Back Button Refresh: Issues & Solutions on PF

[TurtleMeister]

Second try at posting this. Timed out the first time.

When I am browsing PF and I use my back button (firefox), the page that I'm going back to refreshes. It has not always been that way, and most other forums that I visit do not do that. In other words, using the back button fetches the previous page that is stored in the cache. I'm not sure about the timing, but I think it changed around the time PF moved to a new server. I'm no expert with this stuff, but it seems to me that refreshing the page this way would increase bandwidth for the server and slow things down. I would prefer to get my previous page immediately from the cache rather than wait for the page to reload. And if I need the page updated, all I have to do is manually refresh it. I've noticed others posting about the forums being slow and I was just wondering if this could be contributing to the problem.

 

[nismaratwork]

There is no Lazarine mechanism here... I've developed a habit of copying every so often. The other option is the site logging you... I prefer this, but you can use Lazarus (the addon) with Firefox to achieve the result you want.

 

[TurtleMeister]

Thanks for the reply, but I think you misunderstood my post. I'm talking about browser caching. When you click the back button on your browser it will take you back to the previous web page. If the page reloads from the web site, then it may take a few moments. But if it is retrieved from the browser's cache it will display instantly. That is the way it use to work at PF (I got the cache version when doing the back button). But at some point that changed, and now I get the page reloaded from the website each time I use the back button (takes longer and increases bandwidth usage). How it works appears to be a combination of server side scripting and what browser you're using. Here is a blog post that talks about this:

http://blog.httpwatch.com/2008/10/15/two-important-differences-between-firefox-and-ie-caching/

I tried using both Firefox and IE and got the same results at PF (page reloads on back button). I tried visiting another forum and got mixed results (page reloaded for IE but I got the cache with Firefox).

Edit:

From PF main page:

<!-- no cache headers -->
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />
<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1" />
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" />
<!-- end no cache headers -->
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />

 

[nismaratwork]

Thanks for the reply, but I think you misunderstood my post. I'm talking about browser caching. When you click the back button on your browser it will take you back to the previous web page. If the page reloads from the web site, then it may take a few moments. But if it is retrieved from the browser's cache it will display instantly. That is the way it use to work at PF (I got the cache version when doing the back button). But at some point that changed, and now I get the page reloaded from the website each time I use the back button (takes longer and increases bandwidth usage). How it works appears to be a combination of server side scripting and what browser you're using. Here is a blog post that talks about this:

http://blog.httpwatch.com/2008/10/15/two-important-differences-between-firefox-and-ie-caching/

I tried using both Firefox and IE and got the same results at PF (page reloads on back button). I tried visiting another forum and got mixed results (page reloaded for IE but I got the cache with Firefox).

Edit:

From PF main page:

<!-- no cache headers -->
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />
<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1" />
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" />
<!-- end no cache headers -->
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />

Ahhh... personally I prefer the updates... it just prevents needless F5 mashing.

 

[TurtleMeister]

Well, obviously I prefer the cache version. Most of the time when I use the back button, it's because I want to quickly return to the previous page. If I wanted an updated page then I could just use the navigation links at the top of the page, or use the browser reload button. But when a page uses "no-cache headers", the user does not have an option. I've read that Opera has a way to get around this, but I haven't tried it.

 

[nismaratwork]

Well, obviously I prefer the cache version. Most of the time when I use the back button, it's because I want to quickly return to the previous page. If I wanted an updated page then I could just use the navigation links at the top of the page, or use the browser reload button. But when a page uses "no-cache headers", the user does not have an option. I've read that Opera has a way to get around this, but I haven't tried it.

Given the lack of choice inherent in this current setup, even though it's not my preference I'd have to side with you on this one. If it's a matter of offering such a choice, I'd put it out there, but it may well be that there is no time to do it right now.