Data Freshness Requirement

[Seb-F]

In the "Moving Through It: Getting An Application Reviewed" document, there is the line:

• Implementing an intelligent caching mechanism within your extension can significantly reduce the reliance on frequent API calls. By storing and retrieving frequently accessed data locally, you can minimize the need for repetitive requests. However, it is crucial to keep the cached data up to date and respect Spotify's guidelines regarding data freshness.

I can't find the guidelines regarding data freshness. I'm hoping to develop an application that uses a caching layer and want to ensure that it complies with the guidelines. Should data be re-cached monthly/weekly/daily, and does it vary by category of data (artist, album, podcast etc.)?

[kingosticks4 · Accepted solution]

There is a tiny section on caching at https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-api/concepts/api-calls

If you look at actual API responses you'll see they contain max-age values.

But of course, Spotify have absolutely no way to check you're respecting whatever "freshness" they've failed to make clear, so just be sensible. I tend to bump the max-age values they provide by a resource-dependent extra value. For example, track and album data is unlikely to change very often, in contrast to playlist contents. Hope that is somewhat helpful.