Bypassing http response header Cache-Control: how to set cache expiration?

Question

All http responses from a server come with the headers that inform our app not to cache the responses:

Cache-Control: no-cache
Pragma: no-cache
Expires: 0


        

Answer 1

You can implement a custom NSURLCache that only returns cached responses that has not expired.

Example:

#import "CustomURLCache.h"

NSString * const EXPIRES_KEY = @"cache date";
int const CACHE_EXPIRES = -10;

@implementation CustomURLCache

// static method for activating this custom cache
+(void)activate {
    CustomURLCache *urlCache = [[CustomURLCache alloc] initWithMemoryCapacity:(2*1024*1024) diskCapacity:(2*1024*1024) diskPath:nil] ;
    [NSURLCache setSharedURLCache:urlCache];
}

-(NSCachedURLResponse *)cachedResponseForRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request {
    NSCachedURLResponse * cachedResponse = [super cachedResponseForRequest:request];
    if (cachedResponse) {
        NSDate* cacheDate = [[cachedResponse userInfo] objectForKey:EXPIRES_KEY];
        if ([cacheDate timeIntervalSinceNow] < CACHE_EXPIRES) {
            [self removeCachedResponseForRequest:request];
            cachedResponse = nil;
        }
    }

    return cachedResponse;
}

- (void)storeCachedResponse:(NSCachedURLResponse *)cachedResponse forRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request {
    NSMutableDictionary *userInfo = cachedResponse.userInfo ? [cachedResponse.userInfo mutableCopy] : [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
    [userInfo setObject:[NSDate date] forKey:EXPIRES_KEY];
    NSCachedURLResponse *newCachedResponse = [[NSCachedURLResponse alloc] initWithResponse:cachedResponse.response data:cachedResponse.data userInfo:userInfo storagePolicy:cachedResponse.storagePolicy];

    [super storeCachedResponse:newCachedResponse forRequest:request];
}

@end

If this does not give you enough control then I would implement a custom NSURLProtocol with a startLoading method as below and use it in conjunction with the custom cache.

- (void)startLoading
{
    NSMutableURLRequest *newRequest = [self.request mutableCopy];
    [NSURLProtocol setProperty:@YES forKey:@"CacheSet" inRequest:newRequest];

    NSCachedURLResponse *cachedResponse = [[NSURLCache sharedURLCache] cachedResponseForRequest:self.request];
    if (cachedResponse) {  
        [self connection:nil didReceiveResponse:[cachedResponse response]];
        [self connection:nil didReceiveData:[cachedResponse data]];
        [self connectionDidFinishLoading:nil];
    } else {
        _connection = [NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:newRequest delegate:self];
    }
}

Some links:

• Useful info on NSURLCache
• Creating a custom NSURLProtocol

Answer 2

If somebody would be interested, here is Stephanus answer rewritten in Swift:

class CustomURLCache: NSURLCache {

    // UserInfo expires key
    let kUrlCacheExpiresKey = "CacheData";

    // How long is cache data valid in seconds
    let kCacheExpireInterval:NSTimeInterval = 60*60*24*5;

    // get cache response for a request
    override func cachedResponseForRequest(request:NSURLRequest) -> NSCachedURLResponse? {
        // create empty response
        var response:NSCachedURLResponse? = nil

        // try to get cache response
        if let cachedResponse = super.cachedResponseForRequest(request) {

            // try to get userInfo
            if let userInfo = cachedResponse.userInfo {

                // get cache date
                if let cacheDate = userInfo[kUrlCacheExpiresKey] as NSDate? {

                    // check if the cache data are expired
                    if (cacheDate.timeIntervalSinceNow < -kCacheExpireInterval) {
                        // remove old cache request
                        self.removeCachedResponseForRequest(request);
                    } else {
                        // the cache request is still valid
                        response = cachedResponse
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        return response;
    }

    // store cached response
    override func storeCachedResponse(cachedResponse: NSCachedURLResponse, forRequest: NSURLRequest) {
        // create userInfo dictionary
        var userInfo = NSMutableDictionary()
        if let cachedUserInfo = cachedResponse.userInfo {
            userInfo = NSMutableDictionary(dictionary:cachedUserInfo)
        }
        // add current date to the UserInfo
        userInfo[kUrlCacheExpiresKey] = NSDate()

        // create new cached response
        let newCachedResponse = NSCachedURLResponse(response:cachedResponse.response, data:cachedResponse.data, userInfo:userInfo,storagePolicy:cachedResponse.storagePolicy)
        super.storeCachedResponse(newCachedResponse, forRequest:forRequest)

    }

}

Answer 3

Another possible solution is to modify the response object and clobber the Cache-Control headers from the server and replace them with your own desired values.

There are two places you could do that.

You could do it in a NSURLSessionDataDelegate in func URLSession(session: NSURLSession, dataTask: NSURLSessionDataTask, willCacheResponse proposedResponse: NSCachedURLResponse, completionHandler: (NSCachedURLResponse?) -> Void), but if you do it there, then can no longer use the usual completion handler-based methods getting results from session tasks.

Another place you could do it is by defining a custom NSURLProtocol, which intercepts HTTP and HTTPS responses and modifies them.