Linux, Mozilla, PHP and caching - HELP

ppowell

I have pages that, for reasons I will never understand because of my off-the-scale hatred for Mozilla, continue to cache in spite of my clearing cache on the browser, using various header() commands to force a server-side cache clear, everything I can think of, unless I physically close and reopen the browser.

This cracked behavior only occurs when PHP-derived pages display HTML form element dropdowns. The dropdowns will NOT reflect any change you made to your code that should show a change, in spite of header() commands and everything else.

Has anyone ever found a way to combat this disgusting problem with Mozilla? I am just not figuring this out and any online resource as to how to force Mozilla to constantly clear cache is totally appreciated.

Thanx
Phil

 // HEADER COMMANDS TAKEN FROM [url]http://us4.php.net/manual/en/function.header.php[/url]

  // Date in the past
  header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT");

  // always modified
  header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT");

  // HTTP/1.1
  header("Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
  header("Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false);

  // HTTP/1.0
  header("Pragma: no-cache");

ahundiak

Trying to clear html caches has been one of my favorite pastimes. The thing to understand is that it's not necessarily the fault of the browser. There can be many other caching devices (including proxy servers and firewalls) that may not always respect the cache instructions. And the problem is certainly not limited to Mozilla browsers.

There is one trick that has always seemed to work for me so far. Append a unique number to the end of each url. I usually just use the results from the time function. By ensuring that the url itself has always changed you can be reasonably sure that the request will be passed onto the server. It makes the url's a bit ugly but it does work.

AstroTeg

With Mozilla, you can hold down shift and click on reload (may need to do it a few times) and Mozilla will make a round trip out to your server for a fresh file. There's also the clear cache in Preferences which usually works well.

I tend to like to output something random to the page (not using a random function, but make something). Then when I reload, I can see if that random thing came up or if its some previous random thing. You might give it a whirl to make sure: you're working with the right file (has happened and has driven me nuts), its a caching problem, or you just have a problem with your drop down box code.

ppowell

I tried all of your suggestions, and sadly, they were all to no avail. Apparently Mozilla has a way of overwriting all changes by assuming that the URL is unchanged and thus delivers a cached page even if you clear server cache!!

The only way I have found to clear cache on Mozilla is the old-fashioned approach: close and reopen your browser.

Note, though, that this "caching" behavior only occurs if your page has a dropdown. Otherwise, Mozilla acts just fine otherwise.

Phil

AstroTeg

What version of Mozilla you using? I've NEVER had as much trouble as it sounds like you have had and I've been developing sites with Mozilla as my primary tool since Milestone 7-ish.

ppowell

I'm apparently using Mozilla 1.0.2 for Red Hat 7.3.

Phil

AstroTeg

Ahhh... Ok. You're kicking it old school. 🙂

See if you can get a newer version on there and I'd predict you'll have fewer problems.