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I came across couple of questions in exam dumps of 70 - 667 but bit confused if someone can explain me difference between output cache and object cache in few lines and possible scenarios we use them in please.

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2 Answers 2

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Object cache:

What Object cache does is stores metadata about SharePoint Server objects (like SPWeb, SPSite, SPList, etc.) on the WFEs. When a page is rendered, if there is data that needs to be retrieved through these objects, the SQL Server will not be hit. Features of SharePoint that uses Object cache are publishing, content query web part, navigation, search query box and metadata navigation. There are only few things you can do about this type of cache - set size.

Content cache:

  • BLOB cache - used to cache JavaScript, CSS, images files, and large rich media files. Should be used when pages are visited frequently
  • Page output cache - can be used only with publishing pages


Object cache is something what is done automatically. You have to handle content cache manually.

source: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Forums/Thread/182474/caching-in-sharepoint-2010.aspx



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Cheers, can you also provide in which scenarios we should be using these cache. –  Muhammad Raja Jan 29 '13 at 10:09
You don't have to worry about object cache (it's automatic). Use BLOB when you have large images, css, JS, media files which are viewed/used often (e.g. home page). Use Page cache if you have pages with "static context" (not changed very often) and you have many users visiting them. Also you can use HttpContext.Cache to cache at least some result from SQL queries or other data sources to speed up loading. In general, you should use caching when page is visited often and it is costly (time or computational resources) to generate it. –  luccio Jan 29 '13 at 13:51

Object cache - metadata, WP queries of external sources, search boxes, quick launch, breadcrumb

Default is on

Configurable through GUI or web.config per each SC

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BLOB cache - binary large objects like images or CSS files, stored on WFE disks

Default is off

Configurable through GUI or web.config

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Page (output) cache - for whole pages to load them faster for next user with the same rights

Default (for publishing pages) is on

Configurable through GUI (page atributes) or web.config

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Office web app cache - XAML queries, images inside documents and so on

Default is on

Configurable through PowerSell, has its own SC (one per web app)

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... luccio is right, I just like images :o)

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