[TYPO3-english] Caching and random or variable content

[Rik Willems]

Dear all,

I'm reading into creating variable content on a page what leads me to 
two questions. One more general and one more specific. Hopefully some of 
you shine a light on this matter.

1)
I can create a page and add a typoscript element that does a random 
select from a database table. How can I make it so that each time the 
page loads that element has different content without setting the entire 
page to no-cache?

2)
When I create a sort of shopping basket with products, each time a 
product selected the basket is updated. When each page has a little 
overview of current products in basket each page gets displayed per 
user, per session.
I notice that the commerce extension stores this information in the 
database and displays the basket based on this. Another option would be 
to use cookies.
What is in fact the best way to do this? How does caching or performance 
affect this best choice?

Hopefully I'm clear enough in my thoughts. Looking forward to your thoughts!

Regards, Rik