Hi,
When adding new features to an Aras instance, it is sometimes necessary for users to clear their browser cache.
What is the best way to force users to delete their browser cache? I don´t think it´s technically possible to do this automatically, is it?
How do other users deal with it? Are their any best practice tips (except sending a notification message)?
Thanks!!
When we deploy our latest changes to our production environment, we update the cache setting in Innovator/Client/web.config.
Look for the line
> <cachingModule moduleEnabled="true" filesRevision="std" />
As that is part for the URL, everytime you go to {server}/InnovatorServer it will resolve to:
> localhost/.../default.aspx
so if you change std to say a 1 you'll get
> localhost/.../default.aspx
Meaning that every single cached item is not cached anymore since the URL is changed
I can't remember exactly the format, but IIRC you can't use '.' and '-' in the value.
Hi Majorbyte,
Thanks for the hint! As I have already done some Aras updates and add-on installations I of course know about the famous web.config counter. But I mainly used it when making changes in the Installation folder, and never when making changes in Methods inside of Aras.
Thanks to your message, I also noticed something much more 'epic'. The very first link to the PLM I spread to the users was:
http://linkToServer/PLM/Client/X-salt=12_11.0.0.6549-X/default.aspx
We soon changed the main link to:
http://linkToServer/PLM
But what happened? A few users bookmarked the old link with the old X-salt value. And now guess which users always have problems...
Hi Angela,
Typically, the URL should re-point to the most recent salt value if you try to navigate to a url with an older salt directly. If this isn't happening, you can also try to follow the steps below to change a salt value in the database.
Login as admin
Navigate to Administration > Variables
Search for the "Aras.MetadataService.Salt" Variable
Increment this value by 1 whenever you want to push a change to your clients
e.g. 0 > 1 > 2 > 3 > etc.
Similar to the value in the web.config, you should use whole numbers without '.' or '-'
Save, Unlock, and Close this Variable
Incrementing this variable should force the cache to reload the next time your end users login.
Chris
______________________________
Christopher Gillis
Aras Labs Software Engineer
With the information you presented here could I modify the Item Type > Method to add an "OnAfterSave" event that pointed to a Method that works as an auto-increment of this value? Also, would it make sense to only do this if the method you've added or modified were JS/Client-side?
If you wouldn't mind could I get a sample of how to get at that variable inside a C#, Server Side method? I'm going to try right now. Will post if I get it figured out.
Introduced a Variable Item "Aras.Client.MetadataService.Url.Salt" that can be used to force the metadata cache to reload. By increasing the value of the variable by 1, the end users will refresh the metadata cache the next time they log in.
This post and the solution provided by Chris were intended for Innovator 11. I don´t know if the variable is still used or required in Innovator 12+.
Since I use Innovator 12 I never had trouble with cache problems. I only change the web.config counter in case of codetree modifications. That´s it.
Only scenario that can lead to trouble is if user stored the wrong link to an Innovator instance that contain X-salt value or some tokens. This is a constant pain, case users like to bookmark the Innovator link and often don´t read the hints I gave them in the introduction email, to not "star" the link but to add it manually.
25 days ago I wrote this sentence: "Since I use Innovator 12 I never had trouble with cache problems."
This smug sentence aged like milk. Cause there is one client side scenario where I right now constantly face caching problems.
Let´s assume we have a regular custom ItemType with Form, Lifecycle and a few custom CUI elements. The ItemType and it´s components are only accessible for a certain "Identity" user group.
When a new user shall access this ItemType, I just add the user to the Identity and ask the user to restart Innovator. After restart the user can access the ItemType. Everything works, but not the CUI elements. They just don´t appear. But CUI elements will work on the next day (!) or when user use browser incognito mode.
Does anyone one know how to improve cache update when using CUI elements? I don´t want that admins have to update web.config counter each time we add a user to "something".
Have you seen similar behavior in your Innovator? I am still using Innovator 12, not sure if Aras already has improved it.
