Updating website

printerman · 29-04-2005, 19:56

Hi,
just updated my works website, but only the index page has updated. If i click on other pages they are still th eold format. Is this just due to a time lapse of other servers catching up? Is there anything i can do to help?

MovedGoalPosts · 29-04-2005, 20:16

when in doubt, I usually delete my entire website, before uploading the new one. Depends on how complex the site is whether that is viable or not, you may just want to do a reload of certain directories that you know have changed.

On the other hand when you ftp to your site you should be able to see if the pages have changed or not. If they are the new versions on your site, maybe there is a cache somewhere, even in your own browser that needs to be forcibly refreshed, CTRL-F5 in IE (or it would refresh automatically as the cache expires).

I would say post a link to the site, but we wouldn't have a clue if we are seeing new or old

printerman · 29-04-2005, 22:22

Funnily enough i did delete EVERYTHING and reload the site....thinking on it must be cache 'cos the site isn't held as an old one on the hosT!

Thanks!

Raistlin · 29-04-2005, 22:50

Did you try pressing Ctrl+F5 as MGP (apologies for shortening that) suggested?

Richard M · 30-04-2005, 02:44

You should always test on your local machine before going live...

printerman · 30-04-2005, 09:28

How do you mean. Yes i tested it and was fine. Its showing up at home now but i had to look at each individual page and click reload a few times. Now it seems to be all upto date here. I just worry that our customers only see the old cached site, but i'm not sure there is anything i can do about it. I guess it all updates eventually, but i'm not sure of the technicalities of it. If anyone can explain it it would be appreciated.
Cheers

Raistlin · 30-04-2005, 09:57

The problem was most likely that when you were browsing to your site your browser was showing you pages that were stored in its cache.

In other words your browser is saving copies of pages on your local machine so that it doesn't have to spend so long downloading them for you the next time you want to see them.

What you needed to do (rather than visit each page and refresh) was clear the cache out of your local machine (get rid of the stored copies).

To do this in Internet Explorer (IE), open IE and go to TOOLS > INTERNET OPTIONS

Now click DELETE FILES and then OK.

In FireFox (FF) the process is slghtly different.

Open FF, go to TOOLS > OPTIONS and then click on the PRIVACY icon.
Now click the CLEAR button next to CACHE.

printerman · 30-04-2005, 12:04

Okay thanks, thats what i thought. So is there atime period on this or can our customers always see an old site. ? Surely it must up date there cached files eventually?

Richard M · 30-04-2005, 12:10

Yep, usually it's when they next open their browser - it should check for a newer version of the page then.
If you're using PHP you can add http headers yourself which tells the browser to never cache the page.