SDURLCache with AFNetworking and offline mode not

Question

I'm using AFNetworking and SDURLCache for all my networking operations.

I have SDURLCache set like this:

SDURLCache *urlCache = [[SDURLCache alloc]
        initWithMemoryCapacity:1024*1024*2   // 2MB mem cache
        diskCapacity:1024*1024*15 // 15MB disk cache
        diskPath:[SDURLCache defaultCachePath]];
    [urlCache setMinCacheInterval:1];
    [NSURLCache setSharedURLCache:urlCache];

All my request are using cachePolicy NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy, which according to apple docs works like this:

If an NSCachedURLResponse does not exist for the request, then the data is fetched from the originating source. If there is a cached response for the request, the URL loading system checks the response to determine if it specifies that the contents must be revalidated. If the contents must be revalidated a connection is made to the originating source to see if it has changed. If it has not changed, then the response is returned from the local cache. If it has changed, the data is fetched from the originating source.

If the cached response doesn’t specify that the contents must be revalidated, the maximum age or expiration specified in the response is examined. If the cached response is recent enough, then the response is returned from the local cache. If the response is determined to be stale, the originating source is checked for newer data. If newer data is available, the data is fetched from the originating source, otherwise it is returned from the cache.

So everything works perfectly even in airplane mode as long as the cache is not stale. When the cache expires (max-age and others), the failure block gets called.

I've been digging a little inside the SDURLCache and this method returns a response with valid data (I've parsed the data to a string and it contains the cached information)

- (NSCachedURLResponse *)cachedResponseForRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request {
    request = [SDURLCache canonicalRequestForRequest:request];

    NSCachedURLResponse *memoryResponse =
        [super cachedResponseForRequest:request];
    if (memoryResponse) {
        return memoryResponse;
    }

    NSString *cacheKey = [SDURLCache cacheKeyForURL:request.URL];

    // NOTE: We don't handle expiration here as even staled cache data is
    // necessary for NSURLConnection to handle cache revalidation.
    // Staled cache data is also needed for cachePolicies which force the
    // use of the cache.
    __block NSCachedURLResponse *response = nil;
    dispatch_sync(get_disk_cache_queue(), ^{
        NSMutableDictionary *accesses = [self.diskCacheInfo
            objectForKey:kAFURLCacheInfoAccessesKey];
        // OPTI: Check for cache-hit in in-memory dictionary before to hit FS
        if ([accesses objectForKey:cacheKey]) {
            response = [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithFile:
                [_diskCachePath stringByAppendingPathComponent:cacheKey]];
            if (response) {
                // OPTI: Log entry last access time for LRU cache eviction
                // algorithm but don't save the dictionary
                // on disk now in order to save IO and time
                [accesses setObject:[NSDate date] forKey:cacheKey];
                _diskCacheInfoDirty = YES;
            }
        }
    });

    // OPTI: Store the response to memory cache for potential future requests
    if (response) {
        [super storeCachedResponse:response forRequest:request];
    }

    return response;
}

So at this point I have no idea what to do, because I believe that the response is handled by the OS and then AFNetworking receives a

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)__unused connection 
  didFailWithError:(NSError *)error

inside AFURLConnectionOperation.

Answer 1

Well I've finally reached a not so ugly workaround:

First

If you're using IOS5/IOS6 you can drop SDURLCache and use the native one:

//Set Cache
NSURLCache *URLCache = [[NSURLCache alloc] initWithMemoryCapacity:4 * 1024 * 1024
                                                     diskCapacity:20 * 1024 * 1024
                                                         diskPath:nil];
[NSURLCache setSharedURLCache:URLCache];

But remember that in IOS5 https requests wont be cached in IOS6 they will.

Second

We need to add the following frameworks to our Prefix.pch so AFNetworking can start monitoring our internet connection.

#import <MobileCoreServices/MobileCoreServices.h>
#import <SystemConfiguration/SystemConfiguration.h>

Third

We need and AFHTTPClient instance so we can intercept every outgoing request and change his cachePolicy

-(NSMutableURLRequest *)requestWithMethod:(NSString *)method path:(NSString *)path parameters:(NSDictionary *)parameters {

    NSMutableURLRequest * request = [super requestWithMethod:method path:path parameters:parameters];
    if (request.cachePolicy == NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy && self.networkReachabilityStatus == AFNetworkReachabilityStatusNotReachable) {
        request.cachePolicy = NSURLRequestReturnCacheDataDontLoad;
    }

    if (self.networkReachabilityStatus == AFNetworkReachabilityStatusUnknown) {

        puts("uknown reachability status");
    }

    return request;
}

With these peaces of code we can now detect when the wifi/3g is unavailable and the specify the request to use always the cache no matter what. (Offline Mode)

Notes

• I still don't know what to do when the networkReachabilityStatus is AFNetworkReachabilityStatusUnknown This can happen is a request is made as soon as the application starts and AF has not obtained the internet status yet.

• Remember that in order for this to work the server has to set the correct cache headers in the http response.

UPDATE

Looks like IOS6 has some problems loading cached responses in no-internet situations, so even if the request is cached and the request cache policy is seted to NSURLRequestReturnCacheDataDontLoad the request will fail.

So an ugly workaround is to modify (void)connection:(NSURLConnection __unused *)connection didFailWithError:(NSError *)error in AFURLConnectionOperation.m to retrieve the cached response if the request fails but only for specific cache policies.

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection __unused *)connection
  didFailWithError:(NSError *)error
{
    self.error = error;

    [self.outputStream close];

    [self finish];

    self.connection = nil;

    //Ugly hack for making the request succeed if we can find a valid non-empty cached request
    //This is because IOS6 is not handling cache responses right when we are in a no-connection sittuation
    //Only use this code for cache policies that are supposed to listen to cache regarding it's expiration date
    if (self.request.cachePolicy == NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy ||
        self.request.cachePolicy == NSURLRequestReturnCacheDataElseLoad ||
        self.request.cachePolicy == NSURLRequestReturnCacheDataDontLoad) {

        NSCachedURLResponse * cachedResponse = [[NSURLCache sharedURLCache] cachedResponseForRequest:self.request];
        if (cachedResponse.data.length > 0) {
            self.responseData = cachedResponse.data;
            self.response = cachedResponse.response;
            self.error = nil;
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

It sounds like you want the request to succeed, even though the cache says the data has expired and should be retrieved from the server. You may have some luck setting the cache policy (different policy for online vs. offline) of certain requests where you'd rather use stale data than fail.

NSMutableURLRequest -> setCachePolicy

It looks like NSURLRequestReturnCacheDataDontLoad is the policy you want for offline mode.

Hope that helps!

Answer 3

Can't tell much without your HTTP headers -- but the most common reason for this is NSURLProtocol forcing revalidation before delivering cached response to WebView.

Please take a look here : http://robnapier.net/blog/offline-uiwebview-nsurlprotocol-588