缓存索引操作方法时，防止在MVC中缓存布局文件

Question

I have many create Views in my MVC application. I have cached the GET Index action method using [OutputCache] annotation, so that the view is stored in the cache.

I store the details about the currently logged in user in the Session , and display the user's first name in the layout after reading it from the Session .

The problem is, since I have cached the views, the layout is also cached. So even if a different user logs in, the first name of the previous user is visible, because the layout was cached last time.

Is there any way to prevent caching of the layout? Or is there any other way I can stop the first name display from getting cached?

I thought about using VaryByCustom , but I am not sure what to do in the GetVaryByCustomString method that I will need to override.

What would be the best approach to prevent caching of the layout, or alternately, varying the cache by user?

EDIT:

I must clarify that I am using my own custom user management logic. I have my own Users table in the database and I retrieve relevant data on login and store it in Session .

Answer 1

Here's one way you could use the GetVaryByCustom function in Global.asax.

    public override string GetVaryByCustomString(HttpContext context, string custom)
    {
        var varyString = string.Empty;

        if(context.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated)
        {
            varyString += context.User.Identity.Name;
        }

        return varyString;
    }

What you could also do is get the user information with an ajax request and insert it using javascript, that way you don't need to recache the page for each user. Personally I would go with this approach if the username is the only thing that differs.