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I do a lot of testing with SharePoint 2010 across a few different browsers, regardless of which one I use (IE7, IE8 or FireFox) eventually I run into a problem where a page does not load or behaves incorrectly. To resolve the issue it usually requires me to clear cache and cookies. Is this something that others have noticed while sites are being built and customized? I find this happens a lot with JavaScript, where scripts are cached and if I haven't been using a particular browser recently I can go into a page and find all sorts of issues; luckily Firebug and DevTools help me out.

I am not sure if its IE or FireFox or SharePoint, or a combination, that generate this problem. Once we go live I wouldn't want to have Users complain about pages not working, and then have to tell them "oh, just clear your cache...". I do use FireBug on FireFox and Developer Tools on IE to help determine issues, which also allow me to clear cache easily, but I don't think this is good long term.

As a side note, we used to have BlobCache turned on, but turned that off due to other issues we were having with Authentication and Machine Keys.

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  • Do you have any customisations on the pages where you get the no loading/incorrect behaviours?
    – James Love
    Commented Apr 15, 2011 at 15:48
  • Pretty much the whole site is Customized, we have our own CSS and template changes that get loaded in most sites. We have our own Templates and Web Parts that are added to pretty much everything I look at. Probably our own JavaScript too.
    – MichaelF
    Commented Apr 15, 2011 at 17:07
  • When I get similar issues with JS I just jab Ctrl+F5 a couple of times to make sure it isn't a local issue. 90% of the time it does the job (usually twice is necessary for some reason). I get this problem mostly when one changed JS file has been refreshed but another hasn't.
    – Stu Pegg
    Commented Apr 15, 2011 at 19:14

2 Answers 2

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Usually the whole browser cache problem arises when you are developing a site, and you change something that would not normally change. Once you are in production I would not expect browser caching to be an issue. But as with anything, the only way to be sure is to do adequate testing before you release.

Output caching can be a problem when not used carefully if you have dynamic content or user-specific content. You may need to configure your caching settings to allow for this. Blob caching is usually less of an issue because by its nature it is caching static files. Even then you can get situations where different versions of files exist on different web front ends.

Caching can give huge performance benefits, but at the expense of increased complexity.

As a general rule: Develop with caching turned off; Test with caching turned on.

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  • Good point about the caching and testing...I think I am going to let things settle the way they are before I turn it on again. We went through a lot to figure out how to get the site running with caching off but I figure we will need the reverse soon.
    – MichaelF
    Commented Apr 15, 2011 at 19:58
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I am assuming you turned off the blobcaching in web.config - did you also flush the object cache for the site collection? Usually accessibly through:

http://domain/_Layouts/objectcachesettings.aspx

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  • Yes, I turned it off in the web.config. Not sure about flushing the site, I will do that if it hasn't been done. Didn't know about that link...thanks!
    – MichaelF
    Commented Apr 15, 2011 at 17:08

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