whiteinteractive blog

Here is a typical scenario we run into from time to time….

The client requests changes to their website, we carry out the changes and notify the client, the client reports back that the changes have not been done. Of course the changes have been done. the client just cannot see them. So what is going on here?

Welcome to the world of caching. When you view a web page your web browser software downloads that page, and the media on it, and stores it on your computer. This storage is known as the browser cache. This helps to speed up the viewing of the website as the browser doesn’t have to keep downloading the same files again and again. If you leave the site and come back later then, depending on how your browser is configured, you may get your local cached copy loaded instead of having the page freshly downloaded from the website. This is what can lead to the impression that page updates have not been done.

It is useful to be able to forcibly refresh a web page and clear the local cache. For information on how to do this there is a useful wiki page on clearing your cache. A quick way to force the refresh of a single page is simply to go the page and press Ctrl-F5 (PCs only).

Sometimes, even this isn’t enough though to see the page changes. The problem here can be that caching is occuring at your network level or even your Internet Service Provider. If this is the case then you will have to wait until their cache is updated.

So there you have it, an awareness of caching is always useful in understanding what you are looking at and how to ensure you are viewing the most up-to-date information.