Does Cache work in an API route and should we use it?

Question

I am creating an API. In this API I am accessing a (permissions) table from a database multiple times, in middleware as well as in controllers. I was thinking, instead of accessing the database multiple times, why don't I call it once and use it multiple times. After calling it once, I could store it in the cache within a service provider. But I am not sure if it is a good way to go because API routes don't load all the services like session.

There are other ways like storing data into the config. Or create a class and make a facade for it and then call it when ever it is needed. But I am curious if the cache would work in API routes and would it be a good idea?

Answer 1

Okay with the advice of @lagbox I created a dead simple class.

namespace App\Helpers;

use App\Permission;

class Provide
{
    public $permissions = [];

    function __construct() {
        $this->permissions = Permission::whereNotNull('route_name')->get();
    }
}

This may vary, it's just a class that will keep some collection data in it. I named it provide to keep it generic, just in case that I could need other data than permission in the future. Of course this class could be more detailed but just for storing and returning permissions it is enough.

Then I bound it as a singleton in my AppServiceProvider to run it only once.

public function register()
{
    $this->app->singleton('App\Helpers\Provide', function ($app) {
        return new \App\Helpers\Provide();
    });
}

and when I need it I call it like

$provide->permissions->toArray() 

All the features of the collection are available everywhere from the beginning to the end. Yes that may look like an overkill or an abuse of IoC but this über simple approach is in my case a superb solution.