[thelist] Variable Stylesheets?

[Matthew Blanchard]

From: "Keith" <cache at dowebs.com>
Subject: Re: [thelist] Variable Stylesheets?


> However, the only thing I can see that's gained over setting the style
> directly through ssi is the supposed "cacheability". But I don't think you
are
> getting the cachability that you think you are. The browser still calls it
> everytime I refresh the page. I put a sleep(90) in style.cgi and everytime
I
> refresh the page I get a 90 second wait to load the page.  This pause
> happens on IE5.5 and NN4.7 even if they are set to never check for newer
> versions on the server. Obviously they're checking.... In fact, both
browsers
> still check for newer versions (and get them) even if .css is used in a
static
> linked stylesheet even with check for newer versions set to never.

Have you tried to use an "Expires" (and/or "Cache-Control") HTTP header?
(and for CGI/ASP, you may also want to handle "If-Modified-Since", if the
script execution takes long).

I actually had the impression that the browser (IE) tends to "over cache"
linked stylesheet and JavaScript files. I remember several incidents when
just clicking "refresh" wouldn't give me the updated CSS/JS files.