Same page displayed when content changes

[Lenard Gunda]

Hi!

I have the following problem.

From my main page, when someone clicks a button, it uses client side
javascript to open another .aspx page. This page displays content, based on
what the first page is set to show. If you change the first page, and click
the button again, the newly opened page will show other things. Nothing
special. It also works fine, except ...

.... except on one machine. I don't know if it counts, this one uses NT 4.0
with IE 6.0, while most of the other test machines use either Windows XP or
Windows 2000 Professional. On this NT4 machine, when you click the button,
the new page opens, however, it displayes the same page, that was shown
before (if it was shown before, else it's of course new content). If I press
F5, the page is refreshed, and the new content is shown. It's as if IE would
not recognize, that the contents of the page has changed.

Neither the first, nor the second page uses caching, because their content
changes to much, it would be pointless to apply caching. I checked the pages
also manually, so they don't accidently set anything, but they don't. So I
cannot know, why that NT4 machine displays the same page, as if the content
didn't change (and why all other machines work well).

The same machine had previously a problem with images (generated by .aspx
pages...). Then, the solution was that I added a GET parameter to the page
name, which changes always, in other ways it's useless. But when this
parameter changes, IE would reload it, because the URL is different.
Probably applying the same technique to this open page situation, adding a
GET parameter to the page, would solve the problem in this case, but I think
it would stick it's head up again and again in similar situations, so there
should be another way to solve it.

I also checked Internet Explorer options, and the 'Check for newer versions
of the page' option is set to automatic (which is the same as on the other
machines). So it should work, but it doesn't.

Could anyone suggest, what might be the problem on that particular machine,
because for me it seems like the problem is there. Is there something I can
do in the web application to solve the situation?

Thanks

-Lenard

[Lenard Gunda]

I set tracing in the application. I also enabled IIS logging of many details
into a log file, and started testing the NT box.

As it turned out, if I set "every visit to the page" option, it works fine.
As it should.

When it's on automatic, then when it shows the same page (where the address
is the same, but the contents has changed, of course, as described in my
initial post), it doesnt make a request to the server. There is no entry in
trace log, and no entry in the web server log for IIS. I tested from another
machine (with XP), there, when I request the page again, I see in the log
the request. If the page hasn't changed, the IIS log shows a 304 HTTP
response, which I think is the response for not modified. But the NT box
makes no request. Non at all.

I simply have no idea how I could solve this situation, as if the client
browser doesn't connect, I don't have a chance of making any effect on it.
It just seems to me, that this particular NT4+IE6 decides if it wants a page
purely on the URL, not asking the web server if the content has changed.

The things works like this if the page is fetched from my development
machines's webserver or from a "real" webserver.

Lenard
"Cowboy (Gregory A. Beamer) - MVP" <No************@comcast.netNoSpamM> wrote
in message news:A1**********************************@microsof t.com...

Try setting to "every visit to the page" instead of "automatic". Not sure it will solve the problem, but it is worth a shot. I would consider debugging on the NT box and see what is going on. If this is not possible, consider adding trace statements to the page(s) and examine trace.axd after you hit the page with the NT box.

You may find that the NT box is not sending or receiving the correct
information. Without seeing code, this is my best suggestion.

---

Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

***************************
Think Outside the Box!
***************************

"Lenard Gunda" wrote:

Hi!

I have the following problem.

From my main page, when someone clicks a button, it uses client side
javascript to open another .aspx page. This page displays content, based on what the first page is set to show. If you change the first page, and click the button again, the newly opened page will show other things. Nothing
special. It also works fine, except ...

.... except on one machine. I don't know if it counts, this one uses NT 4.0 with IE 6.0, while most of the other test machines use either Windows XP or Windows 2000 Professional. On this NT4 machine, when you click the button, the new page opens, however, it displayes the same page, that was shown
before (if it was shown before, else it's of course new content). If I press F5, the page is refreshed, and the new content is shown. It's as if IE would not recognize, that the contents of the page has changed.

Neither the first, nor the second page uses caching, because their content changes to much, it would be pointless to apply caching. I checked the pages also manually, so they don't accidently set anything, but they don't. So I cannot know, why that NT4 machine displays the same page, as if the content didn't change (and why all other machines work well).

The same machine had previously a problem with images (generated by ..aspx pages...). Then, the solution was that I added a GET parameter to the page name, which changes always, in other ways it's useless. But when this
parameter changes, IE would reload it, because the URL is different.
Probably applying the same technique to this open page situation, adding a GET parameter to the page, would solve the problem in this case, but I think it would stick it's head up again and again in similar situations, so there should be another way to solve it.

I also checked Internet Explorer options, and the 'Check for newer versions of the page' option is set to automatic (which is the same as on the other machines). So it should work, but it doesn't.

Could anyone suggest, what might be the problem on that particular machine, because for me it seems like the problem is there. Is there something I can do in the web application to solve the situation?

Thanks

-Lenard