[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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