Refreshing .js files

I've got the usual suspects on KDE: Firefox, Konqueror and Opera. All
aggressively cache .js files. I've not figured out a way to remove a
cached .js without closing the browser and restarting it.

This makes them useless while coding .js files. My solution (kludge?)
is to leave what will become .js between <script> </script> tags in
the HTML until it feels like it is fully-featured and totally debugged
and then move it into a .js. As "fullly-featured and totally debugged"
is a rare condition, I've got more JavaScript in HTML than in .js,
where it belongs.

Is there a better way? A browser smart enough to compare time stamps
and reload .js as necessary?

MartinRinehart (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:

Is there a better way? A browser smart enough to compare time stamps
and reload .js as necessary?
Why not

<script src="something.js?x='+(Math.random())' ...
?

MartinRinehart (AT) gmail (DOT) com writes:

I've got the usual suspects on KDE: Firefox, Konqueror and Opera. All
aggressively cache .js files. I've not figured out a way to remove a
cached .js without closing the browser and restarting it.

This makes them useless while coding .js files. My solution (kludge?)
is to leave what will become .js between <script> </script> tags in
the HTML until it feels like it is fully-featured and totally debugged
and then move it into a .js. As "fullly-featured and totally debugged"
is a rare condition, I've got more JavaScript in HTML than in .js,
where it belongs.

Is there a better way? A browser smart enough to compare time stamps
and reload .js as necessary?

Firefox, at least, will refresh all files when reloading using
SHIFT+CTRL+R and SHIFT-F5. I also suspect (but I haven't tested this
explicitly) that setting some aggressive non-caching headers should
make refreshing work on recent versions of all these browsers. And you
probably should do that during development anyway.

http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/...4.html#sec14.9

--
Joost Diepenmaat | blog: http://joost.zeekat.nl/ | work: http://zeekat.nl/

In comp.lang.javascript message <a7a73088-8603-4ead-aeab-a754394dea21@k7
g2000hsd.googlegroups.com>, Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:15:24,
MartinRinehart (AT) gmail (DOT) com posted:

I've got the usual suspects on KDE: Firefox, Konqueror and Opera. All
aggressively cache .js files. I've not figured out a way to remove a
cached .js without closing the browser and restarting it.

This makes them useless while coding .js files. My solution (kludge?)
is to leave what will become .js between <script> </script> tags in
the HTML until it feels like it is fully-featured and totally debugged
and then move it into a .js. As "fullly-featured and totally debugged"
is a rare condition, I've got more JavaScript in HTML than in .js,
where it belongs.

Is there a better way? A browser smart enough to compare time stamps
and reload .js as necessary?

Try writing the '<script type="text/javascript" src="...js"></script>'
with 'document.writeln', but appending to "...js" '+ +new Date()'. That
might defeat the caching.

Or write a utility to rename the ...js file and change the reference to
it correspondingly.

I assume you've tried shift-reload or similar?

Or run a Windows emulator with a Windows browser in it.

--
(c) John Stockton, nr London, UK. ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
Web <URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.

Thanks, all, for the suggestions. Reading them I went back to Windows
where I learned the FF Windows is NOT FF KDE. Didn't take much
fiddling to get FF Win to reload. FF KDE has not yielded to fiddling.
Looks like a utility to rename the .js and edit the new name into the
HTML is called for. (I really DON'T want to return to a single-desktop
OS.)