> Does Android cache http-requested data?

> I keep a small text file with various app-settings on my webserver.  When
> my app launches, it sends an http request to my webserver to grab the text
> file and retrieve the settings.  This enables me to update the settings of
> an app installed on a phone "in the field" from the server.

> The problem is, when I update the text file on the server, I usually don't
> see an immediate change in the text file retrieved by my app.  It can take
> hours for the change to show up in my app's http requests.  I know that the
> problem is not merely one of the file updating through various
> buffers/caches on the webserver because I can see the new version of the
> file if I load the same URL in a web browser...including a web browser on
> the exact same Android device I am running my app on...so a web browser
> (even one on the phone itself) sees the updated file immediately after I
> change it, but my app doesn't see it for several hours.

> It feels like Android is caching previous http request results and
> returning those to apps that make repeated requests instead of reloading
> the URLs from the web...and it takes a very long time to label this
> presumed cache as stale and reload the file from the server...several hours.

> On a side note, I have tried killing the app to make sure it's totally
> gone.  I have even tried rebooting the phone and yet the problem still
> persists...which is mind-boggling.

> I am quite flummoxed.  I am aware that Android is requesting and receiving
> a GZipInputStream, and I can see the input stream's type in the debugger,
> but that seems irrelevant to my issue.

> Here's how I pull the text file from the web server into my app.  Any
> ideas why a browser on the same device successfully retrieves the updated
> file and my code doesn't?

> String address = "http://URL_of_text_file_on_my_webserver.txt";
> URL url = new URL(address);
> HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
> InputStream is = (InputStream) conn.getContent();
> Reader reader = new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8");
> StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
> char[] buffer = new char[1024];
> for (int length = 0; (length = reader.read(buffer)) > 0;)
>     writer.write(buffer, 0, length);
> is.close();
> reader.close();
> writer.close();
> String fileStr = writer.toString();

> Thanks.

> I keep a small text file with various app-settings on my webserver.  When my
> app launches, it sends an http request to my webserver to grab the text file
> and retrieve the settings.  This enables me to update the settings of an app
> installed on a phone "in the field" from the server.

> The problem is, when I update the text file on the server, I usually don't
> see an immediate change in the text file retrieved by my app.  It can take
> hours for the change to show up in my app's http requests.  I know that the
> problem is not merely one of the file updating through various
> buffers/caches on the webserver because I can see the new version of the
> file if I load the same URL in a web browser...including a web browser on
> the exact same Android device I am running my app on...so a web browser
> (even one on the phone itself) sees the updated file immediately after I
> change it, but my app doesn't see it for several hours.

> It feels like Android is caching previous http request results and returning
> those to apps that make repeated requests instead of reloading the URLs from
> the web...and it takes a very long time to label this presumed cache as
> stale and reload the file from the server...several hours.

> On a side note, I have tried killing the app to make sure it's totally gone.
> I have even tried rebooting the phone and yet the problem still
> persists...which is mind-boggling.

> I am quite flummoxed.  I am aware that Android is requesting and receiving a
> GZipInputStream, and I can see the input stream's type in the debugger, but
> that seems irrelevant to my issue.

> Here's how I pull the text file from the web server into my app.  Any ideas
> why a browser on the same device successfully retrieves the updated file and
> my code doesn't?

> String address = "http://URL_of_text_file_on_my_webserver.txt";
> URL url = new URL(address);
> HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
> InputStream is = (InputStream) conn.getContent();
> Reader reader = new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8");
> StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
> char[] buffer = new char[1024];
> for (int length = 0; (length = reader.read(buffer)) > 0;)
>     writer.write(buffer, 0, length);
> is.close();
> reader.close();
> writer.close();
> String fileStr = writer.toString();

> Thanks.

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> Thanks for the great feedback on this everyone!

> Does Android cache http-requested data?

> I keep a small text file with various app-settings on my webserver.  When
> my app launches, it sends an http request to my webserver to grab the text
> file and retrieve the settings.  This enables me to update the settings of
> an app installed on a phone "in the field" from the server.

> The problem is, when I update the text file on the server, I usually don't
> see an immediate change in the text file retrieved by my app.  It can take
> hours for the change to show up in my app's http requests.  I know that the
> problem is not merely one of the file updating through various
> buffers/caches on the webserver because I can see the new version of the
> file if I load the same URL in a web browser...including a web browser on
> the exact same Android device I am running my app on...so a web browser
> (even one on the phone itself) sees the updated file immediately after I
> change it, but my app doesn't see it for several hours.

> It feels like Android is caching previous http request results and
> returning those to apps that make repeated requests instead of reloading
> the URLs from the web...and it takes a very long time to label this
> presumed cache as stale and reload the file from the server...several hours.

> On a side note, I have tried killing the app to make sure it's totally
> gone.  I have even tried rebooting the phone and yet the problem still
> persists...which is mind-boggling.

> I am quite flummoxed.  I am aware that Android is requesting and receiving
> a GZipInputStream, and I can see the input stream's type in the debugger,
> but that seems irrelevant to my issue.

> Here's how I pull the text file from the web server into my app.  Any
> ideas why a browser on the same device successfully retrieves the updated
> file and my code doesn't?

> String address = "http://URL_of_text_file_on_my_webserver.txt";
> URL url = new URL(address);
> HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
> InputStream is = (InputStream) conn.getContent();
> Reader reader = new InputStreamReader(is, "UTF-8");
> StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
> char[] buffer = new char[1024];
> for (int length = 0; (length = reader.read(buffer)) > 0;)
>     writer.write(buffer, 0, length);
> is.close();
> reader.close();
> writer.close();
> String fileStr = writer.toString();

> Thanks.