Firefox: Can anyone replicate this?

[Nermal]

Hi,

I'm having an issue with Firefox (was using 3.5.9 and just updated to 3.6.8 which didn't help). I'm wondering whether anyone else is having this issue:

1. Open two Firefox windows and in both, navigate to a page that you're able to modify.
2. Make a change to the HTML file.
3. Reload ONE of the windows. Your change should show up.
4. In the OTHER window, do a View > Page Source.

When I do that, I'm getting the new version of the page, even though I haven't done a Reload in that window. Is anyone else having this issue?

 

[angelwatt]

I don't think that's an issue. Doing the view source generally gets a fresh pull from the URL. I've always seen this behavior. One way around it for Firefox is to use the Web Developer Toolbar add-on, which has a View Generated Source option, that will pull directly from the page you're viewing, including any changes made by JavaScript and such. Firebug would be an alternative way to get the current source.

I can actually replicate this with one tab. Open a HTML file in a window/tab, and open the file in a editor. Make a change and save the file. Then do a view source from browser and it shows the new changes.

 

[Nermal]

I don't think that's an issue. Doing the view source generally gets a fresh pull from the URL.

I'm not seeing that; if I change the HTML file then do a View Source without reloading then I get the old source. It appears that View Source is always pulling from the cache instead of what it actually loaded when you opened the page. It's interesting that you're getting the new source without doing a reload.

As it happens, I've worked around it; I was just wondering whether this was normal or just something specific to my machine. But it looks like it's normal. Thanks for your help

 

[angelwatt]

I'm not seeing that; if I change the HTML file then do a View Source without reloading then I get the old source.

For clarity, are you working from a local file on your machine (which would show file:// in the url), from a local web server (//localhost), or from an uploaded file on a web server? Firefox's behavior could differ depending on which one. Web servers can be setup to act differently from a cache stand point. For myself, I was just working from a file on my Desktop using the file:// prefix.

 

[Nermal]

Ahh, I'm using an http:// URL which could explain it!

 

[angelwatt]

When I do it from localhost, I get the current source rather than the new source (unlike the behavior I saw for a local file). If I open a second tab with the same URL after a file change, the first tab still brings up the same old source, while the new tab shows the new source. So I guess I'm getting different results from you. Interesting.

I use Firefox in single window mode so can't try from a different window, but a different tab shouldn't really result in a difference.