Thread:Help talk:$smwgFactboxUseCache/Don't get it/reply

Prior SMW 1.9, the design was that on each page request the factbox would run a Store fetch, transform the data into a string, and parse the string through MW's Parser object in order to inject the result into the Skin object.

If $smwgFactboxUseCache is set false it will do as describe above (legacy behavior) if it is set true then only on a new revision the Factbox is re-build and successively stored as cache object. This means that on each page request the Factbox is retrieved from cache if the revisionId is available otherwise it is rebuild.

For details on the implementation, have a look at the appropriate source and test files ([1], [2]).

[1] https://github.com/SemanticMediaWiki/SemanticMediaWiki/blob/master/includes/FactboxCache.php

[2] http://wikimedia.7.x6.nabble.com/Why-do-FactBoxes-only-display-once-tp5019607.html