It would help if there was a node for:
Managed data cache of binary files for a single workflow over multiple executions.
The node should act as a gate to split the execution into a “refresh” and “loaded” path.
Similar to the loop-item-node, where the “refresh” path loops back into the cache-node.
If the “refresh” success the new-data should be saved in an well-known data directory for each workflow (exp. “/home/node/.n8n/cache/workflow-abc/node-342.bin”)
If the “refresh” failed then the old-cached-data should be used as the output
or failing, if there is no cache-data available or the cached-data is to old.
A dedicated node is required to sync-lock the “refresh” path between parallel workflow executions
and to prevent the frequent execution of the “refresh” path in a temp. failure state (backoff).
and n8n would need to clean the cache directory in one point in time.
Optional a different binary storage could be used (exp. S3),
but a local storage would already be fine.
My use case:
Not to request data/config files from an external source on each execution of a workflow.
This will reduce the dependency when external source are not reachable
or the data query is costly.
Are you willing to work on this?
Yes, but my nodejs file IO and n8n knowledge is low