Memory Cache in web api

Question

I was looking for Caching in my web api where i can use output of one api method(that changes once in 12hrs) for subsequesnt calls and then i found this solution on SO,but i am having a difficulty in understanding and using the below code

private IEnumerable<TEntity> GetFromCache<TEntity>(string key, Func<IEnumerable<TEntity>> valueFactory) where TEntity : class 
{
    ObjectCache cache = MemoryCache.Default;
    var newValue = new Lazy<IEnumerable<TEntity>>(valueFactory);            
    CacheItemPolicy policy = new CacheItemPolicy { AbsoluteExpiration = DateTimeOffset.Now.AddMinutes(30) };
    //The line below returns existing item or adds the new value if it doesn't exist
    var value = cache.AddOrGetExisting(key, newValue, policy) as Lazy<IEnumerable<TEntity>>;
    return (value ?? newValue).Value; // Lazy<T> handles the locking itself
}

I am not sure how to call and use this method in below context? I have a method Get

  public IEnumerable<Employee> Get()
    {
        return repository.GetEmployees().OrderBy(c => c.EmpId);
    }

and i want to cache the output of Get and use it in my other methods GetEmployeeById() or Search()

        public Movie GetEmployeeById(int EmpId)
        {
           //Search Employee in Cached Get
        }

        public IEnumerable<Employee> GetEmployeeBySearchString(string searchstr)
        {
          //Search in Cached Get
        }

Answer 1

I updated your method to return classes instead of IEnumerable:

private TEntity GetFromCache<TEntity>(string key, Func<TEntity> valueFactory) where TEntity : class 
{
    ObjectCache cache = MemoryCache.Default;
    // the lazy class provides lazy initializtion which will evaluate the valueFactory expression only if the item does not exist in cache
    var newValue = new Lazy<TEntity>(valueFactory);            
    CacheItemPolicy policy = new CacheItemPolicy 
                                 {
                                     AbsoluteExpiration = DateTimeOffset.Now.AddMinutes(30) 
                                 };

    // The line below returns existing item or adds the new value if it doesn't exist
    var value = cache.AddOrGetExisting(key, newValue, policy) as Lazy<TEntity>;

    return (value ?? newValue).Value; // Lazy<T> handles the locking itself
}

Then you can use this method like this:

public Movie GetMovieById(int movieId)
{
    var cacheKey = "movie" + movieId;

    var movie = GetFromCache<Movie>(cacheKey, () => {       
        // load movie from DB
        return context.Movies.First(x => x.Id == movieId); 
    });

    return movie;
}

and to search movies

[ActionName("Search")]
public IEnumerable<Movie> GetMovieBySearchParameter(string searchstr)
{
     var cacheKey = "movies" + searchstr;
     var movies = GetFromCache<IEnumerable<Movie>>(cacheKey, () => {               
          return repository.GetMovies().OrderBy(c => c.MovieId).ToList(); 
     });

     return movies;
}