PRB: External Content Is Resynchronized on Form Submit (274077)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) 5.01
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) 5.01 SP1
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) 5.5
This article was previously published under Q274077

SYMPTOMS

When you submit a form, any referenced external content on the form response (except images) is resynchronized with the server through conditional GET requests. This occurs regardless of server-specified expiration headers or the client setting the Check for newer versions of stored pages browser option.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Internet Explorer 5.5. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

276369 How to Obtain the Latest Service Pack for Internet Explorer 5.5

STATUS

This problem was first corrected in Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 2.

MORE INFORMATION

This behavior changed with the release of Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and later. The problem that is outlined in this article no longer occurs. Internet Explorer now only sends If-Modified-Since get requests if the content in the cache has expired, or if that content never had an expiration time.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

  1. Create a new file called Page1.htm and paste the following code:
    <HTML>
<HEAD>
<WWLINK REL="stylesheet" HREF="style.css" TYPE="text/css">
<SCRIPT SRC="navigation.js"></SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<P>Page 1:</P>
<FORM NAME=GETFORM ACTION="page2.htm" METHOD=GET>
<INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT>
</FORM>

</BODY>
</HTML>
  2. Create a new file called Page2.htm and paste the following code:
    <HTML>
<HEAD>
<WWLINK REL="stylesheet" HREF="style.css" TYPE="text/css">
<SCRIPT SRC="navigation.js"></SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<P>Page 2:</P>

</BODY>
</HTML>
  3. Create a Style.css file and Navigation.js file with minimal code.
  4. Make sure that you enable content expiration on the Web server.
  5. In Internet Explorer, open Page1.htm. Page1.htm is a simple HTML form that references two external files, Style.css and Navigation.js. These files are generally static, and the Web server returns an Expires header for these files with an expiration date for some date in the future. As Page1.htm loads in Internet Explorer, these two files are downloaded and cached appropriately.
  6. Click the Submit Query button. When Page2.htm is loaded because of the form submission from page one, although Style.css and Navigation.js are fresh and do not need to be downloaded again from the Web server, Internet Explorer always sends an If-Modified-Since conditional GET request to the Web server for each file. You cannot avoid these requests through code or browser setting.

    NOTE: For design reasons, images are not affected by this problem.

REFERENCES

For more information about developing Web-based solutions for Microsoft Internet Explorer, visit the following Microsoft Web sites:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie/

http://support.microsoft.com/iep

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:5/11/2006
Keywords:kbCaching kbNavigation kbprb KB274077
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