ImanSoftware.Caching 1.0.2

ImanSoftware.Caching

Version: 1.0.0 | Last Updated: August 2026

A lightweight and extensible caching abstraction for .NET with a default in-memory implementation.

ImanSoftware.Caching provides a clean caching API that decouples your application from any specific cache provider. The default implementation uses IMemoryCache and integrates with IJsonSerializer for flexible object serialization.

Installation

Install the package using the .NET CLI:

dotnet add package ImanSoftware.Caching

Why CacheService?

Caching is a common optimization, but coupling your application directly to a cache implementation makes future changes more difficult.

Instead of:

_memoryCache.Set(key, value);

Use:

_cache.Set(key, value);

This abstraction allows the underlying cache provider to change without affecting your business logic.

Benefits include:

• Clean architecture
• Improved application performance
• Dependency Injection friendly
• Easy unit testing
• Replaceable cache implementations

Features

• ✅ ICacheService abstraction
• ✅ In-memory cache implementation
• ✅ Object serialization support
• ✅ Configurable expiration
• ✅ Thread-safe GetOrSet()
• ✅ Race condition protection
• ✅ Dependency Injection support
• ✅ Lightweight and extensible

ICacheService

The core caching abstraction.

Available methods:

• Get<T>()
• Set()
• Remove()
• Exists()
• GetOrSet()

Example:

_cache.Set("product", product);

var item = _cache.Get<Product>("product");

bool exists = _cache.Exists("product");

_cache.Remove("product");

MemoryCacheService

The default implementation is built on top of IMemoryCache.

Features include:

• High-performance in-memory caching
• Automatic object serialization using IJsonSerializer
• Configurable expiration
• Thread-safe operations
• Suitable for ASP.NET Core applications

Cache Expiration

Specify an expiration time when storing values.

_cache.Set(
    "products",
    products,
    TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10));

Expired items are automatically removed by the underlying cache implementation.

GetOrSet()

The GetOrSet() method simplifies cache-aside scenarios.

If the value exists, it is returned immediately.

Otherwise:

1. The factory function is executed.
2. The result is cached.
3. The cached value is returned.

var product = _cache.GetOrSet(
    key,
    () => GetFromDatabase(id),
    TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5));

Thread Safety

GetOrSet() uses synchronization internally to prevent multiple concurrent requests from executing the same expensive operation.

This helps prevent:

• Duplicate database queries
• Race conditions
• Cache stampedes

Dependency Injection

Register the cache service in your application:

services.AddCacheService();

After registration, ICacheService can be injected into any service.

Example

using ImanSoftware.Caching;

public class ProductService
{
    private readonly ICacheService _cache;

    public ProductService(ICacheService cache)
    {
        _cache = cache;
    }

    public async Task<Product> GetProductAsync(int id)
    {
        var key = $"product_{id}";

        return _cache.GetOrSet(
            key,
            () => GetFromDatabase(id),
            TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5));
    }
}

Unit Testing

Because caching is abstracted behind an interface, it can easily be mocked.

var mock = new Mock<ICacheService>();

mock.Setup(x =>
    x.Get<Product>("product_1"))
    .Returns(product);

This keeps your tests isolated from the underlying cache implementation.

Design Goals

• High performance
• Clean abstraction
• Dependency Injection friendly
• Thread-safe operations
• Cache provider independent
• Lightweight
• Extensible
• Mock-friendly
• Clean Architecture compatible

Requirements

• .NET Standard 2.0+
• .NET 6+
• .NET 7+
• .NET 8+
• .NET 9+
• .NET 10.0+

Author

Iman Estiri

📧 contact.imanestiri@gmail.com

📧 dev.imanestiri@gmail.com

GitHub:

https://github.com/ImanEstiri

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.