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I have a number of js files that I put in an another folder for ease of updating and for sharing between different pages. These files are called from another page and I use the 

<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/file.js"></script>

notation.

This works fine but when I change something in one of these js files, the browser (chrome, firefox, safari) still loads the previous version without the changes, therefore not updating the js file it uses to the updated one. I tried to clean out the cache to force it to load the js file again (with the changes), but to no avail.

The only workaround that I have is to rename the external file to file2.js and include that in the page calling it but it is a tedious process because if I make another change I have to change the name to file3.js, etc.

Is there a way to force the browser to reload the original js and not use a previously stored one>

user1983168
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  • Have you tried `CTRL+F5` or restart the browser. – ATOzTOA Jan 16 '13 at 10:14
  • possible duplicate of [What is an elegant way to force browsers to reload cached CSS/JS files?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/118884/what-is-an-elegant-way-to-force-browsers-to-reload-cached-css-js-files) – Yury Tarabanko Jan 16 '13 at 10:15

3 Answers3

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You can force the refresh by adding something unique in the URL:

In the code below the string "d6aa97d33d459ea3670056e737c99a3d" has to be generated for each request. You can use a timestamp, a hash, a random number, whatever you want. Because of this, the browser will not reuse what he has in cache and will always download the JS file.

<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/file.js?d6aa97d33d459ea3670056e737c99a3d"></script>
ioan
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  • Thanks, it works! Everybody suggested the same solution but using something like a timestamp means that the part added is unique every time and therefore no changes have to be made to the file calling the updated routine. – user1983168 Jan 16 '13 at 10:34
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You could try the classic technique of adding a random number to the query string.

<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/file.js?r=123"></script>

This would achieve the same thing as using a different file name (as far as the browser is concerned, this is a different URL) but you wouldn't have to rename your file.

Connell
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Just use this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/file.js?1"></script>

See the ?1 after the filename.

ATOzTOA
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