ArcGIS Server 9.3 REST API Cache

I am rapidly trying to catch up on the news since I have been away down in the South Island skiing and on holiday! I had a great time and even came away with a nasty injury which has left me wearing a knee brace!

A post that was made last week from the ArcGIS Server Development Team answers a bundle of questions that some users have been asking with the ArcGIS Server 9.3 REST API.

The REST API caches information about folders and services to boost performance. The REST application is implemented such that the first time a service (or a folder) is accessed it fetches the information for that service from ArcGIS Server and caches it. This means that subsequent requests to the service will be served from the internal cache, saving another trip to the server. This reduces resource consumption and improves performance.

The post addresses how and when you might want to clear this cache along with information on it’s benefits and side-effects. They have included a great script as well that allows you to access all the services and folders within a given REST application instance.

Full information on this can be found here: http://blogs.esri.com/dev/… including statistics of how efficient the ArcGIS Server 9.3 REST API Cache is.