David Hayden does it again. This time he’s talking about the Caching Application Block for Enterprise Library 2.0. I was in a meeting just last week where we we discussing this very topic, so it’s even timely. Interestingly enough, he points out right off the bat that it’s overkill for ASP.NET 2.0.
One of the main reasons that the Caching Application Block is far less popular is because ASP.NET 2.0 has a very rich cache framework. Most web developers, like myself, will use the caching built into ASP.NET 2.0. Adding another layer / framework for caching will just needlessly complicate the application and increase maintenance costs and effort. Unless the System.Web.Caching does not provide some type of necessary caching functionality, chances are a web developer would not implement the Caching Application Block.
So, when do you use it? For “smart” or “mixed” clients. He details the whys and hows very well.