Intent to Ship: Request.isReloadNavigation attribute

Helmut Januschka

unread,

4:33 PM (2 hours ago) 4:33 PM

to blink-dev

Contact emails

hjanu...@gmail.com

Specification

https://fetch.spec.whatwg.org/#dom-request-isreloadnavigation

Summary

Adds the read-only boolean attribute isReloadNavigation to the Fetch API's Request interface. This attribute indicates whether the current navigation request was initiated as a user-triggered reload (e.g., using the refresh button, location.reload(), or history.go(0)). This signal is primarily exposed on the Request object within a Service Worker's FetchEvent. https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/7137783

Blink component

Blink>Network

Web Feature ID

network-information

Motivation

Web developers, particularly those implementing Service Worker caching logic, currently lack a reliable, standardized way to distinguish between a regular navigation (forward/back) and a user-initiated reload. This capability is crucial for implementing sophisticated and efficient caching strategies, such as bypassing the cache or enforcing a Network-First strategy specifically during a reload to ensure the user gets the freshest content. This attribute standardizes the mechanism required by the Fetch spec.

Initial public proposal

No information provided

TAG review

No information provided

TAG review status

Not applicable

Risks

Interoperability and Compatibility

Low Risk: The feature is additive. It introduces a new, read-only property to the existing Request interface, meaning it does not change the behavior or signature of any existing methods or properties. Existing web content that does not reference isReloadNavigation will continue to function exactly as before.

Gecko: Shipped/Shipping

WebKit: Shipped/Shipping

Web developers: Strongly positive

Other signals:

WebView application risks

Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications?

No information provided

Debuggability

No information provided

Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?

No

Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests?

No

DevTrial instructions

https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/7137783

Flag name on about://flags

No information provided

Finch feature name

RequestIsReloadNavigation

Rollout plan

Will ship enabled for all users

Requires code in //chrome?

False

Tracking bug

https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40487194

Estimated milestones

Shipping on desktop	146
Shipping on Android	146
Shipping on WebView	146
Shipping on iOS	146

Anticipated spec changes

Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web compat or interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to known github issues in the project for the feature specification) whose resolution may introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of the API in a non-backward-compatible way).

No information provided

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/5154214529597440?gate=6489806081228800

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.