why browser cache setting affects program behavior? Fix?

[junlia]

Hi All,

I am working on a project that acts as a bridge. It does some checking with
post xml data, and then redirects the request to an appropriate page.
However, we find that depends on the browser cache setting (and OS), the
program behaves differently.

This is how it should work:
1. The client program opens a webbrowser control, using navigate2 method to
post xml data to my aspx pages, eg abc.aspx
2. My aspx pages process the requests, setup cookies in order for a
successful redirect to another page ( eg. xyz.asp) on the servers.
3. I have a hidden hyperlink on the aspx page, and after processing, use
JavaScript to link.click the hyperlink and do the redirect.
4. The client browser displays the appropriate page (xyz.asp).

However, we run into problems. For most of the OS and IE settings, IE Cache
setting needs to the default setting -- Automatically check newer versions of
stored page. Otherwise if the cache setting is set to check for every visit,
the redirect will not work, and instead it post back to the page (abc.aspx)
instead of going to xyz.asp page. This results into empty post data scenario.

We also encountered that the IE cache setting has to be set to check for
every visit in order for it to behave properly.

It seems the problem is somewhat related to IE cache setting, and maybe
somehow, we may be able to disable the auto posting back to the page itself
in my aspx page.

We will need to have the hyperlink so that when we do a redirect to another
page, so cookie will be set for xyz.asp page. (response.redirect and
server.transfer are not reliable for setting cookies)

My questions are:
1. What does the browser do under each option in the cache setting? Why
would it affect the program so?
2. Is there a way to disable the form post back to itself, how?
3. If your suggestion is to get rid of the server side hyperlink, what is
the alternative for redirecting with cookie working?

Thanks much,
Junlia

[Bruce Barker]

1) if you use server.treansfer, you don't need a cookie, get the data you
pass in the cookie from the posting page

2) if you want the link to work, when render append a random number or guid
to the url (ex xyz.asp?n=16546565656). this make the url unique, so the
cache will not be used.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)
"junlia" <ju****@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:36**********************************@microsof t.com...

Hi All,

I am working on a project that acts as a bridge. It does some checking
with
post xml data, and then redirects the request to an appropriate page.
However, we find that depends on the browser cache setting (and OS), the
program behaves differently.

This is how it should work:
1. The client program opens a webbrowser control, using navigate2 method
to
post xml data to my aspx pages, eg abc.aspx
2. My aspx pages process the requests, setup cookies in order for a
successful redirect to another page ( eg. xyz.asp) on the servers.
3. I have a hidden hyperlink on the aspx page, and after processing, use
JavaScript to link.click the hyperlink and do the redirect.
4. The client browser displays the appropriate page (xyz.asp).

However, we run into problems. For most of the OS and IE settings, IE
Cache
setting needs to the default setting -- Automatically check newer versions
of
stored page. Otherwise if the cache setting is set to check for every
visit,
the redirect will not work, and instead it post back to the page
(abc.aspx)
instead of going to xyz.asp page. This results into empty post data
scenario.

We also encountered that the IE cache setting has to be set to check for
every visit in order for it to behave properly.

It seems the problem is somewhat related to IE cache setting, and maybe
somehow, we may be able to disable the auto posting back to the page
itself
in my aspx page.

We will need to have the hyperlink so that when we do a redirect to
another
page, so cookie will be set for xyz.asp page. (response.redirect and
server.transfer are not reliable for setting cookies)

My questions are:
1. What does the browser do under each option in the cache setting? Why
would it affect the program so?
2. Is there a way to disable the form post back to itself, how?
3. If your suggestion is to get rid of the server side hyperlink, what is
the alternative for redirecting with cookie working?

Thanks much,
Junlia

[junlia]

thanks for the suggestions, Bruce,

Response.redirect and server.transfer just don't work well with cookies. so
option 1 would not work. We will have to use cookies to get it work.
otherwise, we will have to change the xyz.asp page, which is way too much
work.

the problem we have here seems to be that the aspx page post back to itself,
instead of redirecting to the link. We don't want the form post back to
itself.

Junlia

"Bruce Barker" wrote:

1) if you use server.treansfer, you don't need a cookie, get the data you
pass in the cookie from the posting page

2) if you want the link to work, when render append a random number or guid
to the url (ex xyz.asp?n=16546565656). this make the url unique, so the
cache will not be used.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)