cache control headers for serving pages offline by service worker

[rickshory]

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I have written an app for plant species data collection, which works offline using a service worker. It functions well, except every now and then, in a remote location with no trace of connectivity, it glitches and won't reload. I asked ChatGPT how to force reload of the index page. Most of what ChatGPT replied was familiar, except a step to "add cache control headers". It said to add the following headers to my server configuration:

Cache-Control: public, max-age=0

Since these are pages hosted on GitHub, do I have access to any such server configuration? If so, how?

The link to my app is below. It's optimized for mobile. If you try it in a desktop browser, I would suggest an incognito window so its cache and service worker get cleared when you close.
https://rickshory.github.io/vegnab-webapp/

[yoannchaudet]

Hello,

Unfortunately, returning a max-age=0 value for Cache-Control would mean disabling browser caching. This is not something we are willing to do.

I do not have a good or simple workaround for you. We don't support custom headers at the moment and I have no ETA to share around when this feature will be available.

You could eventually try to put Cloudflare in front of your site and customize headers there. It would come with its own set of pros and cons.

[rickshory]

I solved this by having the service worker substitute the header I want, for each file it retrieves from the cache. The cached files, technically, have the default headers, but after the initial load, the browser never sees them because the service worker does the substitution at the point of retrieval. The service worker priority is to use cached files first. Now, my app will reload correctly, even when completely offline.

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On Wed, Jul 5, 2023 at 1:21 PM Yoann Chaudet ***@***.***> wrote: Hello, Unfortunately, returning a max-age=0 value for Cache-Control would mean disabling browser caching. This is not something we are willing to do. I do not have a workaround for you. We don't support custom headers at the moment and I have no ETA to share around when this feature will be available. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#60087 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAHX7DFNBEUXYI3KTVP75ZTXOXED5ANCNFSM6AAAAAAZ6I2IC4> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

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