Howdy AxDevers...
I think I've stumbled over a subtle logic flaw in AxKit.pm's main_handler method as it relates to Providers and caching. The "problem" lies in the fact that the Provider's process() method is called before determining whether or not the resource is cached.
The Provider's process() method is meant to indicate the Provider's intention and ability to get data for the current resource. That's fine and good, but for many non-file-based and/or dynamic Providers, process() needs to do *everything* required to serve the data in order to determine what to return (e,g. select from a DB-- return Declined if there's no data, run the app that generates the content-- return Declined if the app fails, or whatever).
In practice, this means that by having AxKit.pm's main_handler() call the Provider's process() before examining whether or not the resource is cached, the Providers will *still* have to hit the database, run the app, or whatever, even though the data for that resource may already be cached on the disk-- hence, the real benefit of caching is taken away from those Providers.
Not a hard fix, I think, but I wanted to invite discussion and check my blind spots before I whack into the main_handler() and friends.
Thoughts?
-kip
