[thelist] Browser Cache Confusion
Luther, Ron
ron.luther at hp.com
Thu Jun 26 09:20:45 CDT 2003
Hi Gang,
I think I outfoxed myself. I thought I had something working nicely on my
local server, but when I put it out on the 'real' box -- it doesn't work the
same ... and I'm not sure what the heck is going on.
[... and I was already writing it up as my first article for evolt! .... Rats!]
Anyway, here is what I'm trying to do ....
* I've got 3 different "color" css files ... so far. One with a gray background,
one with a darkish green, and one with a light peachy color ... {depending on
which monitor I use to view them.}
* When you hit my main page it should randomly assign one of these color files.
[It does this by overwriting the main "Colour" file that is actually used by
the pages. It also looks at the 'Referer' and only changes the "Colour" file
if it's your initial visit or you explicitly ask to change the colors -- that
way it shouldn't randomly change colors on you each time you hit the main
navigation screen.]
* That color scheme should 'persist' through the visit since, (when I'm done
with it), all the pages will reference this same 'Colour' file and that file
should be in your browser cache.
* A 'hard refresh' should randomly change the color scheme, and that new
color scheme should persist through the remainder of the visit. [Since a
'hard refresh' should download a fresh copy of all the 'pieces-parts' files
including the revised "Colour" file, right?]
I thought the 'theory' was sound ... and all of this works just fine when
viewing the site off 'localhost'.
However, when I put the code out on the "real" box, I'm seeing something
completely different:
* The site comes up with an initial color scheme.
* A hard refresh will change the color scheme.
* But I surf "deeper" into the site, I still see the _initial_ color scheme.
WTF? I don't see the changed color scheme unless I hard refresh each page
individually - which is not what I want visitors to have to do.
* My browser cache *seems* to only have one "Colour" file in it.
Sooooo ... I'm confused ...
Oh CRAP!
D'Oh! I'm at work. Could there be a proxy server caching my initial color
file and hosing up my functionality? The difference between working and not
working seems to be the difference between viewing under and across the
corporate firewall.
Dang! Could I ask for 2 or 3 folks not sitting behind proxy servers to
give this a whirl and let me know if it works for them?
Thanks!
RonL.
(The page in question is my default page at http://www.fangsnclaws.com/ )
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