Redis API Caching: Boost Performance of Your Django API

When it comes to optimizing the performance of web applications, caching is one of the primary methods used to improve speed and scalability. Redis is an open-source in-memory data structure store that is used as a database, cache, and message broker.

In this blog, I will discuss how Redis caching can improve the performance of a Django API.

What is Redis?

Redis is an open-source in-memory data structure store that can be used as a database, cache, and message broker. It supports data structures such as strings, hashes, lists, sets, sorted sets, bitmaps, hyper logs, and geospatial indexes.

Redis is written in C and can be used in various programming languages including:

• Java
• Python
• Ruby
• Node.js
• PHP
• Go

Redis is used as a caching mechanism to improve the performance of web applications. It stores frequently used data in memory, which makes it much faster than traditional databases that store data on disk. Redis also supports replication, which makes it suitable for distributed systems. It also supports Lua scripting, making it possible to execute complex operations without writing a separate application.

Advantages of Redis

Redis provides a number of advantages over traditional databases.

✔️ It is much faster than a traditional database since it stores data in memory.

✔️ Redis also supports replication, which makes it suitable for distributed systems.

✔️ Additionally, Redis supports Lua scripting, making it possible to execute complex operations without writing a separate application.

✔️Redis is also very easy to use. It supports a wide variety of programming languages and can be easily integrated into an existing system.

✔️ Furthermore, Redis supports transactions, which makes it possible to ensure data integrity.

Caching of Django API

Caching is one of the most effective ways to improve the performance of a web application. Redis caching is a great way to boost the performance of a Django API. Redis caching can be used to store frequently accessed data in memory, which makes it much faster than a traditional database.

To use Redis caching with a Django API, you will need to install a Redis server and the Redis caching library. After that, you can configure your Django application to use Redis caching. This will enable you to store frequently accessed data in memory rather than having to query the database every time.

Once you have configured your Django application to use Redis caching, you can start to improve the performance of your API. You can use Redis to cache API responses and query results, which will make your API much faster. You can also use Redis to store session data, which will improve the performance of your application.

from rest_framework.decorators import api_view
from rest_framework import status
from rest_framework.response import Response
from django.core.cache import cache
from django.conf import settings
from django.core.cache.backends.base import DEFAULT_TIMEOUT
 
CACHE_TTL = getattr(settings, 'CACHE_TTL', DEFAULT_TIMEOUT)
from .models import Product
 
@api_view(['GET'])
def view_books(request):
    # rest of the code

@api_view(['GET'])
def view_cached_books(request):
    if 'product' in cache:
        # get results from cache
        products = cache.get('product')
        return Response(products, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)
 
    else:
        products = Product.objects.all()
        results = [product.to_json() for product in products]
        # store data in cache
        cache.set(product, results, timeout=CACHE_TTL)
        return Response(results, status=status.HTTP_201_CREATED)

Testing with loadtest.js

Once you have configured your Django application to use Redis caching, it is important to test it to ensure that it is working as expected. The best way to do this is to use a load-testing tool such as loadtest.js. loadtest.js is a JavaScript library that can be used to test the performance of a web application.

Using Loadtest.js, you can simulate a large number of concurrent requests and measure the response time of your API. This will enable you to identify any potential bottlenecks and optimize your application for better performance.

🔸 Install loadtest:

sudo npm install -g loadtest

🔸 Testing API Without Cache:

$ loadtest -n 100 -k http://localhost:8000/store/

# result
INFO Requests per second: 55

🔸 Cached API Testing:

$ loadtest -n 100 -k http://localhost:8000/store/cache/

# results
INFO Requests per second: 233

The first time you hit the endpoint localhost:8000/store/cache, the application will query from the database and return data, but subsequent calls to the URL will bypass the database and query from the cache since the data is already available in the cache.