I understand that Transients API is used to cache data and should be intended to store data that is expected to expire.
However, please clarify the following.
Can set_transient() be used to store data in multi-site scenario? If yes, how is it different from using set_site_transient() function?
As the Codex suggests:
Essentially the same as set_transient() but works network wide when using WP Multisite.
One difference is that the transient name should be 40 characters or less in length. Also, while set_transient() sets transients that have an expiration time to not autoload, all transients added with
set_site_transientwill auto-load at all times.
In other words, the fundamental difference is in the auto-loading and since transients might be serialized, you could risk breaking things if referring to a blog (in MU) which has different settings/url/etc.
So the short answer is:
use set_transient for single blogs
use set_site_transient when you need something for ALL blogs.
Example of stored transients:
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