Updating the ASP.NET Cache Based on Data in a SQL Server Database

The Cache API in ASP.NET is a powerful feature that can be immensely useful in increasing the performance of a web application. The Cache API allows you to invalidate items in the cache based on some predefined conditions such as a change in an XML file or a change in another cache item. Using this feature, you can remove or invalidate an item from the cache when the referenced item changes. However, the Cache API doesn't allow you to invalidate an item in the cache when data in a SQL Server database changes. This is a very common capability that many web applications require. In this article, author Thiru Thangarathinam demonstrates a technique that allows you to invalidate the items in the cache when data in the SQL Server changes. To implement this, you can leverage the file-based cache invalidation mechanism provided by the ASP.NET runtime.