navigate to new url in javascript, but force reload?

Question

Javascript provides the location.reload(nocache) API.

When the 'nocache' param is true, it will force reload the current url from server bypassing the browser cache.

Is there an equivalent way to do this when navigating to a new url via window.location.href = url; ?

I have a chat application which detects the version the client is running compared to what the server expects, and if they differ it prompts the client to navigate to the latest version url.

But I'm finding when I issue this, many clients are still using cached scripts.

motanelu · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-16 08:13:28Z

8

There's no out of the box solution. The easiest way is to add another parameter to the URL that will break the cache. For example

 window.location = "/server/url?timestamp=" + (new Date()).getTime()

Every single time you run it, the timestamp will change and the browser won't have that page in the cache.

answered Oct 16, 2016 at 8:13

motanelu

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2 Comments

Medet Tleukabiluly Over a year ago

not sure if it's up to full url or js/css file url, probably op wants to disable cache for js/css files

carpii Over a year ago

Thanks, nice and simple. I actually already use this technique elsewhere, so I'm ashamed I hadn't though of it :) I had been trying to handle it via webserver cache headers, but it wasn't ideal

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