Wordpress Transient

Question

I am trying to learn some new database techniques and at the moment, I have a opportunity to apply and try something new.

Wordpress coined some of it's values: "transient" and lock it on to a key value.

Example Value:

a:20:{i:-1273996637;i:1284;i:-1273997086;}

What I like to know is the concept on how these values are created.

Answer 1

Hi there

The term "Transient" in WordPress is cached, temporary data. The data has an expiry timestamp, so it will be automatically deleted after a specified interval.

a simple and standardized way of storing cached data in the database temporarily by giving it a custom name and a timeframe after which it will expire and deleted.

So to answer your question: Some plugin (or WP itself) stored this data for some purpose, but it will be automatically purged at some point.

You can read the full details here: Transients API