Workarounds

Sometimes, it takes a while to resolve a problem but, in the mean-time there is something you can do to mitigate the problem.
Any such work-arounds will be outlined here.

Browser not showing recent changes

I cleared my cache recently and now I have to do it all the time.

What is Browser cache?

Browser cache is a small bit of storage space, ready to be filled up with images and supporting files, used by the webpages you visit in your browser. The idea is that these files can be loaded faster from your hard disk, the next time you visit that webpage, than if you were to download them again.

Why does it exist?

This feature was very useful when we connected to the internet with dial-up modems, at speeds of 0.01mbps, but now that connection speeds of 250-500mbps are common, it's not needed as much. Seeing an old version of a page is now an annoyance - web content changes so quickly, now, you don't want to see the page as it looked the last time you visited!

Modern browsers still use cache - but mostly for the files that don't change all that often on your site (e.g. images, css rules, javascript), and then, only if it has space (the space the browser reserves for it cache is quite small [up to 80 MB] so it fills up quickly).

Why do we have to clear it sometimes?

If a change is made to a website, in one of the pages that browsers normally cache, then you won't see the change until the browser decides to delete the cached version and reload it from the source - this could be days or weeks. So to speed things up, you are sometimes advised to clear your cache. Then, you'll get the most up-to-date version of the webpage you visit afterwards.

Can clearing the cache cause problems?

When you clear your cache, the browser will begin caching everything it encounters until the cache is full agailn - so if you immediately visit pages that you plan to visit often, parts (or all) of these pages will be cached by the browser. And, the next time you visit the page, those cached parts will be shown by your browser instead of the latest version of the page. This is supposed to speed up page loads but sometimes this helpful feature is more of a hinderance.

The last thing you need, as a web editor, is for your browser to cache a page on T4. If this happened, you could make a change to some content and click Update & Approve but, instead of making a round-trip to the CMS server (to save your changes), your browser would show you the version of the next page that it has in its cache. To you, it would look as though your changes had saved but, in reality, the browser had never told the CMS to save your changes!

How do I prevent that from happening?

After you clear your cache, browse through, say, the RTE news site for a while so that your browser will fill its empty cache space with images from there instead. This will stop pages you visit often from being cached.

Cache considerations for web editors

Some websites, use images to show information (e.g. the SUMS timetable). If that image changes regularly, the web editor needs to ensure it has a different filename every week - otherwise the chances are high that last week's image (cached from the last time they visited) will be shown in everyone's browser. This can happen even if your cache is full (browsers can make space in the cache automatically, at any time, so you never know when it will cache an image).

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How to Clear your browser's cache

Warning: Clearing the cache can have annoying consequences. After clearing your cache, you should browse a news site for a small while to fill up the browser's cache space that you just cleared down. If you don't do this, your browser may cache parts (or all) of pages you visit regularly - and if this happens, your browser will begin showing you those pages as they looked the day you cleared your cache - instead of showing their current contents.

Desktop Browsers (in descending order of popularity):

Chrome: (1) Ctrl-Shift-Del (2) Select ‘Cached Images and Files’ (only) (3) Click ‘Clear Data’.

Safari: Option + ⌘ + E or else Right-click on "Safari" on the top left of the screen and select "Empty Cache".

Firefox: (1) Ctrl-Shift-Del    (2) Select ‘Cache’ (only)   (3) Click ‘Ok’.
Edge:     (1) Ctrl-Shift-Del    (2) Select ‘Cached Images and files’ (only) (3) Click ‘Clear Now’.
Opera:    (1) Ctrl-Shift-Del   (2) Change ‘Time range’ to ‘All time’ (3) Select ‘Cached images and files’ (only)   (4) Click ‘Clear Data’.
Brave:    (1) Ctrl-Shift-Del   (2) Change ‘Time range’ to ‘All time’   (3) Select ‘Cached images and fields’ (only)   (4) Click ‘Clear data’.
Vivaldi: (1) Ctrl-Shift-Del   (2) Change ‘Delete Data for:’ to ‘All Time’ (3) Check ‘Cache’   (4) Click ‘Delete’.
IE:       (1) Ctrl-Shift-Del   (2) Select ‘Temporary Internet files and website files’ (only)   (3) Click ‘Delete’.

iPhone:
Safari: (1) Open Settings (2) Scroll down (not very far) to Safari & click on it (3) Scroll down to the bottom & click 'Advanced' (4) Click 'Website Data' (5) Click 'Remove All Website Data' Confirm by clicking 'Remove Now'.
Chrome: (1) Open Chrome (2) '...' Menu (bottom-right) (3) Settings (4) Privacy (5) Clear Browsing Data (6) Ensure 'Cached Images and Files' is ticked (7) Click 'Clear Browsing Data' (8) Confirm by clicking 'Clear Browsing Data' (9) Click 'Done' (top-right).

Android:
Android Browser: (1) Tap the menu. (2) Tap 'Settings'. (3) Scroll to Privacy Settings. (4) Tap 'Clear Browsing Data'. (5) Check the boxes for 'Cookies and site data' and 'Cached images and files'. (6) Tap 'Clear data'.
Chrome: (1) Tap the 3-dot Menu (top right). (2) Tap History > Clear browsing data. (3) Check the boxes for 'Cookies and site data' and 'Cached images and files'. (4) Tap 'Clear data'.

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