash}

Warmup configurations are stored in mfl_warmup_configs and mfl_warmup_config_resources.

More: Cache warmup

System settings

Setting	Description	Default
mfilter.cache_enabled	Enable caching	true
mfilter.cache_lifetime	Filter cache lifetime (sec)	3600
mfilter.cache_router_lifetime	Router cache lifetime (sec)	86400

Clearing cache

From the admin

Maintenance → Clear cache

Clears:

• All rows from table mfl_cache
• File filter_pages.cache.php

Programmatically

$mfilter = $modx->services->get('mfilter');

// Clear all cache
$mfilter->clearCache();

// Clear cache for a specific page
$mfilter->invalidatePageCache($resourceId);

// Rebuild router cache
$mfilter->rebuildRouterCache();

Via Filter service

$filter = $mfilter->getFilter();

// Clear cache for a resource
$filter->clearCache($resourceId);

// Clear all filter cache
$filter->clearCache(0);

Automatic invalidation

Cache is cleared automatically when:

Event	What is cleared
Filter set saved	Cache for pages in that set
Filter set deleted	Cache for all pages
Set bindings changed	Router cache

Manual invalidation when products change

After bulk product updates, cache is refreshed by the recurring mfl_warmup task.

For an immediate refresh:

$mfilter = $modx->services->get('mfilter');

// Clear cache
$mfilter->clearCache();

// Run warmup (if Scheduler is installed)
$mfilter->getWarmupManager()->schedule(true);

Scheduler (background tasks)

With Scheduler installed, two tasks are available:

mfl_rebuild_cache — rebuild cache

Clears and rebuilds router and filter cache.

$mfilter = $modx->services->get('mfilter');
$taskId = $mfilter->scheduleCacheRebuild();

Parameter	Description	Default
clear_first	Clear cache before rebuild	true
rebuild_router	Rebuild router cache	true
rebuild_filters	Rebuild filter cache	true

mfl_warmup — cache warmup

Warms baseIds, filter values, and facet counts for all active configurations. Recurring by default — runs every 50 minutes.

$warmupManager = $mfilter->getWarmupManager();
$runId = $warmupManager->schedule(true); // true = include facet counters

Parameter	Description	Default
warm_suggestions	Warm facet counters and filter values	true

More: Cache warmup

Disabling cache

Globally

System settings → mfilter.cache_enabled → No

For debugging

With the profiler on (mfilter.debug_profiler) you will see in logs:

• suggestions.cacheHit — cache hit
• suggestions.cacheCheck — cache check time

Cache size

Check in the admin

mFilter → Maintenance → System status

Shows:

• Number of cache entries
• Number of cache files

Programmatically

// Row count in DB
$count = $modx->getCount('MFilter\\Model\\MflCache');

// Cache files
$cachePath = MODX_CORE_PATH . 'cache/mfilter/';
$files = glob($cachePath . '*');

Recommendations

Small catalogs (up to 1000 products)

• Use default settings
• Cache will refresh automatically when TTL expires

Medium catalogs (1000–10000 products)

• Increase cache_lifetime to 7200–14400
• Clear cache after import

Large catalogs (10000+ products)

• Set up cache warmup — create a configuration and bind catalog pages
• The recurring mfl_warmup task will refresh cache automatically
• Tune warmup interval and TTL to catalog size and update frequency

# Example for a 200k-product catalog (warmup ~30 min)
mfilter.cache_lifetime = 7200    # TTL 2 hours
# task interval = 6000           # warmup every 100 min

When products update often

The recurring warmup refreshes cache automatically. Maximum delay equals the warmup interval.

For an immediate refresh after import — run mfl_warmup manually from the manager.

When products rarely change

Increase TTL and warmup interval:

mfilter.cache_lifetime = 86400
# task interval = 43200  # warmup twice per day

mfl_cache table structure

Column	Type	Description
id	int	Primary key
cache_key	varchar(255)	Unique cache key
cache_value	mediumtext	Serialized data (JSON)
created_at	datetime	Creation time
expires_at	datetime	Expiration time

Indexes:

• uk_cache_key — unique index on key
• idx_expires — index for purging expired rows