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How to run code once per session?

How can I run php code once for a Wordpress session. My site reads data from the database and stores it in arrays. At the moment I have functions that are called and each time they are called they load the array from the database which is rather a waste of resource. The data won't change for the duration of the session so it would be good to load up the arrays when the wordpress site is loaded.
Is this possible?

Jan Louwerens

How about just creating a cache for the data. Instead of loading from the database with each request, get the data from the cache. If the cache is not yet initialized, then load the data from the database.

ClintonK

ASKER

Sounds like a good idea. Not something I thought was possible in php. Got any pointers as to where to get more info?

Jan Louwerens

I'll admit I don't have a lot of experience personally using php, but maybe this link could help provide some useful information:

https://www.thesitewizard.com/php/sessions.shtml

just where you normally load the data from the database, load it from the session instead. If it's not in the session, then load it from the database and store it in the session.

Dave Baldwin

Even if you store it in $_SESSION variables, it still gets loaded from disk each time the page runs. While I do this for user or session specific data, I get it from the database for all other purposes. The 'arrays' you're talking about are not going to stay in memory between page requests. That is especially true if you are on shared hosting.

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Julian Hansen

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ClintonK

ASKER

I've created a function for each of the arrays and the site now appears to be far more responsive. The code is also a lot easier to read now too.
Many thanks

Julian Hansen

You are welcome.