Browser Cache Issues when Upgrading

[mario.antonio]

When upgrading (mostly major version numbers --e.g, form 6.12 to 6.14), users need to clear their browser cache, otherwise their connection will hang.

In order to deal with this issue, we reduce the Apache Expires time to low values (2 hours) a couple of days before performing the upgrade. But even taking these steps, users still need to clear their cache after the upgrade ....

I wonder if somebody has better tips in order to deal with this issue when upgrading ....

Mario Antonio

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

setting the expire timeout to a lower value is a usual way to deal with it. If you're maintaining the installation for a company, it's wise to perform the GUI update at the end of a working day, so the changes are effective the next morning.

There are several ways how the user interface could check if it needs to bypass the caching stuff. Solving this issue at the application is on our enhancement list for future releases.

Greetings

[Viktor Pracht]

Set the expire time to an absolute date and time value, not to a relative interval.
Pick a value which is just before the next update is scheduled. How much before, depends on the precision of the clocks in the clients. For an internal installation where all machines are synchronized via NTP, a couple of minutes is enough. If there are independent clients, an hour. If clients travel betweei different timezones (and maybe around daylight switching), more than 2 hours.
If you don't know when the next update will be, pick a maximum interval, like a day or a week. You will then have to schedule updates a day or a week in advance, to let this interval expire.

[mario.antonio]

Martin, Viktor,

Thanks a lot for your responses. I really appreciate your assistance.

Regards,

Mario Antonio

[jrobiso2]

Expiration times

Guys, it's been a while since I really messed with Apache. How exactly do I change those expiration times/dates? Which file and setting do I change?

[mario.antonio]

The file you have to modify will depend on your Linux Distribution or on the way you have configured Apache.

I think During the OX installation you must have added configurations like these ones to your Apache Site:

ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 23 hours"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 23 hours"
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 23 hours"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 23 hours"
ExpiresByType text/javascript "access plus 23 hours"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 23 hours"
ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 23 hours"
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access plus 23 hours"

<Files ~ "\.(js|css|gif|jpe?g|png)$">
Header append Cache-Control "public"
</Files>

Here is where you change those times.

I guess in the "Files" context you can add something like:
Header set Expires "Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:00:00 GMT"

Regards,

Mario Antonio