Hi all,
We are finally publishing out our new help site, and I've run into an issue with caching. Initially I had the developers cache the static files (js and css mostly) for better load times, but then if updates are made to the css - or more concerningly, the toc - they're not reflected in the site until the cache is cleared.
I'm wondering if anyone has come up with a good middle ground on this so that the site loads quickly but the browser recognizes when specific files have been updated. I'm not super technical but one of my developers was explaining that most sites do this through hashing the filenames on each new publish, but I'm not finding any way to control the js or css filenames directly through MadCap Flare. Any ideas for me? Other workarounds that have worked for your projects?
Thanks!
HTML5 Caching
Re: HTML5 Caching
Yes, this is incredibly annoying. We have some workarounds, not fixes - your mileage may vary depending on your servers/web host and how it handles purging cache...
We found that, for example, our Akamai-based web host had edge servers that wouldn't all get the updated JS and CSS files that were published <-- these kinds of Flare files seem notorious for getting cached and not refreshed when we publish a new build. We would connect to the FTP and see that they were indeed new, but some cluster or mirror of the edge servers would hold onto the now-outdated files.
We had to run an explicit Purge Cache on the Akamai servers to clear out cached files on the various edge servers.
I've heard anecdotal evidence that folks with Windows IIS would have to bounce IIS on the affected servers to get it to really refresh the cached files <-- although there is probably an IIS setting for that...
Also, client browsers viewing the newly-updated Help would hold onto their sessions (unhelpfully) so they would need to do a local cached page refresh.
Session fixation is great for keeping your Amazon cart contents, but is awful for viewing the newest, freshest Flare Help output. especially if you are trying to view CSS or JS updates.
I hope this helps!
CAT
We found that, for example, our Akamai-based web host had edge servers that wouldn't all get the updated JS and CSS files that were published <-- these kinds of Flare files seem notorious for getting cached and not refreshed when we publish a new build. We would connect to the FTP and see that they were indeed new, but some cluster or mirror of the edge servers would hold onto the now-outdated files.
We had to run an explicit Purge Cache on the Akamai servers to clear out cached files on the various edge servers.
I've heard anecdotal evidence that folks with Windows IIS would have to bounce IIS on the affected servers to get it to really refresh the cached files <-- although there is probably an IIS setting for that...
Also, client browsers viewing the newly-updated Help would hold onto their sessions (unhelpfully) so they would need to do a local cached page refresh.
Session fixation is great for keeping your Amazon cart contents, but is awful for viewing the newest, freshest Flare Help output. especially if you are trying to view CSS or JS updates.
I hope this helps!
CAT