System for offline object based storage and mocking of rest responses

Abstract

An example system and method facilitates operation of a networked software application, i.e., client application which communicates with a network resource (e.g., web service) during periods of intermittent network connectivity, by selectively intercepting and shredding and/or unshredding service response messages. In a specific embodiment, the example system includes one or more pluggable shredders and unshredders that are used to explode a complex REpresentational State Transfer (REST) payload into its constituent structured primitive objects for ease of consumption by the User Interface (UI) of the client application. The exploded, i.e., shredded response message payloads are stored in local cache, where the cached data is strategically structured as compared to the received REST payload. One or more unshredders selectively reconstruct one or more REST response message payloads if client reissues the corresponding REST request message while offline. Accordingly, the client need not alter its activities based on whether the client is online or offline. Instead the client may operate as if it is always online, and the system will provide one or more mock responses containing the last known data set for the scenario wherein the server cannot be reached, i.e., when the client is offline.