Site caching

[u4eas]

Hi, this is my first post here =)
This site seems to be a great source of info.

I have a very n00bish question
I have created a website and it seems that the template graphics are being sourced (downloaded) each time you go to a new page even though all but one of the template graphics are the same.

Is there a quick tag I can use to help prevent the site from reloading all the images? So it will referrence the cached files on the HD instead.

Thanks

u4ea

[tedster]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, u4eas.

There's nothing you need to put in an HTML document to make the browser reference its cache. Instead, this is a browser setting -- and each individual user can set their own preference in their browser of choice.

[u4eas]

Rocking thanks...

How does one set this, incase I am asked =)

Cheers-

U4EA

[ShawnR]

There is a way you can do this, but it may not be elegant...

You can put your site into a frame. Have another frame, very small, say 1 pixel wide, with no content, just to keep the graphics (not sure if a zero pixel wide frame is legal, look it up and/or experiment). Then use the onload function to call up a bit of Javscript which loads up all the graphics into an array which is a new variable declared for the small frame. When you visitor navigates around, have the sites load into the main content frame, rather than the _top... In your content pages, use Javascript to set the images to the images in the array in the small frame.

Hope that makes sense. I'd be interested to know if anyone has a more elegant solution.

Shawn

[tedster]

How does one set this, incase I am asked

In Opera:
cache settings are in File > Preferences > History and Cache.

In Netscape:
they're under Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Cache

In Phoenix:
Tools > Preferences > Privacy > Cache

In IE:
look under Tools > Interent Options > General >Temporary Internet Files > Advanced

I don't understand why MS decided not to use the standardized term "cache", but they didn't.

[u4eas]

I have ie 6.x

and in the cache it seems to be set to automaticly check for new versions...

Ill mess with this a bit and see what happens.

cheers-

u4ea

[mattur]

There is an excellent tutorial at [mnot.net ] and links to a "cacheability engine" - to test the cacheability of a page, images etc - on the same site. Recommended :)