Ajax.Request not sending request to server in IE8, but processing continues with stale/cached response

[Brad Whitaker]

I'm having a problem with Ajax.Request in IE8 that I can't understand.
My code is working fine in other browsers. If I use the IE8 menu to
clear the browser cache to my domain then my next Ajax.Request() works
properly. But when Ajax.Request is invoked again this problem arises:
1) no request is actually sent to my server; 2) processing continues
normally but the content I see is from the previous request (in other
words, it is old content).

Any suggestions about how I might resolve this issue would be greatly
appreciated. onSuccess and onComplete are both being invoked even when
the server request is not issued. (In case additional details are
helpful: I'm invoking Ajax.Request() from within Prototype-UI
window.js setAjaxContent() function, and the content is used to fully
populate a modal window).

Thanks,

Brad

[T.J. Crowder]

Hi Brad,

Can you produce a minimalist, self-contained example[1] demonstrating
the problem? It sounds a bit like an IE8 issue, as I thought all XHR
requests were supposed to bypass local cache, but perhaps I'm wrong
about that.

Are you sure you're setting the cachability of the result correctly?
E.g., that it should not be cached? (This would be in the headers of
the result.) You might want to check your cache-control headers.

In the worst case (and this really should be a last resort), you
should be able to defeat caching by adding a query parameter that's
constantly changing, e.g.:

new Ajax.Request(url + "?foo=" + (new Date().getTime()), ...);

[1] http://proto-scripty.wikidot.com/self-contained-test-page

HTH,
--
T.J. Crowder
Independent Software Consultant
tj / crowder software / com
www.crowdersoftware.com

[Brad Whitaker]

T.J.,

Thank you very much for the response. The problem is reproducible in my development environment where I verified using Firebug that no Expires header is set on the Ajax response.

I tried your "last resort" suggestion and the problem goes away. (I know it is a hack but I'm going to deploy it because I need a quick fix).

I'll see if I can produce and submit a minimalist example that reproduces the problem.

Thanks,

Brad

[Alex McAuley]

IE and a couple of other browsers cache get requests...

 

If you want to fix it either use TJ's suggestion or use post and not get

 

Alex Mcauley
http://www.thevacancymarket.com