Determine when application cache item will timeout?

Question

In ASP.NET, when storing a value in the application cache with absolute expiry is there a method to retrieve the date/time when the item will expire? The application cache item will be refreshed if expired based on user requests.

Answer 1

There is a method signature on the HttContext.Cache object which allows you to specify a method to be called in the event that a Cached item is removed when you set a new Cache item.

Define yourself a method that'll allow you to process that information, whether you want it to re-submit the item to the Applcation Cache, email you about it, log it in the Event Log, whatever suits your needs.

Hope that helps, Pascal

Answer 2

Not sure if I've understood your question right, but I'll give it a try: I believe there is no way to actually figure out, when a certain cache-item is going to expire. In most scenarios, I use a delegate passed in as a parameter (CacheItemRemovedCallback) when adding objects to the cache, so I get notified when the item gets kicked out.

Hope this helps a bit.

Answer 3

use the CacheItemRemovedCallback; your object may get kicked from the cache earlier than you expect anyway