Cache Groups {#caching.groups}

You can do more elaborate grouping by setting up $cache_id groups. This is accomplished by separating each sub-group with a vertical bar | in the $cache_id value. You can have as many sub-groups as you like.

• You can think of cache groups like a directory hierarchy. For instance, a cache group of `'a|b|c'` could be thought of as the directory structure `'/a/b/c/'`.
• `clearCache(null,'a|b|c')` would be like removing the files `'/a/b/c/*'`. `clearCache(null,'a|b')` would be like removing the files `'/a/b/*'`.
• If you specify a $compile_id such as `clearCache(null,'a|b','foo')` it is treated as an appended cache group `'/a/b/c/foo/'`.
• If you specify a template name such as `clearCache('foo.tpl','a|b|c')` then Smarty will attempt to remove `'/a/b/c/foo.tpl'`.
• You CANNOT remove a specified template name under multiple cache groups such as `'/a/b/*/foo.tpl'`, the cache grouping works left-to-right ONLY. You will need to group your templates under a single cache group hierarchy to be able to clear them as a group.

Cache grouping should not be confused with your template directory hierarchy, the cache grouping has no knowledge of how your templates are structured. So for example, if you have a template structure like themes/blue/index.tpl and you want to be able to clear all the cache files for the "blue" theme, you will need to create a cache group structure that mimics your template file structure, such as display('themes/blue/index.tpl','themes|blue'), then clear them with clearCache(null,'themes|blue').

<?php
require('Smarty.class.php');
$smarty = new Smarty;

$smarty->setCaching(Smarty::CACHING_LIFETIME_CURRENT);

// clear all caches with 'sports|basketball' as the first two cache_id groups
$smarty->clearCache(null,'sports|basketball');

// clear all caches with "sports" as the first cache_id group. This would
// include "sports|basketball", or "sports|(anything)|(anything)|(anything)|..."
$smarty->clearCache(null,'sports');

// clear the foo.tpl cache file with "sports|basketball" as the cache_id
$smarty->clearCache('foo.tpl','sports|basketball');

$smarty->display('index.tpl','sports|basketball');
?>