Added in API level 14

Summary: Methods | Inherited Methods

HttpResponseCache

Kotlin |Java

public final class HttpResponseCache
extends ResponseCache implements Closeable

java.lang.Object
↳	java.net.ResponseCache
	↳	android.net.http.HttpResponseCache

Caches HTTP and HTTPS responses to the filesystem so they may be reused, saving time and bandwidth. This class supports HttpURLConnection and HttpsURLConnection; there is no platform-provided cache for DefaultHttpClient or AndroidHttpClient. Installation and instances are thread safe.

Installing an HTTP response cache

Enable caching of all of your application's HTTP requests by installing the cache at application startup. For example, this code installs a 10 MiB cache in the

application-specific
 cache directory

of the filesystem}:

   protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
       ...

       try {
           File httpCacheDir = new File(context.getCacheDir(), "http");
           long httpCacheSize = 10 * 1024 * 1024; // 10 MiB
           HttpResponseCache.install(httpCacheDir, httpCacheSize);
       } catch (IOException e) {
           Log.i(TAG, "HTTP response cache installation failed:" + e);
       }
   }

   protected void onStop() {
       ...

       HttpResponseCache cache = HttpResponseCache.getInstalled();
       if (cache != null) {
           cache.flush();
       }
   }

This cache will evict entries as necessary to keep its size from exceeding 10 MiB. The best cache size is application specific and depends on the size and frequency of the files being downloaded. Increasing the limit may improve the hit rate, but it may also just waste filesystem space!

For some applications it may be preferable to create the cache in the external storage directory. There are no access controls on the external storage directory so it should not be used for caches that could contain private data. Although it often has more free space, external storage is optional and—even if available—can disappear during use. Retrieve the external cache directory using Context.getExternalCacheDir(). If this method returns null, your application should fall back to either not caching or caching on non-external storage. If the external storage is removed during use, the cache hit rate will drop to zero and ongoing cache reads will fail.

Flushing the cache forces its data to the filesystem. This ensures that all responses written to the cache will be readable the next time the activity starts.

Cache Optimization

To measure cache effectiveness, this class tracks three statistics:

Request Count: the number of HTTP requests issued since this cache was created.
Network Count: the number of those requests that required network use.
Hit Count: the number of those requests whose responses were served by the cache.

Sometimes a request will result in a conditional cache hit. If the cache contains a stale copy of the response, the client will issue a conditional GET. The server will then send either the updated response if it has changed, or a short 'not modified' response if the client's copy is still valid. Such responses increment both the network count and hit count.

The best way to improve the cache hit rate is by configuring the web server to return cacheable responses. Although this client honors all HTTP/1.1 (RFC 2068) cache headers, it doesn't cache partial responses.

Force a Network Response

In some situations, such as after a user clicks a 'refresh' button, it may be necessary to skip the cache, and fetch data directly from the server. To force a full refresh, add the no-cache directive:

   connection.addRequestProperty("Cache-Control", "no-cache");

If it is only necessary to force a cached response to be validated by the server, use the more efficient max-age=0 instead:

   connection.addRequestProperty("Cache-Control", "max-age=0");

Force a Cache Response

Sometimes you'll want to show resources if they are available immediately, but not otherwise. This can be used so your application can show something while waiting for the latest data to be downloaded. To restrict a request to locally-cached resources, add the only-if-cached directive:

   try {
         connection.addRequestProperty("Cache-Control", "only-if-cached");
         InputStream cached = connection.getInputStream();
         // the resource was cached! show it
     } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
         // the resource was not cached
     }

This technique works even better in situations where a stale response is better than no response. To permit stale cached responses, use the max-stale directive with the maximum staleness in seconds:

   int maxStale = 60 * 60 * 24 * 28; // tolerate 4-weeks stale
         connection.addRequestProperty("Cache-Control", "max-stale=" + maxStale);

Working With Earlier Releases

This class was added in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Use reflection to enable the response cache without impacting earlier releases:

   try {
           File httpCacheDir = new File(context.getCacheDir(), "http");
           long httpCacheSize = 10 * 1024 * 1024; // 10 MiB
           Class.forName("android.net.http.HttpResponseCache")
                   .getMethod("install", File.class, long.class)
                   .invoke(null, httpCacheDir, httpCacheSize);
       } catch (Exception httpResponseCacheNotAvailable) {
       }

Summary

Public methods
`void`	`close()` Uninstalls the cache and releases any active resources.
`void`	`delete()` Uninstalls the cache and deletes all of its stored contents.
`void`	`flush()` Force buffered operations to the filesystem.
`CacheResponse`	`get(URI uri, String requestMethod, Map<String, List<String>> requestHeaders)` Retrieve the cached response based on the requesting uri, request method and request headers.
`int`	`getHitCount()` Returns the number of HTTP requests whose response was provided by the cache.
`static HttpResponseCache`	`getInstalled()` Returns the currently-installed `HttpResponseCache`, or null if there is no cache installed or it is not a `HttpResponseCache`.
`int`	`getNetworkCount()` Returns the number of HTTP requests that required the network to either supply a response or validate a locally cached response.
`int`	`getRequestCount()` Returns the total number of HTTP requests that were made.
`static HttpResponseCache`	`install(File directory, long maxSize)` Creates a new HTTP response cache and sets it as the system default cache.
`long`	`maxSize()` Returns the maximum number of bytes that this cache should use to store its data.
`CacheRequest`	`put(URI uri, URLConnection urlConnection)` The protocol handler calls this method after a resource has been retrieved, and the ResponseCache must decide whether or not to store the resource in its cache.
`long`	`size()` Returns the number of bytes currently being used to store the values in this cache.

