Can Retrofit with OKHttp use cache data when offline

Question

Edit for Retrofit 2.x:

OkHttp Interceptor is the right way to access cache when offline:

1) Create Interceptor:

private static final Interceptor REWRITE_CACHE_CONTROL_INTERCEPTOR = new Interceptor() {
    @Override public Response intercept(Chain chain) throws IOException {
        Response originalResponse = chain.proceed(chain.request());
        if (Utils.isNetworkAvailable(context)) {
            int maxAge = 60; // read from cache for 1 minute
            return originalResponse.newBuilder()
                    .header("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=" + maxAge)
                    .build();
        } else {
            int maxStale = 60 * 60 * 24 * 28; // tolerate 4-weeks stale
            return originalResponse.newBuilder()
                    .header("Cache-Control", "public, only-if-cached, max-stale=" + maxStale)
                    .build();
        }
    }

2) Setup client:

OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
client.networkInterceptors().add(REWRITE_CACHE_CONTROL_INTERCEPTOR);

//setup cache
File httpCacheDirectory = new File(context.getCacheDir(), "responses");
int cacheSize = 10 * 1024 * 1024; // 10 MiB
Cache cache = new Cache(httpCacheDirectory, cacheSize);

//add cache to the client
client.setCache(cache);

3) Add client to retrofit

Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
        .baseUrl(BASE_URL)
        .client(client)
        .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
        .build();

Also check @kosiara - Bartosz Kosarzycki's answer. You may need to remove some header from the response.

---

OKHttp 2.0.x (Check the original answer):

Since OKHttp 2.0.x HttpResponseCache is Cache, setResponseCache is setCache. So you should setCache like this:

        File httpCacheDirectory = new File(context.getCacheDir(), "responses");

        Cache cache = null;
        try {
            cache = new Cache(httpCacheDirectory, 10 * 1024 * 1024);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            Log.e("OKHttp", "Could not create http cache", e);
        }

        OkHttpClient okHttpClient = new OkHttpClient();
        if (cache != null) {
            okHttpClient.setCache(cache);
        }
        String hostURL = context.getString(R.string.host_url);

        api = new RestAdapter.Builder()
                .setEndpoint(hostURL)
                .setClient(new OkClient(okHttpClient))
                .setRequestInterceptor(/*rest of the answer here */)
                .build()
                .create(MyApi.class);

---

Original Answer:

It turns out that server response must have Cache-Control: public to make OkClient to read from cache.

Also If you want to request from network when available, you should add Cache-Control: max-age=0 request header. This answer shows how to do it parameterized. This is how I used it:

RestAdapter.Builder builder= new RestAdapter.Builder()
   .setRequestInterceptor(new RequestInterceptor() {
        @Override
        public void intercept(RequestFacade request) {
            request.addHeader("Accept", "application/json;versions=1");
            if (MyApplicationUtils.isNetworkAvailable(context)) {
                int maxAge = 60; // read from cache for 1 minute
                request.addHeader("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=" + maxAge);
            } else {
                int maxStale = 60 * 60 * 24 * 28; // tolerate 4-weeks stale
                request.addHeader("Cache-Control", 
                    "public, only-if-cached, max-stale=" + maxStale);
            }
        }
});

All of the anwsers above did not work for me. I tried to implement offline cache in retrofit 2.0.0-beta2. I added an interceptor using okHttpClient.networkInterceptors() method but received java.net.UnknownHostException when I tried to use the cache offline. It turned out that I had to add okHttpClient.interceptors() as well.

The problem was that cache wasn't written to flash storage because the server returned Pragma:no-cache which prevents OkHttp from storing the response. Offline cache didn't work even after modifying request header values. After some trial-and-error I got the cache to work without modifying the backend side by removing pragma from reponse instead of the request - response.newBuilder().removeHeader("Pragma");

Retrofit: 2.0.0-beta2; OkHttp: 2.5.0

OkHttpClient okHttpClient = createCachedClient(context);
Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
        .client(okHttpClient)
        .baseUrl(API_URL)
        .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
        .build();
service = retrofit.create(RestDataResource.class);

...

private OkHttpClient createCachedClient(final Context context) {
    File httpCacheDirectory = new File(context.getCacheDir(), "cache_file");

    Cache cache = new Cache(httpCacheDirectory, 20 * 1024 * 1024);
    OkHttpClient okHttpClient = new OkHttpClient();
    okHttpClient.setCache(cache);
    okHttpClient.interceptors().add(
            new Interceptor() {
                @Override
                public Response intercept(Chain chain) throws IOException {
                    Request originalRequest = chain.request();
                    String cacheHeaderValue = isOnline(context) 
                        ? "public, max-age=2419200" 
                        : "public, only-if-cached, max-stale=2419200" ;
                    Request request = originalRequest.newBuilder().build();
                    Response response = chain.proceed(request);
                    return response.newBuilder()
                        .removeHeader("Pragma")
                        .removeHeader("Cache-Control")
                        .header("Cache-Control", cacheHeaderValue)
                        .build();
                }
            }
    );
    okHttpClient.networkInterceptors().add(
            new Interceptor() {
                @Override
                public Response intercept(Chain chain) throws IOException {
                    Request originalRequest = chain.request();
                    String cacheHeaderValue = isOnline(context) 
                        ? "public, max-age=2419200" 
                        : "public, only-if-cached, max-stale=2419200" ;
                    Request request = originalRequest.newBuilder().build();
                    Response response = chain.proceed(request);
                    return response.newBuilder()
                        .removeHeader("Pragma")
                        .removeHeader("Cache-Control")
                        .header("Cache-Control", cacheHeaderValue)
                        .build();
                }
            }
    );
    return okHttpClient;
}

