Application architecture supporting multiple services and caching

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving, by a service agent from a client application, a request for data associated with a selected service, wherein the selected service comprises first and second service implementations on a server that is remote from the client application, the first and second service implementations comprising different implementations of the selected service that each have a different application interface for communicating data froms the selected service to the client application, wherein the client application is independent of the first and second service implementations;
• selecting one of the first or second service implementations based on the request from the client application;
• using the service agent to create a service instance at runtime that corresponds to the selected service implementation, the service instance providing a service interface that is specific to the application interface of the selected service implementation;
• and
• using the service agent to create a cache service instance at runtime based on the selected service, the cache service instance being adapted to use the service instance to provide the requested data to the application.

A computer-implemented method for caching data, comprising:

• receiving, by a service agent from a client application, a request for data associated with a service on a server that is remote from the client application, the service comprising first and second service implementations that each have a different application interface for communicating data from the service to the client application;
• selecting, by the service agent, one of the first or second service implementations;
• creating, by the service agent, a service instance that corresponds to the selected service implementation, the service instance providing a service interface that is specific to the application interface of the selected service implementation;
• creating, by the service agent, a cache service instance based on the selected service, the cache service instance being configured to use the service instance to access the service on the server;
• retrieving the data from the service through the service interface;
• determining an expiration value for the data retrieved from selected service;
• using the cache service instance to store the data to a local data store, that is local to the client application, the cache service instance storing the expiration value in association with the data;
• and
• using the cache service instance to provide the client application with access to the data in the local data store instance based on the expiration value.