Reload the same javascript file when loading each static page

Question

I have a few static html pages. All these pages have the following

<script src="my-javascript.js"></script>

I don't want the browser to cache the javascript file, and I want it to get reloaded at page load for each page.

After online search, I found that this trick: adding the following to each page

<script src="my-javascript.js?p=changing_value"></script>

If this is going to work, how can I generate the "changing_value" in a static html page (not PHP, JSP, etc.).

Or some other solutions to force reload the javascript file at each page load for all pages?

Thanks!

UPDATE

I dont have access to server configuration.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:22:20Z

1

After online search, I found that this trick: adding the following to each page

A much better solution is to use caching headers to tell the browser not to cache the file. Configure your server to serve that file with:

Cache-Control: no-cache
Expires: -1

Those are the basic ones, anyway.

If this is going to work, how can I generate the "changing_value" in a static html page (not PHP, JSP, etc.).

If you want to go the query string route, though, just for completeness:

You can get a random value from Math.random(), or as Hemadeus points out, use a timestamp value.

If you need the script load to be blocking (like script tags normally are), this is one of the few remaining use cases for document.write:

<script>
document.write('<script src="my-javascript.js?' + Math.random() + '"><\/script>');
</script>

(Or replace Math.random() with Date.now() to use a timestamp)

If you don't need it to be blocking, then creating the element with createElement is probably cleaner:

<script>
(function() {
    var s = document.createElement('script');
    s.src =  "my-javascript.js?" + Math.random();
    document.querySelector("head").appendChild(s);
})();
</script>

Old browsers won't have Date.now. You can get the same value from new Date().getTime().

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:22

CommunityBot

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answered Jun 11, 2015 at 17:03

T.J. Crowder

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3 Comments

curious1 Over a year ago

Unfortunately, configuring the server is beyond my access. I have to do it differently. Thanks for your input!

T.J. Crowder Over a year ago

@curious1: I added an example of using the query string trick as well.

curious1 Over a year ago

T.J. Crowder, thanks so much for your solution, which is not only working, but also teaching me a few other things. Thanks so much!

Hemadeus · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-11 17:10:50Z

1

You could generate the changing_value using a Javascript timestamp. so you will always have a new version of the js file.

answered Jun 11, 2015 at 17:10

Hemadeus

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