MVC3 - using AsyncController to prepopulate ObjectCache from database

Question

I have a form that searches via AJAX against two different data sources. The data is relatively small but the speed at which it returns is slow.

I built a cache layer to store the full result after the first query... however, I would like to prime the cache with data before the user executes the search.

Should I be looking at an AsyncController to do this? Any recommendations?

My desired behavior is (updated):

1. User requests any ActionABC of some controller (not necessarily the search action)
2. Server-side, that action checks the cache and asynchronously requests data if empty
3. ActionABC returns requested view while cache continues to populate on server
4. If the user subsequently performs a search while cache being populated, their request waits until cache populate is complete otherwise cache data is immediately available

Answer 1

I ended up not having to use AsyncControllers.

I used the Task Factory to "fire and forget" a call to load the data initially upon any call to the controller.

Task.Factory.StartNew(() => { var x = GetData(); });

Inside "GetData" call I used LOCK to force subsequent calls to wait until cache was populated (addresses #4)

private static object ThisLock = new object();

protected MyData GetData()
{
  if(<MyData in cache>)
    return MyData from cache;

  lock(ThisLock)
  {
    // just entered lock, see if cache was set by previous blocking thread
    if(MyData in cache>)
      return data from cache;

    ... load MyData from database ... 

    ... save MyData  to cache ... 

    return MyData from cache;
  }
}