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TTL (Time-To-Live) Management

Overview​

The TTL feature in Strata Storage provides automatic expiration of stored items. This helps manage storage space and ensures data freshness by automatically removing expired items.

Features​

  • Automatic Expiration: Items expire automatically after the specified time
  • Sliding Expiration: Optional TTL reset on access
  • Batch Cleanup: Efficient removal of multiple expired items
  • Flexible Configuration: Per-item or global TTL settings
  • Cross-Platform Support: Works on all platforms (web, iOS, Android)

Basic Usage​

import { Strata } from 'strata-storage';

const storage = new Strata({
  ttl: {
    defaultTTL: 3600000, // 1 hour default TTL
    cleanupInterval: 60000, // Check every minute
    autoCleanup: true // Enable automatic cleanup
  }
});

// Set with TTL
await storage.set('temporary-data', data, {
  ttl: 300000 // Expires in 5 minutes
});

// Set with sliding expiration
await storage.set('session-data', sessionInfo, {
  ttl: 1800000, // 30 minutes
  sliding: true // Reset TTL on each access
});

// Set to expire at specific time
await storage.set('daily-cache', cache, {
  expireAt: new Date('2024-12-31T23:59:59')
});

Configuration Options​

Global TTL Configuration​

interface TTLConfig {
  // Default TTL for all items (milliseconds)
  defaultTTL?: number;
  
  // How often to check for expired items (milliseconds)
  cleanupInterval?: number;
  
  // Automatically remove expired items
  autoCleanup?: boolean;
  
  // Maximum items to check per cleanup cycle
  batchSize?: number;
  
  // Callback invoked with the keys that expired during a cleanup cycle
  onExpire?: (keys: string[]) => void;
}

Per-Item TTL Options​

interface StorageOptions {
  // Time to live in milliseconds
  ttl?: number;
  
  // Reset TTL on access
  sliding?: boolean;
  
  // Expire at specific time
  expireAt?: Date | number;
  
  // Expire after a certain date
  expireAfter?: Date | number;
}

Advanced Usage​

Conditional TTL​

// Set different TTL based on content type
const ttl = data.type === 'cache' ? 300000 : 3600000;
await storage.set(key, data, { ttl });

Manual Cleanup​

// Manually trigger a sweep of expired items; resolves with the number removed
const removed = await storage.cleanupExpired();
console.log(`Removed ${removed} expired items`);

TTL with Encryption​

// Combine TTL with encryption
await storage.set('secure-temp', sensitiveData, {
  ttl: 600000, // 10 minutes
  encrypt: true,
  encryptionPassword: 'secret'
});

Platform-Specific Behavior​

Web​

  • Uses setTimeout for cleanup scheduling
  • Respects browser background tab throttling
  • Cleanup continues across page reloads

iOS/Android​

  • Native background task scheduling
  • Respects system power management
  • Cleanup continues when app is backgrounded

Performance Considerations​

  1. Batch Size: Adjust batchSize based on your data volume
  2. Check Interval: Balance between timely cleanup and performance
  3. Storage Type: Some adapters handle TTL more efficiently
  4. Memory Usage: Expired items consume memory until cleaned

Best Practices​

  1. Use appropriate TTL values:

    • Cache: 5-30 minutes
    • Session: 30 minutes - 2 hours
    • Temporary: 1-24 hours
    • Long-term: Days or weeks

  2. Enable sliding expiration for active data:

    await storage.set('active-session', data, {
      ttl: 1800000,
      sliding: true
    });

  3. Combine with tags for bulk operations:

    await storage.set('cache-item', data, {
      ttl: 300000,
      tags: ['cache', 'api']
    });

    // Clear all expired cache items
    await storage.clear({
      tags: ['cache'],
      olderThan: Date.now()
    });

  4. Monitor cleanup via the onExpire callback:

    const storage = new Strata({
      ttl: {
        autoCleanup: true,
        onExpire: (keys) => {
          console.log(`Cleaned ${keys.length} expired items`);
        }
      }
    });

API Reference​

TTLManager Class​

class TTLManager {
  constructor(config?: TTLConfig);
  
  // Calculate expiration timestamp
  calculateExpiration(options?: StorageOptions): number | undefined;
  
  // Check if value is expired
  isExpired(value: StorageValue): boolean;
  
  // Start automatic cleanup
  startAutoCleanup(
    getKeys: () => Promise<string[]>,
    getItem: (key: string) => Promise<StorageValue | null>,
    removeItem: (key: string) => Promise<void>
  ): void;
  
  // Stop automatic cleanup
  stopAutoCleanup(): void;
  
  // Perform a cleanup sweep of expired items; resolves with the removed items
  cleanup(
    getKeys: () => Promise<string[]>,
    getItem: (key: string) => Promise<StorageValue | null>,
    removeItem: (key: string) => Promise<void>
  ): Promise<ExpiredItem[]>;
}

Examples​

Shopping Cart with TTL​

// Cart expires after 1 hour of inactivity
await storage.set('shopping-cart', cartItems, {
  ttl: 3600000,
  sliding: true,
  tags: ['cart', 'user-123']
});

API Response Caching​

// Cache API responses with different TTLs
await storage.set(`api-${endpoint}`, response, {
  ttl: endpoint.includes('/static') ? 86400000 : 300000
});

Session Management​

// Session with absolute expiration
const sessionEnd = Date.now() + (8 * 3600000); // 8 hours
await storage.set('user-session', session, {
  expireAt: sessionEnd,
  encrypt: true
});

Troubleshooting​

Items Not Expiring​

  1. Check if auto-cleanup is enabled
  2. Verify TTL values are in milliseconds
  3. Ensure cleanup interval is reasonable
  4. Check if storage adapter supports TTL

Performance Issues​

  1. Increase cleanup interval
  2. Reduce batch size
  3. Consider using different storage adapter

Memory Usage​

  1. Lower the cleanup interval
  2. Reduce TTL values
  3. Manually trigger cleanup
  4. Monitor storage size