Javascript used to include html, is it cached?

Question

I'm using a method of creating a .js file on server #1 which contains document.writes to write html code, then a simple js include inside html code on server #2 to load that html code (there are multiple server #2's). This is basically replacing an iframe method with the advantage being that each server #2 owner controls their own css.

The method works perfectly as is. My question has to deal with caching. Each time the page is loaded on server #2 I want the .js reloaded, as it will change frequently on server #1. This appears to be the case on each browser I tested, but can I rely on this as being the default case, or is it dependent on browser settings? Despite all I've read on caching I can't figure out what triggers the load for a case like this.

Ilia Frenkel · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-05 02:06:47Z

1

You can control browser caching using HTTP headers on the server side. Like cache-control and cache-expiration. More here - http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec13.html

answered Apr 5, 2013 at 2:06

Ilia Frenkel

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slebetman · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-05 02:18:27Z

In a case like this, the caching is triggered by the cache policy of the js file. Not the html file.

The browser doesn't cache the rendered page (well, it does for back buttons but that's not what we're talking about). The browser caches the source file. Therefore even if the html page is configured to be cached for a long time the javascript injected content will only be cached as long as its been configured to.

To configure caching policy you need to set specific headers on the server side. Sometimes you can do this in a CGI script. Sometimes you can do this in the server configuration files.

Google "http caching" and read up on how to configure a page to be cached or not cached (also google "json disable caching" or "ajax disable caching" because this issue crops up a lot with ajax).

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