I've been searching around the web trying to find a better way to use WordPress transients with javascript. Currently I am using admin-Ajax to run a php function that retrieves the transient and returns it. This works fine but I'm curios to know if there is a more effective way of accessing that data without the overhead of using ajax and php.

I know I could probably do this using wp_localize_script() but I'm not sure if that method is any better that my current solution. Hopefully there is an expert out there that can help me with this.

I've been searching around the web trying to find a better way to use WordPress transients with javascript. Currently I am using admin-Ajax to run a php function that retrieves the transient and returns it. This works fine but I'm curios to know if there is a more effective way of accessing that data without the overhead of using ajax and php.

I know I could probably do this using wp_localize_script() but I'm not sure if that method is any better that my current solution. Hopefully there is an expert out there that can help me with this.

• ajax
• javascript
• transient
• wp-localize-script

• 1 Which method is the best depends on what the purpose is. What the script does? How do you use the data from transients in JavaScript? In general, if the transient is very small in size and it is always used in the page, I would use wp_localize_script() (or any proper method to send the data within the document). – cybmeta Commented Dec 15, 2015 at 7:29
• I'm using system cron to collect external data and store it every 2 minutes. It then builds a wp query relating to the new data and stores it in a transient. On the front end, I have a feed that auto refreshes every 30 seconds. I'm using js to compare the transients for changes. If they are duplicates I can skip the need to rebuild the page. If they don't match i.e. the transient is different or it is expired or broken, I rebuild the page. What I'm doing is reducing unnecessary work by detecting duplicates. I'm just not sure if this is the best way to do that. – Josh w Commented Dec 16, 2015 at 0:27

1 Answer 1

Transients should be used for short (for varying definition of it) time caching, and they are by design not reliable. From your description it sound like you are using them in a manner they were not designed to support and therefor probably the "best" for you is to not use transients at all.