...

public interface RestDataResource {

    @GET("rest-data") 
    Call<List<RestItem>> getRestData();

}

My solution:

private BackendService() {

    httpCacheDirectory = new File(context.getCacheDir(),  "responses");
    int cacheSize = 10 * 1024 * 1024; // 10 MiB
    Cache cache = new Cache(httpCacheDirectory, cacheSize);

    httpClient = new OkHttpClient.Builder()
            .addNetworkInterceptor(REWRITE_RESPONSE_INTERCEPTOR)
            .addInterceptor(OFFLINE_INTERCEPTOR)
            .cache(cache)
            .build();

    Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
            .baseUrl("https://api.backend.com")
            .client(httpClient)
            .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
            .build();

    backendApi = retrofit.create(BackendApi.class);
}

private static final Interceptor REWRITE_RESPONSE_INTERCEPTOR = chain -> {
    Response originalResponse = chain.proceed(chain.request());
    String cacheControl = originalResponse.header("Cache-Control");

    if (cacheControl == null || cacheControl.contains("no-store") || cacheControl.contains("no-cache") ||
            cacheControl.contains("must-revalidate") || cacheControl.contains("max-age=0")) {
        return originalResponse.newBuilder()
                .header("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=" + 10)
                .build();
    } else {
        return originalResponse;
    }
};

private static final Interceptor OFFLINE_INTERCEPTOR = chain -> {
    Request request = chain.request();

    if (!isOnline()) {
        Log.d(TAG, "rewriting request");

        int maxStale = 60 * 60 * 24 * 28; // tolerate 4-weeks stale
        request = request.newBuilder()
                .header("Cache-Control", "public, only-if-cached, max-stale=" + maxStale)
                .build();
    }

    return chain.proceed(request);
};

public static boolean isOnline() {
    ConnectivityManager cm = (ConnectivityManager) MyApplication.getApplication().getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
    NetworkInfo netInfo = cm.getActiveNetworkInfo();
    return netInfo != null && netInfo.isConnectedOrConnecting();
}

The answer is YES, based on the above answers, I started writing unit tests to verify all possible use cases :

• Use cache when offline
• Use cached response first until expired, then network
• Use network first then cache for some requests
• Do not store in cache for some responses

I built a small helper lib to configure OKHttp cache easily, you can see the related unittest here on Github : https://github.com/ncornette/OkCacheControl/blob/master/okcache-control/src/test/java/com/ncornette/cache/OkCacheControlTest.java

Unittest that demonstrates the use of cache when offline :

@Test
public void test_USE_CACHE_WHEN_OFFLINE() throws Exception {
    //given
    givenResponseInCache("Expired Response in cache", -5, MINUTES);
    given(networkMonitor.isOnline()).willReturn(false);

    //when
    //This response is only used to not block when test fails
    mockWebServer.enqueue(new MockResponse().setResponseCode(404));
    Response response = getResponse();

    //then
    then(response.body().string()).isEqualTo("Expired Response in cache");
    then(cache.hitCount()).isEqualTo(1);
}

As you can see, cache can be used even if it has expired. Hope it will help.

building on @kosiara-bartosz-kasarzycki's answer, I created a sample project that properly loads from memory->disk->network using retrofit, okhttp, rxjava and guava. https://github.com/digitalbuddha/StoreDemo

Cache with Retrofit2 and OkHTTP3:

OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient
  .Builder()
  .cache(new Cache(App.sApp.getCacheDir(), 10 * 1024 * 1024)) // 10 MB
  .addInterceptor(new Interceptor() {
    @Override public Response intercept(Chain chain) throws IOException {
      Request request = chain.request();
      if (NetworkUtils.isNetworkAvailable()) {
        request = request.newBuilder().header("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=" + 60).build();
      } else {
        request = request.newBuilder().header("Cache-Control", "public, only-if-cached, max-stale=" + 60 * 60 * 24 * 7).build();
      }
      return chain.proceed(request);
    }
  })
  .build();

NetworkUtils.isNetworkAvailable() static method:

public static boolean isNetworkAvailable(Context context) {
        ConnectivityManager cm =
                (ConnectivityManager) context.getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
        NetworkInfo activeNetwork = cm.getActiveNetworkInfo();
        return activeNetwork != null &&
                activeNetwork.isConnectedOrConnecting();
    }

Then just add client to the retrofit builder:

Retrofit retrofit = new Retrofit.Builder()
                    .baseUrl(BASE_URL)
                    .client(client)
                    .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
                    .build();

Original source: https://newfivefour.com/android-retrofit2-okhttp3-cache-network-request-offline.html