Inherited methods

From class


        
          java.net.ResponseCache

`abstract CacheResponse`	`get(URI uri, String rqstMethod, Map<String, List<String>> rqstHeaders)` Retrieve the cached response based on the requesting uri, request method and request headers.
`static ResponseCache`	`getDefault()` Gets the system-wide response cache.
`abstract CacheRequest`	`put(URI uri, URLConnection conn)` The protocol handler calls this method after a resource has been retrieved, and the ResponseCache must decide whether or not to store the resource in its cache.
`static void`	`setDefault(ResponseCache responseCache)` Sets (or unsets) the system-wide cache.

From class


        
          java.lang.Object

`Object`	`clone()` Creates and returns a copy of this object.
`boolean`	`equals(Object obj)` Indicates whether some other object is "equal to" this one.
`void`	`finalize()` Called by the garbage collector on an object when garbage collection determines that there are no more references to the object.
`final Class<?>`	`getClass()` Returns the runtime class of this `Object`.
`int`	`hashCode()` Returns a hash code value for the object.
`final void`	`notify()` Wakes up a single thread that is waiting on this object's monitor.
`final void`	`notifyAll()` Wakes up all threads that are waiting on this object's monitor.
`String`	`toString()` Returns a string representation of the object.
`final void`	`wait(long timeoutMillis, int nanos)` Causes the current thread to wait until it is awakened, typically by being notified or interrupted, or until a certain amount of real time has elapsed.
`final void`	`wait(long timeoutMillis)` Causes the current thread to wait until it is awakened, typically by being notified or interrupted, or until a certain amount of real time has elapsed.
`final void`	`wait()` Causes the current thread to wait until it is awakened, typically by being notified or interrupted.

From interface


        
          java.io.Closeable


      close()

Closes this stream and releases any system resources associated with it.

From interface


        
          java.lang.AutoCloseable


      close()

Closes this resource, relinquishing any underlying resources.

Public methods

close

Added in API level 14

public void close ()

Uninstalls the cache and releases any active resources. Stored contents will remain on the filesystem.

Throws
`IOException`

delete

Added in API level 14

public void delete ()

Uninstalls the cache and deletes all of its stored contents.

Throws
`IOException`

flush

Added in API level 14

public void flush ()

Force buffered operations to the filesystem. This ensures that responses written to the cache will be available the next time the cache is opened, even if this process is killed.

get

Added in API level 14

public CacheResponse get (URI uri, 
                String requestMethod, 
                Map<String, List<String>> requestHeaders)

Retrieve the cached response based on the requesting uri, request method and request headers. Typically this method is called by the protocol handler before it sends out the request to get the network resource. If a cached response is returned, that resource is used instead.

Parameters
`uri`	`URI`: a `URI` used to reference the requested network resource
`requestMethod`	`String`: a `String` representing the request method
`requestHeaders`	`Map`: - a Map from request header field names to lists of field values representing the current request headers

Returns
`CacheResponse`	a `CacheResponse` instance if available from cache, or null otherwise

Throws
`IOException`

getHitCount

Added in API level 14

public int getHitCount ()

Returns the number of HTTP requests whose response was provided by the cache. This may include conditional GET requests that were validated over the network.

Returns
`int`

getInstalled

Added in API level 14

public static HttpResponseCache getInstalled ()

Returns the currently-installed HttpResponseCache, or null if there is no cache installed or it is not a HttpResponseCache.

Returns
`HttpResponseCache`

getNetworkCount

Added in API level 14

public int getNetworkCount ()

Returns the number of HTTP requests that required the network to either supply a response or validate a locally cached response.

Returns
`int`

getRequestCount

Added in API level 14

public int getRequestCount ()

Returns the total number of HTTP requests that were made. This includes both client requests and requests that were made on the client's behalf to handle a redirects and retries.

Returns
`int`

install

Added in API level 14

public static HttpResponseCache install (File directory, 
                long maxSize)

Creates a new HTTP response cache and sets it as the system default cache.

Parameters
`directory`	`File`: the directory to hold cache data.
`maxSize`	`long`: the maximum size of the cache in bytes.

Returns
`HttpResponseCache`	the newly-installed cache

Throws
`IOException`	if `directory` cannot be used for this cache. Most applications should respond to this exception by logging a warning.

maxSize

Added in API level 14

public long maxSize ()

Returns the maximum number of bytes that this cache should use to store its data.

Returns
`long`

put

Added in API level 14

public CacheRequest put (URI uri, 
                URLConnection urlConnection)

The protocol handler calls this method after a resource has been retrieved, and the ResponseCache must decide whether or not to store the resource in its cache. If the resource is to be cached, then put() must return a CacheRequest object which contains an OutputStream that the protocol handler will use to write the resource into the cache. If the resource is not to be cached, then put must return null.

Parameters
`uri`	`URI`: a `URI` used to reference the requested network resource
`urlConnection`	`URLConnection`: - a URLConnection instance that is used to fetch the response to be cached

Returns
`CacheRequest`	a `CacheRequest` for recording the response to be cached. Null return indicates that the caller does not intend to cache the response.

Throws
`IOException`

size

Added in API level 14

public long size ()

Returns the number of bytes currently being used to store the values in this cache. This may be greater than the maxSize() if a background deletion is pending. -1 is returned if the size cannot be determined.

Returns
`long`